Instructional Pace Differences and Their Effect on Reading Acquisition

DESCRIBES EXPLORATORY INVESTIGATION of the influence of homogeneous and differential pacing of classes on basal word learning and mastery, and the effect of basal word learning on general reading achievement. In one case, 19 pupils paced homogeneously were compared with 20 students paced differentially; in a second case, 45 pupils from 4 classes that differed in differential pacing were compared. Children were classified in terms of aptitude, and multivariate analysis was used to test the effects of various levels of pace on the word learning of pupils. In classes that were differentially paced at relatively high rates, mean level of word learning and variance were higher than for classes differentially paced at slow rates or for those homogeneously paced. Generally a faster rather than a slower pace facilitated the learning and mastery of a sight vocabulary for most high aptitude and some average pupils. All low aptitude pupils were paced slowly; their word learning and mastery tended to be low in comparsion with that of other children. For students paced differentially, basal words learned during first grade account for a considerable portion of the variance of word recognition measured at the end of first grade and of vocabulary and comprehension measured at the end of second grade. Although the trends are the same for pupils paced homogeneously, the percentage of shared variation is considerably less.