Running head: ARTICLE CRITIQUE TWO

Brigette Southern
Article Critique One
Georgia Southern University

ARTICLE CRITIQUE TWO

Summary
The research compared two different groups of eight reading classrooms. One set of eight
classrooms used the Waterford Early Reading Program. The other set of eight classroom were
similar to the ones using Waterford Early Reading Program but these classrooms did not use the
program. There were seven kindergarten and one first grade classroom in each set of classrooms.
The purpose of the Waterford program was the minimize the gap experienced by students that do
not have the advantage of an estimated 3,000 hours of literacy help from parents prior to entering
school. The program helps students in three areas that consist of basic print concepts, alphabet,
and phonological awareness. Kindergarteners use for fifteen minutes a day and the instruction on
the program is leveled based on their needs.
Mixed methods approach was used for this research. Teacher surveys, observational data
teacher interviews, and reading achievement data were used in the research. Observational data
was collected during half day observations that occurred two or three times. A pre-assessment
was given to the students prior to data collection. Eight students per classroom were choses to
complete the assessments. Teachers that participated in the study completed a survey that
consisted of a checklist and open-response items. Teachers were also interviewed as part of data
collection.
The findings were that the Waterford program did not have any effect on student
acheicvement. The researchers did conclude that other factors such as classroom management
had an effect on the effectiveness of the Waterford program. They concluded that this may be
why some classrooms did not experience success with the Waterford program.

ARTICLE CRITIQUE TWO

Critique

Paterson, W.A., Henry, J., O'Quin, K., Ceprano, M.A., & Blue, E.V. (2003). Investigating the
effectiveness of an integrated learning system on early emergent readers. Reading
Research Quarterly, 38(2), 172207.

This article seems to have done a good job of preventing other factors from influencing
the results of the research. The mixed methods approach is good because it takes qualitative and
quantitative data into consideration to come up with a result. The researchers did say that there
were other factors such as classroom management that played a role in effectiveness of the
Waterford Reading program. One way to prevent this would be to have students in the same
classroom to compare. Researchers could have half of the students use the Waterford program
and the other half of students refrain from using the program. This would eliminate classroom
management or teaching styles from affecting the results. Although they used similar classrooms,
no two classrooms are exactly alike. Several other factors, such as the effectiveness of the
teachers reading instruction, affect how well a student learns to read.