Volume 15 Number 2
January 1976

Sharon Lee Wooden and Jacqueline Curran Backer

In the LATE 1960s, Commissioner James Allen chided the nation’s conscience by pointing to the comparatively low literacy rate in the United States, supposedly one of the more advanced countries in the world. A Right-To-Read effort launched by Allen in 1969 set as its goal "—to enable every child to cultivate the reading skills necessary for his full participation in our society." Since then reading has become a national concern for some as evidenced by federal legislation funding through U.S.O.E., Right-To-Read community and school-based programs.

Some local school districts have superseded Commissioner Allen’s concern and mandate that every child should have the Right-To-Read. One such school district was that of Magdalena, New Mexico, which included in its school population the children from the Alamo Navajo Reservation. Since the middle 1960s, Magdalena has been exploring various means of raising students’ achievement in reading.

Reading is an experiencing of the language between the writer and the reader. This assumes a commonality of ideas if there is to be a close proximity between the writer’s meaning and the reader’s conception of that meaning. It also assumes a common language. As Peterson pointed out in the 1940s, the great majority of children who enroll in the federal schools on the Indian reservations in the Southwest enter school "unable to understand English at all" (see Note 1). According to Fries, "Our language is an essential part of every portion of our experiences; it gets all its meaning from our experience, and it is in turn our tool to grasp and realize experience" (see Note 2). As a result, children such as these come into English-speaking schools and find a world alien in language and in meaningful concepts.

The culminating effect of these language and experience factors is a child living and thinking in an academic atmosphere which has little if any relationship to his own world. This not only threatens his self-concept and self-esteem but initially dooms him to severe problems with reading, the printed representation of an oral language which must be mastered experientially and conceptually.

This project therefore describes the efforts of a small school district with a large proportion of Indian students to find a means of meeting the needs of these students in terms of their oral language development, concept mastery, and self-enhancement.

The Alamo Navajo Reservation lies 21 miles northwest of Magdalena. Navajo children from the reservation comprise about two-thirds of the student population of Roosevelt Elementary School in Magdalena. Until 1959, Alamo children in pre-first, first, and second grades attended a day school on the reservation. Students beyond those grades were expected to attend school in one of the off-reservation boarding schools. The day school closed because parents voted in favor of a dormitory in Magdalena. The present Magdalena dormitory houses children in grades pre-first through twelfth grade. Students visit home on weekends and during academic breaks.

The success of school programs and student progress has been thought to be hampered by the following problems: habitual absences or no school attendance by the children; lack of a positive self-image; lack of cooperation on the part of parents; lack of experience prerequisite for success in school and little or no knowledge of English.

Results of the findings of the STEA test and ACT test in the 1960s indicated the Alamo Navajo children were three to four years behind the national average in reading. A remedial reading program was implemented at Roosevelt Elementary School in 1966 for small groups of students in grades four, five, and six. This initial program was to serve as a catalyst for future reading programs. In the 1971-72 school year, funding was obtained from a Title I proposal so that a primary reading teacher for grades one, two, and three could be hired.

There was still serious concern about the lag in reading achievement for the Alamo Indian children and at the suggestion of the bilingual consultant in the State Department of Education the Hoffman Language Arts Reading System was explored. Visits by administrators and teachers were made to other school systems using the Hoffman program, and a decision was made to purchase the program through Title I and Johnson-O’Malley funds.

The academic year of 1972-73 the Hoffman program was initiated as a special supplemental reading program for grades two through eight at Roosevelt Elementary School in Magdalena. The program was divided into two levels, primary and intermediate reading labs. Each lab was operated by a reading teacher and an aide, servicing 80 pupils in small groups for 25-minute periods on a daily basis.

Selection of Students. Early in the fall of 1972 the reading teachers began testing to determine which students needed to utilize the Hoffman facilities. Final selection of the students was based on the results of the Murphy-Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty--oral reading selections and listening comprehension; the Peabody Individual Achievement Test--reading recognition and reading comprehension; classroom teachers’ recommendations.

The students selected for the program shared the following common characteristics: little or no word attack skills; limited command of English; lack of self-confidence; less than adequate overall command of reading skills; fear of failure; constant concern about grades; extreme extrovertic and introvertic personalities; and little self-esteem.

Initially the children were only introduced to the equipment and materials. Gradually each child experienced operating the equipment and maintenance of the sessions and materials. Eventually children were placed in small groups, and each child was given the opportunity of being in charge of this group as a designated captain. The captain had to observe the action of his fellow students to make sure they paid attention to the story and the follow-up exercise. He had to be certain that all the students in his group completed the student answer sheet at the proper cue time. The captain appointed someone to take care of the pencils, the student response sheets, and the plastic cover for the machine. He was also responsible for returning materials to the lab aide or teacher for final evaluation.

After a few lessons had been completed, a written and oral test designed by the lab teacher was given to the students by the lab teacher and/or the lab aide. The test assessed "the students’ mastery’ of the skills and concepts presented in the story filmstrips and the student response lesson. Those needing additional help were given individual attention whenever possible. Confusing material was reviewed either through re-doing the same lesson or presenting a tape lesson stressing the same skills. Emphasis on grades was eliminated by not issuing grades. A tendency to cheat was eventually almost overcome by correcting mistakes without adding negative comments and putting "ok" on acceptable papers. Individual conferences were held with students encouraging better work or behavior and/or praising work well done. For variety, extended language experience activities and projects were employed in addition to the Hoffman study units. (See photos.)

Over an eight-month test period, the students in the primary reading lab made the following gains in reading recognition: second grade--81%; third grade--56%; fourth grade--150%; 100% represents the national PIAT median for reading recognition. Overall, when compared to the national reading recognition PIAT median, the abilities of the students were assessed as follows: second grade--.9--9 months below the national median; third grade--1.9--1 year, 9 months below the national median; fourth grade--2.7--2 years, 1 month below the national median. This compares favorably with the three- and four-year lag in reading achievement of the 1960s. Results of the intermediate lab were not complete at this time.

The only control group available was the remaining students not participating in the program. Of course the majority of these students did not represent equal samples in abilities or needs due to the selection process. These students, however, did make a gain of 1.55 years in reading recognition ability over the same eight-month period.

No formal testing was carried on to measure the increase in self-confidence and self-esteem of the students as observed by the lab personnel and the classroom teachers. There appeared to be an increase in students’ interest in reading as evidenced by the number who wished to read orally and to take books home or to the dormitory to read. The solicitous care most of the children gave to the program materials seemed a further indication of the value assessed by the students to the reading materials.

Lab personnel and classroom teachers in general agreed that the Hoffman program has allowed children to achieve success. It has enabled children to have individualized instruction and more personal attention than the classroom teacher is often able to give. It has alleviated the pressure of the whole class by having some students out for lab periods. It has allowed the classroom teacher to give personal instruction and attention to smaller groups when lab students were not present. It has developed language background and experiential background of the students through motivating stories and tapes. It has eliminated some reading difficulties and improved other reading skills. It has proved successful academically and psychologically for students and teachers.

Mile there are many reading systems on the market, the Hoffman Language Arts Reading System appeared to show noteworthy results in raising reading achievement. In addition to the apparent selection of a program appropriate to the needs of the Alamo Navajo students, a well-organized instructional program was set up and manned by knowledgeable competent specialists in reading. There was also considerable support by the administration in purchasing the materials and encouraging the school staff to work together cooperatively so that progress could be made towards making these children skilled and happy readers.

1. Shailer Peterson, How Well Are Indian Children Educated? (Washington: Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1948), p. 10.

2. Charles C. Fries, Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1952), p. 57.