DR. CUPP READERS® AND JOURNAL WRITERS
TEN MINUTE PHONICS®
Abstract of 2004-2005 Research
Prepared for Cupp Publishing, Inc.
by Cathy Puett Miller, Independent Literacy Consultant
Huntsville AL
Dr. Cupp Readers® and Journal Writers, now in its fifth year of implementation, offers classroom teachers an efficient structure for teaching reading, writing, listening and communicating at the kindergarten and first grade level. Dr. Cupp Readers® and Journal Writers has also been successfully used with at risk children in higher grade levels through early intervention programs.
Successfully implemented in urban, suburban and rural environments, Dr. Cupp Readers® and Journal Writers offers explicit, systematic instruction, paced to skill mastery. The sixty-book program addresses the key elements identified by the National Reading Panel as critical in the teaching of reading (see comparative chart below).
Basis for
Six Dimensions of Reading Dr. Cupp Readers® and Journal
K-3 Writers and Ten Minute Phonics®
Phonemic awareness ] Phonemic awareness
Phonics ] Phonics
Fluency ] Oral fluency
Vocabulary ] Spelling & vocabulary
Comprehension ] Comprehension
Motivation ] Writing & communication
Homework & parent interaction
Assessment & study skills
While addressing these components of effective reading instruction, it also provides lessons in spelling, character education, writing and motivation as well as a parent-involvement-in-learning module.
In evaluating over 6,000 students taught with Dr. Cupp Readers® and Journal Writers, 98.87% made progress in reading. The following are statistics from actual schools and classrooms.
Assessment Improvement
|
Kindergarten DIBELS (3 times in year) – 590 students |
65% at risk in
letter naming fluency reduced to 11% |
|
First Grade DIBELS (pre and post) – 375 students |
79% at established level for phonemic segmentation which correlates closely to their results in oral reading fluency (up from 44% at beginning of year). Less than 1% (including EIP) scores in deficient level at end of 1st grade. |
|
Kindergarten DRA (333 students) |
88% of students met benchmark (98% of students were at benchmark or within one point of same). Only 6 of 40 students not making benchmark were lower than a score of 2. |
|
First Grade STAR (391 students) |
42.46% began at less
than a 1.0 level, indicating a significant number of at-risk students. In
contrast, at the end of the school year’s teaching from Dr. Cupp Readers®
and Journal Writers, that percentage been reduced to 26.60%.
Of the 166 students that initially did not meet grade level, 39 students moved to grade level and above and 127 of them (76%) improved more than one grade level.
Of special note is the fact that, of the seven students who began with a STAR score of zero (indicating that they were unable to test successfully even at a 0.1 grade level at the beginning of first grade), six of them completed the school year with a score of 2.0 or higher. The remaining two improved 1.5 and 1.6 grade levels, reaching a level within six months of the target second grade reading level. Only 2% of the 391 students tests made no progress. |
GA CRCT Scores (268 students) |
90% of students met or exceeded standards. Nearly half that number fell into the “exceeds standards” category. |
More detailed summaries of assessments used in evaluating student progress are available in the full research summary.
Additional Results:
Ø Twenty-one percent (21%) of kindergarteners finished Book 30 of the Readers (ended the year knowing all 116 kindergarten sight words).
Ø On the first grade level, nearly 46% finished their 60th booklet in Dr. Cupp Readers®, reaching a reading level of 2.1 and knowing over 270 sight words. In many cases, those students were ready to move forward into guided reading and more advanced curriculum before leaving first grade.
Ø The introduction of the new Readiness Booklets in March of 2005 brought marked results among the most at-risk kindergarten students. After introduction of these additional components, the number of children identified as most at risk (by informal teacher assessments and correlation to Dr. Cupp Readers® and Journal Writers) was cut in half from 6% to 3%.
Connections to scientifically based reading research are important considerations when evaluating a core reading and writing curriculum. Details of research connections have been documented extensively in previous years’ research and are available upon request from Cupp Publishing, Inc. or the independent researcher, Cathy Puett Miller (via email at cathypmiller@comcast.net).
©2005 Cindy Cupp and Associates. All rights reserved. Schools and school districts may make single copies of this document for the purpose of grant applications and documentation. Any other duplication of a part or the whole of this report is prohibited without written permission from the publisher.
For additional information about the Dr. Cupp Readers® and Journal Writers, The Readiness Program, or Ten Minute Phonics® see www.cindycupp.com
Cindy Cupp and Associates, Inc.
Savannah, Georgia 31406
Office phone 912 691-2434
Fax 912 691-1449
cindycupp@mindspring.com