The CRAFT Project: Instructional Time in Reading Research

Abstract

POSES THE question of whether gains in reading achievement result more from the type of approach used or the variable of time spent teaching reading and in activities supportive to reading. The CRAFT Project, the first year of which is reported in this paper, compares a Skills-Centered Approach with a LanguageExperience Approach to teaching reading. The Skills-Centered Approach was divided into two separate approaches, basal reader and phonovisual (an intensive phonics program combined with basal readers); the Language-Experience Approach, into one group with normal usage of A-V materials, and one with special increments of A-V materials. Subjects in the CRAFT experiment were 1,141 culturally-disadvantaged pupils drawn randomly from schools participating in the project. Care was taken to balance classes in each approach as to kindergarten experience. Teachers used in the experiment were volunteers who were chosen by lot to teach any one of the four groups. Teachers were trained extensively in teaching the approaches assigned them and, during the course of the experiment, attended bi-weekly workshops. Frequent class visits were made by consultants to insure that experimental conditions were maintained. Teachers kept logs of time spent in class on reading and supportive activities. Results after one year showed generally that the Basal Reader Approach was slightly superior in developing reading comprehension and produced significantly highest scores in attitudes toward reading. However, since greater differences in results appeared within each of the four methods than between any two, the data were studied to ascertain why some teachers using the same method produced more significant gains in reading than others. Results, based on teachers' logs on time spent in reading