StudyDog - About

This paper demonstrates how the StudyDog Reading System complies with, and often exceeds, these requirements of the Reading First Program. The following sections provide an overview of how the StudyDog Reading System is designed to fully address the fifteen requirements.

• Provides scientifically based curriculum, instruction, and assessment

StudyDog Reading System is a fully validated, supplemental reading program that effectively teaches young children basic reading skills. Based on a consensus of states' reading standards, the StudyDog curriculum is structured by the five research-proven elements identified by the National Reading Panel (Report of the National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read, 2000). In addition, specific reading content for the state standards was developed from the Big Ideas In Beginning Reading (http://reading.uoregon.edu/contents.php) and the reading content suggestions included in Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Catherine E. Snow, M. Susan Burns, and Peg Griffin, Editors; Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children, National Research Council). The StudyDog Advisory Panel provided guidance in the development of the StudyDog reading standards and reviewed the final drafts of the curriculum. Throughout the review process, each development step and review was focused on assuring that the StudyDog curriculum comprehensively focused on the best research proven reading content and instructional methods. This process fully assures the scientific base for the StudyDog curriculum.

Further, StudyDog has been scientifically studied in randomly controlled samples and in classroom pre and post-test samples. These studies strongly support the effectiveness of StudyDog in improving children's reading skill development (with effect size of more than two-thirds of a standard deviation in fourteen weeks of instruction). The pre and post-test samples have shown similar gains in reading.

Through these studies, StudyDog is contributing to the knowledge of how to engage children who are reluctant to read. Using the innate appeal young children have for computers and providing an engaging and tailored environment for each child is proving to be a strong motivational tool for breaking thought the resistance of reluctant readers. StudyDog has been able to set aside prior reading failure for many children and engage them in sustained reading improvement.

• Address the five research proven elements of early reading instruction as identified by the National Reading Panel (NRP), including:
1. Phonemic Awareness
2. Phonics
3. Vocabulary
4. Fluency
5. Reading Comprehension.

StudyDog is organized by the five research proven elements identified in the findings of the National Reading Panel. The lessons explicitly and consistently teach each child these essential reading skills. The curriculum provides a solid foundation in phonemic awareness, including beginning, medial, and ending words sounds. Phonics is explicitly taught, matching letter sounds and letters beginning with single-sound consonants, then multi-sound consonants, and finally short and long vowel sounds. The StudyDog lessons explicitly and systematically teach specific reading skills and apply the skills in the context of written text. The lessons encourage children to apply reading skills they learn and to develop an understanding of the concepts of print.

Vocabulary is emphasized in the StudyDog lessons, especially high-frequency words. In kindergarten and first grade, higher levels of vocabulary are used in all of the orally presented text, extending the children's oral vocabulary. Children see and hear words used in context and can repeat orally presented text within each lesson activity. StudyDog uses graded reading lists to guide appropriate word and text selections.

Fluency is modeled and developed in StudyDog lessons with guided reading, providing oral reading of highlighted text. Children are encouraged to read sentences and text along with the oral narration. In independent reading tasks, latent response times are use to track children's reading speed while reading accuracy is monitored.

Reading comprehension skills are developed throughout the StudyDog lessons, and are explicitly taught in reading comprehension lessons. Oral comprehension tasks in kindergarten and both oral and independent reading comprehension tasks in first-grade are used to develop literal comprehension, prediction, and synthesis skills.

• Has clearly articulated academic goals/standards

StudyDog Reading Standards coordinate the curriculum, lessons, and tests included in the StudyDog Reading System. The StudyDog standards represent a consensus of states' reading skills standards and have been aligned with the NRP essential reading elements and validated in comparison to research-proven curriculum. The StudyDog Standards guide the content scope and sequencing of the StudyDog lessons and assessments.

• Actively engages students in instruction that connects to the five essential elements identified by the NRP.

StudyDog Reading System employs the natural attraction of computers, lively characters, entertaining story lines, positive reinforcement, and rewards to capture and sustain children's attention while learning basic reading skills. The entire StudyDog production is designed to engage children in learning and becoming successful readers.

Our research has shown that StudyDog is highly engaging for more than ninety percent of the reluctant readers included in our studies. Children who have withdrawn from reading activities in school and are struggling to learn to read have engaged in StudyDog lessons and are gaining the skills and confidence they need to become successful readers. We are successful with these children because they are having fun learning to read. They are not judged for their errors and are rewarded for their successes.

• Includes assessment strategies for diagnosing student needs and measuring progress

StudyDog curriculum and lessons are driven by assessment information. Pre-tests are given to children to identify their reading skill strengths and weaknesses. Each child receives a tailored reading plan that explicitly teaches weak reading skills and reinforces stronger reading skills. Each lesson has embedded tests to monitor skill acquisition in children and to move them through the lesson activities at an appropriate rate, giving some children more time to acquire the skill being taught or to move them faster through the lesson activities once the skill is adequately acquired.

Lesson performance, measured by the embedded tests is reviewed by a reading specialist and, if necessary, corrective action is taken to make sure each child continues to building strong reading skills. The direct communication between parents, teachers and the reading specialists has proven to be a positive element for coordinating instruction and helping parents and teachers track individual children's progress.

Pre-test and post-test assessments are used to document and report the overall reading progress achieved by each child.

The development of the StudyDog assessments has followed the guidance of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, developed jointly by the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, American, and the National Council on Measurement in Education (1999). The StudyDog assessments have been validated using both Classical Testing Theory and Item Response Theory. Test validity studies have demonstrated the content, predictive and concurrent validity of the StudyDog assessments.

• Addresses students' specific strengths and weaknesses

StudyDog reading system includes expert intelligence that guides children through the lessons they need to strengthen weak reading skills and to reinforce other reading skill in order to sustain successful reading growth. Within each lesson, a child's performance on guided practice activities is monitored and corrective action is taken whenever a child is struggling with an activity. Both additional attempts to correctly respond to the activity and additional instruction are provided to the child to reinforce understanding of the skill being taught. If needed, children are give extra lesson activities at the end of each lesson that focus on the specific sounds, letters, words, or sentences within a skill lesson they are having most difficulty accomplishing. This lesson intelligence allows children to work through lessons without realizing they have received corrective instruction or additional activities. The intelligence runs seamlessly within the lesson framework so the child can earn success without experiencing failure.

The StudyDog Reading Specialists oversee each child's lesson progress. The specialists communicate with parents and teachers about each child's levels of performance on each lesson. When necessary, the reading specialists can redirect children to other lessons to help the child reinforce specific reading skill weaknesses. Because StudyDog encourages children to replay any lessons they want, having a child move to another lesson is a natural event for the child. The reading specialists, reviewing information from each child, provide the overall guidance of the tailored lesson sequence for each child.

• Uses explicit instructional strategies

Each StudyDog lesson focuses on a specific reading skill and provides skill focused explicit instruction, modeling, guided practice, corrective instruction (if needed), and assessment. Each lesson begins with an introduction of the reading skill to be learned. The skill is explicitly taught and demonstrated. The children are drawn into the demonstrations by increasing their participation in the modeling activity. Then, they are provided guided practice to reinforce their acquisition of the skill in specific activities. The Internet connection to each child allows StudyDog to monitor children's lesson responses. Corrective instruction is provided immediately to guide them in each lesson. The immediate and explicit corrective instruction greatly increases the strength and speed of the acquisition of the reading skills.

• Maintains coordinated instructional sequences

The StudyDog curriculum is presented in a consistent scope and sequence, guided by the StudyDog Standards. The StudyDog curriculum is balanced against each child's reading strengths and weaknesses to define a course of study for the child. The sequence of instruction is maintained, but the speed of instruction is altered to reflect the skills that require additional time to acquire and those skills that the child can quickly reinforce. The lessons adjust to fit the needs of each child to acquire and maintain the skills in the sequence of instruction. The systematic building of skills in this way addresses each child's unique needs and maintains the necessary sequence for reading success.

• Provides small group instruction

StudyDog provides all instruction individually to each child. Because of the technology incorporated into StudyDog, each child receives a uniquely tailored reading program that focuses on their specific reading needs. The individual attention to each child helps keep them involved and interested in the lessons and the reading skills they are developing. Children develop strong associations with the StudyDog characters and staff because of the individual attention.

• Groups students by ability

StudyDog is taught at the ability level of each child. Initially, children are placed into the StudyDog curriculum based on their reported levels of reading performance and the results of the StudyDog pre-test. As each child works with the StudyDog lessons, the reading specialists learn more about the reading needs of the child and direct the reading course for the child, taking in to account the reading needs and ability of the child. One-on-one instruction with comprehensive monitoring allows StudyDog to serve the individual needs of every child.

• Allows flexibility in placement of children in groups based on assessments

The StudyDog Reading System is designed to keep children engaged in lessons that are at their instructional level, not too easy and not too hard. Children's placement in, and progress through, the StudyDog curriculum is based on specific assessment performance. Within each lesson, children are expected to achieve at least 80 percent mastery of each reading skill. When they do not reach this goal, the StudyDog reading specialists can change the placement of the child in the StudyDog curriculum, move the child to lessons that will reinforce the weak skill, or offer additional activities to help the child attain the desired reading skills. The reading specialists can advance children into more challenging lessons when children's performance indicates that the lessons are too easy.

• Provides differentiated curriculum as needed for different groups of students

The StudyDog lessons incorporate multiple learning modalities to engage children in the content of each lesson. Oral narration, printed text, animated character movement, songs, and stories are used to provide a highly engaging environment of children. The specific needs of each child are addressed by StudyDog by tailoring the curriculum for each child. The curriculum is individualized for the specific needs of each child.

• Provides ample opportunities to practice reading skills

The majority of each lesson provides guided practice of the reading skills being taught. A specific benefit of StudyDog is the ability of each lesson to offer children highly engaging game-like lessons to practice reading skills and allow unobtrusive monitoring of their performance. This allows for all of the StudyDog reading practice to be monitored and identify when a child has had sufficient practice and acquired the reading skill being taught.

• Has aligned student materials

StudyDog is internally aligned and is easily aligned with state standards and classroom instruction. The lessons, assessments, and support materials used by StudyDog are all based on the articulated reading standards develop for StudyDog. The internal alignment of the StudyDog Reading System provides the consistent instructional emphasis critical to children's reading success.

The StudyDog Standards were developed from a synthesis of states' reading skill standards. This alignment allows the StudyDog Reading System to be easily integrated with state standards and classroom instruction. StudyDog has been used successfully by many teachers to supplement their classroom instruction for students who are having difficulty learning to read. The frequent correspondence from the StudyDog reading specialists about each child has proven beneficial to parents and teachers in helping to understand, plan and coordinate instruction to address the specific needs of each child.

• Provides professional development plan for teachers

StudyDog is a unique reading program that offers parents and teachers an expert tool for teaching reading to children. The expertise in reading content and instruction that is necessary for addressing children's needs is included in the StudyDog Reading System. The expertise included in the StudyDog Reading System support and extends the parents' and teachers' instructional abilities. Parents and teachers can use StudyDog to deliver expert reading assistance to their children.

The key contacts with the StudyDog reading specialists further promotes effective reading instruction in the classroom and at home. The specialists answer questions reading instruction and difficulties children may be having, and offer advice as to how best to help children become successful readers. This ongoing role of the StudyDog reading specialists is an effective way of actively providing professional support and development to teachers and parents.

Summary

This review of the StudyDog Reading System using the challenging requirements of Reading First program shows the innovation, effectiveness, research-proven methods, and validity of the StudyDog approach to teaching young children to become successful readers. StudyDog meets, and often exceeds, each of the fifteen requirements included in the Secretary of Education's requirements and guidance. Further, StudyDog represents a new direction in helping children learn to read. It is highly individualized, flexible, affordable, and effective.