The effects of a Read a Book in an Hour, a wholistic reading technique, on reading comprehension, composition, speaking and listening skills

his study examined the effects of a wholistic technique to reading instruction called "Read a Book in an Hour" on reading comprehension, vocabulary, reading rate, listening comprehension, and composition. One hundred forty-four control and experimental subjects were drawn from eight independent groups of 48 sixth grade, 20 eighth grade, 44 tenth grade and 32 twelfth grade students in both public and private schools. Sixth and eighth grade students were from English classes, tenth grade students from religion classes, and twelfth graders from social studies classes. The teachers involved in the experiment were instructed via modeling and discussion in using the Read a Book in an Hour technique and were asked to choose books consistent with the content they were teaching (see Appendix A). A pretest/posttest design in a ten-week study used a thematic sequence of five books with the Read a Book technique. Measures of reading comprehension, vocabulary and reading rate were determined through scores on the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test Form B, Brown Level, for sixth and eighth grade students and the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, Form B Blue Level for tenth and twelfth grade students. A measure of listening comprehension was determined through scores on the Stanford Diagnostic Listening Test, Advanced Form E. Composition scores were assessed with the criteria determined in the Stanford Advanced Writing Assessment Program Guide.;Anecdotal evidence from interviews with teachers who used the method also suggested the technique generated interest in further reading of the novels studied and increased students' abilities to narrate orally, both quantitatively (number of details) arid qualitatively (significant details, style). Teachers also suggested students became more self-confident in posing questions, in clarifying points, and in answering questions.;ANOVAs and t-tests were used to analyze data in the pilot study and in the present study. T-tests were used for the pretests to determine homogeneity between the Read a Book in an Hour group and the control group, using silent reading activities and lecture. ANOVAs were used to assess the final data. Results of ANOVAs suggested significant change on all measures at the p...