Abstract
Statement of Problem : Students come to school with a wide range of literacy experience and those who have insufficient literacy skills are at risk of falling behind. Juel (1998) asserted that a student who struggles with reading in the first grade is 88% more likely to have difficulty in the fourth grade (as cited in Iaquinta, 2006). Therefore, educators need to implement effective evidence-based reading instruction in the classroom at the primary level. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of explicit and systematic instruction compared to guided reading instruction in the reading development of first-grade readers who were reading below grade-level. Sources of Data : This study used a quantitative research method using a comparison group design to evaluate the efficacy of each type of reading instruction. Data was collected from first-grade students (N = 8) who were reading below grade-level. The students were identified using the end of the first trimester reading assessments and were randomly placed in each reading group. Four students were placed in the explicit and systematic instruction group and the other four students were placed in the guided reading instruction group. Several pre-assessments were administered in the following areas: phonemic awareness, letter names, letter sounds, word decoding, word identification, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. After six weeks of receiving specific reading instruction for 30 minutes after school, each student was post-tested by the researcher. Conclusion Reached : The comparison of the rates of improvement of both reading groups indicated that students in the explicit and systematic group performed significantly better in phonemic awareness, letter sounds, word decoding, reading fluency, and comprehension. However, students in the guided reading group performed significantly better in word identification. In letter names, guided reading group performed better than explicit and systematic group, but the outcome was not significant.