Using the Public Library in the Teaching of Reading

Abstract

In September, 1920, the C class of the fourth grade at the Avondale School consisted of the lowest third of the grade grouped according to intelligence. During the first quarter of the year their progress in reading was decidedly unsatisfactory. According to the Monroe Silent Reading Test, which was given on November 16, the class as a whole ranked lower than the third-grade standard in comprehension and barely attained the third-grade record in rate. The results of the test for comprehension indicated that the class was not well graded with respect to reading ability. Six children could do only second-grade work. At the other extreme, two children made better than a sixth-grade record. The majority of the class, as stated before, fell slightly short of what a third-grade class should do in the middle of the year. This low average was thought to be due chiefly to the following facts: i. The class, although it was the lowest group in the grade according to an intelligence rating, averaged forty-three members in attendance.