AJ represents a typical struggling student. If he can do the 8 great Word Patterns apps several times a week and also read just right books, the research shows that he will improve in comprehension, spelling and vocabulary.
"A quasi-experimental study examined effects of a 10-week word structure intervention with fourth-grade students. During daily 10–15-minute practice periods, students worked individually with mobile apps focused on specific aspects of word identification. Pre- and post-treatment assessments showed no differences in rate and accuracy of oral reading between groups that did and did not use the apps, with little effect on motivation to read. Some differences were found in level of texts read and in spelling favoring the intervention students. However, practical significance was found in gains in percentile rank scores on standardized vocabulary and comprehension measures.
"The major areas of intermediate grade literacy instruction are vocabulary development and comprehension. Many assume that children at this level have solid understanding and use of word identification skills."
The research group all reached grade level or more by using The 8 Great Word Patterns Apps for only half of the school year.
"…A significant number of readers may need more work on phonics and other word identification capabilities. Some readers may have more need to develop word-level skills than is evident in traditional fluency assessment. Intervention is critical, as word identification ability remains one of the major predictors of intermediate grade students' subsequent reading comprehension.
"For comprehension to be accomplished, word identification must be automatic.Comprehension requires that readers reach sufficient automaticity to free attention to construct meaning, toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading."