AND CURRICULUM STUDIES COMBINING THE POWER OF POETRY, REPEATED READINGS, AND COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS FOR LITERACY INTERVENTION: THE POETRY ACADEMY (165 pp.)

The purpose of the this study was to examine the effective use of community volunteers in four third grade classrooms at one rural elementary school in Northeast Ohio in a program called the Poetry Academy. A sequential-explanatory mixed methods research paradigm framed this study. The research questions were: (1) Does the Poetry Academy have an effect on student’s fluency and comprehension scores, as shown through the use of a curriculum-based measurement given before and after the implementation of the program, measuring (a) words correct per minute (WCPM); (b) word recognition; and (c) score on a retelling? (2) Does the Poetry Academy have an effect on students ’ attitude towards reading, as measured both before and after the implementation of the program by the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (McKenna & Kear, 1990)? (3) What observations or changes have students, parents, teachers, and volunteers observed in the students towards reading, if any, during the implementation of the program? and (4) What have students, parents, teachers, and volunteers observed as advantages and disadvantages of the program? Thirty-six students were purposefully sampled from a population of 86 third graders to participate in the Poetry Academy based on their score on a curriculum-based assessment measuring words correct per minute, word recognition, and a score on a ii retelling. During the eleven weeks of the program, six volunteers read poetry with the sampled students in a weekly cycle. Components of repeated reading (Homan, Klesius, &amp