Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Dr. Cynthia Baughan

Second Advisor

Dr. Kimberly Tisi

Third Advisor

Dr. Susan Stevens

Abstract

In many Science of Reading programs, the focus on foundational skills like phonics and fluency can overshadow the importance of reading engagement in elementary classrooms. This dissertation investigates the effects of a balanced literacy intervention designed to incorporate purposeful engagement strategies across 12 lessons for at-risk third-grade readers. The six-week intervention integrated skills instruction with reading engagement strategies in the subcategories of social, cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement. Grounded in Engagement Theory (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000), the study's instructional framework and literature review explore foundational theories of reading engagement within these subcategories: behavioral, cognitive, affective, and social. The research was conducted in a rural, Title 1 elementary school in the southeastern United States, involving 14 third-grade students identified as at-risk by a universal reading screener. The 12 small-group lessons were scheduled outside regular school hours to complement in-class tier 2 interventions and supplement the district's newly adopted Structured Literacy curriculum. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study employed quantitative methods to analyze pre- and post-survey data collected from four small reading groups, comprising two control and two treatment groups. The Reading Engagement Scale (McGeown & Smith, 2024) was the primary evaluation tool, revealing positive gains in all four engagement dimensions for the control and treatment groups. The behavioral and affective engagement subcategories showed the most growth, while cognitive engagement consistently achieved the highest overall scores. This research contributes valuable insights into the interplay between student-centered balanced literacy approaches and enhanced reading engagement.

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