VERNON HILLS, IL—May 15, 2006– Results
of a study conducted in 2004-5 show that Grade 1-2 teachers using Reading
Rods Phonics, a supplemental hands-on resource developed by ETA/Cuisenaire® to
support the National Reading Panel’s five areas of reading instruction,
helped students achieve significantly higher early literacy test scores than
students who did not use the manipulative-based resource. Approximately 500
first and second-graders in 14 elementary schools in a large Midwestern urban
school district participated in the study. Among other findings, the study
shows that 96% of first-grade students (74 out of 77 students) who used Reading
Rods Phonics advanced to 50th percentile or above Target levels, as compared
to only 47% of students who did not use the resource.
The research project, titled "The Effects of the Use of Reading
Rods Manipulatives on Early Literacy Learning," tested a variety
of skill areas in the fall of 2004 and again in the spring of 2005 using
the Illinois Snapshot of Early Learning subtests. The students using Reading
Rods Phonics showed greater improvement from pre- to posttest across all
skill areas, with considerable improvement for first-grade students in Phonemic
Awareness, Letter Sounds, and Passage Reading, and for second-grade students
in Spelling and Word Recognition. The study also shows that in the classrooms
where teachers used the Reading Rods Phonics more frequently and more consistently
students had more significant gains.
Reading Rods Phonics, available exclusively from educational publisher ETA/Cuisenaire,
is a supplemental resource that combines interlocking, color-coded Reading
Rods cubes with a variety of hands-on activities designed to teach and reinforce
key literacy skills. Based on the early literacy research of Russian
psychologist Elkonin, Reading Rods feature consonants, vowels, blends, digraphs,
and 2-, 3-, and 4-letter word families and may be combined, left to right,
to form words, phrases, and sentences.
Reading Rods were developed six years ago as the foundation of the ETA/Cuisenaire "Interactive
Literacy" product line, designed to support literacy instruction by
integrating hands-on tools and research-based activities into existing reading
curriculums.
"The interactive approach to literacy is really modeled on the success
of our many manipulative-based math resources," says Dennis Goldman,
president of ETA/Cuisenaire. "This approach provides teachers a way to
reach students of all learning styles and abilities and engage them in active
learning of key literacy skills."
To view the entire Reading Rods Phonics research report,
or to request an ETA/Cuisenaire catalog, visit www.etacuisenaire.com or
call 800-445-5985.
About ETA/Cuisenaire
ETA/Cuisenaireis recognized as the premier publisher and pioneer of Interactive
Literacy and manipulatives-based education, with more than 8,000 supplemental
reading, math, and science resources. Aligned to state and national standards,
these products offer hands-on educational opportunities that make learning
fun for students and teaching more effective for educators. For
more information, visit www.etacuisenaire.com or
call 800-445-5985.
For more information, press only:
Londa Della 800-445-5985, ext. 5219,
©2006 ETA/Cuisenaire. All rights reserved. Reading Rods® is
a trademark or U.S. registered trademarks of ETA/Cuisenaire. The names of actual
companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective
owners.
