Boost Reading is a supplemental digital literacy instruction program that provides 鶹with practice and explicit instruction in the underlying phonics, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension skills that are essential for fluent reading with good comprehension (e.g., Cartwright, 2010; NICHD, 2000; Oakhill, Cain, & Elbro, 2015).
The overarching goal of the program is to provide engaging individualized instruction and practice in the skills and strategies that have the most impact on literacy, while making it explicit to 鶹that the skills they are practicing are things that good readers do while they are reading. As repetition with variety is an essential part of effective literacy instruction (e.g., Schuele & Boudreau, 2008), after a brief introduction to each activity, 鶹are given repeated opportunities to practice these skills with varied stimuli. They receive immediate feedback for their responses and are given more explicit instruction in areas that are challenging. The instruction provided incorporates documented principles of effective instructional delivery; the activities engage 鶹in multiple opportunities to practice critical skills at an appropriate pace with consistent feedback and prioritize 鶹engagement and motivation, helping 鶹to see their own growth toward reading goals (Carnine, Silbert, Kame’enui, & Tarver, 2016; Gersten, et. al., 2009; Deci, & Ryan, 2012.).
Activities build on an existing computer-based intervention that has been documented to improve the decoding skills of 鶹in multiple experimental studies (Richardson & Lyytinen, 2014). Since learning is promoted when 鶹use their knowledge across tasks (e.g., Merrill, 2002), generalization is encouraged through ebooks with embedded activities that reinforce skills recently practiced in related games.
Instruction is closely aligned with the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CSSS) for literary and informational texts and the North Carolina English Language Arts standards. The program was designed to include content that is most effective at building the word reading and comprehension skills of elementary 鶹(e.g., NICHD, 2000; NIFL, 2008), including at-risk and struggling readers (e.g., NICHD, 2000) and English language learners (e.g., August & Shanahan, 2006). The content focuses on foundational reading skills (i.e., phonological awareness and phonics) as well as vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Research also shows that by providing 鶹with contextualized learning experiences and rich engaging stories, narrative-centered interactive learning environments increase 鶹interest, self-efficacy, and feelings of involvement and control in their learning (McQuiggan, Rowe, Lee, & Lester, 2008).