Teachers adapt their instruction in reading according to individual children's literacy skills

This study examined the extent to which first grade teachers adapt their reading instruction to the literacy skills of particular children in their classroom, and investigated whether teacher and classroom characteristics influence such adaptation. Three hundred seven Finnish children were tested with regard to their literacy skills at the end of their kindergarten year. At the beginning of the first grade, the teachers of these children filled in a questionnaire on the reading support they had given each child. The results showed, first, that the poorer the literacy skills a child showed at the end of kindergarten, the more personal reading instruction the teacher gave the child in grade 1. Second, teachers who were less experienced or had fewer teaching assistants in the classroom adapted their instruction on the basis of children's literacy skills to a greater extent than other teachers did. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.