Computer Based Newsletter and Literacy Engagement of Middle-school Students

For children where consent was provided by a parent or legal guardian, an assent form will be completed by the child for the child to also consent to participate in the study. Once consent and assent have been received, the student's reading skills will be assessed using the Gray Oral Reading Test 5 (GORT 5) and Test of Orthographic Competence (TOC). The student will also be assessed using a modified Inventory of Reading Occupations (IRO) to determine their access to reading materials and their perceived proficiency with the reading tasks. From the results of the GORT 5 and TOC, inclusion criteria will be used to determine if students will be included in the study. Once the inclusion criteria have been determined for all students, students will be randomly placed in either a control or intervention group.

The intervention group will be provided with a survey to determine areas of interest to guide the 7-week literacy intervention plan of completing a newsletter. Students will complete the newsletter virtually using secure Zoom meetings 2x per week for 30 minutes per session. The results of the Gray Oral Reading Tets 5 (GORT 5) and Test of Orthographic Competence (TOC) will be used to determine the baseline reading skills of the students and each researcher will use the results of the assessments to guide the intervention with the newsletter topic that is chosen by the student. For example, if the GORT 5 notes a deficiency in reading accuracy, the focus of the intervention will be ensuring that reading accuracy is a focus of the summary that is crafted by the student for the newsletter.

At the end of 7-weeks, the control group and intervention group will be re-administered the Gray Oral Reading Test 5 and Test of Orthographic Competence to determine reading skills. Students will also be provided with the modified Inventory of Reading Occupations (IRO). The control and intervention group's GORT 5, TOC, and modified IRO scores will be analyzed to find out the differences between the groups in reading skills (using the GORT 5 and TOC) and reading interest/perceived reading proficiency (using the modified IRO).

Inclusion criteria

• Participants must be in After-school participants ages 10-13 years old and in grades 6-8.
• Have access to a computer: laptop, Chromebook, or desktop.
• Can identify and press all keys on a keyboard.
• Can use a mouse to navigate on a computer.
• Have internet access at home or center.
• Computer system has the capability to download Zoom.
• One grade equivalent or more below in areas of: fluency, rate, accuracy, or comprehension on Gray Oral Reading Test 5 (GORT 5).
• Standard score in the below average range on the Test of Orthographic Competence (TOC).
• Participants must speak, read, and write in English

Exclusion criteria

• 1. Students who do not have access to a computer, internet, and Zoom access at home.

• Students who do not speak, read, and write in English.