Education Commons^™

The Influence Of Bolded Keywords In Online News Texts On Reading Speed And Comprehension For Heritage+ Learners Of Arabic, Marwah Khost Aljarkas

Theses and Dissertations

Learners and readers of Arabic, especially Heritage Language Learners, suffer more than ever from the lack of focus while reading online texts. This becomes a challenge that negatively impacts their overall learning process. This paper explores the influence of one salience feature - bolded keywords - over reading speed and comprehension amongst Heritage+ Learners of Arabic. Heritage+ refers to Arabs living in the Arab world, but who have minimum exposure to the language. Thirty-two students, who are Heritage+ Learners of Arabic, currently studying at the American University in Cairo and belong to Generation Z (18-25 years), participated in the study. …

The Role Of Word Knowledge In Error Detection: A Challenge To The Broken-Error-Monitor Account Of Dyslexia, Lindsay N. Harris, Benjamin Creed, Charles A. Perfetti, Benjamin Rickles

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications

Dyslexic children often fail to correct errors while reading aloud, and dyslexic adolescents and adults exhibit lower amplitudes of the error-related negativity (ERN)—the neural response to errors—than typical readers during silent reading. Past researchers therefore suggested that dyslexia may arise from a faulty error-detection mechanism that interferes with orthographic learning and text comprehension. An alternative possibility is that comprehension difficulty in dyslexics is primarily a downstream effect of low-quality lexical representations—that is, poor word knowledge. On this view the attenuated ERN in dyslexics is a byproduct, rather than a source, of underdeveloped orthographic knowledge. Because the second view implies a …

The Effects Of Watching Text-Relevant Video Segments On Reading Comprehension Of Culturally Unfamiliar Texts With Adult English Language Learners Supported By The Schematic Information-Processing (Sip) Model Of Reading Comprehension, Amirreza Karami

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods sequential explanatory study was to investigate the effects of watching text-relevant video segments on reading comprehension of a culturally unfamiliar text when technical words are present or absent. Therefore, 44 adult English Language Learners (ELLs) with higher-intermediate to advanced English language proficiency levels from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) School of Languages located in the Dominican Republic were chosen and randomly assigned to two different groups: control vs. experimental.

First, the researcher compared two different types of reading instruction—traditional text-based vs. video-based reading instruction supported by the Schematic Information-Processing (SIP) model of reading …

An Analysis On English Comprehension, Samuel Black, Jerry Rylance, Matthew Sielaff, Aaron Gorman

Math 365 Class Projects

Books and Buddies is a program run by Spread the Word Nevada (StWN) designed to help students who struggle with reading. As part of the program, students are given pre and post tests which measure comprehension, accuracy, and words correct per minute (WCPM).

A data set was provided that included students' scores on the pre and post test, as well as some general demographic information. A Python program was created to perform linear regressions on subsets of the data, measured on the three attributes listed above. The data was also divided into various categories for the sake of the regressions. …

The Effectiveness Of Reading Interventions For Middle School Students With Learning Disabilities, Jennifer Hicks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Students with learning disabilities are often unable to master reading comprehension and often fail to acquire reading comprehension skills at basic levels as measured on reading achievement assessments. Reading intervention programs Compass Learning and SRA Corrective Reading teach students how to apply strategies to their reading to improve their understanding of written text. The purpose of this quantitative ex-post facto research design was to determine the extent to which the reading intervention programs implemented at the research school improved reading achievement scores for seventh grade students with learning disabilities in reading, and to determine how much scores changed from the …

Pairing Young Adult And Classic Literature In The High School English Curriculum, Anne V. Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Literacy experts recommend young adult literature to engage teens and scaffold their developing reading and literary analysis skills. Yet, the American high school English curriculum is dominated by a narrow list of classics, virtually unchanged since the late 19^th century. This static curriculum neither reflects the diversity of American culture nor the lives of students in the 21^st century. Adolescent literacy scholarship can support practitioners by expanding the research on effective strategies for using young adult literature. This research study examines the effects of an intentional pairing of a classic work of literature with a work of young …

Using Reading Cbm To Predict Performance On Smarter Balanced Assessment, Jonathan Wesley Shank

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study examined the relationship between AIMSweb oral reading fluency (R-CBM) and reading comprehension (MAZE) curriculum-based measures and performance on the English language arts/literacy (ELA/L) component of the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) using a sample of students in third through fifth grade (N = 499). Pearson correlations between R-CBM, MAZE, and SBA were moderate to high, with R-CBM generally demonstrating the strongest relationships with coefficients ranging from .73 to .75. Results from hierarchical multiple regression models indicated that R-CBM provided strong predictive validity for SBA performance among third grade students (63.4% variance explained, p<.001), while the addition of MAZE to the equation was negligible (1.4% additional variance explained, p<.001). Similar findings resulted from the fourth and fifth grade multiple regression models. The predictive value of R-CBM and MAZE each decreased as grade level increased. Results support continued use of CBM to predict success on the Smarter Balanced Assessment, although CBM using cloze passages explained little variance in high-stakes test scores beyond that of oral reading fluency alone.

The Effects Of Expository Text Structure Instruction On The Reading Outcomes Of 4th And 5th Graders Experiencing Reading Difficulties, Janet J. Bohaty

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a standard protocol supplemental expository text structure intervention (i.e., Structures) on 45 4^th and 5^th graders experiencing reading difficulties. Students were enrolled in six K-8 parochial schools located in a Midwestern suburban city. Within classrooms, students were randomly assigned to Structures intervention or a business-as-usual control condition. Students in the Structures condition were taught to identify and discriminate among the five text structures used by authors of expository text (Meyer, 1975, 1985): description, sequence, cause/effect, compare/contrast, and problem/solution. Students in the business-as-usual control condition participated in the …

Script-Based Reading Lessons And Socialized Language Usage, Joseph James Spencer

Theses Digitization Project

This study focuses in particular on the connections students make to their reading as seen through contextualized language usage. Many educators and curriculum developers suggest that using these new script-based curriculum will help teachers systematize and close gaps in teaching and learning. If unwritten teacher questions and statements are used to redirect students' comprehension about texts occur during the reading lesson, these will be described and analyzed for their effects on the lesson goals and objectives.

The Impact Of Transactional Strategies Instruction On The Reading Comprehension Of A Diverse Group Of Second Graders, Sunjoo Shawn Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of TSI in teaching reading comprehension to a diverse group of second graders. The diversity included various levels of readiness in reading, language status such as English learners and native speakers of English, and various levels of participation by children in a whole-class setting. Part One of this study used teacher action research as its methodology to address reading comprehension and student autonomy. Part Two of this study used participatory action research, involving children as co-researchers, to investigate how second graders perceived Literature Circles as their reading comprehension instruction and …

Can Esl Teachers Teach Reading Metacognitive Strategies?, Adil Bentahar

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Metacognitive knowledge has been linked to use of metacognitive strategies and effectiveness in reading (e.g., Flavell, 1979). In the present research, I evaluated whether teaching three metacognitive strategies (planning, monitoring, and evaluating) would (a) improve English as a Second Language (ESL) students’ metacognitive knowledge, which in turn would (b) improve their comprehension. Eight non-English speaking students completed the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategy Inventory (MARSI) (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002) and a reading test at the beginning of a reading-writing course and again at the end of the course. The results revealed an increase from pretest to posttest in all three …

Learning Through Literature Versus Scripted Lessons, Leticia Aviles-Parsons

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project was to create a guide for planning literature lessons connected to the state mandated curriculum, including today's standards for a fifth grade class and the recently adapted Common Core Standards in Language Arts. This project explains the reading comprehension problems that students in elementary school are facing, especially English learners.

The Use Of Reciprocal Teaching As A Mediational Tool To Enhance Reading Comprehension, Luz Elena Nguyen

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project was to study how Reciprocal Teaching can best serve students in a third grade classroom for reading comprehension. A curriculum was developed to help the classroom teacher find a better way to teach reading comprehension using four important reading strategies: predicting, summarzing, clarifying and questioning. Several mediated tools were developed to enhance reading comprehension with clear explanations on how to implement Reciprocal Teaching with the current curriculum and California Standards on comprehension.

Use Of Read Alouds To Increase Reading Comprehension, Heather Cynthia Williams

Theses Digitization Project

There is a shift from learning to read towards reading to learn beginning in the fourth grade. This project focuses on the use of read alouds to teach concepts such as inference, generalization, and drawing conclusions to increase reading comprehension in fourth graders.

Does California's Scripted Curriculum Affect Students' Motivation To Read, Francene Marie Fisher

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis looked at the effects of California's adopted scripted learning programs on students' motivation for reading. There is much research about the efficacy of these types of one-size-fits all programs, which claim to be on scientific research.

Effects Of On-Site Reading Clinical Tutoring On Children's Performance, Abha Gupta

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This research was conducted to study the effects of field-based clinical tutoring on struggling readers. Struggling readers from two grade levels, 3rd and 5th were randomly divided into two groups. One group received individualized tutoring in reading for a semester from apprentice reading clinicians (graduate students in Reading Program) and the other group did not. There were 13 sessions of one hour each per week. The reading performance of students in the two groups was compared on the two available measures in the school, (1) letter grade and (2) STAR results (a computerized diagnostic reading assessment program). Observational and anecdotal …

Computerized Reading Assessment Using The Star Reading Software, Brian Michael Bartlett

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis focused on the use of a computerized reading assessment program called Star Reading. Reading has been one of the most difficult areas across the curriculum to assess. Reading asssessment differs widely from teacher to teacher, and has traditionally been very subjective.

Irlen Syndrome And The Reading Process, Jodi Beth Altman

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of the project was to determine if a school-wide intervention for students demonstrating symptons of Irlen Syndrome would result in improvements in reading skills and a reduction in physical symptoms that might impede visual processing necessary for successful reading.

Strategies To Increase The Critical Reading Skills Of Secondary Students, Laurie Ann Guy

Theses Digitization Project

This paper will examine what research has revealed about reading and learning in the areas of word recognition, scaffolding to develop understanding, metacognition and application of new knowledge in real world situations. The study then will go on to link what is known about learning to strategies that have already been developed by secondary teachers to increase critical reading skills.

A Study Of The Teaching Methods Of Comprehension Through Isolation And Context, Mahlon A. Smith

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.