Education Commons^™

Effective Reading Comprehension Strategies For Individuals With Learning Disabilities: A Research Synthesis, Gordon B. Worcester Ii

LC Journal of Special Education

This paper will explore and synthesize the body of current research on effective reading comprehension instruction and strategies. Beginning with a survey of several variables that affect working memory and executive processes, this paper will discuss how the mind’s ability to interpret text and derive meaning is a critical component for reading comprehension. The article will also explore how the elements of the working memory affect student with learning disabilities (LD). Furthermore, the working memory’s executive process is essential for the “simultaneous process of extracting and construction meaning” from text (Garcia-Madruga et al., 2013, p. 155). In addition, this paper …

Non-Responders: Current Findings In Reading Instruction As Related To Students Unresponsive To Early Intervention, Susan E. Sperduto

LC Journal of Special Education

Questions still remain about whether or not current research – based reading instruction is effective for all students. There is a population of students that continue to struggle to learn how to read despite the use of research – based instruction. This population of students has been termed “non – responders” or “treatment resisters.” The emphasis on research – based reading instruction has promoted an increase of reading levels among students in the United States; however, the limited amount of research on the needs of students who are non – responder has yielded mixed reviews. The following paper will address …

Effective Reading Instruction Strategies For Students With Significant Cognitive Disabilities, April Scruggs

LC Journal of Special Education

Recent legislation and focus on research-based instruction has lead to a more unified drive to teaching students with significant cognitive disabilities how to read because we know now that most of these students can learn how to read through intensive instruction using a variety of different strategies to teach the essential components of reading (Browder et al., 2006). As reported by Browder et al. (2006, p. 393), the National Reading Panel (NRP, 2000), “identified five essential components of reading instruction: (a) phonemic awareness, (b) phonics, (c) fluency, (d) vocabulary, and (e) comprehension.” The purpose of this paper is to identify …

A Strategic Approach To Adolescent Literacy: A Diagnosis And Prescription For Students With Reading Deficits, Allison Norris

LC Journal of Special Education

The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons that older students have not reached an age-appropriate level of reading and to collectively assemble and briefly summarize a small inventory of techniques that are adolescent specific and have been proven to close the gap between the struggling reader and their non-struggling peers. The paper concludes with a summary of the attributes of a proactive stance towards reading instruction and how our attitudes towards older students and reading instruction must be flexible. Allowances must be made for those adolescent students who have not mastered the basic reading fundamentals. Utilization of …

Comparing The Effects Of Phonics Instruction Provided To Students With Disabilities, Ashley Rohlf

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Special education teachers work each day to implement effective curricula to help students with disabilities receiving special education services reach grade-level standards. Recent research supports the need for implementing a comprehensive reading program that includes phonics instruction. With numerous curricula available, this action research seeks to inform educators of two methods of instruction that have a heavy phonics component that leads to growth in student reading skills. Two methods were evaluated: one method used multiple curricula to target all areas of a comprehensive reading program while the other method used a single curriculum that targeted all of the same areas. …

Improving The Implementation Of The Science Of Reading In Primary Classrooms, Molly Lout

Graduate Teacher Education

Becoming a proficient reader is critical if one wants to have a successful future. Unfortunately, students in the United States continue to fall well-below basic reading levels. Although a plethora of research on the science of reading exists, many educators have not implemented science-based instructional practices in primary classrooms. A total of 17 peer-reviewed articles were synthesized to show teacher education programs, phonological awareness, decoding skills, and specific interventions played a critical role in students’ acquisition of reading skills. The analysis discovered the science of reading has not been implemented adequately in primary classrooms or teacher education programs. However, the …

Specialized Reading Programs: An Analysis Of The Components Of Effective Reading, Damien Murtagh

LC Journal of Special Education

This paper will identify characteristics of effective reading construction, analyze a number of specialized reading programs-focusing on their ability to include these instructional characteristics-and discuss the implications of these instructional components when designing reading instruction.

Using Targeted, Small-Group Instruction And Culturally Responsive Teaching To Improve Reading Engagement And Confidence, Tina Marie Tuminaro

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate what happens to reading engagement and student confidence when targeted instruction and culturally responsive teaching is used in a middle school literacy classroom. Individual instruction in the areas of reading comprehension and fluency, as well as book clubs and literature circles, were used over a three-month period in an effort to motivate striving and reluctant readers and build confidence in their reading skills. Eleven sixth grade students participated in the study, and both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. Data was collected using a teacher's research journal, audio recordings, surveys, interviews, …

A Mixed-Methods Study Examining The Difference Between Closed Captioning And Lexile Levels, Jim Pruitt

Dissertations

This experimental mixed-methods study explores what happens to student Lexile scores when they use closed captioning. Since the emergence of closed captioning tools in the 1980s, closed captioning has become more mainstream and easier to access today than at any other time in history (Rickelman et al., 1991). Thus, it is through harnessing this technology and bringing it into the classroom setting that the researcher of this study hopes to provide new approaches for educators that want to improve their student Lexile levels, while also incorporating the SAMR model within our increasingly technologically-focused classrooms (Crompton & Burke, 2018).

The quantitative …

The Impact Of Prosodic Reading Instruction On Adolescents’ Silent Reading Comprehension, Judy Lynn Fields

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research has established a strong relationship between silent reading comprehension and prosodic reading fluency among young readers, but much remains unknown about this relationship among older readers (Breen, Kaswer, Van Dyke, Krivokapic, & Landi, 2016; Cypert & Petro, 2019). The goal of this study was to determine the impact of prosodic reading instruction on adolescents’ silent reading comprehension. Conducted in a classroom setting in two different school districts, this study included three certified English teachers and a total of 52 students in grades 8, 9, and 10 for a period of nine to twelve weeks with a total of 810 …

The Status Of Phonics Instruction: Learning From The Teachers, Sherry Sanden, Deborah A. Macphee, Luminita Hartle, Stephen Poggendorf, Caleb Zuiderveen

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Increasingly alarmed by instructional mandates more founded on journalistic rhetoric and popular opinion than on research findings or practitioner expertise, researchers gathered survey data from teachers to better understand the status of K–2 phonics instruction. Data demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of these K–2 teachers teach phonics, rely on a published curriculum, and teach phonics in systematic and explicit ways. These findings contradict media assertions that reading classrooms are largely devoid of phonics instruction and that teachers fail to include phonics as an important element of their reading instruction. Implications include calls for researchers to explore what teachers can share …

Evidence-Based Reading Interventions For Middle And High School Teachers, Brittany Evans, Beverly Hart, Mashonda Surratt

Instructional Modules for Professional learning Responding to Opportunities and Valuing Educators (IMPROVE)

Welcome to Evidence-Based Reading Practices. This module is designed to help middle and high school teachers intervene with struggling readers in their regular education classrooms. This module will take you approximately three hours to complete. During that time, you will learn what to do when students are missing the necessary foundational skills to become skilled readers.

View professional learning module.