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Liberty University

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Education, Elementary

Liberal Studies

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Full-Text Articles in Education

Accelerated Reader And Its Effects On Fifth-Grade Students' Reading Comprehension, Jan Nichols Apr 2013

Accelerated Reader And Its Effects On Fifth-Grade Students' Reading Comprehension, Jan Nichols

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Schools in the United States have been using the Accelerated Reader (AR) program since the mid-1980s. A search of the literature related to the effectiveness of the AR program revealed that many of the studies were conducted more than a decade ago, and a large number of those studies failed to utilize a control group to provide comparative data. Researchers and educators have examined the use of the AR program, whose parent company is Renaissance Learning, for more than 20 years, yet there is still little definitive data on whether the system positively affects student reading comprehension and motivation to …


More Than Just A Good Book: Employing U.S. Department Of Education Guidelines To Teach Character Education Using Literature, Suzy Besson-Martilotta Apr 2013

More Than Just A Good Book: Employing U.S. Department Of Education Guidelines To Teach Character Education Using Literature, Suzy Besson-Martilotta

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this research study, which was conducted as a qualitative content analysis, was to discover to what extent children's literature from a popular anthology could be used to teach the tenets of character education according to U.S. Department of Education (2005) guidelines in a pre-Kindergarten through second grade setting. A team of participant-coders, which consisted of experienced early childhood educators, evaluated and analyzed each of the 44 complete books contained in the 320 page anthology, The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury: Celebrated Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud (Schulman, 2005), in order to investigate opportunities to explore …


Implementing A Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Phonics Curriculum That Incorporates Music To Meet The Needs Of English Language Learners In The Response To Intervention Process, Danielle Miller Apr 2013

Implementing A Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Phonics Curriculum That Incorporates Music To Meet The Needs Of English Language Learners In The Response To Intervention Process, Danielle Miller

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the Sing, Spell, Read, Write (SSRW) phonics curriculum that uses explicit and systematic methods and incorporates music to teach literacy skills implemented as a tier-two reading intervention in the Response to Intervention process to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of English Language Learners. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design will be used to explore the research questions. Using a quantitative quasi-experimental comparison method, the researcher gathered archived data relating to ELLs reading achievement using the reading portion of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests and the STAR Reading assessment. The …


Examining The Relationship Between Information Obtained At Kindergarten Registration And Reading Comprehension Six Years Later, Paige Swartz Mar 2013

Examining The Relationship Between Information Obtained At Kindergarten Registration And Reading Comprehension Six Years Later, Paige Swartz

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this correlational study was to determine if variables known upon a group of students' enrollment in kindergarten had a significant relationship with their high-stakes reading assessment results obtained six years later, in the students' fifth grade year. Archival data was gathered from a rural northern Georgia school district. After a correlation matrix was constructed to examine the relationships among all variables of interest, bivariate linear regressions were used to determine whether the predictor variables explained any variance in the results of the fifth grade high-stakes reading assessment. Results indicated that one of the four predictor variables (vocabulary) …


An Investigation Of English Learners' Acquisition Of Academic Language To Obtain Reading Comprehension Skills, Mishka Barnes Nov 2012

An Investigation Of English Learners' Acquisition Of Academic Language To Obtain Reading Comprehension Skills, Mishka Barnes

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This collective case study explored how third-grader English learners (ELs) acquire academic language to learn reading comprehension skills in a classroom setting. Many ELs have acquired basic interpersonal communication skills, but have not mastered cognitive academic language proficiency, or academic language. The researcher selected six third-grade ELs who functioned as developing and expanding learners. Although many of these students can read text and use problem-solving strategies to blend words and read fluently, they may experience difficulties understanding academic language. Data was collected through observation, interviews with the ELs two mainstream teachers, document anlysis, and field notes. Using open coding, the …


Effect Of Music Integrated Instruction On First Graders' Reading Fluency, Kerry Bryant Apr 2012

Effect Of Music Integrated Instruction On First Graders' Reading Fluency, Kerry Bryant

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The study examined music-integrated (MI) instruction, framed by automatic information processing theory and elements of prosody. A quasi-experimental, pre- and posttest design was utilized to ascertain the effect of MI instruction on reading fluency among first grade students. Subjects were students in two public elementary schools in Georgia. To determine the effect of MI instruction on reading fluency scores, independent samples t-tests were employed to compare students' Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills (DIBELS) test scores. Analysis revealed to what degree MI instruction in reading had effect upon two DIBELS indicators, specifically nonsense word fluency (NWF) and phoneme segmentation fluency …


The Impact Of Teacher Attitudes And Perceptions Of Direct Instruction On Student Achievement In Reading, Sharon Collum Apr 2012

The Impact Of Teacher Attitudes And Perceptions Of Direct Instruction On Student Achievement In Reading, Sharon Collum

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2004), 37% of America's fourth graders are not reading at grade level. This statistic has remained unchanged for over a decade (NCES, 2004). Findings from multiple studies indicate more research on successfully implementing reading interventions is needed (Begeny & Silber, 2006; Begeny, Krouse, Ross, & Mitchell, 2009). Barnyak and Paquette (2010) suggested that although teachers learn new methods, they return to the strategies they are most comfortable using. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to determine if teacher attitudes and perceptions of direct instruction impacted student achievement in reading. Elementary …


The Effects Of Repeated Readings On Third Grade Students' Reading Achievement And Attitudes, Tennille Kasper-Scheriff Apr 2012

The Effects Of Repeated Readings On Third Grade Students' Reading Achievement And Attitudes, Tennille Kasper-Scheriff

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study investigated the effects of a reading strategy, repeated readings, on third grade students' reading achievement and attitudes. One hundred sixteen third grade students as members of six classrooms in one elementary school participated in this 10 week study. Using a quasi-experimental pretest posttest design, students' mean reading scores and mean reading attitude scores were evaluated. The Measures of Academic Progress test was used to collect data on students' reading achievement (Northwest Evaluation Association, 2009), and student attitudes toward reading were measured by the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) (McKenna & Kear, 1990). Data was analyzed using analysis of …