Education Commons^™

Using The Raap Strategy To Promote Communication Skills For Students With Multiple Disabilities, Hannah Millard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the RAAP strategy on students with multiple disabilities and their ability to produce multi-symbol messages. Using a single-case, multiple probes across participants design, 4 students with multiple disabilities participated in this study. They were taught how to answer reading comprehension questions through the RAAP strategy and access to a communication/core board.

Results indicated a functional relation between the RAAP strategy and the student’s multisymbol messages. Three of 4 students increased their multi-symbol messages and made progress with the intervention as it was planned. One student needed the intervention to …

Issue In Equity For Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students With Complex Support Needs: A Comparative Analysis Of District-Level Student Data, Rosalia Pacheco

Special Education ETDs

Research has shown that English learners with disabilities should have access to both special education and Title III services as required by law (de Valenzuela et al., 2006, 2018, 2016, 2022; de Valenzuela & Copeland, 2018; Kangas, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2021). This quantitative study uncovers issues of educational inequities related to: (a) the identification of these students as English learners; (b) their access to Title III services; and (c) the instructional settings in which they are educated for culturally and linguistically diverse students with Autism (ASD), Developmental Delay (DD), Intellectual Disability (ID), Multiple Disabilities (MD), or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). …

Teaching The Sun As Simile: Bringing Nature Into Language Arts Middle School Classrooms, Stormy Kage

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Teaching the Sun as Simile is an essay that explores an interdisciplinary approach to teaching middle school English Language Arts (ELA) by infusing nature and environmental studies. This essay defines emerging concepts of new literacy studies and eco-criticism, literacy, and composition as it relates to ELA pedagogy. Also, it provides an explanation for the importance and relevance of using nature to develop an ecosystem of better readers, writers and communicators in middle school general ed and special ed classrooms.

Motivating The Unmotivated: How Are We Supporting Struggling Readers In Upper Elementary Classrooms?, Maci V. Wood

Honors College Theses

Motivating struggling students to read is a question considered by many general education reading teachers and special education teachers alike. Since student classroom experiences today differ greatly from classrooms of the past in terms of instructional practices and learning supports, scripted materials that seldom cater to student interest have often been promoted due to the pressure of standardized assessment. With little to no student engagement present in the classroom, it is up to the student to find the will to read or to the teacher to utilize alternative strategies in increasing student motivation (Cambria & Gunthrie, 2008). However, there is …

Fostering Literacy Learning With Three Middle School Special-Education Students Using Therapy Dogs As Reading Partners, Donna E. Lamkin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This case study explored dog-assisted reading with three middle-school special education students in a self-contained alternative school. Data collection conducted over a 15-month period included observations, interviews, and artifacts. In this study, reading with therapy dogs and their handlers, helped three adolescent readers with their reading motivation, engagement, and literacy processes/behaviors. The students’ engagement with the dog, the role of the dog handler, and the role of the context all impacted students in different and multiple ways.

Understanding Students' Chosen Literacy Practices During Non-Academic Times: An Ethnographic Teacher-Research Inquiry, Justin Robert Moyer

Educational Studies Dissertations

This dissertation aims to illuminate the literacy practices that a group of “struggling” students undertake during unstructured times of the school day. The study aims to extend prior theoretical work on literacy (Street, 1984; Weil, 1993; Luttrell & Parker, 2001; Kinloch, 2010; among others) to identify the ways these students engage in literacy practices for deeply personal reasons. Further, this dissertation intends to dispel some of the many myths that surround students in special education settings and, in the case of the focal students in this study, alternative schools. Students reveal: (1) the literacy practices in which they participate, (2) …

Increasing Reading Fluency In Students With Reading Difficulty, Kathryn Balabanis Peabody

All Graduate Projects

Four methods designed to increase reading fluency were employed in a primary level Special Education resource room. The methods were implemented in accordance with the theory and research regarding reading fluency. Each of the four methods effectively increased the students' ability to read fluently. However, the implementation of these methods varied in cost and time.

Supplimental Functional Reading Materials For Secondary Moderately Retarded Students, Kimberlie Ann Baglau

All Graduate Projects

Reading materials were compiled that would help secondary moderately retarded students develop reading skills needed to function at a more independent level than in the past. Materials were developed in the form of worksheets. These worksheets were designed to be supplemental materials to be used to reinforce the learning of functional sight words. Materials were produced for two types of functional reading: reading labels on medicine bottles and reading bus schedules.

Silent Reading Before Oral Reading On The Iri: Implication For Diagnosis And Instruction, Catherine P. Benedetti

All Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of silent pre-reading on the number of oral reading errors a student makes on an IRI. Twenty children read passages silently and then orally read passages without pre-reading. The results supported the null hypothesis that there would be no statistically significant difference on oral reading performances for disabled second and fourth graders. Implications for diagnosis and instruction are discussed.

Notification Of A Commercial Reading Program Presented As Learning Activity Packets For Learning Disabled Students, Edna M. Meyers

All Graduate Projects

This project represents a modification of a commercial reading program, with individual learning activity packets as the management tool for the program. The project plan provides for:

1. Program goals and objectives

2. An initial placement test

3. Unit criterion tests

4. Mastery level tests

5. Individual learning activity packets

Each learning activity packet includes:

1. Individual student record and assignment page

2. Individual story report forms

3. Vocabulary words

4. Detailed comprehension questions

5. Individual student/teacher reading contract

This project provides a reading program that meets the unique instructional needs of the learning disabled student in a financially feasible …

Diagnostic/Prescriptive Teaching Of Language Arts And Mathematics, Molly Montz Sato

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project is to provide a Language Arts and Mathematics curriculum for the elementary level special education classroom by correlating remedial materials and activities to objectives determined by the Brigance Inventory of Basic Skills. This project is limited to the areas of Language Arts and Mathematics; however, the areas of Readiness and Reading are also tested by the Brigance.

A Study In Methods For Helping The Disabled Reader, Margaret Meyer

Graduate Student Research Papers

The ability to read well constitutes one of the most important skills a person can acquire. Satisfactory adjustment to living in this complex modern world requires effective reading. It is difficult to discover any activity, whether in school, business or daily living that does not require reading. The importance of reading becomes even more obvious when we consider what happens to those who fail to learn to read. They are handicapped in practically all walks of life.