Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Visual Imagery And Keyword Cues On Third-Grade Readers' Memory, Comprehension, And Vocabulary Knowledge, Heather Brooker

All Dissertations

It is estimated that nearly 70% of high school students in the United States need
some form of reading remediation, with the most common need being the ability to
comprehend the content and significance of the text (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004).
Research findings support the use of visual imagery and keyword cues as effective
comprehension strategies (Denner, McGinfly, & Brown, 1989; Gambrell & Jawitz, 1993;
Sadoski, 1985). This study extends the current body of research on these two strategies
by (a) exploring and comparing the combined effects and interactions of training students
in the coordinated use of visual imagery and …

"An Easy Switch": A Descriptive Case Study Exploring The Shift Toward Informational Text Accompanying The Implementation Of Common Core State Standards In Five Primary Classrooms, Heather Denise Kindall

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to discover how the newly implemented Common Core State Standards (CCSS) may have changed teachers' practices and philosophies regarding literacy instruction and to determine which teaching strategies were being presented in regard to informational text in the studied Kindergarten through second grade classrooms.

The research was conducted in five classrooms within one elementary school in the mid-Southern United States. The study design involved semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and teacher-reported lesson plans over a fourteen week data collection period. The aim of this research was to portray a vivid description of the implementation …

Scientifically Based Reading Research Strategies In The Preschool Classroom: An Investigation Into Quality Early Childhood Reading Practices And Literacy Acquisition In One Northern Michigan Early Reading First Program, Yvonne Donohoe Mccool

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

A growing body of research has emerged to support the concept of providing early childhood education as a quality investment for our children, unlocking early potential and creating lasting impacts related to school success and beyond. Several landmark studies indicated that a quality education targeted at our youngest learners has the ability to yield impressive returns academically, economically, and socially. Early childhood education is credited with reducing costs associated with educational remediation, retention, and special education services. More important, early childhood education is associated with the prevention of early learning difficulties and overall improved education outcomes.

On the foundation of …

Effects Of The Integrated Symple Readers Curriculum On Expressive Vocabulary Acquisition In Elementary Students With Developmental Disabilities, Loralene Edvalson

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the emphasis society places on literacy, most students with developmental disabilities remain illiterate. One cause for this illiteracy may be that these students lack foundational language skills that contribute to being able to read. Research has shown that, among other contributions, multiple exposures across time increase students' abilities to acquire knowledge. The Symple Readers integrated curriculum plans for multiple exposures to novel picture vocabulary words by building them into all activities across the students' day and week. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the Symple Readers integrated curriculum on expressive vocabulary development. During the …

Literacy And The Most Marginalised Children, Megan Robinson

International Developments

Researchers, practitioners and policy makers interested in the field of inclusive education gathered at a roundtable meeting to discuss synergies across the Australian and international development education policy arenas regarding literacy interventions for the most marginalised children.

International Developments (No.3) 2013

International Developments

Table of contents for this issue: (a) Making a difference in developing countries; (b) UNICEF and UNESCO; (c) Regional focus : Africa; (d) Literacy and the most marginalised children.

“Finding A Manageable Body Of Content”: Seven Literacy Teacher Educators Explore The Constraints On What They Teach, Cheryl A. Kreutter, Kathleen Hinchman, Clara Beier, Mary Shea, Maria Anne Ceprano, Elizabeth Tynan, Jan Harting-Mcchesney

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Teacher educators are engaged in a perpetual quest to squeeze as much as possible into preparation of new classroom literacy teachers. In response to increasing demands for preparing future teachers for modern classrooms, seven teacher educators tackled the question of what constitutes a manageable body of early literacy content in preservice coursework. Through retrospective analysis, they discovered common constraints among their institutions that influence their decision-making about when, what, and how much content to teach. These constraints include teacher educators’ beliefs about teaching literacy methods, time and resource management issues, range of students’ needs, and influences of local and national …

Hand - I Coordination: Interpreting Student Writings And Drawings As Expressions Of Identity, Inda Schaenen

The Qualitative Report

In schools where curricular constraints and testing pressures narrow the ways in which students can take up identities as writers, longterm enrichment programs offer opportunities for the meaningful design of compositions. This paper, which presents the work of four elementary student participants in a writing workshop, shows how qualitative inquiry -- in particular critical multimodal analysis -- can enable a teacher researcher to see, interpret, and explain what might be going on in the writings and drawings of students, and how these illuminations help establish and expand the identities of students as writers. I focus especially on the work of …

Intonation And Reading Skills In Fourth-Grade Students, Wanda Margaret Kent

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of intonation skills in the reading comprehension of fourth-grade students. Although, the National Reading Panel's (2000) definition of reading fluency as "...the ability to read a text quickly, accurately, and with proper expression..." (p. 3-5) suggests a role for prosody and intonation in reading, these features have not figured prominently in reading research and studies that have examined the relationship between intonation and reading have reported varying results. The current study adopted the view that intonation is one of the many linguistic skills that support children's reading skills. From …

Literacy Strategy Journal: Planning Literacy Instruction In A Liberal Arts College, Antonio Causarano

Education Faculty Articles

This paper discusses the importance of writing, developing, and implementing a literacy strategy journal as a junior faculty teaching literacy courses in a University in the United States. The analysis of the content of the literacy strategy journal is carried out by applying a Bakhtinian dialogic framework to become aware and understand how dialogicality between the instructor and the content of the literacy strategy journal supported a systematic and in depth self-reflection aimed to improve teaching and pedagogy in the literacy courses taught. The author wants to demonstrate that the literacy strategy journal is not a static object, a legal …

"Teach Reading? But I'M Not A Reading Teacher!", Beth Hurst, Cathy J. Pearman

College of Education

A critical issue in education today is that many middle and high school students are not able to read on grade level . In an effort to deal with the problem, many schools encourage all teachers, regardless of their subject area, to emphasize reading in their classes, because as Rasinski, Padak, McKeon, Wilfong, Friedauer, and Heim state, if our goal is to improve student performance across content areas, then improvements in general reading abilities must be a goal." This is often met with a great deal of resistance because not only have most teachers not been trained in the reading …

The Teacher-Student Writing Conference Reimaged: Entangled Becoming-Writingconferencing, Donna Kalmbach Phillips, Mindy Legard Larson

Faculty Publications

This analysis is experimental: we attempt to read data with the work of Karen Barad and in doing so ‘see’ teacher-student writing conferences (a common pedagogy of US elementary school writing) as intra-activity. Data were gathered during teacher-student writing conferences in a grade five US classroom over a six week period. One conference between a researcher and a male Latino student, a Student of Labels, is diffracted. Reading and writing and thinking with Barad disrupts our habitual ways of privileging language as representational. Rather, we consider the material-discursive practices of schooling that produce what comes to matter, leading …

Using Text-To-Speech Reading Support For An Adult With Mild Aphasia And Cognitive Impairment, Judy Harvey, Karen Hux, Jeffry Snell

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

This single case study served to examine text-to-speech (TTS) effects on reading rate and comprehension in an individual with mild aphasia and cognitive impairment. Findings showed faster reading, given TTS presented at a normal speaking rate, but no significant comprehension changes. TTS may support reading in people with aphasia when time limitations exist.

A Clinical Practicum Experience To Prepare Teacher Candidates For Early Literacy Instruction, Karen C. Waters

Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to explore teacher candidates’ tutoring experiences within a university clinical practicum to acquire an understanding about how their unique interactions with struggling readers and research-based methodology contribute to their pedagogical understandings of literacy instruction.

This article spotlights teacher education and addresses the question of how teacher educators can guide teacher candidates in putting theory into practice with early readers. The author describes a scaffolded clinical practicum in which preservice teachers have the opportunity assess, teach and reflect on their work with children.

A Case Study Of Principals' Knowledge Of Early Childhood Literacy, Christine Elizabeth Leblanc

Theses and Dissertations

Nationally approximately 40 percent of third grade students do not read at grade level. Principals play a critical role in providing leadership in the implementation of Response to Intervention (RtI) to ensure that students not making adequate yearly progress receive targeted instruction to address their deficiencies. The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of five principals through an investigation of their understanding of the reading process as it relates to the implementation of RtI in their schools. I specifically wish to understand: What do principals know about early childhood literacy and how do they use that knowledge …

The Planned And The Emergent: An Alternative Model Of Learning And Literacy, Lori S. Rogers

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Within academic institutions, writing centers are uniquely situated, socially rich sites for exploring learning and literacy. I examine the work of the Michigan Tech Writing Center's UN 1002 World Cultures study teams primarily because student participants and Writing Center coaches are actively engaged in structuring their own learning and meaning-making processes. My research reveals that learning is closely linked to identity formation and leading the teams is an important component of the coaches' educational experiences. I argue that supporting this type of learning requires an expanded understanding of literacy and significant changes to how learning environments are conceptualized and developed. …

Crossing Cultural Boundaries: Explorations In Multilingual Teaching And Learning, Patriann Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A transdisciplinary notion of learning considers what is between, above, and beyond the disciplines. Adherence to such a perspective warrants examination of any research endeavor from multiple entry points and from openness to the changing nature and infinity of knowledge. In this dissertation, "Crossing Cultural Boundaries: Explorations in Multilingual Teaching and Learning," I approached the study of language and literacy teaching and learning across multilingual and multicultural contexts via an optional dissertation process that required completion of multiple studies. This dissertation option allowed me three entry points: (a) an understanding of literacy and language policy in relation to language learners …

Playing In Trelis Weyr: Investigating Collaborative Practices In A Dragons Of Pern Role-Play-Game Forum, Kathleen Marie Alley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive case study examined adolescents' and emerging adults' literate and social practices within the context of a role-play-game (RPG) forum, investigating the ways participants read and collaboratively composed within this space. As a researcher, I was interested in how this space functioned and how the interactions between members impacted their composing processes, with particular attention to the role of online spaces and popular culture in adolescents' motivation to engage in this forum. This study was guided by three research questions: (1) In what ways is Trelis Weyr, an RPG forum, organized as a virtual environment?; (2) In what ways, …

Parent Participation In Family Programs: Involvement In Literacy Interactions, Adult And Child Instruction, And Assessment, Andrea D. Parecki, Sabra B. Gear

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to describe optimal parent participation in family literacy programs and parent-child literacy interactions, most specifically during interactive reading. Family literacy can be interpreted in many ways, resulting in diverse models of implementation that take place in Head Start programs, community agencies, schools and other venues. Since early literacy starts in the home environment where parents, across cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, want their children to learn successfully, family literacy programs that enhance parent-child interactions can directly assist many parents in supporting their children to become proficient readers. Implementation and outcomes of program activities on …

Voices From The Coolest Corner Of Hell: A Content Analysis Of Slave Narratives In The Study Of Creolization In The Education Of 19th Century African American Slaves, Gina M. Rizzuto

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The general argument made by Southern historian, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips in 1918, is that the plantation functioned as a type of school for the slave. Similarly, in 1976, Anthony Gerald Albanese examined the plantation system as an institution that conditioned the behaviors of both slaves and slave owners. I maintain that the plantation system was not only an educative agency that conditioned behaviors, but also a conduit for the creolization process. The focus of this study is creolization in the education of African American slaves in the nineteenth century. This is a mixed methods content analysis of African American slave …

Deconstructing Definitions: Repositioning Technological Access & Literacy Within Agent Ability, Carole Reynolds

Department of Humanities Publications

Our society cannot have concerns about access without literacy because they are congruous; neither is distinct nor complete without the other in technological contexts. The United States Department of Education repeatedly calls for more, better, and increased access and literacy to technologies. Our elected officials make national speeches imparting similar rhetoric and ideas. A problem with this particular information dissemination by inherently powerful entities or persons is they make assumptions of what access and literacy are, with minimal definition, and virtually no context of agent ability with technology. These ambiguous terms and deficient definitions have subsequently proliferated in academic scholarship, …

United By Language, Literacy And Learning: Creating Spaces In Schools To Support Refugee Literacy, Loshini Naidoo Dr

PRISM: A Journal of Regional Engagement

This paper discusses the Refugee Action Support program, which is a program of literacy support for newly arrived refugee high school students in Australia. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that while some refugee students do achieve success in schools, many refugee students arriving in Australia under the humanitarian program fail to attain a level of education that will give them access to and allow them to participate in tertiary education. Severe disruptions to education are a consistent feature for these students making current levels of support inadequate to meet the needs of refugee background students who …

Understanding How College Students' Literacy Is Affected By Texting Sms Lexicon, Katherine L. Herrman

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Spelling and grammar have always been taught in schools as means of proper language mechanics (U.S.D.E., 2006). Recently, the use of correct spelling and proper grammar in writing among college students has seemed to weaken (Junco & Cotton, 2011). Although there may be many factors that could contribute to this decrease in proper language use, the development of new technologies may be playing an important role. Presently, one of the newest technologies, cell phones, is in the hands of many young adults. Most of these young adults are using their cell phones to send and receive instant messages, or text …

Village Literacy: Adult Education In Northeastern Kenya, Jodi Heidorn

Senior Honors Theses

The underdevelopment of effective adult literacy programs in Northern Kenya is a problem that must be addressed to meet the needs of a changing generation of nomadic pastoralists. Existing programs must be reevaluated in order to increase their efficiency and incorporate the unique aspects of local cultures into their design. This paper explores the broadening definition of literacy and discusses how there are in fact multiple literacies in any given culture. Next, it examines the history of education in Kenya and the barriers that may be unique to adult literacy programs in Northern Kenya. Also, it examines how changes in …

Gjr Volume 35 Number 1 Fall 2012, Christine Draper, Lina Soares

The Georgia Journal of Reading Archive

The Georgia Journal of Reading's Fall 2012 issue includes:

Message From the Editors by Lina Soares and Christine Draper (pg.4)

President’s Page by Lynn C. Minor (pg. 5)

Integrating Mathematics and Reading Fluency Instruction in the Primary Grades by Ryan Nivens, Lori Meier, Michael Brikell, and Edward J. Dwyer (pg. 6)

Visual Literacy: A Picture Can Be Worth Ten Thousand Words by Stacy Delacruz (pg. 12)

Using Interactive Whiteboards to Enhance the Writing Process by Laura Ely and Jerilou Moore (pg. 18)

Teacher Influence on Book Selection of Third Grade Students by Shelia Delony and Katie Hathorn (pg. 24)

Schema …

Communications Connection - Fall 2012, Nova Southeastern University

Communications Connection

No abstract provided.

Improving Literacy Through Instruction And Community Experiences: : The Effect Of A Summer Program On Literacy Outcomes Of Students From Low Ses Homes, Lisa Delozier Bowers

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Among the academic challenges faced by students from low socio-economic (SES) homes is the loss of academic skills during the summer months. Unfortunately, the public schools are often unable to provide summer learning opportunities because limited space, funding, and teacher availability. Established community organizations frequently provide summer programs, however, there is little research to indicate that they can be used to address summer learning loss.

A summer program was designed to improve oral and written narrative skills for students from low SES homes. This program was based in a local community ministry and was designed to use thematic units that …

Multiliteracies In The Classroom: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Approach To Teachers' And Students' Perspectives Toward Integration Of Technology, Laura Janine Chitty

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An increased number of students graduating from high school lack college and career readiness skills to earn credit in entry-level college courses or begin a career in an entry-level position. Many schools across America have prepared to address students' college and career readiness with the adoption of Common Core State Standards. Twenty-five teachers and 92 students participated in this dissertation study conducted at a high school (grades 10-12) in the southern United States. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain teachers' and students' perspectives toward the integration of technology that enhances multiliteracies in the classroom. An explanatory …

Café Culture: Promoting Empowerment And Pleasure In Adolescent Literacy Learning, Brandi Gribble Mathers, Amanda J. Stern

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The 160 third, seventh, and eleventh-graders involved in this study agreed, almost unanimously, that reading was“important.” Participants cited the empowering benefits of reading as they justified this opinion. However, with regards to the enjoyment of reading, fewer middle and high school participants reported “liking” reading than their elementary counterparts and fewer reported reading in their free time.

One solution to this dilemma involves providing adolescent students with a context devoted solely to pleasure reading. In doing so, educators can look to an institution that boasts both an historical link to literate culture and current-day pop culture appeal: the coffeehouse. When …

Vocational Update (No. 1) -- July 2012

Vocational Update

Inside...

Language, literacy and numeracy

• Building capacity: The inaugural ACER National Adult LLN Assessment Conference
• It's time: Language, literacy and numeracy and the Vocational Indicator
• PIAAC: Monitoring adult literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills
• Countdown: Adult numeracy developments in two key standards frameworks

Continuous improvement

• AQJS: The new VET benchmark
• Working with RTOs to understand the 'business' of the VET provider
• Supporting the advancement of disadvantaged learners
• Measuring workforce capability with CATs

Funding

• Financing TVET in the Pacific
• Upcoming events
• More than match stats: Language, literacy and numeracy workshops for VET practitioners
• Profiling adults' core skills