Digital Commons Network^™

The Storying Of Colombian Writing Centers, Jennifer Erin Pretzer

Masters Theses

Using the results from a study conducted on Colombian writing centers, this thesis applies principles from narrative theory to posit a grand narrative for Colombian writing center professionals. The study was modeled on one Jackie Grutsch McKinney used to examine US writing center professionals’ descriptions of their work, and the thesis includes a comparison with her results. Respondents were asked to answer seven questions, two of which were multiple choice and five of which were short answer. The questions asked respondents to describe their tutoring staff composition, their center’s operations, writing centers in general, and ways their center resembles and …

The Lived Experiences Of High School Students Who Self-Identify As Readers: A Phenomenological Study, Michael J. Romick

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and better understand the lived experiences of what it means to be a reader as a high school student. The literature revealed a plethora of studies and articles on various aspects of reading and many pieces from teachers, researchers, and academics’ perspectives, but there are virtually no studies that have explored what being a reader means from the high school reader’s perspective; no studies that have explored the lived experiences of what being a reader means to high school students. The central question guiding this study asked, “What is the lived …

The Development And Preliminary Evidence Of Validity And Reliability Of A Spanish Static And Dynamic Assessment Of Decoding, Kayla Brooke Ditty

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to develop and administer a Spanish static and dynamic assessment of decoding and other important reading measures. Using the best available resources regarding Spanish literacy acquisition and Spanish language development, a preliminary Spanish dynamic and static screener was developed. The resulting test was named the Spanish Dynamic Decoding Measure (S-DDM) and is a counterpart to the original DDM available in English. This test contains three subtests: decoding, phonemic awareness, and word identification. The S-DDM was administered to eight bilingual Spanish-English speaking students with varying levels of Spanish language ability and reading proficiency in …

Returning To Childhood: Memoirs Of Childhood Reading, Stephanie Montalti

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes Francis Spufford’s The Child that Books Built: A Life in Reading, Jane Sullivan’s Storytime: Growing up with Books, and Margaret Mackey’s One Child Reading: My Auto-Bibliography to investigate how memoirists recall events and reread stories from childhood. I argue that memoirs of childhood reading or bibliomemoirs temporarily fuse childhood and adulthood through the act of rereading, which produces emotional responses, and writing a memoir. By rereading childhood stories, memoirists identify with their child self and express feelings comparable to those they felt upon first reading. In bibliomemoirs, passive and active reading create what I describe as a …

Dyslexia Beyond The Word: An Ecological Study Of Specific Reading Disorder, Benjamin T. Carter

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation discusses the effects of dyslexia on reading behavior and cognition. It does so by first outlining the overall incidence of dyslexia, providing current definitions, giving a history of scientific inquiry and discussing relevant contemporary research. Thirteen different analyses are then discussed (ten a priori and three post-hoc). Individuals with dyslexia were found to have increased fixation duration, first run dwell time, total dwell time, and refixation probability. The dyslexia group was also highly sensitive to lexical predictability. Within the reading network, the BOLD response was depressed in dyslexia during reading in the following regions: the left medial and …

Beginning Reading: A Comparative Study Of Beginning Reading Phonics Programs, Michelle Lee Beishline

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

There is a gap in our understanding of effective early reading instructional approaches, particularly regarding identifying which specific core systematic phonics reading programs provide longer-lasting impact on literacy achievement. The purpose of this causal comparative study was to examine the effects of two distinct pre-kindergarten phonics programs, a linguistic phonics program and a basal phonics program, on short and long-term literacy outcomes. The overarching question addressed in this study was whether the type of literacy instruction in pre-kindergarten predicts outcomes in kindergarten and grade 3 and to what extent, if any, these relationships are moderated by demographic variables. More specifically, …

Portuguese And Chinese Esl Reading Behaviors Compared: An Eye-Tracking Study, Logan Kyle Blackwell

Theses and Dissertations

While reading behaviors have been studied extensively in L1 reading studies through the use of eye-tracking and L2 reading has been measured through inherently indirect means, there is a relative lack of research done on early and late reading measures of ESL readers. Eye-tracking technology, available to researchers only in the past few decades, has opened the field to a new means of measuring these early and late measures of reading in second language learners. This study investigates the reading behaviors of 34 native Portuguese and Chinese readers who read in both their native languages (L1) and in their second …

Co-Teaching Strategies For Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Learners In Middle School English Language Arts, Adena Berg

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question addressed in this project is: What are the most effective co-teaching strategies for teaching literacy skills in a middle school English Language Arts class that is culturally and linguistically diverse? It documents one teacher’s creation of an ELA-based curriculum that includes strategies for ELD co-teaching, learning activities to increase middle school literacy skills and supports for culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Designing the curriculum using the Understanding by Design framework, it is for use when teaching Free? Stories Celebrating Human Rights ( Morpurgo et al., 2015) in a co-taught sixth grade classroom. The overall goal of the …

The Relation Of Linguistic Awareness Skills To Reading And Spelling In School-Age Children With And Without Autism Spectrum Disorder, Victoria Suzanne Henbest

Theses and Dissertations

Linguistic awareness is the ability to consciously consider and manipulate language. Multiple linguistic awareness skills relate to and predict the word-level reading, spelling, and reading comprehension skills of children who are developing typically and those with language impairments. However, few researchers have investigated the literacy skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and even fewer have investigated their linguistic awareness skills. This is problematic given the large number of children with ASD who are educated in the public schools and the importance of literacy skills for life success. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to begin to close the gap in …

Incarcerated Fathers’ Experiences In The Read To Your Child/Grandchild Program: Supporting Children’S Literacy, Learning, And Education, Esther Prins, Tabitha Stickel, Anna Kaiper-Marquez

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

In response to rising parental incarceration, some correctional facilities and outside organizations offer family literacy programs for parents in prison. However, research on these correctional education initiatives is scant. This paper uses qualitative data to analyze how 11 fathers in a rural Pennsylvania prison were involved in their children’s literacy, learning, and education before and during incarceration and through the Read to Your Child/Grandchild (RYCG) program. Before RYCG, most fathers had taken steps such as reading to children, teaching reading and math, attending parent-teacher conferences, helping with homework, and singing and rhyming—and then sought to continue supporting their children’s learning …

Eye-Movement Benchmarks In Heritage Language Reading, Olga Parshina, Anna K. Laurinavivhyute, Irina A. Sekerina

Publications and Research

This eye-tracking study establishes basic benchmarks of eye movements during reading in heritage language (HL) by Russian-speaking adults and adolescents of high (n = 21) and low proficiency (n = 27). Heritage speakers (HSs) read sentences in Cyrillic, and their eye movements were compared to those of Russian monolingual skilled adult readers, 8-yearold children and L2 learners. Reading patterns of HSs revealed longer mean fixation durations, lower skipping probabilities, and higher regressive saccade rates than in monolingual adults. High-proficient HSs were more similar to monolingual children, while low-proficient HSs performed on par with L2 learners. Low-proficient HSs differed from high-proficient …

Culturally Familiar Texts To Improve Reading And Writing Outcomes For High School English Language Learners: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Study, Taryn Courtney Robertson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that culturally relevant pedagogical strategies are essential for improving culturally and linguistically diverse student achievement. However, there is little research about which specific strategies provide the largest impacts. And there is even less research on which strategies help LatinX English Language Learners achieve academic success in the areas of reading and writing. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of utilizing culturally familiar text, as compared to culturally unfamiliar text, on reading comprehension and summary writing outcomes for secondary LatinX ELL students. This study sought to determine if there were statistically significant differences in reading …

Kindergarten Literacy Screening: Cultivating A Mulitfactorial Preventive Approach To Literacy Instruction, Susan C. Schatz

Theses and Dissertations

Universal screeners are mandated in many states, but the impact of the use of screeners and pragmatic instructional programs are not well connected. The purpose of this mixed methods study addressed a significant need for understanding how to connect screening instruments to instructional designs that support a preventative approach to literacy instruction. Additionally, this study aimed to uncover teachers’ perceptions about the affordances and challenges of screeners to create a multitiered system of supports for reading instruction in an inclusive kindergarten setting. Encompassing a pragmatic research paradigm this study was framed by cognitive behavioral theory revealing a multiple cognitive deficit …

Explorations Of Classroom Talk And Links To Reading Achievement In Upper Elementary Classroo, Amanda P. Goodwin, Sun-Joo Cho, Daniel Reynolds, Stephanie Nunn, Rebecca Silverman

2020 Faculty Bibliography

The current study reports on a large-scale quantitative analysis of classroom talk practices and links to different measures of reading achievement within upper elementary classrooms. Data involving 745 fourth- and fifth-grade teachers and 18,844 students from the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) study were used. Talk was quantified via various talk-related indicators from 2 observation protocols and a student survey. Dimensionality analyses suggest these indicators represent 4 factors consisting of teacher explaining, questioning, encouraging of student talk, and big-picture communicating. Links to 2 different standardized reading achievement measures were also modeled with improved ratings of teacher explanations and questioning predicting …

Neural Bases Of Phonological And Semantic Processing In Early Childhood, Avantika Mathur, Douglas H. Schultz, Yingying Wang Dr.

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

During the early period of reading development, children gain phonological (letter-to-sound mapping) and semantic knowledge (storage and retrieval of word meaning). Their reading ability changes rapidly, accompanied by learning-induced brain plasticity as they learn to read. This study aims at identifying the neural bases of phonological and semantic processing in early childhood by using a combination of univariate and multivariate pattern analysis. Nineteen typically developing children between the age of five and seven performed visual word-level phonological (rhyming) and semantic (related meaning) judgment tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. Our multivariate analysis showed that young children with good reading …

Teacher Scaffolds During Word Solving In The Context Of The Interactive Strategies Approach-Extended (Isa-X) Intervention, Mary Elizabeth Arcidiacono

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Research has shown that reading intervention which incorporates word identification strategy instruction can help struggling students improve their reading ability (e.g., Gelzheiser, Scanlon, Vellutino et al., 2011; Scanlon, Gelzheiser, Vellutino et al., 2008; Vellutino, Scanlon, Small, et al., 2006). Since poor readers have benefited from interventions which include direct instruction of word identification strategies, my research focused on word identification strategy instruction; specifically, this study examined the types of scaffolds teachers provided to readers as they practiced being strategic word solvers while reading. This study compared the in-situ conversations between teachers using the Interactive Strategies Approach – Extended (ISA—X, Gelzheiser …

Effects Of The Helping Early Literacy With Practice Strategies (Helps) Program On Reading Fluency With English Language Learners, Heeyeon Chung

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the HELPS Program on the reading fluency skills of English Learners (ELs) using a multiple-baseline single case design methodology. Participants in this study included five ELs attending a public elementary school in northern New York State. Students were identified for participation through a review of available records indicating below-average reading fluency skills and/or teacher recommendations based on reading fluency performance in the classroom. Visual analysis and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) were used to evaluate Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM) scores from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills …

Differentiated Reading Instruction In The Early Childhood Classroom: Practical Strategies Empowering Student Success, Lynn Scott Giles

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore 12 specific differentiated instructional strategies and their implementation by early childhood teachers who instruct kindergarten to third grade regarding content, process, and product components in the reading curriculum. This study was guided by three research questions: Question 1: Which specific strategies of differentiated instruction are being implemented in reading regarding content in curriculum instruction? Question 2: Which specific strategies of differentiated instruction are being implemented in reading regarding process in curriculum instruction? Question 3: Which specific strategies of differentiated instruction are being implemented in reading regarding product in curriculum instruction. Results …

Morphological Awareness Skills Of Second And Third Grade Students With And Without Speech Sound Disorders, Kenn Apel, Victoria Henbest

Victoria S. Henbest Publications

Purpose: Morphological awareness is the ability to consciously manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language. Morphological awareness contributes to success with literacy skills for children with typical language and those with language impairment. However, little research has focused on the morphological awareness skills of children with speech sound disorders (SSD), who may be at risk for literacy impairments. No researcher has examined the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD and compared their skills to children with typical speech using tasks representing a comprehensive definition of morphological awareness, which was the main purpose of this study.

Method: Thirty 2nd …

Reading Academic Citations: How Professors And Graduate Students Read For Different Purposes, Grant Eckstein, Sarah Miner, Katie Watkins, Judy James, Mornie Sims, Allison Wallace Baker, Larissa Grahl

Faculty Publications

Citations provide truncated yet socially complex information about sources in academic texts which students are obliged to read, comprehend, and then ultimately produce as part of an academic discourse community. While researchers have observed a developmental process whereby students produce citations during source-based writing, little work has investigated the reading stage when students visually encounter citations. In this study, we explored academic reading behaviors by examining eye movements of 27 graduate students and 18 professors as they read 6 authentic research texts for various purposes (summary, analysis, synthesis). Results of factorial ANOVAs showed no differences between students and professors but …

Bilingual Children's L1 And L2 Word Frequency Effects: The Role Of Individual Differences, Astrid Michelle Portillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Bilingualism continues to grow among the world's population. Nevertheless, most research studies on language processing have focused on monolingual individuals, leaving questions about how language processing unfolds in bilingual individuals. Here, we investigated how individual differences in bilingual experience, indexed by current L2 exposure, impact eye movement measures of reading fluency, indexed by word frequency effects, in an understudied population: bilingual children. Prior eye movement research involving bilingual younger adults (aged 18 to 30) has reported a trade-off in L1 and L2 word frequency effects with greater levels of current L2 exposure (Whitford & Titone, 2012, 2017). We wanted to …

Differential Effects Of Digital Vs. Print Text On Reading Comprehension And Behaviors In Students With Adhd, Lara Nash Campbell

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This study was conducted using a qualitative single-case, embedded design in a 4th grade elementary classroom with five participants. One purpose of this inquiry was to evaluate the differential effects between digital and print text on reading comprehension of literary texts on students with ADHD. A second purpose of this study was to evaluate and determine the differential effects reading digitally and from print have on specific off and on-task reading behaviors with these same participants. The goal of this research was to generate a comprehensive case description and analysis that will contribute to the evolving theories of best practice …

Insight Into How College Freshmen Understand Their Reading And Text Experiences, Jolie Dorrell

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

This qualitative case study was designed to add insight to the scholarly literature about how college freshmen understand and describe their reading experiences. Two research questions guided this study: How do college freshmen understand and describe their educational reading experiences, and how do college freshmen understand the difference between college level reading and the reading experiences they had in high school. The researcher utilized semistructured interviews with a sample of 13 participants in a rural county in the western portion of the United States. Participants also provided textual samples from their freshman level college courses. Each participant had completed at …

Effect Of Student Teams-Achievement Divisions And Think–Pair–Share On Students’ Interest In Reading Comprehension, Eucharia Okwudilichukwu Ugwu

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The study investigated the effect of two cooperative learning strategies (the student teams-achievement divisions and think–pair–share methods) on students’ interest in reading comprehension. Seventy-eight senior secondary II students were randomly selected from three schools in Vandeikya Local Government Area, Benue State, Nigeria. A pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design was adopted. The Interest in Reading Inventory (R = 0.09) was the instrument used. Two hypotheses were tested at .05 levels of significance. Three intact classes were randomly assigned as Experimental Group 1, Experimental Group 2, and the control group. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, and analysis of …

Successful Instructional Reading Practices For African American Male Third-Grade Students, Kimberly D. Whaley, Steve Wells, Nancy Williams

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

African American male third graders in U.S Title I schools frequently fail to read on grade level. However, in three Title I schools in East Texas, this demographic demonstrated exceptionally high reading ability. This explanatory case study investigated the instructional strategies and practices linked to high reading achievement for these students. The study is grounded in Ladson-Billings’s theory of culturally relevant pedagogy and supported by Vygotsky’s theory of social and cognitive constructivism. The research questions were used to examine the instructional strategies and practices used on each campus that may have resulted in such high reading achievement. This study engenders …

The Effectiveness Of Cooperative Learning In The Reading Classroom, Amelia Tankersley, Joshua A. Cuevas

Perspectives In Learning

This research examined the effectiveness of specific methods of cooperative learning on reading comprehension, motivation, and attitudes. The study implemented Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) and the Jigsaw method in a rural public elementary school and included 60 participants from 3rd grade reading classes. One group used the CSR method to read information on four different topics while the other group read information on the same topics using the Jigsaw method. After controlling for initial attitudes, motivation, and global reading comprehension, the results indicated that neither of these methods led to greater gains in these areas than the other. However, when …

Culturally Responsive Curriculum And Literature For Primary Grade English Learners, Katherine Behrend

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Culturally and linguistically responsive teaching and learning is being implemented in many school districts to better meet the needs of all students. Using culturally authentic literature is equally important. Research demonstrates the need for culturally authentic texts so students can see themselves mirrored and see windows to other cultures during school. English learners (ELs) benefit from seeing their culture in the texts they are exposed to as well as culturally responsive learning strategies, or protocols. According to the CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2019), non-majority ethnicities represent a small percentage of all children’s literature …

If We Don’T Look, We Won’T See: Measuring Language Development To Inform Literacy Instruction, Suzanne M. Adlof, Tiffany P. Hogan

Faculty Publications

Oral language abilities enable children to learn to read, and they predict future academic achievement and life outcomes. However, children with language impairment frequently go unidentified because schools do not systematically measure oral language development. Given that identification paves the way for treatment, schools should increase attention to oral language development, particularly within response to intervention (RTI) frameworks, which aim to prevent learning disabilities by identifying and intervening at early stages. Formal schooling should address language comprehension (in addition to word reading) to ensure an adequate foundation for future reading comprehension. In support, we overview the developmental relations between oral …

Cerita Pendek Sebagai Bagian Dari Materi Kuliah Intermediate Reading, Sri Andreani

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

Short stories constitute parts of the Intermediate Reading course materials. This study aims at finding the students’ views towards (1) the themes, novelty, level of difficulty, and length of the stories; (2) the reading and questioning tasks; (3) the discussion mechanism, and (4) the potentials of the short stories and the discussion mechanism to improve their reading strategies. This study is a survey with a questionnaire and 25 repondents. The findings indicate that (1) 25 students (100%) like the themes, 22 students (88%) are new to the stories, 17 students (68%) can tolerate the level of difficulty, to 20 students …

Ashley Luskey, Assistant Director Of The Civil War Institute, Musselman Library, Ashley Whitehead Luskey

Next Page

In this first Next Page column of the new academic year, Ashley Luskey, Assistant Director of the Civil War Institute, shares which weathered volume she reads each October, her favorite book from her 9th grade English class, and explains her long-time fascination with Varina Davis, wife of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.