Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding The Relation Between Mindfulness-Based Interventions, Reading And Attention, Adam Joseph Clawson

Theses - ALL

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), roughly one third of American 4th and 8th grade students perform at or above the proficient level, suggesting that further interventions are needed to support student reading skills. Mindfulness interventions have generally been implemented to impact attentional, social-emotional needs, and internalizing symptoms such as stress and anxiety. However, mindfulness interventions have only recently been deployed to increase academic skills such as reading. This current research evaluated the effects of a brief year-long mindfulness intervention on reading and attention skills across an ethnically diverse at-risk sample of 7th grade students. Five 7th …

How Students’ Reading Habits Are Affected By Library Genrefication, Sarah Fleming

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

Reading for pleasure has multiple benefits, including an increase in math and science skills, in the capability to empathize, and in inferential abilities. Unfortunately, as students reach adolescence, there is a decline in reading for pleasure. The purpose of this case study was to explore what effect the genrefication of a school’s library may have on the reading habits of self-identified reluctant readers in the seventh grade. The research questions of this study were focused on self-efficacy in terms of reading skill and self-selection materials, as well as time spent reading for pleasure. The study site was a public middle …

Factors Predicting Reading In Indonesian Adolescents, Chysanti Arumsari, Bernard Amadeus Jaya Jap, Sri Tiatri, Tjibeng Jap

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

The current study investigates predictors of reading abilities of adolescents in Standard Indonesian (SI). Reading predictors typically signify, with some degree of error, essential cognitive skills needed for individuals to read effectively. This is crucial since it forms a key part of the initial steps to assess or identify reading-related language impairments such as dyslexia. In addition to measures of reading itself and nonverbal intelligence, the present research examines six empirically motivated potential predictors of reading and decoding: phonological awareness; phonological short-term memory; verbal and semantic fluency; rapid automated naming (RAN); motor control; familial risk; and, self-reported factors. The results …

Reading Culture, Benefits, And The Role Of Libraries In The 21st Century, Dr. Juliet C. Alex-Nmecha Phd, Millie Nne Horsfall Phd

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper addresses reading culture, benefits and the role of libraries in the 21^st century. The paper x-rays the World Book Day as a day for celebration of reading around the world. Reading exposes one to solutions to problems. The role of library cannot be over emphasized when it comes to promotion of reading culture as it offers diverse services to users of information. Some of the role of libraries in promoting reading culture include to promote literacy, offering depth and breadth of resources, secondary school students’ participation in library week among others. It was concluded that people read …

Gjr Volume 42 Number 1 Summer 2019, Lina B. Soares

The Georgia Journal of Reading Archive

The Georgia Journal of Reading's Summer 2019 issue includes:

Message From the Chair by Davetta Grigsby (pg. 4)

Message from the Editor by Lina B. Soares (pg. 5)

Diversity in Literacy Education: How Are Literacy Teacher Educators Preparing Teacher Candidates? by Rebekah E. Piper, Laurie A. Sharp and Roberta D. Raymond (pg.6)

Exploring the Reading Motivation of Less-Motivated Adolescent Latinx English Learners by Robert A. Griffn (pg. 18)

Ready, Set, Grow: Exploring the Readiness and Preparation of Kindergarten Students within a Title 1 School by Morgan Mitchell, Sybil Keesbury and Vicki Luther (pg. 31)

Strategies To Enhance The Positive Effects Of Bilingualism, Danielle Mcmillan

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Supporting bilingual students is critical not only for the bilingual students but also for monolingual students. Prominent bilingualism in the classroom can translate to higher test scores, increased engagement, and long-term impacts on brain agility. This capstone project seeks to answer the question: What strategies are available to educators to enhance the positive effects of bilingualism in their students? The final result of this project is a website which includes a series of strategies focused on the four domains of language which seeks to meet the educational needs of both bilingual and mainstream students. The website includes a description of …

A Montessori Reading Intervention For Nonliterate First Grade Children, Benjamin Dorer

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone paper seeks to address the question, How could traditional literacy interventions be integrated into an authentic Montessori classroom in order to help public Montessori teachers address the specific needs of nonliterate first grade students? The literature review explores the topics of authentic Montessori, Montessori literacy curriculum, traditional reading interventions, school readiness and teacher challenges. The researcher was influenced by the works of M. Montessori, C. Anderson, R. Ungerer, National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), and B. Goldsbrough. The researcher produced a project to address the specific needs of nonliterate first grade children in Montessori classrooms. The project created for …

From Word To World: Designing Children’S Literature To Empower Thoughtful Engagement In Life And Learning, Lauren Taub

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

In this paper, I discuss the importance of a strong literacy foundation, the challenges of acquiring that foundation, and the consequences of functional illiteracy. I emphasize the role that parents and caregivers can play in establishing a positive, engaged learning disposition and ways that adopting confident thinking habits and attitudes can help children in their early learning. To facilitate these behaviors and dispositions, I have provided the early design of three original children’s stories and an accompanying parent/caregiver toolkit with questions, strategies, and activities. The aim and focus of this research is early intervention using the reading experience as an …

The Suitcase Project: A Journey In Multimodal Reading Of Graphic Novels With Emergent Bilingual Fourth Grade Students, Kayla Ashe

Linguistics

This teacher action research focuses on how three fourth grade students interact and make meaning as they read the graphic novel, Amulet. While reading from the graphic novel, students engaged in the reading as design process to make meaning. These three students are Yup'ik students enrolled in a dual language school. Students interacted with peers and different modalities of meaning as they engaged in the meaning-making process. Data sources include a teacher research journal, audio recordings of readings and discussions, and students' reader response journals. Data analysis followed constructivist grounded theory. As there were various types of data collected and …

Validation Of A Scale To Measure Phonological And Morphological Knowledge And Skill Of Speech-Language Pathologists And Elementary Teachers, Susan S. Perry

Dissertations

Phonological and morphological skills are crucial to the process of reading. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have received advanced trained in these basic foundations of language and could be an untapped resource in our school systems for teaching beginning reading skills. The purposes of this research were to examine SLPs’ and general education elementary (K-6) teachers’ attitudes toward SLPs taking part in reading instruction, to compare the differences in phonological and morphological knowledge and skill among SLPs and teachers, and to assess the performance of the Revised Basic Language Constructs Surveywhen administered to SLPs and teachers.

Results indicated that, although fewer …

Orthographic And Phonological Processing In Beginning Readers, Emily Fisher

Senior Theses

In order to learn to “sound out” new words, children must have phonological awareness, the ability to reflect on and manipulate the sounds in words. However, in skilled readers, performance on phonological awareness tasks is influenced by orthographic awareness, the awareness of spelling patterns and constraints. Both orthographic and phonological awareness are essential to reading, however, until recently the role of orthographic knowledge in phonological awareness has not been thoroughly investigated in beginning readers. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between orthographic and phonological knowledge in beginning readers and established a proof of concept for the use of …

Student-Led Book Clubs Support Reading Engagement In Primary Grades, Cassie Torbenson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Torbenson, C. Student-Led Book Clubs Support Reading Engagement in Primary Grades This Capstone project was created to support primary grade teachers in learning about student-led book clubs as a format of literacy instruction. The author set out to answer the question: how can student-led book clubs support the development of reading engagement in primary grades? As an elementary teacher responsible for creating an engaging classroom, the author feels strongly that when students are able to make meaningful connections from school work to real life, learning is more authentic and therefore supports students in building skills for lifelong learning. One intriguing …

The Impact Of Critical Reading Strategies On Reading Comprehension Among Middle School Students, Jolynn E. Mcalpine

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has demonstrated that there is a positive correlation between the use of critical reading strategies and reading comprehension in students. This capstone project was created as a resource for educators to increase the number of critical reading strategies that are used in the classroom to essentially increase reading comprehension among students. The research question addressed in the project was, How can using a variety of critical reading strategies and increasing the frequency of their use impact reading comprehension among middle school students? Reading is the basis for many components of learning and positively contributes to academic success. The literature …

Using Reading Fluency Assessment To Target Intervention In The Middle-Level Mainstream Ela Class, Ashley Gaschk

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Secondary English language arts teachers are often responsible for teaching reading, writing, and language standards in a single class hour. Although the goal is to have all students reading at grade level, all too often that is not the case. Many secondary teachers are not trained to identify or provide the best interventions to help their struggling readers, many of whom are several grade levels behind in reading achievement. The capstone reviews the literature to answer the research question, How can middle-level English Language Arts teachers use reading fluency assessment to better know their students and target reading interventions in …

The Second Coming Of Don Quixote: Painting And The Quixote As Eucharistic Art, Scott Hawkley Raines

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines a new reading of Cervantes’s immortal Don Quixote: reading the Quixote as eucharistic art. Just as the Catholic Eucharist, when consumed by the believer, is transubstantiated into the literal flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, so too is this proposed reading of the Quixote. Using Michel Foucault’s work in The Order of Things, the author employs Foucault’s statement—that Don Quixote is “the book in flesh and blood” (48)—to explore a eucharistic reading of the novel as the reader’s internalization of Don Quixote’s being. The end of the novel is read not as Don Quixote’s return to sanity, …

Understanding The Language Experiences And Motivations Of Deaf Adolescent Latino Struggling Readers, Melissa Herzig

JADARA

Current American methods for educating Deaf adolescent Latino struggling readers need to change in order to maximize learning opportunities. This begins with identifying student strengths and building on them to help students gain new and productive skills. It is imperative to understand Deaf students’ socio-cultural backgrounds, interests, needs, and values through ethnographic research in order to identify what motivates these Latino Deaf adolescents to read. This information could guide teachers and specialists in redesigning and tailoring instruction for these students.

Can You Repeat That, Please? Using Repeated Reading With Low-Intermediate Adult English Language Learners, Jennifer Siegfried

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Reading fluency is an important component of reading comprehension. Elements of oral reading fluency include reading rate, accuracy, prosody, and comprehension. The technique of repeated reading has been shown to increase the oral reading fluency of both K-12 and adult L1 readers, and it may help improve learners’ attitudes toward reading. This study explored the potential benefits for adult English learners. Assisted repeated reading, using a model oral reading, was implemented with low-intermediate adult English learners from a variety of L1 and educational backgrounds (n=8). Participants practiced a repeated reading technique during eight treatment sessions over the course of four …

Writing & Linguistics News, Georgia Southern University

Writing & Linguistics News (2012-2022)

• Georgia Poetry Circuit welcomes Elena Karina Byrne on April 11

Writing & Linguistics News, Georgia Southern University

Writing & Linguistics News (2012-2022)

• Juliana Baggott reads in Savannah on March 7

Influence Of Two Instructional Models On Reading Achievement Of Esl Middle School Students, Thomasine Campbell Hassell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

English as second language (ESL) students are not meeting reading proficiency standards

compared to their native English-speaking middle school peers. To address the low achievement

scores among ESL students, the study site implemented an instructional hub in which trained

ESL resource teachers used the sheltered instruction observation protocol (SIOP) model. The

purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the difference in reading achievement

scores between ESL students who participated in the instructional hub and those who

participated in traditional instruction. Krashen's second language acquisition theory and Terrell's

natural approach theory provided the framework for the study. Archival data from …

The Syntax Of Sports, Class 1: The Words Under The Words, Patrick Barry

Books

The Syntax of Sports is that course you wish you took in college—even if you aren’t a sports fan. It’s interesting. It’s practical. It’s inspiring. And best of all, it teaches you a skill that is at once highly marketable and potentially transforming: how to become a better thinker and writer.

The beginning of a multi-volume series, this initial book recreates the first day of class as it was taught to undergraduates at the University of Michigan. The examples are compelling. The dialogue is fast moving. The stories are ones you’ll want to return to and retell over and over …

Instructional Reading Practices For Third Grade African American Males, Kimberly Dawn Whaley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American males often struggle to read on grade level. However, 3 East Texas Title I schools demonstrated exceptionally high levels of reading proficiency with this population. This study addressed the knowledge gap of understanding the instructional practices linked to high reading achievement of third grade African American males in Title I schools in East Texas. Guided by Ladson-Billings's theory of culturally relevant pedagogy, which builds upon academic success, cultural competence, and development of critical consciousness, and supported by Vygotsky's theory of social and cognitive constructivism, the reading instructional practices of the 3 schools were investigated. Research questions focused on …

Teacher Perspectives Of The Implementation Of The Journeys Early Literacy Program, Milton Bernard Reese

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A small rural school district in the southwestern part of the United States required teachers to provide highly effective literacy instruction by implementing an evidence-based reading program called Journeys. With consistently low reading achievement, it was unclear whether teachers were implementing Journeys as prescribed. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore teacher implementation of the Journeys program for students at an elementary school in the district. The theoretical framework used to guide the study was Clay’s emergent literacy theory. The conceptual framework included 5 strands of the Journeys reading curriculum, which was derived from Clay’s theory. A …

English Teachers' Perceptions Of Vocabulary Instruction In English Language Learners' Classrooms, Karima S. Ezzair

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

English language learners (ELLs) from an urban high school in the southeastern United States struggled to achieve reading proficiency on the federally mandated reading assessments. The purpose of this case study was to gain an understanding of ELL teachers' perceptions about how using effective vocabulary pedagogies affected the reading comprehension of high school ELLs. Guided by Vygotsky's theory of development, the research questions of this study addressed ELL teachers' perceptions of vocabulary instruction and its effect on reading comprehension. The purposeful sampling included 5 high school teachers, an administrator, and an English for students of other languages compliance specialist, who …

Do Teachers Participating In A Therapy Dog Program Perceive An Impact On Students’ Attitudes And Behaviors Toward Reading?, Jenna M. Dragani-Reagan

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Lexical Profile Of L2 Russian Textbooks, Ekaterina Talalakina, Tony Brown, Mikhail Kamrotov

Russian Language Journal

Traditionally, the link between vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension has been examined through the prism of lexical thresholds and vocabulary coverage (Milton 2009). Lexical thresholds represent the most frequent words in a language (i.e., lemmas, or dictionary forms of a word) and usually come in increments of 1,000. In relation to the Russian National Corpus, knowledge of the 1,000 most frequent lemmas allows for comprehension of 60% of a text’s vocabulary, 2,000 lemmas – 69%, and 10,000 – 85% (Lyashevskaya and Sharoff 2009, v). These figures support an earlier estimation by Brown (1996, 2), who claimed (without elaborating on what …

Saudi Esl/Efl Learners Metacognitive Online Reading Strategies In Arabic And English, Hamad Mohammed Alluhaydan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Historically, Saudi readers have demonstrated poor metacognitive reading skills and literacy practices. This study investigates what online metacognitive reading strategies ESL and EFL Saudi learners believed they used more frequently in Arabic and English. It also shows perceived differences between Saudi male and female ESL/EFL learners in their strategy use while reading online texts. The lack of practice reading in Arabic or English affects comprehension skills; less than 25% of participants felt they could answer reading comprehension questions in class. Male and female participants did not differ in their use of global, support, and problem-solving metacognitive online reading strategies when …

Seeing Reading In First-Year Composition, Matthew Felumlee

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on a study of reading-into-writing strategies employed by students in two sections of first-year-composition (FYC) that were paired with a support course as part of an accelerated learning program (ALP) at a community college. Each FYC course was comprised of 11 students whom the college had deemed college-ready without the ALP course, and 11 students who were deemed at remedial levels in reading and / or writing and who were subsequently required to enroll in the ALP course. The study employs grounded theory methodology to identify and consider the many factors that influenced how reading was portrayed, …

Integrating Comprehension Instruction, Multimodalities And Co-Construction Into Cultural Learning, Christine Harrington

Education

This study explores the impact of a story-based approach to teaching reading strategies, and examines the implementation of and co-construction within multimodal activities. Eight third grade students participated in this study in a charter school focused on Alaska Native cultural learning. The phases of the PACE Model focused on transitional words and phrases in the context of a traditional story from the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Alaska. Their attention to the language feature was extended to summarizing and retelling as part of the Extension phase of the model. The results are consistent with previous studies that attributed focus …

Factors For Influencing Intervention For Dyslexia, Michele Schraeder

Dissertations

Although instructional leadership and transformational leadership styles of elementary school principals have been found to be effective variables in increasing academic progress for students, the integration of instructional and transformational leadership behaviors has proved to be the most effective form of leadership. However, many students in elementary schools have difficulty learning to read despite good leadership by the principal, with 5-20% of students being diagnosed with dyslexia. While these students need phonetic, multisensory intervention to build necessary reading skills, many principals report lack of knowledge of this specialized instruction. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to explore variables that …