Adolescents with behavioral difficulties and emotional and behavior disorders (EBD) or other health impairment (OHI) have demonstrated deficits in reading, and these deficits appear to remain stable or worsen over time. Reading fluency is an essential skill for overall reading achievement, yet relatively few studies have addressed reading fluency intervention for adolescents, particularly adolescents with behavioral difficulties. This study used a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the effect of a repeated reading intervention on the reading fluency and comprehension skills of middle school students with reading difficulties and behavioral difficulties and EBD or OHI. The intervention involved repeated reading combined with an audio-recorded model and cues to read for comprehension. Working independently at a classroom computer, participants received six to nine minutes of daily supplemental fluency instruction over a four-week period. Instruction involved listening to an audio recording of a model reading a passage, receiving cues to read for understanding, reading the passage aloud while using the computer to record the reading, listening to the recording, and reading the passage aloud again while recording. Results indicated no functional relation between the intervention and the number of words correct per minute or the percentage of comprehension questions answered correctly. However, on-task behavior did improve during study session when compared with on-task behavior during regular classroom instruction. The findings of the study have implications for addressing the needs of adolescents with behavioral difficulties who have reading difficulties.

The research presented in this thesis had two overarching aims; the first, to supplement our knowledge concerning the aetiological underpinnings of poor comprehension, and the second, to investigate the impact of being a poor comprehender on behavioural and educational outcomes in the school context. A combination of standardised test batteries, novel experimental paradigms, and questionnaire measures were used to obtain data that addressed hypotheses connected to these two aims. Poor comprehenders were found to have working memory deficits, as well as more specific deficits in suppressing irrelevant information from working memory. However, these deficits were largely confined to the verbal domain, giving credence to the theory that their poor performance on working memory and suppression tasks may be driven by underlying language difficulties. Poor comprehenders did show some evidence of broader executive deficits in both the verbal and non-verbal domains, raising the possibility that there might be subgroups of poor comprehenders with distinct aetiological profiles. In terms of behavioural and educational outcomes, poor comprehenders’ deficits were found to impact selectively on these areas, producing a distinct pattern of behavioural and educational impairments. These findings highlighted the need for early identification of, and effective intervention for, poor comprehenders.

The problem of the study is to investigate the effect of sex differences in the use of the California Achievement Tests and the California Test of Mental Maturity in predicting academic success in high school. The specific predictors which are analyzed for sex differences are verbal intelligence quotient from the California Test of Mental Maturity and reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, arithmetic achievement, and language achievement from the California Achievement Tests.

The purpose of this experiment was to study the effect of audio feedback from an electromyograph on reading speed and comprehension. The subject reduced as much audio feedback, and thus laryngeal tension, as possible, thus permitting more efficient reading. After baseline, the subject received twelve half-hour practice sessions, six ten-minute testing sessions on easy, or light, material and six ten-minute testing sessions on difficult material. A post-test without feedback was given after training and a follow-up test, without feedback, was given. This method of training permits a higher rate of reading speed, while allowing the subject to process complex information and maintain a constant level of recall.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the interactions that take place during a reading apprenticeship which facilitate the learning of reading strategies by adolescent students who are at the middle school level and are still at-risk for reading failure and to investigate how a reading apprenticeship affects reading achievement in the areas of fluency, vocabulary development, comprehension, and the self-perception of the reader. The case study was descriptive and interpretive in nature, and examined two students, each of whom was part of a one-to-one reading apprenticeship. The researcher served as participant observer in both cases and was the teacher in each of the one-to-one reading apprenticeships. The primary data set was qualitative in nature, and elements of quantitative data were also considered. Sessions included pretesting and posttesting using the Classroom Assessment of Reading Processes (Swearingen & Allen, 1997), reading from narrative or expository books, working with words, writing, and dialoguing about the reading. Reading strategies were directly taught, modeled, and reinforced by the teacher/researcher with the goal of the students internalizing the strategies and improving their reading in the areas of fluency, vocabulary development, and comprehension, as well as improving their attitudes toward reading and their self-perception about their reading ability. This study described a reading apprenticeship which positively impacted reading achievement for two students in the areas of fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary development, as well as influencing their motivation for reading and their self-perceptions as readers. The environment of the reading apprenticeship, the dialogue that occurred throughout the reading apprenticeship, and strategy instruction, modeling, and reinforcement were found to be factors and interactions which facilitated learning during this intervention.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction / Lotta Larson / Writing teachers teach students to read, write, and think through text. They draw upon their own comprehension to determine if, when, and how to intervene in directing students to deeper, more thoughtfully written texts by encouraging them to monitor and regulate their thoughts—to be metacognitive. Writing itself has been called “applied metacognition,” for it is essentially the production of thought (Hacker, Keener, & Kircher, 2009, p. 154). Yet little is known about the metacognitive practices and behaviors of those who teach writing. The purpose of this instrumental, collective case study was to explore and describe writing teachers’ metacognition as they took part in two range-finding events in a midwestern school district. Participants were tasked with reading and scoring student essays and providing narrative feedback to fuel training efforts for future scorers of the district’s writing assessments. Each range-finding event constituted a case with fourteen participants. Three administrative facilitators and four retired English teachers participated in both events, along with seven different practicing teachers per case. The study concluded that, indeed, participants perceived and regulated their thinking in numerous ways while reading and responding to student essays. With Flavell’s (1979) theoretical model of metacognition as a framework for data analysis, 28 distinct content codes emerged in the data: 1) twelve codes under metacognitive knowledge of person, task, and strategy, 2) seven codes under metacognitive experiences, 3) six codes under metacognitive goals (tasks), and 4) three codes under metacognitive actions (strategies). In addition, three dichotomous themes emerged across the cases indicating transformational distinctions in teachers’ thinking: 1) teaching writing and scoring writing, 2) confusion and clarity, and 3) frustrations and fruits. The study highlighted the potential of improving teachers’ meta-thinking about teaching and assessing writing through dialectic conversations with other professionals. Its findings and conclusions implicate teacher educators, practicing teachers, and school district administrators to seek opportunities for cultivating teachers’ awareness, monitoring, and regulation of their thoughts about content, instruction, and selves to better serve their students.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka och beskriva de uppfattningar några lärare i grundsärskolan årskurs 4-9 har av läsförståelseundervisning för elever med utvecklingsstörning.   Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt och metod är fenomenografi vilken vill beskriva människors olika sätt att förstå fenomen i sin omvärld. I denna studie har sju lärare vid olika grundsärskolor intervjuats. Material till undersökningen har samlats in med hjälp av halvstrukturerade intervjuer och har sedan analyserats. Analysen är inspirerad av en fenomenografisk analysmodell i sju steg.   I studiens resultat synliggörs tre kategorier av uppfattningar av undervisning i läsförståelse för elever med utvecklingsstörning. Det rör sig om uppfattningar av vilka utmaningar det innebär för läraren, av syftet med undervisningen och av lärarens uppgift och roll. I den övergripande bild som framträder uppfattas elevers egenskaper i hög grad som en utmaning och lärarens uppgift handlar om att lära och stödja elever. Då det gäller syftet med undervisningen så finns även här inslag av att undervisning i läsförståelse är ett verktyg för att elever ska förstå hur undervisning och lärande går till samtidigt som eleven ska utveckla färdigheter. Syftet med undervisningen i läsförståelse handlar även om individens delaktighet och möjlighet att vara aktiv i skola, undervisning och samhälle. / The purpose of this study is to investigate and describe the perceptions some teachers in compulsory school grades 4-9 have about reading comprehension instruction for students with intellectual disability.   The theoretical basis and method is phenomenography which describe the different ways of perceiving the phenomenon in the world. In this study seven teachers at different special schools were interviewed. Materials for the study were collected using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were analyzed inspired by a phenomenographical analysis model in seven steps.   The study's results made visible three categories of perceptions of the teaching of reading comprehension for students with intellectual disability. These perceptions are the challenges it brings to the teacher, the purpose of teaching and the teacher's task and role. In the overall picture that emerges is students' characteristics largely a challenge and task of the teacher is about to teach and support students. Regarding the purpose of education, there are also elements of that the teaching of reading comprehension is a tool for students to understand how teaching and learning works but also for the student to develop skills. The purpose of the teaching of reading comprehension is also about the individual's involvement and the opportunity to be active in school, education and society.

[pt] Com base no conceito de conjunção de Halliday e Hasan, esta pesquisa de caráter psicolinguístico busca verificar o processamento de relações conjuntivas causais internas e externas, bem como o papel dos conectivos nesse processamento. Para isso, primeiro foi feita uma atividade exploratória de produção textual junto a alunos de sétimo e oitavo anos do Ensino Fundamental, para verificar se nessa faixa de escolaridade eles já utilizam relações conjuntivas causais internas e externas, e se as realizam léxico-gramaticalmente por meio de conectivos. Confirmado o uso dessas relações, foram realizados testes de compreensão leitora off-line e teste cloze em turmas do oitavo e nono do Ensino Fundamental, respectivamente. O resultado da análise estatística dos dados indicou que as relações conjuntivas causais sob investigação apresentam custos de processamento distintos. Nos testes de compreensão, em que a tarefa do participante consistiu na verificação de afirmativas relativas ao conteúdo depreendido do texto, as relações conjuntivas causais externas foram mais facilmente processadas. No teste cloze, em que o estabelecimento de relações entre orações é feito pelo aluno e, nesse sentido, mais dependente de seu conhecimento extralinguístico e do tipo de conectivo que pode expressar adequadamente tais vínculos semânticos, as relações externas parecem ter trazido mais custo para o processamento do que as internas. No caso das internas, além da identificação do caráter argumentativo do texto, pistas de ordem linguística, tais como emprego de recursos modalizadores, em especial de adjetivos, e tempo/modo verbal, podem ter facilitado o reconhecimento do tipo de relação (independentemente de ter-se efetuado uma compreensão mais efetiva do texto). Em relação à presença ou ausência de conectivo, não foi verificado efeito principal dessa variável em nenhum dos experimentos, o que pode, em princípio, ser relacionado à força da relação causal entre as orações, que, mesmo na ausência do conectivo, é possível ser recuperada pelo aluno nos textos utilizados. Este trabalho representa uma contribuição para a questão da leitura em sala de aula, particularmente no que tange à compreensão de textos de natureza argumentativa, em que as relações conjuntivas causais internas e externas comparecem substancialmente, e devem, portanto, ser mais bem abordadas nas aulas de todas as disciplinas, trabalhando-se uma interpretação que vá além da superfície textual. / [en] Based on the concept of conjunction as presented by Halliday and Hasan, this research, which has a psycholinguistic character, aims to verify the processing of internal and external causal conjunctive relations, as well as the role of connectives in this processing. For this, it was first made an exploratory activity of writing with students from 7th and 8th grades of elementary school , to see whether in this level of schooling they already use internal and external causal conjunctive relations, and if they do it lexical- grammatically through connectives . Having confirmed the use of these relations, we performed the off -line reading comprehension test and cloze test in classes from the 8th and 9th grades of Elementary Education, respectively. The result of statistical analysis of the data indicated that the causal conjunctive relationships under investigation have different processing costs. In the comprehension tests, where the task of the participant was the verification of statements about the content inferred from the text, external causal conjunctive relations were more easily processed . In the cloze test , in where the establishment of relations between sentences is done by the student and, thus , depend more on its extra-linguistic knowledge and on the type of connective that can appropriately express such semantic links, external relations seem to have brought more cost to the processing than the internal ones. In the case of the internal ones, beyond identifying the argumentative character of the text, linguistic cues, such as the use of modal resources, especially adjectives and the use of certain verb tenses and moods, may have favored the recognition of the type of relation (regardless of having had a more effective understanding of the text). Regarding the presence or absence of connective it was not observed a main effect of this variable in any of the experiments, which can, at first, be related to the strength of the causal relationship between clauses, which even in the absence of connective can be retrieved by the student in the texts used. This work brings a contribution to the question of reading in the classroom, particularly with regard to text comprehension of argumentative nature, in which internal and external causal conjunctive relations appear substantially, and should therefore be best addressed in class from all subjects, exercising an interpretation that goes beyond the surface of the text.

[pt] Neste trabalho, o foco é principalmente a interação entre leitor, texto, e resolução de questões de múltipla escolha, e como algumas características do texto podem ser utilizadas para se avaliar a dificuldade ou facilidade de compreensão leitora. Assim, a proposta da pesquisa é sugerir elementos para o estabelecimento de análise norteada por uma abordagem interacional, dentro da psicolinguística, acerca da compreensão leitora, a qual congrega resultados de análises computacionais e manuais da performance de alunos nas provas de nivelamento de português da PUC-Rio. Foram avaliadas cinco provas de múltipla escolha aplicadas semestralmente no período de 2009.2 a 2011.2. Os resultados apontam para um leitor que ingressa na universidade com competências leitoras ainda aquém do nível proficiente. / [en] In this work, the focus is primarily the interaction between readers, texts, and multiple-choice questions, and how some of the text features can be used to assess the difficulty or ease of reading comprehension skill. Thus, the proposal of this research is to suggest elements for the establishment of an analysis driven by an approach on a interactionism basis, in the Psycholinguistics field, concerned with the comprehension text skills, which bring together computational and manual analysis of the students` performances in Portuguese proficiency tests in PUC-Rio. Five multiple-choice exams applied within 2009.2 and 2011.2 were analyzed. The data show that reader get into the university with low reading skills, which sort them into the less skilled readers category.

Models of reading comprehension using the working memory paradigm have been formulated from studies using adult readers. Although there appear to be differences in working memory skills between beginner and mature readers, and normal and reading disabled children, the exact role of working memory in reading is still unclear. This study examined the role of working memory in the development of reading in children. A study ~v Baddeley, Logie, Nimmo-Smith, and Brereton (1985) was modified for this purpose to accommodate factors relevant to reading development in children