Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1974. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-45). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1985. / Vita. Bibliography: leaves [155]-168.

Research supports that comprehension is a vital component of reading and life-long literacy, and there are many instructional approaches for teaching reading comprehension. Literature circles are a popular approach which are widely used but have not yet been studied empirically. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of participation in literature circles on the reading comprehension of middle school students. More specifically, the study examined whether there was a difference in the reading comprehension scores of students after participating in literature circles versus after participating in directed reading activity, and whether there were interactions of type of instruction and students' overall reading achievement levels. A mixed design using split-plot ANOVA was used to examine the within-subject variable of treatment, and the between-subject variables of class period, assessments (or passages used), and overall reading achievement levels, as well as determine interactions among the variables. Eighty six eighth-grade students (65% male, 35%female) in a suburban public middle school in the southeastern United States participated in the eight-week study. By class period, students were randomly placed in literature circle groups for four weeks and also participated in whole-class directed reading activity for four weeks. Students read one short story each week and comprehension was assessed with corresponding cloze passages. The reading scores indicated there were no significant differences between the two types of instruction. However, results were statistically significant for all interactions (treatment and passages, treatment and class period, and treatment and overall reading achievement). In addition, when the data were analyzed by overall reading ability it can be argued that the findings have practical significance. Evidence suggests that students with low overall reading achievement levels may not respond to literature circles as positively as other students, and that students with high overall reading achievement may respond more favorably. Overall, literature circles appear to have promise as an instructional approach to reading, especially for non-struggling readers. The discussion expands on the limitations of this study as well as focuses on the need for further scientifically-based research on this popular reading approach.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2006. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Feb. 14, 2007). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2006. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Feb. 20, 2006). Includes bibliographical references.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit deficits in reading comprehension. Previous research indicates that music increases attention span, as well as increases auditory discrimination, memory and verbal skills in children with ASD. This study attempts to increase the reading comprehension of three children with autism by implementing a musical modality approach to learning. To assess the effects of musical presentation on reading comprehension a multiple baseline design across children was used. In baseline each child was told to read a story silently to themselves and then answer standard reading comprehension recall questions (who, what, where, when). In treatment the children were presented stories read to them (speaking modality) or sung to them (singing modality) and again asked standard recall questions. Results found that all three participant’s reading comprehension scores increased in relation to baseline, and one out of three participants reading comprehension scores increased in the signing modality condition as compared to the baseline and speaking modality conditions.

The purpose of the study was to compare the awareness of metacognitive strategies among ineffective, average, and successful readers and between third and sixth graders.The study sample consisted of one hundred fifty-nine third grade and one hundred fifty-six sixth grade students from three city schools in a midwest community. Subjects were classified into three different performance groups designated as ineffective, average, and successful according to scores on the reading comprehension subtest of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The researcher developed the Instrument for Measuring Awareness of Metacognitive Strategies (IMAMS) to detect existence of metacognitive applications perceived by students in elementary school. A pilot study was conducted to refine and establish reliability of the instrument. Subjects were administered the IMAMS in their regular classroom setting by the researcher. The data were analyzed using a two-way univariate analysis of variance to test the hypotheses.Findings The data from this study indicated:1. There were significant differences among mean awareness of metacognitive strategies scores for ineffective, average, and successful readers at the third and sixth grades.2. Successful readers in third and sixth grades combined differed significantly in their mean scores for awareness of metacognitive strategies from those of ineffective and average readers.3. Mean scores for awareness of metacognitive strategies between ineffective and average readers were not found to be significantly different.4. Sixth grade readers differed significantly from third grade readers with higher mean scores in awareness of to have greater awareness of metacognitive strategies.Conclusions Based on the findings of this study the following conclusions were drawn:1. Students classified as successful readers appear to have greater metacognitive strategies than those classified as either average or ineffective. The ability to understand and express or respond to a measure of metacognition may be related to reading achievement level or may be influenced by competencies that affect both reading scores and performance on the metacognition measure.2. Students designated as average and ineffective readers at both third and sixth grades do not differ in their awareness of metacognitive strategies involved in reading. These results may possibly be due to the narrow interval between the percentile ranks utilized to classify students into average and ineffective groups. 3. Sixth grade readers demonstrated more awareness of metacognitive strategies than the third grade readers.4. The awareness of metacognitive strategies appears to increase as levels of reading performance elevate.5. There is a gradual and continuing development of the awareness of metacognitive strategies as students proceed through the grades in school.

This study examined reading comprehension in adolescents with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Forty-five youth with ADHD (26 males, 19 females) and 42 adolescents without ADHD (20 males, 22 females) between the ages of 13 and 18 completed standardized tests of achievement. The results of multiple regression analyses indicated that orthographic and semantic abilities were related to reading comprehension. Both the orthographic (i.e., spelling) measure and the semantic (i.e., oral vocabulary) measure explained unique amounts of variance on the reading comprehension measure. Next, it was found that adolescents with ADHD were significantly more likely to have a Specific Reading Comprehension Disability (S-RCD) than adolescents without ADHD. Last, it was found that adolescents with ADHD and an S-RCD demonstrated poorer performance on academic measures that depend in part on comprehension (e.g., math problem solving) than adolescents with ADHD without an S-RCD.

This study examined reading comprehension in adolescents with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Forty-five youth with ADHD (26 males, 19 females) and 42 adolescents without ADHD (20 males, 22 females) between the ages of 13 and 18 completed standardized tests of achievement. The results of multiple regression analyses indicated that orthographic and semantic abilities were related to reading comprehension. Both the orthographic (i.e., spelling) measure and the semantic (i.e., oral vocabulary) measure explained unique amounts of variance on the reading comprehension measure. Next, it was found that adolescents with ADHD were significantly more likely to have a Specific Reading Comprehension Disability (S-RCD) than adolescents without ADHD. Last, it was found that adolescents with ADHD and an S-RCD demonstrated poorer performance on academic measures that depend in part on comprehension (e.g., math problem solving) than adolescents with ADHD without an S-RCD.

The focus of this study was the testing of the Conceptual Level Matching Model with a population of learning disabled (LD) children. The students selected for use in this study consisted of an equal number of students in the high and low CL groups ranging between 13 and 15 years of age.The final sample included 35 males and five females whose IQ's ranged between 80 and 117. These students were attending public school special education LD resource rooms in Anderson, Indiana. The students, selected on the basis of their chronological age, were divided into two groups according to their score on the Paragraph Completion Test. Thus, comparisons were observed among and between the two experimental groups. A statistical analysis of those attributes on which the students were grouped revealed no significant differences between groups on measures of chronological age, full scale IQ and reading comprehension scores.The results were generated from the administration of the Paragraph Completion Test (PCT) and the Analytical Reading Inventory (ARI). The PCT was used to assign students to either the high or low group who were in turn randomly assigned to either the structured or unstructured group to form the final four experimental groups. All students were then administered three graded paragraphs from the ARI; intended to measure their level of reading comprehension. T-tests were initially used to test for significant differences between the two groups in terms of chronological age, IQ, and reading comprehension scores. A two-way factorial analysis of variance was used to test differences between means for the four experimental groups. The hypothesis predicting a significant difference between the two main groups on the ARI was supported by the data. It was concluded that LD students high in conceptual level (CL) can be expected to perform significantly better than low CL students on a reading comprehension task.A significant difference was also shown between the low CL group taught in a highly structured fashion and the low CL group taught in an unstructured fashion; with the structured group performing significantly better. However, the third hypothesis which predicted that the high CL group taught in an unstructured fashion would perform better than the high CL group taught in a structured fashion was not supported by the data. In fact the results showed a trend in the opposite direction, with the high CL group-structured performing better than the high CL group-unstructured.The data also supported the hypothesis that the high CL group would perform significantly better on the cause and effect, inferential, and conclusion reading comprehension questions on the ARI than the low CL group. However, these results should be interpreted with caution because of the high level of overall significance between the high and low CL groups. Therefore, these results may not be a reflection of the type of question asked but of the overall superiority of the high CL group.Recommended avenues of investigation for future research is cited as follows: (a) replication of the study with equal numbers of females to permit greater generalization of the results; (b) evaluation of the CL of LD teachers to see if they prefer to teach in a highly structured fashion which is consistent with the way low CL students prefer to learn; (c) structuring an LD student's learning environment on a long term basis; (d) study of the environment that would allow LD students low in CL to move to the next higher stage of development; and (e) development of an instrument that can be used to measure the CL of younger children.