Students who struggle with reading are common in today’s middle school classrooms. This research used a socioecological framework to explore middle school teachers’ perceptions of struggling readers. As the notion of perception encompasses many influences, the research sought out teacher understandings of components and factors relating to reading difficulties, both intrinsic and extrinsic. As well, the study examined teacher views of struggling readers’ behaviours, affect, and the classroom implications of their difficulties. Finally, the study explored feelings of both competency and responsibility in the teaching of struggling readers. The research was carried out in three school districts in the Vancouver Island/Gulf Islands, BC area. Using a phenomenological case study approach, survey data from 35 respondents, and interview data from 10 participants were analyzed using both a within-case and cross-case analysis method. Identified common themes included teachers’ difficulty defining and assessing students who struggle with reading, and tending to attribute the difficulties to factors beyond their control. The teachers realized the correlation between reading difficulties and motivation but were unsure how to mitigate the ensuing behaviours in their classrooms. The participants believed that middle school students should be competent grade level readers and did not believe it their job to teach specific reading skills in content area classes. Although the teachers in this study wanted to do more to help their students who struggle with reading, they were constrained by a perceived lack of knowledge and time. The findings suggest that teachers, both pre-service and in-service, need more education about reading difficulties, classroom strategies and practice. The research indicates a need for more optimal use of specialist teacher time, literacy coaching, levelled resources, and a focus on the British Columbia Performance Standards. / Graduate

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Bowling Green State University, 2009. / Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 118 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2008. / Directed by Barbara Levin; submitted to the Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Apr. 13, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-211).

The goals of this project include developing a way to efficiently teach the many required subjects in the overloaded elementary school day and incorporating litrature into content area curriculum.

The traditional education system in the United States developed a goal of sending a high number of students to post secondary schools. The expectation of going to college starts at elementary school and continues through high school and is pushed by the school district’s hierarchy. Schools annually publish numbers through the Department of Education at state and national levels of students moving to college. College progression has become such a priority that many students feel they have failed if not college bound. Students not considered academic often move toward vocational education with the intent of post-secondary education to support a chosen career field. Students with lower grades and abilities are routed to vocational classes utilizing a shop model. The education system identifies and educates students at expected age and grade level requirements. High stakes testing has been established to determine if students meet those educational requirements considered necessary for success. Students not meeting established math, English and reading requirements are given remediation to bring academic skills to appropriate age and grade levels. My thesis described a contextual reading program for building reading skills. Content area material is used to teach academic skills in writing, reading and math to levels supporting high stakes testing needed for success. Contextual reading has improved reading competencies for vocational education students in the CATER program at Kathleen High School in the Polk County School System as well as in the other statewide settings. This has the potential to improve career and technical education (CTE) in other systems. A contextual approach also has potential to improve teaching and learning in socalled academic areas, and improving scores in high stakes tests. Recommendations for further study include following this line of action for younger and adult students

Despite the national trend of assessments for gauging student mastery of prescribed curriculum standards which has placed assessment preparation at the forefront of classroom practices, teachers at a midwestern school promoting personalized learning for students, demonstrated inconsistency in implementation among content areas. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods study based on expectancy-value theory was used to define the challenges that arise as teachers implemented personalized learning in their content area. The research questions addressed the implementation of 5 personalized learning elements in secondary content areas, how teachers implement each element, and teachers' challenges in implementing personalized learning in their classroom. The quantitative research component utilized ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests to analyze 182 secondary teacher responses to a strategic plan survey regarding the frequency at which personalized learning elements were used in instruction. Statistically significant differences were found for 3 elements: knowing your learners, student voice and choice, and technology integration. A maximum variation sample was used to select 8 participants from diverse content areas for the qualitative data collection. Emerging themes on personalized learning implementation were extracted from classroom observation and interview data using descriptive coding, and then validated through member checking. Results indicated that teachers seek more training on personalized learning elements, content area learning, and time to plan personalized instruction. If teachers' ability to deliver personalized learning in their content areas improved, students would receive higher quality instruction resulting in increased academic achievement.

The purpose of this feasibility study is to provide evidence of how integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills into eighth-grade social studies instruction facilitates student understanding of content material and ability to write about social studies content. In thiswithin-subjects paired-samples research study, 197 eighth-grade participants received instruction in a social studies content area and in argumentative writing. Data from a criterion-referenced social studies pre and posttest and data from pre and post instruction writing samples were analyzed to evaluate the influence of the integration of literacy tasks in middle school social studies classrooms oncontent area knowledge acquisition and argumentative writing quality. Analysis of the Criterion Referenced Test (CRT) data usingregression analysis showed that there was a statistically significant increase in the students’ performance on the CRT after the students engaged in literacy tasks emphasizing reading, writing, speaking, and listening during the social studies instruction. Analysis of the writing rubric scores using Cohen’s d showed statistically significant differences exist between the students pre and post essay scores. These results suggest that having students engage in reading, writing, speaking, and listening tasks and in explicit writing instruction and production during a social studies unit facilitates their content knowledge acquisition, improves the overall quality of students’ argumentative writing, and more specifically, improves the organization and development of that writing. It is recommended that further research be conducted to determine the best way to group students for collaboration when incorporating reading, writing, speaking, and listening tasks within content area instruction.

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Many students feel that studying social studies is boring and not relevant to their lives. In social studies, the most common method of instruction is the transmission model in which the textbook becomes the curriculum and the teacher transmits knowledge through lecture. In the participatory model of instruction, the teacher facilitates student-led literature discussion groups utilizing narrative and expository trade books with the textbook as a resource. Previous research has indicated that instructional methods may affect student attitude and achievement; however, there is limited empirical research that is definitive on which instructional method is significantly better for students. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of literature-based instruction with lecture-style instruction on student achievement and attitude toward social studies. Participants included 76 Grade 8 U.S. History students from two middle schools in a southern state of the United States. Of these 76 students, 28 were in the experimental group and 48 were in the control group. All students were administered a content knowledge test and an attitude toward social studies survey before beginning the unit of study and again after the conclusion of the unit. To analyze the data from content knowledge, a repeated-measures analysis of variance was used with the difference scores serving as the dependent variable. Results showed that there was not a significant difference in content knowledge difference scores from pretest to posttest between students taught through literature-based instruction and those taught through lecture-style instruction. To analyze the data from the attitude survey, the two groups’ difference scores were compared on a repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance. The results indicated that two of the nine constructs tested showed a significant difference from the pre-study survey to the post-study survey which were: (a) attitude toward social studies and (b) student perception of the usefulness of social studies. The findings from this study suggest that when students are taught social studies through literature-based instruction, they are more likely to have significantly higher attitudes toward the subject and find relevance to their own lives than when they are taught through lecture-style instruction using only the textbook.

This study was designed to investigate the types of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) integrated into the content area classrooms of two local high schools, and whether the use of these ICTs motivated adolescent students to read and write in the content areas. The investigator created a student survey, student, teacher, and other support faculty interview protocols, and a classroom observation protocol to collect data for the study. The investigator faced several challenges which prevented her from spending adequate time in the schools. Due to these challenges, sufficient data was not obtained to form conclusions about the research questions. This thesis will present the review of literature, methodology, and plan for completing the study in the future.