<p> The overarching goal of this study was to obtain the perceptions of 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade English Language Arts teachers of their students&rsquo; reading skills, specifically comprehension and fluency, and those students&rsquo; readiness for high school English. The study proposed a comprehensive conceptual model of effective strategies reading teachers use and what prepared middle school students have in order to matriculate into high school. This research advanced the discussion of basic skills students need to matriculate into high school ELA and what hinders their matriculation. A mixed methods study with a threefold purpose was conducted. First, the study explored and described the perceptions of teachers of middle school students&rsquo; reading skills specifically those skills associated with comprehension and fluency. Second, it explored and discussed if middle school students exhibited sufficient basic skills associated with comprehension and fluency in ELA to matriculate into high school courses and succeed. Third, the study explored and described teachers&rsquo; perceptions of essential skills needed to transfer into high school ELA. Student readiness was explored in six focus groups with 25 teacher participants and three district supervisor interviews. Teachers and supervisors provided data on student readiness and skill deficiencies and proficiencies in comprehension and fluency. Data collection methods included teacher survey and district supervisor and teacher interviews. Findings indicated that student readiness for high school ELA is average; students&rsquo; basic skills in comprehension and fluency is also average; and students&rsquo; are lacking in basic skills needed to succeed in high school ELA courses. Narrative and descriptive statistics detailed students&rsquo; preparation, students&rsquo; reading skills, and students&rsquo; comprehension and fluency.</p>

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of student question generation on reading achievement. The effect of training students in dyads to ask six generic questions about what they read was studied. / Students from Bainbridge College enrolled in VTE 080-081, a developmental reading skills course, were the subjects in this study. Experimental and control groups were comprised of approximately thirty-five students each. Data collected from the ACT California Planning Program (CPP) Reading Skills Test were utilized to determine who would be placed in the VTE 080-081 reading skills class. Two types of tests were used to assess reading comprehension. The first was a standardized reading test, CAT Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE), Level D, Forms 3 and 4, which was used to measure transfer of training. The second test was a six-item comprehension test following selected passages from Six Way Paragraphs by Walter Pauk. / An analysis of covariance was used to analyze reading comprehension. The data were analyzed using pretest scores as a covariate. / An experimental design was used in this research study. / Results of a pilot study conducted fall quarter 1989 revealed that there was a significant effect on the treatment group. / The study proper was conducted winter quarter, 1990 and spring quarter, 1990. The results of the study supported the general learning theories which indicated that active processing of prose does affect learning. Training students to manipulate their own learning by teaching them to ask questions proved to be a more powerful instructional device than allowing them to devise their own strategy. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-06, Section: A, page: 2018. / Major Professor: Lawrence E. Hafner. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

In this study, 109 student teachers were randomly selected and assigned to one of the three treatment conditions; Coded Elaborative Outline (Tuckman, 1993), Question-Writing, and Informed groups. Subjects in the Coded Elaborative Outline (CEO) and Question-Writing conditions received direct instruction in applying their respective strategies to a learning theory textbook. The Informed subjects were only provided a description about each strategy, but no training in using either method. All subjects were taught by the same instructor, using the same textbook, for a duration of four weeks. The results showed that both the CEO and Question-Writing training produced superior higher-order learning than did simple awareness of these strategies. Training in either of these strategies was equally effective in enhancing learning from the textbook. However, the CEO-trained subjects produced better transfer of strategic behaviors as manifested by a significantly higher improvement in general reading scores than did subjects in the other two groups. The study confirmed and extended the results of previous studies on the use of comprehensive strategies in promoting meaningful learning from college level texts. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-07, Section: A, page: 2615. / Major Professor: Harold J. Fletcher. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

The influence of two instructional methods, the Constrictive-Interactionist approach (C-I) and the Traditional Process approach (T-P), on student writing was determined by evaluating the post test essays of sixty-five ENG 101 students for overall writing quality using holistic scoring. The products were then analyzed further for specific content features which were emphasized during the treatment and were particular to the essay form. / A significant difference was found between pre- and post tests of individual students regardless of treatment. However, there was a much greater increase in mean scores for the experimental group (C-I), with a mean gain of.78, than the reference group (T-P), with a mean gain of.17. Twenty-four percent of the scores in the T-P classes decreased pre- to post test, while only three percent of the scores decreased in the C-I sections. In the C-I essays there was clear evidence of the evaluation criteria, especially that of well-told meaningful story and clear indication of the event's significance. Insubstantial evidence of the criteria was found in the T-P essays. / A descriptive analysis of the treatments was conducted to inductively discover meaning-making patterns of language: specifically content, structure and function. In the C-I classes the evaluation criteria comprised the content, the function was to explicitly negotiate the meaning of the criteria considering form and function and the structure involved student and teacher interacting to reach consensus on meaning. The function of the T-P instruction was to teach activities and were teacher directed with the teacher's interpretation of meaning. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-02, Section: A, page: 0454. / Major Professor: Carolyn L. Piazza. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Education." Includes bibliographical references (p. 120-123).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Lehigh University, 2004. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-67).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 336-365).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Boise State University, 2003. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-64). Also available online via the ProQuest Digital Dissertations database.

This is a theoretical dissertation which draws upon insights gained from the theory and data of miscue analysis. It is directed toward resolving the disparity in research interpretations of the influence of context on reading. An integrated view of context is presented through a continuum of inter-related contexts that orients various research foci along a spectrum of narrower and greater contexts. From a continuum vantage, two major relationships are discussed. First, the influence of any defined context focus is qualified by the influence of any greater context. This relationship reveals a problem for factor-based research efforts that seek to identify, on causal grounds, a direct influence for specific factors related to reading, and, the concurrent complications faced by the reader who must deal with the results of factor-based research in the classroom. The second relationship, a connection between different levels of context, is shown as valid only in intra-personal venue. This relationship is analyzed to reveal that knowledge is constructed through the differentiation of experience. The development of knowledge is discussed respective to the work of Kenneth Goodman, Yetta Goodman, Jean Piaget, John Dewey, and Lev Vygotsky. The general recommendation of this dissertation is that the individual reader be treated as an epistemic participant with respect to the development of knowledge.

The method proposed by David Bleich in Readings and Feelings has been studied in a small group to determine if emotional involvement with literary works may be increased and, if so, what effect such increase would have on traditional literary competence. Results show that Bleich's method does increase emotional involvement with concurrent improvement in literary skills, particularly in the selection of more significant themes for student writing. Discussion of the method's application in regular classrooms is included.