Reading instruction in a self-contained classroom of deaf and hard-of-hearing elementary school students was observed. Videotapes were made of two complete units of study and analyzed using an interval recording system. Interviews were conducted with the teacher. The results of the study indicate the teacher utilized approximately 75% of the allotted instructional time in reading instruction. The teacher spent a good portion of this time eliciting student participation. Students engaged in reading related activities a greater proportion of the time than actually reading. Discussion was the dominant student activity.

<p>In this descriptive study, I researched five elementary general education teachers&rsquo; reading assessment practices as they worked within the context of IDEA (2004), NCLB (2002) and Response to Intervention (RTI). My own connection to the classroom and reading assessment practices brought me to this research. I presented my personal and professional connection through vignettes about my own classroom assessment practices. Relevant literature on both the context and culture of assessment were pertinent to this research. </p><p> I used a qualitative design, specifically, Colaizzi&rsquo;s (1978) method of phenomenological analysis. Data were three in-depth phenomenological interviews, relevant documents and artifacts, and use of a researcher reflective blog. I summarized the initial findings of this research through 10 clustered themes; shift of focus, ever changing accountability, independent efforts with data, collaborative efforts with data, working environment, interventions and reading assessment practices in action, authenticity in practice, lack of decision making power, teacher emotion, and teacher needs and wants and a composite narrative in order to describe the lived experience of these teachers reading assessment practices. </p><p> Implications from my research with regard to policy include a perceived incongruence between an RTI framework and the teacher evaluation system with regard to active collaboration. Those toward practice include difficulty with the day-to-day implementation of an RTI framework and the perception of a singular focus of RTI as disability determination. My recommendations for future research include an action research agenda designed to explore increased involvement of stakeholders such as students, parents and other school personnel. </p>

<p> In this qualitative study, I sought to open a space where previously marginalized fifth and sixth graders - those identified for remedial reading classes - could become agents of their own reading. Rather than using mandated or scripted reading programs, I co-created an apprentice program with my intermediate students by which they became teachers of reading to first graders. My teacher-researcher stance allowed me to explore agentic acts among the students involved and identify classroom conditions which supported school-productive literacy. </p><p> The Apprentice-Teaching Project drew on sociocultural perspectives of literacy, apprenticeship theory, and a view of agency which connects students' agentic actions with the various identities they enacted. Data, including field notes, audio and video recordings, and student work, were analyzed using a combination of thematic and narrative methods. </p><p> In their roles as apprentice-teachers, participants learned new Discourses and remade their identities from school-identified "struggling" readers to Readers and Teachers, thereby joining the "literacy club." In general they exerted school-productive agency when confronted with difficult reading tasks, rather than remaining marginalized from school literacy communities. </p><p> I argue that students marginalized by the teaching practices fostered by recent educational policy initiatives are best served by knowledgeable, professional teachers who are free to create <i>responsive curricula </i> in light of needs observed among students. I further argue that the educational community needs to examine the ways we have approached the teaching of metacognitive reading strategies. The apprentice-teachers did not take up these strategies as tools to deepen their understanding; instead, they perceived the strategies as "tasks" to be done after reading. Furthermore, to foster <i>engaged reading</i>, this study demonstrated the efficacy of a curriculum that provides students with <i>voice</i> and <i> choice</i> in selecting texts and <i>socially-interactive environments </i> in which to construct meanings around those texts.</p>

<p>The purpose of the study was to develop and implement a new reading intervention with fifth grade struggling readers that included reading across multiple texts, constructing arguments from the texts, engaging in oral argumentation, and writing argumentative essays. A Convergent Mixed Methods design incorporated both quantitative and qualitative data to determine if teacher collaboration influenced the implementation of the new intervention and its subsequent effect on students&rsquo; reading and writing outcomes. The intervention focused on a 10-week argumentative unit based on the American Revolution War. Group 1 teacher implemented the intervention in a whole-class setting, plus collaborated with the researcher on implementation issues; Group 2 teacher implemented the intervention in a small pullout group, but did not collaborate with the researcher; and Control Group teacher did not implement the intervention. All student groups took a pre and post reading comprehension assessment, and Groups 1 and 2 students took a pre and post essay writing assessment. The reading comprehension scores showed no significant improvement for any group. The pre and post essay writing scores for Groups 1 and 2 showed significant improvement (<i>p</i> = .000), yet there was no significant difference between the two intervention groups (<i>p</i> =.66). The qualitative results indicate student achievement in the intervention groups may have been affected by five implementation factors: (1) implementation fidelity, (2) short duration, (3) size of group, (4) task complexity, and (5) aligned assessments. </p>

<p> Evidence indicates that first-grade students who struggle with reading and do not receive help are likely to become poor readers for their entire school careers and will have continued reading problems into adulthood. If a person cannot read well, the outlook is dismal for their employment, self-sufficiency, community participation, social inclusion, and overall well-being. Researchers have found that the solution for struggling readers is not to simply wait and hope they will catch up with their peers. Instead, it is essential to identify students who are at risk for reading failure and disabilities as early as possible and quickly provide evidence-based interventions. This regression discontinuity study examined the effects of Sound Partners, an evidence-based early reading intervention that was implemented by teacher candidates, on the correct letter sounds of 46 first-grade students identified as being at risk for reading failure. Findings indicated that the intervention was effective in raising participants&rsquo; reading scores. Additionally, stakeholder feedback from the participating university, schools, and teacher candidates helped to foster and develop a school-university relationship that yielded mutually beneficial results. Further research should be conducted that includes a larger sample of students using different measures and other evidence-based reading interventions, as well as following the students longitudinally. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> DIBELS, CLS, evidence-based practice, regression discontinuity, response-to-intervention, Sound Partners, teacher candidates </p>

<p> Noticeably absent from the critical literacy field are accounts of critical literacy written from the experience and perspective of school leaders. This qualitative practitioner study examined the enactment of critical literacy by four elementary teachers and an elementary school principal in a small rural school in south central Pennsylvania. A critical literacy practitioner inquiry community was an important feature of this study, an importance that cannot be overstated. The interdependence of critical literacy and the inquiry community enabled the participants to disrupt notions of learning, teaching, and leading and what it means to be a student, teacher, and leader. This practitioner action research study contributes to the field of critical literacy in important ways. The study took place in a small rural elementary school in south central Pennsylvania, and the participants/co-researchers were all White, female, Christian educators of predominantly White students. During the study, the participants transformed learning, teaching, and leading by developing stances of critical inquiry and spaces of mutuality. The transformation changed the roles of teachers, learners, and leaders. The participants also confronted the state&rsquo;s system of accountability and educator effectiveness, and through that confrontation re-imagined their own professional identities. I am the principal, co-researcher, and author of this work.</p>

<p> The ability to read is the foundational skill which is taught in elementary schools across the state of Indiana. It is a complex process which allows children to derive meaning from printed text. Reading is the basis for learning and growth to continue during a child&rsquo;s educational life (Opitz &amp; Rasinski, 1998). Over time throughout history, the ability to read is and has been the great equalizer for people (Ruddell, Ruddell, &amp; Singer, 1994). </p><p> Reading has been taught and evaluated in many different ways (Groves, 2009). The state of Indiana has developed a standardized assessment to measure a child&rsquo;s reading ability and comprehension skills at the end of third grade. This summative assessment is known as the Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination or IREAD-3 (IDOE IREAD-3, n.d.). The assessment is based on Indiana Academic Standards to measure the foundational reading skills a child has developed by the end of third grade. It is used to determine promotion to fourth grade or retention in third grade (Title 511 Indiana State Board of Education, 2011). </p><p> A mixed method study was conducted to determine if relationships existed between the predictor variables of vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and teacher pedagogy and the criterion variable of passing percentage rates on the IREAD-3 assessment. In the quantitative survey, two null hypotheses were tested. The first null determined if the composite scores for vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and classroom pedagogy of elementary primary literacy teachers predict a statistically significant proportion of the variance on the IREAD-3 pass rate among schools of affluence. The second null determined if the composite scores for vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and classroom pedagogy of elementary primary literacy teachers predict a statistically significant proportion of the variance on the IREAD-3 pass rate among schools of poverty. A multiple linear regression was utilized to examine both hypotheses. The results of the regression analysis found that a linear combination of predictor variables did not explain a statistically significant amount of variance with IREAD-3 passing rate percentages for schools of affluence or schools of poverty. Therefore, the null hypotheses were retained. </p><p> The second part of the mixed method study focused on qualitative case study interviews with three building level principals and one teacher. During the interviews, five themes developed after the field notes and interview transcripts were coded and analyzed. The common themes which emerged were: </p><p> 1. Teachers have time during the school day to meet together to collaborate, plan, and discuss literacy skill development of their children. 2. Schools promote and embrace parents and volunteers as essential components which are included in the learning process during the school day. 3. Teachers voluntarily spend time after school to tutor students on a school-wide basis. 4. Learning is intentionally broken down into small groups based on reading level or ability. 5. Schools have a support network in place and literacy professionals to assist classroom teachers in teaching children to learn to read based on the use of data. </p><p> Several implications for teachers, principals, and district administrators were discussed as a result of the findings and conclusions. Finally, recommendations for further research were proposed.</p>

Phonological awareness is "the ability to phonologically segment, analyze, and synthesize the speech stream (p. 552)." The present study evaluated the effectiveness of two computer programs, Daisy Quest and Daisy's Dilemma, to provide phonological awareness training to poor readers. / Students from two local elementary schools participated in the experiment. 54 subjects were selected to participate in the study. These students were administered a series of pretests that assessed a variety of word reading skills, phonological awareness ability, and their general verbal ability. Subsequently, children were grouped into triplets on the basis of the word identification scores and then randomly assigned to one of three condition: (1) phonological awareness training (DQ), (2) phonological decoding (HH), and (3) computer control (C). Training was provided for approximately 25 minutes a day over the course of seven weeks. / A series of multivariate analyses of covariance were carried out to determine if there were mean differences in children's post test phonological awareness ability. Significant improvement was noted on three of the five measures of phonological awareness for those children receiving the phonological awareness training. More importantly, the children receiving the phonological awareness training made significant improvement in their ability to read real words. / It was concluded that both computer programs were successful in enhancing the phonological awareness skills of poor readers. In addition, the improvements in phonological awareness directly impacted the word identification skills of children who were struggling in their efforts learning to read. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: A, page: 4388. / Major Professor: Joseph K. Torgesen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to look at the attitudes of fifth grade students and those who may influence their views toward picture books and try to derive meaning from those views in relation to visual literacy. The development of visual literacy is becoming increasingly important for all members of society and picture books are a medium with the potential for developing this competency. / To achieve the purposes of this study, the researcher conducted interviews with sixteen participants, as part of a multi-case study approach, in three phases. Six fifth grade student participants were the focus of the study. Also interviewed were the parents, teachers, media specialist and administrator of the students. All participants were interviewed first in relation to background, next in relation to their views on picture books and visual literacy and last in relation to response to the focus picture book, Agatha's Feather Bed: Not Just Another Wild Goose Tale (Deedy, 1991). / Methodologically, the researcher was the key instrument for data collection, accumulating data via audio-cassette tapes and journal notes. Participant observation and data triangulation techniques were also implemented. / As a result of data analysis in this particular qualitative study, the following conclusions were derived. Participants believe: (1) size takes precedence over the quality of a book with bigger being better and picture books not being big enough (2) picture books represent early childhood and descriptive terminology validates this view and (3) picture books can impede the reading process. These participant views, combined with the fact that visual cues were often eschewed during the reading of the focus picture book, indicate a potential impediment to visual literacy founded on and encouraged by adult views and perpetuated by fifth grade students. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-01, Section: A, page: 0067. / Major Professor: Carol Lynch-Brown. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The purpose of this study was to determine how the Jostens Integrated Learning System (ILS) was implemented at L. D. McArthur Elementary School and its impact on curriculum and student learning. Seven research questions were answered to satisfy the purpose of the study. / The literature review established recommended approaches to implementing an ILS. These approaches were compared to actual practice at the school. ILS influence on student achievement was analyzed using a hypothesized effect of the ILS lessons on California Achievement Tests (CAT) and by relating ILS scores to CAT scores. / The results indicated that teacher undergraduate training in computers and computer-assisted learning systems was lacking. The computers, though physically located in the classrooms, were used exclusively for the Jostens ILS and were not integrated into classroom activities. / The Jostens ILS reports were considered satisfactory with only minor changes noted. The lab assistants printed the reports for the teachers, but the large part of the lab assistants time was taken helping students with ILS lessons and directions. / The student attitude survey indicated the computers and the ILS lessons were liked by the majority of the students. Students were not satisfied with the ILS lesson directions or the computer headsets. / The effectiveness of the Jostens ILS was considered satisfactory by the teachers. Although CAT scores had improved, analysis of student achievement indicated the ILS lessons had a minor and inconsistent effect. / Recommendations consisted of three decision paths: (1) enhance the current use of the ILS through additional teacher training, adding lab assistants, improving ILS directions and gaining electronic access to the MIS data base, (2) integrate the computers into classroom activities, substituting other software for the ILS, (3) aggregate the computers in one location as a lab to facilitate scheduling and whole group teaching. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-01, Section: A, page: 0043. / Major Professor: Robert G. Stakenas. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.