This study explored the consummations of "The Transitional Approach to Reading" with Puerto Rican native language emergent and second language early emergent readers enrolled in a Transitional Bilingual Education Program of a public school system in Central Massachusetts. The objective of this study was to put forth a paradigm for a new reading approach, "The Transitional Approach", in a Bilingual first-grade class. The intent was to enhance their initiation into English reading. The principal goal was to transfer native language vocabulary whose definitions are the same in both languages (from one language to another) allowing reading comprehension to be achieved. The students were taught to manipulate "transference" in order to reach word comprehension in the second language. The vocabulary learned in native language reading, Spanish, will be transferred from Spanish to English. The study inquired as to whether these students, at the culmination of five months, showed growth in vocabulary attainment in Spanish, in English, and in Spanish and English on the post-approach assessments. No hypothesis was tested. The study was exploratory and descriptive in nature. The following tasks were accomplished: (1) Accumulation of Transfer Word Vocabulary from the entirety of the first-grade curricula: Spanish, Science, Social Studies, Culture, Mathematics, Language Arts, Reading, and English as a Second Language (a total of 235). (2) Assessment in Spanish, first, then in English of 78 Transfer Vocabulary Words: "Yes/No" Match, Pre-Test; and "Yes/No" Read and Match, Post-Test. (3) Observations made prior to, during, and after the implementation of the approach. Fourteen children were chosen to participate in "The Transitional Approach to Reading". The research revealed that the students increased their native and second language transfer word vocabularies and initiated second language beginning reading. "The Transitional Approach" played an important role in the formulation of the child's vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and overall reading development. Knowledge of vocabulary, word meaning, plays an essential part in the first-grade reading curriculum and accounts for about half of reading comprehension.

The representation of Mexican American migrant farmworkers in children's literature has increased over the past 15 years, making visible a group that previously was rendered invisible in the U.S. landscape. Classifying stories about migrant agricultural laborers under the literary category of multicultural children's literature further marginalizes this population by portraying their social circumstances as private, personal, and cultural. While these stories bring the reader up close to the poverty that families endure as migrant farmworkers, they leave the socioeconomic circumstances with the families, in many ways, unlinked to power relations. In this study, I theorize a critical multicultural analysis of children's literature, which creates a space for adult and young readers alike to rethink power (i.e., inserting class into the critical dialogue on race and gender) and recognize their own social construction. Reading class, race, and gender together in children's literature about migrant farmworkers leads to reading how power is exercised in U.S. society as well as how we are implicated in its circulation: It's a waking up from the American Dream. My text collection functions as evidence of U.S. power relations of class, race, and gender—children's literature as social transcripts because a large part of U.S. ethnography is in literature (Ortner, 1991). I read these books against the history and scholarship of multicultural children's literature and the historical and sociopolitical context of migrant work in the United States. I historicize these current representations of Mexican American migrant workers within the developments of the Mexican American experience as it is rendered in children's literature. Since many of these titles fall under the genres of nonfiction and realistic fiction, I consider how these genres textually reconstruct reality by examining the discursive construction of characters and the ideological implications of how the stories close. The theoretical constructs of discourse, ideology, subjectivity, and power function as analytical tools for examining how power is exercised among the characters to locate how class, race, and gender are enacted in text, while revealing how story characters dominate, collude, resist, and take action collectively. A critical multicultural analysis of children's literature about Mexican American migrant farmworkers is a microanalysis of U.S. power relations, an examination of how power is exercised, circulated, negotiated, and transformed.

Agencies providing literacy education have sought to introduce program innovations that more closely reflect learners' everyday lives. A growing number of studies have documented the situated nature of literacy practices and their implications for program design. The concept of learning is at the periphery. Despite innovations and new insights into literacy practices, practitioners are more attuned to diverse content than learning or literacies. Researchers are more attuned to the concept of multiple literacies and their socially situated nature than learning. The Women's Economic Empowerment and Literacy (WEEL) program integrates literacy and numeracy education, savings and credit group concepts, and livelihood training for Nepali women. This dissertation is a case study of the WEEL program, focusing on staff members', participants', and facilitators' perspectives on learning. The research questions were designed to elicit research participants' narratives of their learning experiences. Four themes emerged as the most salient: the powerful role of aspirations; the meaning of education; learning as change; and the life-long, long-term, and life-wide nature of learning. The aspirations are closely associated with Scribner's (1984) conception of the metaphors of literacy: as adaptation, as power, and as a state of grace. Education is interlinked with issues of the women's social identity; gender and caste; concepts of modernization; and the women's hopes for the future. Descriptions of learning are associated with access to knowledge, "doing" or activity, and seeing from a different perspective. An understanding of learning beyond the program's boundaries is found in the themes of life-long, long-term, and life-wide learning raised in the interviews. This research confirms and supports the movement towards more localized programs that is occurring in the field of adult literacy education. Program staff provided evidence to this effect, as the findings show how they consider a perspective of literacy and learning oriented to life-long, long-term, and life-wide learning as they engage in program design. The final chapter develops strategies to bring insights from a conception of literacy as metaphor and from adult learning theories to help strengthen program design and ensure programmatic responsiveness to learners' lives.

Educators have never had the possibility of incorporating technology into the classroom like they do today. Although technology can have its difficulties, it can truly help the development of reading for struggling students. Reading research is providing more and more clarity about how to use technology effectively within our school communities to support and enhance the academic performance of today's students (i.e. Gallagher, 2009; Isazadeh, 2004; Rice, 2011). A review of studies conducted by the CEO Forum (2001)emphasizes: "technology can have the greatest impact when integrated into the curriculum to achieve clear, measurable educational objectives." This meaning that with the help of technology and all of the resources it provides, if used within the curriculum correctly teachers can reach their learning goals better. Technology can aid the growth of reading development in students with, or without, a learning disability. The beginning chapter will define students who are struggling readers and outline the effects technology will have on these students. Following, will be a present case study of a student who struggles with reading in order to frame the research in a contemporary setting. There will also be a personal experience with technology,focusing primarily on the IPAD, and a self-reflected journey within each chapter in a quest in becoming a technology savvy teacher. The next chapter will present the use IPADs within the classroom. It will then describe ways teachers can spark their students' interests in reading with alternative practices. With the help of a local, technology savvy teacher, there will be a real-life circumstances that have aided struggling readers at any specific grade level.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Research paper (M.A.)--Cardinal Stritch College--Milwaukee, 1979. / A research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education (Education of Learning Disabled Children). Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-40).

Dissertation (Ph. D.) -- Lewis & Clark College, 2009. / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 134-151).

I denna undersökning studeras, med utgångspunkt i ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på lärande, barnens användning av olika digitala verktyg i arbetet med läs- och skrivutveckling. Syftet med denna undersökning är att öka kompetensen att med hjälp av olika digitala medel förbättra undervisningen i läs- och skrivutveckling i förskolan. Ambitionen är att genom litteraturstudie och praktiskt arbete kunna indikera att genom intervenering med digitala verktyg i förskolans praktik går att förändra barnens läs- och skrivutveckling. Studiens överordnade syfte är att bidra till förändring vad gäller barns såväl som förskollärares förhållningssätt till digitala verktyg i läs- och skrivutveckling i förskolan. En kvalitativ ansats har använts med inspiration från hermeneutik och fenomonografi. I undersökningen intervjuas nio barn och genomförs trettiotre deltagande observationer under en månads tid. Resultatet visar att samtliga barn i undersökningen använder sig av olika digitala verktyg i arbetet med läs- och skrivutveckling. Att användandet av digitala verktyg förefaller att skapa mening för barnen. Några av de utvecklingsmöjligheter som går att uttala sig om genom användandet av dessa verktyg är; språk-, läs- och skrivutveckling, utveckling av motoriska färdigheter, utveckling av sociala färdigheter och reflektionsförmåga samt utveckling av digital kompetens. I diskussionen framhålls vikten av en medveten planering som utgår från läroplansmål där digitala verktyg används som komplement till den traditionella undervisningen i förskolan. / In this study, based on a socio-cultural perspective on learning, children’s use of different digital tools in the work with their development with reading and writing will be studied. The purpose of this research is to increase the capability to improve the reading and writing education in kindergarten with the help of different digital tools. The ambition is to, with the help of literature studies and practical work, be able to indicate that the children’s progress in the ability to read and write can be improved by introducing digital tools in the practical work in kindergarten. The overall aim of the study is to contribute to changing the children’s as well as the teachers’ approaches towards digital tools in the work with reading and writing development in kindergarten. A qualitative approach has been used with the help of inspiration from hermeneutics and phenomenography. In this research, nine children are interviewed, and thirty-three participatory observations are conducted during the period of one month. The result shows that every child who takes part in the research uses different kinds of digital tools in the work with reading and writing development. The result also shows that the use of digital tools is useful. Some of the opportunities that can be distinguished with the use of these tools are; language development, reading and writing development, development of motor skills, social skills and analytical skills as well as the development of digital skills. The discussion emphasizes the importance of conscious planning based on curricula, where digital tools are being used to complement the traditional education in kindergarten.

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the extent of difference in effectiveness of three non-formal education approaches in helping women acquire literacy skills and/or health knowledge in Nepal, and to propose hypotheses about factors or "influences" that might explain these differences. This exploratory study provides insights that program planners, researchers and policy makers can use for focusing further research on which non-formal education program designs for women will bring about the greatest increase in literacy skills and health knowledge. Four sample groups of women were compared: (1) 74 women in three different sites who attended monthly Mothers' Group health education meetings (with no literacy instruction); (2) 38 women in two different classes who completed a 6-month basic literacy course (with no health instruction); (3) 65 women in three different classes who completed a 6-month health/literacy course and 38 of these women who completed a 3-month post-literacy/health course; and (4) 50 women in two different sites who attended neither literacy course nor Mother's Group meetings. Data related to "acquisition" included literacy test scores and health knowledge oral interview scores; data related to possible "influences" included demographic data, and information about community and classroom context. Data were coded and analyzed by standard statistical procedures. The findings indicate that non-formal education of any kind is effective in helping women acquire some degree of both literacy skills and health knowledge. Type of non-formal education approach was not significantly related to greater literacy skills acquisition but it was related to greater health knowledge acquisition. Participation in the integrated health/literacy course was related to higher levels of health knowledge than was participation in health only or literacy only non-formal education approaches. Participation in the post-literacy course was associated with greater literacy skill and health knowledge acquisition than participation in either schooling or other types of non-formal education at a basic level. In addition, literacy skill acquisition appeared to be influenced by class or community factors (hours of instruction, facilitator characteristics, economic status of the community) and health knowledge acquisition was influenced by individual factors (marital status, age, radio ownership, number of children).

Teachers and students spend countless hours in the classroom focused on the task of learning how to read. However, successful readers do not simply know how to read, they practice reading regularly. With limited time in the classroom, it is essential that students extend their reading practice outside of school. In regards to students' reading, two things are certain. First, students must become effective independent readers in order to experience success in school. Second, students must practice reading regularly in order to become successful independent readers. These two ideas arc correlational; in order to become effective independent readers, students must first practice reading. The necessity for successful independent reading is clear, as academic achievement relies on the premise that students are able to read and comprehend independently. However, the means by which to achieve this end have been surprisingly under researched. This study examines at-home reading programs being utilized in elementary schools in six Central Florida school districts. We cannot change or begin to improve what we don't know. This study was designed to examine the current practices related to at-home reading programs. My hope is that this study will provide valuable insight into the successful elements and challenges posed by at-home reading programs currently being employed in some Central Florida elementary schools.