<p> The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to discover the effectiveness of then-current teaching practices in fifth grade classrooms and to determine whether any of the strategies or practices observed yielded higher student achievement results than others. The researcher observed and recorded evidence of the use of the most effective practices, as identified by the Writing and Reading Observation Tool (WROT). Teachers&rsquo; scores obtained on the WROT were compared to the percentage of students reading at a proficient level, as measured by the Scholastic Reading Assessment. If high scores on the WROT indicated the use of effective teaching practices, then the level of reading should be proficient, as measured by the SRI. </p><p> A second measure to provide evidence to support the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the beliefs and practices of teachers pertaining to reading instruction, as measured by the National Exemplary Literacy Teacher Assessment, the NELTA. The total score on the NELTA was a measure of the degree of grade level literacy expertise a teacher mastered and included sub-scores related to exemplary teacher practices. The researcher compared results to determine if there was a relationship between teacher scores on the WROT and the NELTA and student growth in reading, using a Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC) analysis. </p><p> While the data showed no statistically significant differences in academic achievement in the area of literacy regardless of scores on either tool used in the study, observations and qualitative data provided important information for future studies and professional development planning. Administrators and teachers can study, apply, and observe the strategies relevant to the reading achievement of fifth grade students in order to strengthen the teachers&rsquo; instructional practices.</p>

<p>The study presented in this dissertation emerged from a theoretical connection noted in the literature between the potential of postmodern picturebooks to affect change, the ways in which boys are socialized into literacy practices, and the problem of male disengagement from literacy. As such, this study adds a new voice to the extant literature on postmodern picturebooks and that of gender and literacy. This study is an initial exploration at the intersection between these two areas of inquiry focused on the experiences of one boy who self-identifies as disinclined toward reading, a boy whose history of reading difficulties throughout elementary school contributed to compelling insights. </p><p> A phenomenological approach was designed for this initial exploration to ensure a rich and comprehensive description of this boy&rsquo;s experiences to share in order to open and expand our understanding of the reading experience of individual boys and the role postmodern picturebooks might be able to play in disrupting the problem of male disengagement. This phenomenological exploration focused on three focal phenomena&mdash;the boy&rsquo;s experience of reading, his experience of reading traditional picture books, and his experience of reading postmodern picturebooks. Through examination of data collected during a book sort, think-aloud readings, and interviews with the participant and members of his family, along with historical data from school records and tutoring records, descriptive interpretations of each of the three focal phenomena were constructed then discussed in relation to each other and to theoretical connections noted above. </p><p> The experience of reading of the focal participant in this study is illuminating, pointing to not only gender influences but also pervasive influences from a concerted focus on learning to read proficiently. Differences between the experience of reading traditional picture books and the experience of reading postmodern picturebooks are evident for this boy. Subtle shifts in reading behavior were noted by the end of data collection suggesting that experiencing postmodern picturebooks with a focus on think-aloud commentary may have provoked a shift in his perspective about what it means to read. </p>

Accurate and rapid word recognition requires highly-specified phonological, orthographic, and semantic word-specific representations. It has been established that children acquire these representations through phonological decoding in a process known as orthographic learning. Studies examining orthographic learning and its predictors have thus far focused on monosyllabic words. It is unclear whether the findings of these studies—especially, those related to the role phonological decoding, orthographic knowledge, and contextual semantic information play in orthographic learning—can be generalized to polysyllabic words. A large number of the polysyllabic words children encounter in content-area texts is morphologically complex. Yet, examining the role of morphology in the orthographic learning of polysyllabic words is still in its infancy. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of morphology and context (two sources of semantic information) in the acquisition of whole-word representations of polysyllabic words in children with and without reading difficulty. A total of 73 fourth and fifth grade children participated in this study. The children read 12 disyllabic pseudowords presented in isolation or in context. An orthographic choice task and a spelling task measured children’s orthographic learning three days later. A battery of standardized and researcher designed tests measured children’s phonological decoding skill, orthographic knowledge, and morphological knowledge. Data were analyzed using mixed-design analysis of variance and multiple linear regression. The results of this study showed that morphology facilitated the orthographic learning of polysyllabic words in the spelling task but not in the orthographic choice task. The results also showed that context interfered with the orthographic learning of polysyllabic words, irrespective of their morphological structure. Context interference appeared to vary by children’s reading skill—that is, context appeared to interfere with the orthographic learning of polysyllabic words in struggling readers and children with reading difficulty but not in typically achieving children. The results also showed that, controlling for phonological decoding and orthographic knowledge, morphological knowledge contributed to the orthographic learning of polysyllabic words, irrespective of children’s reading skill. Implications for polysyllabic word reading instruction are discussed.

This mixed-methods study examined the ways secondary teachers’ participation in a year-long disciplinary literacy professional development impacted the ways teachers described and implemented disciplinary literacy instruction. Over the course of eight months, 31 teachers met for seven, three-hour sessions where they discussed literacy research, analyzed others’ instructional plans, and created disciplinary literacy activities and lessons. To examine changes in teachers’ descriptions of disciplinary literacy instruction, teachers’ self-reports of their disciplinary literacy were collected before and after the professional development and frequency counts of disciplinary literacy practices were taken and compared. To inspect potential changes in their disciplinary literacy instruction, a subgroup of participants were filmed three times (before the onset of professional development, at the midpoint of professional development, and following the conclusion of the professional development) and interviewed before and after the professional development. Two of these participants were also assigned control teachers (teaching the same discipline in the same school without participating in the professional development). These control teachers were also interviewed and filmed in the same windows. Through analysis of teachers’ written self-reports, video-recorded lessons, and interview transcripts, three key findings emerged. First, professional development had a substantial impact on the ways teachers described their disciplinary literacy instruction. Second, however, it had a smaller impact on their teaching. It is hypothesized that this may have been the relatively brief period for enactment of new knowledge. Third, participants reported that they identified and utilized available school-based supports to reflect on ideas presented in the professional development.

<p> Play time has been thought to be an important part of the Kindergarten experience. However; over the years there has been a shift in what is seen in the Kindergarten classroom. Rarely is play seen in the classroom; rather there is more focus on seated work for efficiency of meeting all standards during the year. This thesis focused on how important play in the Kindergarten classroom and how much children learn through play that examined the child&rsquo;s perception of what they learned after a mixture of guided play and free play centers. Through observations of the children and interviews, this thesis showed learning can be seen while in play through the eyes of children. Students&rsquo; observations showed learning through both independent play as well as playing in groups of students. Every station observed through this study showed some type of learning whether it was a general understanding of concepts or a very specific understanding of the concepts the students were introduced to during play. This study also showed that students learned in both guided and free play settings.</p><p>

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In order to prepare students to read for academic success and informed civic participation, teachers must give students practice in reading for argument in both born digital, printed texts, often digitized to be accessed on digital devices. However, instruction in school remains focused on texts that are not born digital, not least as academic assessments privilege reading for, and writing, argument in conventional, linear forms that do not involve born digital features. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of an intervention designed to improve the reading and writing of argument of high school seniors at a neighborhood urban public school through focused attention to born digital texts. Through analysis of student performance in formal assessments, and open coding of class activities and stimulated recall interviews, the following research questions were explored: 1. To what extent does a curriculum focused on the writing of academic arguments supplemented by a focus on born digital texts affect students’ writing performance on a college placement test? 2 To what extent does a curriculum focused on the writing of academic arguments supplemented by a focus on born digital texts affect students’ performance on the reading and writing activities in which they engaged as part of that curriculum? Pre and post testing of writing indicated that teaching reading for argument in born digital texts benefitted students in a limited fashion. Analysis of classwork and stimulated recall interviews using an analytic tool that centers on students' construction of readers, texts, contexts, and authors, as well as their deployment of rules of notice offers a more nuanced picture of student reading practices and highlights increasingly sophisticated critical readings in the classroom exposed to born digital texts. / Literacy & Learners

A nonrandomized quasi-experimental, mixed-method double pretest-posttest design was used to compare the effects of a multilinguistic word study model of instruction –RAVE-O program (Wolf, Miller, & Donnelly, 2000) — in comparison with a phonics word study model of instruction — Fountas and Pinnell Phonics Lessons — Letters, words, and how they work (Pinnell & Fountas, 2003). Repeated measures data were collected over 12 weeks, reflecting three points in time (i.e., Time 1: Fall pretest – baseline to Time 2: April pretest to Time 3: June posttest) to examine 50 first-grade students' growth in word reading and spelling. Additionally, the linguistic patterns of spelling errors were examined across approaches. It was hypothesized that first-grade students who received explicit multilinguistic word study instruction would demonstrate greater literacy achievement (i.e., word reading and spelling) than first-grade students receiving traditional phonics word study instruction. It was also hypothesized that the linguistic pattern of spelling errors (i.e., phonological, orthographic, transpositions, and morphological) would differ as a function of the instructional approach. Neither proposed hypothesis was confirmed in this study. Data showed an overarching pattern of achievement in which, for most outcomes, children demonstrated growth in word reading and spelling skills regardless of the word study approach. More extensive examination of spelling (i.e., correct words, feature points, and inflected endings) revealed significant growth over time for all spelling outcome measures — including morphological comprehension and use, regardless of the word study approach. The linguistic categories of spelling error types on multimorphemic words from least to most were transposition, orthographic image, phonological, orthographic, with the most frequent errors being morphological errors. Students in both groups demonstrated significant growth from pre- to post-testing on their ability to provide the correct affix (i.e., prefix or suffix) when spelling multimorphemic words (i.e., unable, return, giving) — even if they were unable to spell the word correctly. While neither proposed hypothesis was confirmed in this study, the results showed that multilinguistic word study instruction could produce comparable results to traditional phonics word study instruction. This study also reinforced that children in the primary grades can access and use varying linguistic resources and processes, including higher-level morphological knowledge in their reading and spelling development. Furthermore, this study supported the position that examining instruction in the primary grades that incorporates metalinguistic information and a greater understanding of oral and written language versus waiting until the upper grades warrant further examination.

No description available.