The aim of this study is to investigate the illustrations in a classical children’s book in order to see how the pictures can support reading comprehension during reading aloud in the classroom. The study analyses three different Swedish editions of Alice in Wonderland with the aid of analytical questions inspired by Maria Nikolajeva’s analysis in Bilderbokens pusselbitar (2000). The three editions show dissimilarities in the use of illustrations to assist pupils in their understanding of the text. One of the editions in particular stands out in that it provides detailed pictorial information in connection with descriptions of people and places that pupils might otherwise find hard to understand. The aim of this study is to investigate the illustrations in a classical children’s book in order to see how the pictures can support reading comprehension during reading aloud in the classroom. The study analyses three different Swedish editions of Alice in Wonderland with the aid of analytical questions inspired by Maria Nikolajeva’s analysis in Bilderbokens pusselbitar (2000). The three editions show dissimilarities in the use of illustrations to assist pupils in their understanding of the text. One of the editions in particular stands out in that it provides detailed pictorial information in connection with descriptions of people and places that pupils might otherwise find hard to understand.

The research literature is replete with relatively small scale studies investigating various theories of reading. This research is often exploratory rather than confirmatory in nature. To avoid such limitations, samples from a large data base were used to examine causal models based on the Goodman theory of reading and the concepts of process and product comprehension. Two separate causal models were created using the following variables: graphic similarity, sound similarity, acceptability with prior text, acceptability with following text, acceptability or correction, the retelling score for the text read, the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills Vocabulary and Comprehension scores, and the Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) scores. The sample for one model consisted of 448 Grade Two to Grade Five students enrolled in a Chapter I program in the southwestern United States. The sample for the second model consisted of only the Grade Four and Grade Five students from the larger sample since DRP scores were not available for other students. In the hypothesized models graphic and sound similarity, and acceptability with prior and following were posited to load on a latent factor representing the unitary dimension of reading which in turn was posited to be causally related to process and product variables. Process variables included the acceptable or corrected score (RMI comprehending score) and the DRP score. Product variables included the CTBS scores and the retelling score. Product variables were posited to be dependent upon process variables. Analysis was conducted using the LISREL program. For both models causal pathways were dropped between process and product comprehension variables but were retained between the latent variables of reading and process and product comprehension. In addition, the DRP score loaded on product comprehension more than on process comprehension while retelling loaded more on process comprehension than product comprehension. Variables relating to the Goodman theory appeared to be more interrelated than those external to the theory. Implications for the uses of causal modeling and the constructs of process and product comprehension are discussed.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of the present study was to compare the oral reading miscues and reading comprehension in two groups of young adult Spanish-English bilinguals. Based on current language use, we characterized participants as either “active bilinguals” (using Spanish at least 20% of the time) or “inactive bilinguals (using Spanish less than 20% of the time). Information gained in the present study demonstrated that English-dominant young adult bilinguals produced more oral reading miscues in Spanish than in English, regardless of current language use. Results also demonstrated that increased rate of miscues in Spanish did not negatively affect reading comprehension. / text

The purpose of the study was to examine the use of a prediction technique during the reading of short stories with surprise endings. Investigated were the effects of instructional setting and content familiarity upon interest, overall reading comprehension, literal comprehension, and inferential comprehension. Verbal predictions and supportive evidence generated at the midpoint and prior the story climax was also examined. The subjects, 54 Chapter I remedial readers in a metropolitan school district in Tucson, Arizona, were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. The study spanned three days. During this time, the students in the individualized treatment read three stories--one of familiar content, one of neutral content, and one of unfamiliar content. Each subject in this treatment generated hypotheses and support for predictions at both the story midpoint and climax. After each story, individual students completed an interest questionnaire and a comprehension assessment. Those in the group treatment followed the same procedure, with predictions and supportive evidence shared in a small group setting of three. Those in the control group read without predicting. The data analysis yielded these findings: (1) Overall comprehension and literal comprehension were not affected by the prediction treatment or story familiarity. (2) The control group surpassed the interest group on the number of inferential questions answered correctly; both the control group and the group prediction treatment subjects performed better than the individualized prediction treatment subjects on the inferential comprehension items. (3) Both the familiar and the neutral selection were more interesting to the students than the unfamiliar selection. (4) Interest scores for the control, familiar group were substantially higher than those for the group familiar treatment, the group, unfamiliar treatment, and the control, unfamiliar treatment. (5) A relationship did not exist between the interest scores and the total comprehension scores of the three stories. (6) Most predictions at the midpoint and prior to the story climax were inaccurate. (7) Predictions, though diverse, could be categorized into approximately 14 groups at the midpoint and 14 groups at the climax. (8) Most predictions were supported either with textual information or scriptal evidence; seldom were script and text ideas combined.

Ley's Partial Model of Compliance suggests that patients who understand information given to them are more likely to remember the information and are more likely to be satisfied with the information. The model then suggests that these components will lead to greater patient compliance with medication regimens. To test the model, Patient Package Inserts (PPIs) describing thiazide diuretics from the American Association of Retired Persons, the American Medical Association, the Canadian Pharmaceutical Association, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Association of Retail Druggists, the United States Pharmacopoeial Convention and a Test PPI written by the Principal Investigator were used. The SMOG Readability Formula was used to determine the grade levels at which PPIs were written. One hundred thirty-six adults enrolled in GED classes in Tucson and other communities and 107 adults enrolled in remedial reading classes at Tucson's Pima Community College were administered the Zip Scale reading placement test and blocked by their reading abilities. Within each of the three blocks, subjects randomly received one of the seven information sheets or no sheet. Subjects took a multiple-choice test based upon information common to all of the PPIs, a cloze comprehension test based upon the PPI which they read, and completed a satisfaction survey which asked subjects to rate the PPI which they read. Subjects also read five vignettes describing fictitious patients taking thiazides who were confronted with different barriers to compliance. Subjects indicated how likely the fictitious patients were to overcome the barriers to compliance. Among this sample of remedial-reading adults, the Test PPI emerged as clearly superior to the others for any of the variables measured. This result would behoove providers of PPIs to rewrite PPIs, reducing the difficulty of these documents as much as possible. Ley's Partial Model of Compliance did not accurately describe the associations between Understanding, Memory, Satisfaction and Compliance for this sample. A New Model emerged describing different associations between these components and between subject reading ability and PPI readability.

The aging of the learning disabled population has necessitated the development of instructional methods designed to meet the unique requirements of the secondary setting. Learning strategies have been proposed as viable alternatives to the tutorial and basic skills approaches. This study investigated the effects of a vocabulary learning strategy, SOS, on science concepts. Six mainstreamed learning disabled adolescents who attended a high school resource room one period per day took part in this five month study. The design was a multiple baseline across two sets of three subjects. A continuous baseline was maintained for each subject, followed by staggered application of the independent variable. The independent variable was a vocabulary learning strategy called SOS, an acronym for Search, Operate and Study. The dependent variables were tests of science vocabulary definitions and meanings at instructional and grade level. The experimental phases included (a) baseline, (b) intervention which included training in instructional level materials and generalization to grade level materials, (c) maintenance of the strategy over time and (d) retraining if the strategy was not maintained. Criterion measures of strategy training in instructional level materials and strategy generalization to grade level materials were recorded during the intervention phase of the study. A pre and post measure of student attitude toward science was administered prior to and at the end of the study. Visual analysis of the data indicated that this vocabulary learning strategy positively affected performance on grade level and instructional level science vocabulary tests for all subjects. Five of the six subjects were able to apply the total strategy to instructional level materials and generalize it to grade level materials. All subjects maintained at least part of the strategy. Strategy training positively affected attitudes toward studying science and science vocabulary. Overall findings were discussed in the context of learner characteristics and strategy efficacy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the strategies employed by proficient and less proficient readers as they engaged in the revision of underlying models during the reading of narrative text. Specifically, four research questions were addressed: (1) What revision strategies can be identified? (2) What evidence is used in the revision process? (3) What criteria do readers employ to evaluate revision? (4) What differences exist between proficient and less proficient readers as regards the strategies, evidence and evaluation? Sixteen fifth and sixth grade readers participated in this study. Eight were grouped as proficient and eight as less proficient on the basis of reading test scores and teacher judgment. All readers read the same text, taken from Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger. The text was divided into ten sections, and readers were asked to read each section orally, and then discuss what had happened. The discussion following the reading of each section was conducted as an unstructured interview with the lead being taken from the child. The entire session was taped and transcribed. The major conclusions were: (1) Readers have available a number of strategies for revision. (2) Different texts will necessitate the use of different strategies. (3) Readers most often use a combination of endophoric and exophoric evidence to support revision. (4) The revision of interpropositional hypotheses involves more inference and elaboration of the text. (5) Proficient readers are more tentative during reading than less proficient readers. (6) Proficient readers construct more interpropositional hypotheses than do less proficient readers. The major implications of this study are: (1) Reading programs should include both materials and instructional practices enabling the full use of the strategies of prediction and confirmation by the reader. (2) Less proficient readers need to develop their use of prediction in text to the point where they are comfortable with tentativeness.

The schema activating instructional strategy of Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) has been demonstrated as an effective way of teaching vocabulary and comprehension. This study compared the SFA to three other strategies of Direct Instruction (DI), Vocabulary Look Up (VLU), and Read Only (RO) for their effectiveness to help students clarify prior misconceptions. Student responses on multiple choice pre and post tests and their written recalls were the dependent variables in this study. Subjects were four classes of 127 normal seventh and eighth grade students. The classes were randomly assigned intact to the four instructional strategies: SFA, DI, VLU, and RO. Students were pretested and then instructed using a passage on the Fourth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution according to their assigned strategies. They then took the posttest and wrote recalls. Students misconceptions in the pretest were tabulated and compared to those in the posttest to determine which of the four strategies was most effective in helping students clarify their prior misconceptions about the Fourth Amendment. Then students' written recalls were analyzed according to various conceptual categories to learn which strategy helped the students to recall the reading passage. The structure of the students' writing was also examined to find out which of the four strategies helped the students the most in integrating the new information and writing most coherently. The SFA group clarified and corrected significantly more items on the multiple choice test than any of the other groups. This finding suggests that an interactive strategy such as SFA facilitates student memory and learning of content area material. The results also demonstrated that students taught through the strategy of semantic feature analysis recalled more conceptual units than the other groups. They also wrote more cohesively with clearer structure than the others.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of background knowledge on comprehension monitoring of learning disabled students when reading expository texts with inconsistencies and when topic interest was controlled. Eight fifth- and sixth-grade learning disabled students were asked to rate their levels of knowledge and interest for 30 topics and then answered a background knowledge survey to determine three high background knowledge and three low background knowledge topics, both of medium interest. An expository passage was adopted for each of the six topics, controlling for readability, length, and structure. Each passage contained inconsistencies in the main idea and in the details, and each was followed by ten probe questions. Responses to text inconsistencies were analyzed with percentages, and a non-parametric statistical method was performed on the use of strategies. The results from the study provided additional support for the conceptualization of learning disabled students as inactive learners.