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This study investigated the impact of Virginia's K-3 Primary Class Size Reduction Program on student achievement in reading. The theoretical framework hypothesized that a reduction in class size and sustained professional development would impact instructional strategies implemented by teachers which would result in increased reading achievement by students. Information regarding the history of class size research was presented to provide readers with a chronological overview of the topic. In addition, statewide class size reduction initiatives from Indiana, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and California were reviewed. Data were collected using administrator and teacher surveys as well as an analysis of the Virginia Standards of Learning Assessments for Grade 3 English and the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) results for schools participating in the research study. The findings revealed that the Virginia K-3 Primary Class Size Reduction Program benefited grade 3 students according to gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. <i>Vita removed at the author's request. GMc Feb. 4, 2013</i> / Ph. D.

It was the purpose of this study to examine the use of the natural language of the five subjects identified as having low reading self-concept as the basis for reading instruction, and to analyze, before and after the treatment period, the miscues of the subjects to determine if the use of the language experience lesson strategies had any effect on the quality or the quantity of the subjects' miscues. Further, the reading self-concepts of the subjects were analyzed before and after the treatment period to determine if there was a change. The data for this research were obtained by analyzing the oral reading miscues of the five subjects using the Reading Miscue Inventory (RMI) (Goodman and Burke, 1972). A miscue is a deviation between the reader's oral response and the printed material. In analyzing a reader's miscues it is possible to measure the variables surrounding the miscues both quantitatively and qualitatively. A review of the literature provided background into the area of the self, self-concept and overall achievement, self-concept and reading, language experience approach to reading and the Reading Miscue Inventory. Upon completion of the treatment period and the analysis of the pre- and post-RMIs, it was found that the five subjects had made gains in their ability to utilize the three cueing systems facilitating an increase in the quality of miscues, and decreasing the quantity of miscues. Concomitantly, the data reflected an increase in the subjects' reading self-concept, especially with respect to reading in the presence of and for others. It was concluded that the study provides an alternative approach to reading instruction that utilizes the inherent language of the subject and that reading programs for the upper elementary student with a poor reading self-concept need not be presented as a skill-oriented process along, but dealt with as a meaning-based, interactive language and thought process. The study also provided evidence that the reading self-concept semantic differential scale created for this study can be utilized as an effective tool in classrooms to measure children's reading self-concept as a tool in program assessment from the affective standpoint. It is recommended that this study, using the RMI as a diagnostic reading instrument and the reading self-concept semantic differential scale might be extended, using different locale, socioeconomic and grade-level populations. It is recommended that the study be carried out in an experimental design. / Ed. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: This interpretive dissertation study sought to understand what happened when a seventh-grade teacher introduced multimodal concepts and texts into his English Language Arts classroom. Multimodal texts contain linguistic features (words and sentences) but also images and graphic design features. The classroom teacher described himself as a novice with regards to multimodal literacies instruction and had previously focused predominantly on written or spoken texts. Motivating his decision to design and enact a multimodal literacies pedagogy was his belief that students needed to garner experience interpreting and composing the kinds of texts that populated his students’ social worlds. Therefore, I asked: What happened when multimodal narratives were used as mentor texts in a seventh-grade English Language Arts classroom? Drawing from ethnographic and case study methods, I observed and gathered data regarding how the teacher and his students enacted and experienced an eight-week curriculum unit centered on multimodal concepts and multimodal texts. My findings describe the classroom teacher’s design decisions, the messiness that occurred as the classroom was (re)made into a classroom community that valued modes beyond written and spoken language, and the students’ experiences of the curriculum as classroom work, lifework, play, and drudgery. Based on my findings, I developed six assertions: (1) when designing and enacting multimodal literacies curriculum for the first time, exposing students to a wide range of multimodal texts took precedence; (2) adapted and new multimodal literacy practices began to emerge, becoming valued practices over time; (3) literacy events occurred without being grounded in literacy practices; (4) in a classroom dedicated to writing, modes of representation and communication and their associated tools and materials provided students with resources for use in their own writing/making; (5) the roles of the teacher and his students underwent change as modal expertise became sourced from across the classroom community; and (6) students experienced the multimodal literacies curriculum as play, classroom work, lifework, and drudgery. The dissertation study concludes with implications for teachers and researchers looking to converge multimodality theory with pedagogical practices and maps future research possibilities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Learning, Literacies and Technologies 2020