The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not elementary classroom teachers’ exploration of an integrated theoretical model of formative assessment would change participants’ understandings of formative assessment and whether or not participants would apply this newly-acquired knowledge to their classroom assessment practices. After exploring elements of formative assessment in a collaborative study group, participants applied new understandings to their classroom assessment practices. The model of formative assessment explored by the study group included these elements: the articulation of clear learning outcomes, the alignment of instruction and assessment to learning outcomes; the providing of feedback to students and using feedback to plan future instruction; and the involvement of students in classroom assessment practices. Previous research on formative assessment has demonstrated the importance of individual elements of formative assessment. This case study provided teachers with an integrated theoretical model that included all of the elements of formative assessment identified in the research literature and used this model as the basis for professional development to change teachers’ classroom practice. Data were gathered through surveys, study group transcripts, participant reflections, classroom observations, interviews with students and documents from individual classrooms. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative method in an effort to identify categories and themes that emerged for changes in teachers’ understandings and classroom practices for each of the elements of formative assessment. Results of the study indicate that the collaborative study group changed teachers’ understandings of the elements of formative assessment, the important relationships among the elements and the teachers’ classroom formative assessment practices. The collaborative study group also provided participants with a supportive environment in which to share their experiences as they attempted to implement new assessment practices in their classrooms.

This study was designed (1) to identify the phonemic fitness of selected graphemes, or, when necessary, the phonemic interrelationship between graphemes and phonograms, and (2) to develop phonic generalizations based upon this examination. For the study a computerized corpus of 17,211 words was used that was, with minimal modifications, originally developed for the Stanford Spelling Project. The respellings used in the Stanford study were, however, recoded to conform to the initial respellings found in the American Heritage Dictionary. After this recoding was completed, the words in the corpus were reorganized according to their frequency of occurrence. This reorganization enabled the researcher to analyze the high frequency words apart from those of lower frequencies. In addition, the minimal criterion accepted for letters or letter combinations to be considered phonemically fit was that at least 75 percent of the grapheme-phoneme correspondence was to be represented by at most two or, in the case of single vowels, three phonemes or phoneme combinations. A computer was used to get a listing of all of the words found in the corpus that contained specified letters or letter combinations. If phonemic regularity was noted in the listing for any particular grapheme, no further analysis was made. However, if an identified grapheme showed a lack of phonemic fitness, it was examined to determine if certain phonograms or letter combinations accounted for a portion of the irregularity. If such phonograms or letter combinations were found, they were treated apart from the grapheme which was in turn reexamined to determine its phonemic fitness. In all, 116 different graphemes and phonograms were identified that included single and adjacent vowels, vowel phonograms, single and compound consonant graphemes, and consonant related phonograms. Moreover, all but 18 of these were phonemically regular as governed by the objectives and limitations established for the study. Further examination revealed that the greatest number of high frequency words which were found for these 18 irregularities was, with two exceptions, 31. If these infrequent irregularities were excluded, the two primary irregularities that remained for the high frequency words included (1) the nonterminal single vowel o, and (2) the adjacent vowel combination ou (except the phonograms identified for this pair).

This study examined the pedagogical practice of a teacher educator who taught an elementary reading methods course in an urban teacher residency program. This single case study addressed the lack of a pedagogical structure and professional lexicon within an elementary reading methods course through an exploration of the how one teacher educator used the pedagogies of professional practice to teach emergent reading best practices (Grossman, Compton, Igra, Ronfeldt, Shahan, & Williamson, 2009). In addition, this study applied the pedagogies of professional practice framework to the study of a teacher educator’s pedagogical practice in an elementary reading methods course and explored what the process revealed about this approach as a research tool. The case established a pedagogical structure and lexicon for the reading methods course and determined that the application of the pedagogies of practice to the research process was a viable tool for data analysis. Findings revealed the teacher educator used the pedagogies of professional practice in coordinated ways, drawing on her understanding of reading acquisition and learning theory, to create a pedagogical structure for Emergent Reading. Additionally, the application of the pedagogies of professional practice framework to the research process articulated a structure to study pedagogical practice.

Problem. From all of the findings gleaned from research and scholarly opinion dealing with gifted education, it seems desirable to have special programs for these students. However, contradictions have appeared among educators concerning programs for the gifted. Teaching specific skills and the relationship of these skills to test scores has not yet been established for gifted children. Research in this area is sparce. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of the Benen Reading Skills Instructional Approach with gifted students to determine the desirability of special programs of this type for gifted students, and if such instruction increased the scores in vocabulary skills, comprehension skills, syllabication skills, sound discrimination skills and blending skills for these students. Procedures. The research undertaken for this study utilized fourth grade gifted students found in ten gifted centers in Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax County, Virginia. Four schools were randomly selected from the ten gifted centers, two being assigned as control groups and two as experimental groups. Fifty-one students were in the control group and forty-nine were in the experimental group. Both groups received the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, Forms W and X as a pre-test and posttest. The two control groups were taught the traditional reading program by their classroom teacher. The two experimental groups were taught the BRSIA by their classroom teacher one period a day, five days a week, for the period of four weeks. The analysis of covariance procedures were used to measure gains in vocabulary achievement, comprehension achievement, syllabication achievement, sound discrimination achievement and blending achievement. Conclusions. The experimental group had significantly higher gains than the control group on all five subtests of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test. The results revealed significant differences in achievement gains between the experimental and control groups at the .10 level of significance. Recommendations. Further study is recommended in the field of reading programs for the gifted. It is also recommended that further research be performed to see what other diagnostic measures are available for testing gifted students. Other research studies in the field of reading programs for the gifted are recommended, such as using another trade book at the fourth grade level, research conducted using the same teacher from both the experimental and control groups, and longitudinal studies to note if gains made will last over a period of years.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of supplementary computer-assisted instruction in raising the reading achievement of Chapter I pupils in grades 4, 5 and 6. There were 340 subjects in the sample, students in the Manteca Unified School District. Subjects were assigned to either the Experimental or Control Group based on their Reading Subtest scores on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills.

A theory is presented to explain the reading patterns found among dyslexics through a single process of encoding representations binding phonology and orthography of units of varying numbers of letters within the lexical repertoire. Dyslexia is explained as a function of lack of clarity in the phonological input, resulting in more tenuously bound orthographical-phonological representations. With extensive exposure to the proper phonological input such bound representations can be formed, but the process is very effortful compared to that among unimpaired readers. In order to demonstrate this claim it is necessary to show that errors among dyslexics occur more frequently in low-frequency words, that more sound-related errors are made, that substitution errors are phonetically close to the proper sounds and that the LATAS intervention, which involves memorization of lists of words, would cause the word parts contained on the memorized lists to have correspondingly fewer errors when they are contained in words read by the individuals than other, non-practiced word parts. The paper proposes ways in which to test these claims.

Formative assessment measures are commonly used in schools to assess early literacy skills as indicators of reading acquisition and to design instruction accordingly. The purpose of this research was to investigate the incremental predictive validity of formative assessment measures of reading comprehension. It was hypothesized that formative measures of reading comprehension will contribute more to our understanding of students' overall reading abilities than simply Oral Reading Fluency (ORF). It was also hypothesized that these measures can be modeled in a meaningful way to explain student performance on criterion measures of academic competence. Four formative measures of reading comprehension---Maze (MZ), Retell Fluency (RTF), Written Retell (WRT), and Sentence Verification Technique (SVT)---were used to measure unique aspects of reading comprehension through production-type responses in an efficient and instructionally meaningful way. The Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE) was used as a measure of overall reading proficiency while the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) was used as a measure of academic competence. Data were collected from 111 fourth grade students from two Western Massachusetts elementary schools. Four multiple regression equations were computed to test the hypothesis that measures of reading comprehension will contribute more to our understanding of reading proficiency than ORF alone. Each measure significantly predicted performance on GRADE above and beyond that predicted by ORF. A larger multiple regression equation was used to evaluate which measure predicted a unique and significant proportion of the variance in reading proficiency. The MZ, SVT and WRT were significant predictors in the model. Using the measures found to be significant with ORF, a logistic regression analysis was computed to evaluate how reliably the newly constructed model predicted a pass or fail status on the fourth grade English Language Arts section of MCAS. None of the predictors were significant. An additional multiple regression analysis was computed to predict MCAS performance and the newly constructed model of reading proficiency. This model predicted approximately .66 of the variability in MCAS performance.

Reading is a skill that unlocks the doors of learning and success. It is commonly accepted that reading is a foundational skill that plays a major role in a child's academic success. The history of teaching reading includes many theories about the development of reading, the source of reading difficulties, and interventions for remediation. A large body of research has demonstrated that reading difficulties stem from a phonological basis and interventions that target this area are generally beneficial in helping improving reading skills (National Reading Panel, 2000; Shaywitz, 2003; Stanovich, 1986). However, there are some who even with extensive intervention continue to struggle to read. Helen Irlen (2005) proposed that these people may experience visual-perceptual distortions when reading high-contrast text (black on white background). Irlen claims that symptoms of this disorder, termed Scotopic Sensitivity or Irlen Syndrome, can be alleviated by the use of color overlays or filters (tinted glasses). Research into the existence of this syndrome and the effectiveness of the overlays and filters to remediate reading problems has been inconsistent and criticized for lacking scientific rigor and heavy reliance on subject report of improvement. The present study seeks to evaluate differences that may exist in eye movements and reading fluency when subjects diagnosed with IS read text with and without color overlays. Participants were screened with the Irlen Reading Perceptual Scale (IRPS) to determine whether or not they suffered from the syndrome. From this screening, participants chose an overlay reported to alleviate distortions or discomfort they experienced when reading. They were then asked to read 18 passages under three conditions—with a clear overlay, with their chosen overlay, and with a random overlay—while their eye movements were recorded. Results indicated that participants showed no improvement in eye movement or reading fluency when they read passages with an optimum (chosen) overlay verses a clear overlay or a random overlay.

The Problem. Presently Chinese bilingual educators are divided in their opinions on the desirability of introducing initial reading in Chinese in an American school setting. A review of research studies found that data on the effects of Chinese reading instruction in a bilingual program was lacking. The present study was designed to examine the effects of Chinese character recognition instruction on the English reading readiness of Chinese and non-Chinese speaking kindergarten students. The study attempted to provide baseline data, information and recommendations for further research for Chinese bilingual education programs. Procedures. A quasi-experimental design using control and experimental groups was utilized. Chinese and non-Chinese-speaking experimental and control kindergarten students were pretested with The Metropolitan Readiness and The Slingerland Pre-reading Screening Procedures. The experimental students were given Chinese character recognition instruction over a six week period. Twenty-two Chinese characters were taught during fifteen instructional sessions. Post tests were given to all the students. A Chinese character recognition test was developed and given to the experimental students. The collected data were analyzed using the Analysis of Covariance and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis. Findings. Results of data analysis supported positive effects of Chinese character instruction on student skills in letter recognition, copying of patterns and copying from memory. Positive correlation between Chinese character recognition ability and overall English reading readiness, letter recognition, and intellectual maturity as measured by the draw-a-man test were also found. Conclusions and Recommendations. Findings of the study indicated that Chinese character instruction is probably more effective than English reading readiness instruction commonly practiced in the classroom for the improvement of certain reading readiness skills. A cause and effect relationship is probable between Chinese character instruction and the improvement in skills in letter recognition and pattern copying. Since the sample of the study was small, larger sample studies are recommended to determine the generalizability of the findings of this study. Studies using structured observations of student behaviors in utilizing strategies learned from Chinese instruction in English reading readiness activities were also recommended.

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