No Child Left Behind (2001) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) has put pressure on all teachers to develop proficient readers. In order to do just this, develop proficient readers, teachers must understand the effects that reading attitude has on reading achievement for all students. Research states that individuals with a positive attitude toward reading typically achieve at a higher level than those students with a poor attitude toward reading (Sainsbury & Schagen, 2004). However, there is a limited amount of research that has provided insight into how factors of socioeconomic status, gender, and disability may play a part in both attitudes and achievement in reading. This study examined whether socioeconomic status, gender, and/or disability played a role in the reading attitudes of students in grades one through six. The study also evaluated whether students’ attitude toward reading changed depending on their grade level. / Department of Special Education

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of reading aloud nonfiction science trade books on the attitudes toward science and the book selection habits of students in the elementary classroom. Gender differences among attitude and book selection were also explored.The school district chosen as the site for the research was located in a small Midwestern town with a population of about 32,000. The community consisted of people with diverse socioeconomic status and cultural backgrounds. Four teachers and 73 third grade students participated in the study. Complete data was available for 60 students.The four classrooms were randomly divided into two groups, those listening to science nonfiction trade books for twenty minutes each day for six weeks and those listening to nonscience books for twenty minutes each day for six weeks. An attitudinal survey was administered at the beginning and the end of the study. The percentage of science books versus other types of books was monitored for the six week period.The analysis of data revealed that students who were read the science nonfiction books chose a greater percentage of science books when checking out books from the library than did the students who were read nonscience books. There was no difference in the percentage of books selected by girls compared with those selected by boys. Results also showed a very slight increase in positive attitude toward science as a result of listening to science books during read-aloud sessions. There was no significant difference in the attitudes of the girls compared to the boys who were read science books. / Department of Elementary Education

A study to determine whether the Tarrant County Free Library is meeting the recreational readying needs of elementary school students.

This study examines the reading ability of elementary school students in multiple courses in order to determine the need for a change in curriculum.

No description available.

Submitted In Fulfillment Of The Requirements For The Degree Of Master Of Technology (Quality), Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2012. / Reading is fundamental to functioning effectively in today's society. Learners with poor reading abilities have low opinions of themselves and their abilities (Patil, Saraswathi and Padakannaya, 2009:93). Behavioural problems may arise as these learners feel isolated and frustrated. The development of learners’ literacy in South Africa as a developing country is accentuated by several challenges. Many learners in South Africa have difficulty understanding the language in which they are taught as they are not taught in their mother tongue. However, the language of instruction is not solely responsible for the poor performance in international reading tests and schooling in general. Learners are faced with socio-economic issues, very little or hardly any parental supervision and educators are faced with the challenge of finding reading methods and strategies suitable to improving reading. Learners in the foundation phase are explicitly taught reading skills. In the intermediate phase, learners are expected to apply the skills acquired in the foundation phase to access the curriculum. In reality, this is difficult to achieve. The focus of this study is on preparing current intermediate phase educators in the development of learner literacy by contributing possible strategies that will enable the improvement of the quality of intermediate phase reading. The study was conducted at primary schools to the north of Durban. A questionnaire was distributed to intermediate phase educators, including members of school management. Of the selected sample of 450, 366 of the respondents returned the questionnaire with no inaccuracies, declaring an 85% response rate. The Predictive Analytic Software (PASW) Version 18.0 was used to analyse the data collected from the responses. The results are presented in the form of graphs, cross tabulations and other figures. An analysis of the data revealed significant statistics from the different aspects explored (biographical data; factors impacting on reading literacy; language and reading instruction; strategies for teaching reading; library and computer resources; systems for improving reading quality; and homework). The study contributes to several academic disciplines and the development of society in general, as it proposes strategies and recommendations that may be implemented to improve the quality of intermediate phase reading, and thereby contribute to schooling experience in general. The study recommends that all stakeholders (home; school management; educators; and the department of education) be held accountable for the improvement of literacy in our country. Educators need to be trained in the teaching of reading and parents need to play a more active role in the learners’ lives. It is imperative that remedial educators and special personnel be employed by the department of education to assist learners with reading difficulties. The study further recommends that the time allocated for intermediate phase literacy education be reviewed. The reinstating of collapsed libraries is vital to improving the quality of reading. In addition, the administrative workload of educators requires re-examination in light of the poor results achieved in the national (ANA) and international (PIRLS) literacy programmes. / M

An intervention, which targeted three- and four-year-old children's oral language, was developed for this study. The intervention was run over twice-weekly sessions, for ten weeks. Incorporating good Early Years practice, the first session in the week was a group shared storybook reading session with a puppet, where dialogic discussion took place and the children practised sequencing the story using visual prompts. The second weekly session consisted of planning, acting out and reviewing a planned pretend play episode based on the storybook which was read in that week's first session. Ninety-four children were randomly assigned to a control or treatment group and were tested at pre- and post-test on a battery of vocabulary and narrative assessments. The results of a Randomised Control Trial were positive in favour of the intervention. The most important of these results was a statistically significant effect on the receptive vocabulary of the children in the treatment group, with a large effect size, as measured by the standardised British Picture Vocabulary Scales (Dunn et al., 1997). There was also a significant effect on productive vocabulary, as measured by a Researcher-Designed Vocabulary Test (RDVT). This test was devised for the purpose of this study, testing one-word vocabulary, taken directly from the storybooks in the intervention. As this is not a norm-referenced, standardised test, caution is advisable in the interpretation of this result. A further positive effect concerned the narrative skills of the children in the treatment group, when compared to the children in a control group - the Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) score was higher in the treatment group, with a medium effect size. By examining the intervention by Randomised Control Trial, this study responds to the call from Lillard et al (2013) for more experimental research on pretend play and narrative. The acknowledgement of the role of the adult in the intervention coupled with the positive effect on the children's MLU and receptive vocabulary mean that the intervention, with further development, has the potential to be used as a Professional Development tool for supporting language development in the Early Years in the UK, in the future.

This study is the result of an evaluation conducted at the Sam Houston Secondary School library in Corsicana, Texas to determine if the needs of students were being met.