The present study was designed to examine differences between subtypes of readers and spellers in their performance on several phonological, orthographic, and memory tasks. A central question involved whether subtypes of readers and spellers could be distinguished based on their performance across the tasks administered. Based on their performance on a standardized achievement test, fourth and fifth grade children (N=50) were classified as having no difficulties with reading and spelling (good readers and spellers), difficulties with spelling, but not reading (mixed readers and spellers), or difficulties with both reading and spelling (poor readers and spellers). Each student was given a series of tasks to assess their use of phonological and orthographic information for memory and spelling. These tasks included: 1) rhyme judgment, 2) cued recall, 3) reading pronounceable pseudowords, 4) deciding which of. two pseudowords looks most like a real word, and 5) reporting on the kinds of strategies used to spell words. An error analysis was also conducted. Students with reading and spelling difficulties performed consistently lower than good and mixed readers and spellers on tasks assessing their use of phonological information. Good and mixed readers and spellers were not distinguishable on these tasks. Students with no reading and spelling difficulties or with spelling difficulties only performed better than poor readers and spellers on some tasks assessing orthographic processing. Specifically, mixed readers and spellers were distinguishable from good readers and spellers by their poorer recall of visually similar words. Good and poor subtypes were not distinguishable on this task. Poor readers and spellers also achieved comparable scores to the good and mixed readers and spellers on a measure of orthographic awareness. Overall results provided evidence supporting subtypes of reading and spelling ability groups. Students with no reading and spelling difficulties, or difficulties with spelling but not reading were similar in their use of phonological information. However, students with reading and spelling difficulties were more similar to the good readers and spellers in their use of orthographic information in memory. The findings from the present study have implications to subsequent research examining spelling ability, provide further evidence of the unique processing characteristics of the paradoxical good reader but poor speller, and suggest the possibility of unique programming needs to remediate spelling difficulties in mixed and poor readers and spellers. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

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Organized education, historically, has been slow to commit itself to any sort of intensive examination of how learning can be both analyzed and substantially improved. But today Komoski (1960) tells us that we are looking beyond the traditional approaches to teaching. If a newly developed method is shown to be more effective than the techniques which have traditionally been employed, it is carefully considered for incorporation into the current education program. Programmed instruction is just such an example of a recently developed teaching method which claims it will contribute much to education. It dates back to Pressey's report (1926) of a simple teaching device which also gave tests and scores. Extensive research into this method, however, has occurred only during the past ten or twelve years. The intense interest in programmed instruction is understandable when we consider the goals of education in this country. The chief aim of education is to help each student achieve his fullest potential. The schools can best accomplish this by helping each student to recognize his own capacities, and by using methods which will contribute to an individual's developing intrinsically within himself the motivation for learning. However, there are present-day pressures which hamper the realization of these goals. Today the world is confronted with a population rise unprecedented in history. This "population explosion" is clearly reflected in the burgeoning school enrollments and the accompanying problems of inadequate classroom space and limited facilities. Unfortunately, the consequences of these pressures prove consistently detrimental to the establishment of an ideal educational system. For example, the increased teacher load has resulted in the practice of double sessions which has tended to reduce the amount of individual attention many teachers were previously able to devote to each student. And more extensive demands upon school budgets have led to minimal teacher salary raises, contributing further to the shortage of qualified teachers. This reveals the importance of development of new educational media in order to alleviate some of the stress on the teacher and to keep pace with currently expanding fields of knowledge.

A reflection of the lighting artist’s approach for the lighting design of The Twenty-fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. University of Massachusetts, Amherst Department of Theater’s Fall 2010 production used as a research ground for the experimentation of lighting design through the cueing process.

<p> The experiments presented here investigated the effects of manipulating the visibility of spelling patterns in English print, without concurrent oral segmentation, on the word identification skills of beginning non-readers. Visibility of the orthographic patterns was manipulated by presenting material organized into rime families (blocked) or with rime families distributed throughout training (unblocked), as well as through highlighting common rimes in the same colour of print. Experiment 1 demonstrated that while a program emphasizing the orthographic patterns in the English writing system (without concurrent phonological segmentation) led to rapid improvements in beginning non-readers' on line word identification, the benefits of such training did not persist beyond the training context. Experiments 2A and 2B investigated whether the failure to transfer word reading skills beyond the blocked training context was mitigated by training programs that required increased focus on the letter patterns (2A) and the letter-sound relations (2B). These manipulations did not influence performance; children continued to demonstrate poor transfer beyond the training context. Experiment 3 focused on determining the mechanisms underlying the poor transfer following blocked training. To evaluate performance, this final experiment used a novel measure comprising word identification as well as onset and rime identification. Training materials were blocked either by rimes or onsets. The question of interest was whether training on material that blocks by orthographic units allows children to identify the blocked units during training without actively decoding their letter-sound relations, thus decreasing the probability of forming connections between the graphemes and phonemes comprising them. Results indicated that this is the case when children were trained on material blocked by rimes, but not that blocked by onsets. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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The aim of this study is to find out how various tools, digital as well as analogue, affect pupils spelling. Through a systematic literature study, this paper contributes with a research overview of what existing research shows for this subject. The results show, even though all research is not united, that pupils spelling is positively affected when the student is allowed to use their body and write by hand with the pencil. The digital tools can also contribute to the pupil's spelling developing despite the concerns over the word processing programs that exist. For students with learning disabilities, and who for various reasons have problems with the pen grip or to form letters, the digital tools can open up to a more equal school where all pupils can be equally active. The conclusion in this study shows that the choice of writing tools for the student needs to be individual as all students do not master the pen. The results in this study however points to, for pupil´s spelling, that the pen as a writing tool can be better than the digital tools.

The limited-instruction spelling course proved to be the best method of integrating spelling and typewriting instruction. The students achieved better results when they looked up the meanings of words and typed the words in sentences. Studying seven or eight words a day was more effective than studying fifteen or more words. The second-year students in both the intensive and limited-instruction group benefited more from this type of instruction than did the first-year students. The students who received no instruction showed very little improvement in spelling ability. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of computer assisted instruction on the development of literacy skills. The effect of instructional methodologies designed to stimulate sensory processing (auditory, visual, and somatic sensory) through information processing activities was analyzed. A software program was designed to present instruction to stimulate learning in one sensory modality, visual processing. Also, the effect of delivery mechanisms on the acquisition of literacy skills was investigated. Three treatment groups and a control group were established to analyze differences: cognitive processing methodologies presented via computer technology, conventional methodologies presented via computer technology, cognitive processing methodologies presented through traditional classroom tools, and a control group. A portable keyboard computer with word processing capabilities was selected to deliver technology-enhanced instruction. Results from this study suggest that activities designed to specifically promote processing in one sensory modality, do not promote acquisition of skills in other regions. There was no change in scores when visual methodologies were applied to auditory and somatic sensory cognitive processing goals. When spelling tests that utilized all sensory modalities were analyzed, visual processing instruction had no effect on achievement. This result was duplicated when tests requiring auditory processing skills were examined. However, when visual processing skills were applied to words requiring sight word memorization techniques, the methodologies improved achievement scores. Therefore, it can be concluded that methodologies increase achievement only if activities are designed to stimulate the sensory cognitive modality that the skill requires. Results of analysis concerning the effect of delivery mechanisms on spelling achievement revealed that technology is a useful tool when used to promote information processing related to the learning goal. Visual cognitive processing activities delivered via computer technology were effective only when practice activities matched instructional objectives. When conventional methods of learning spelling skills were presented utilizing technology, student scores did not increase. It can be concluded that spelling achievement can be improved through the introduction of intelligent software applications if the instructional program is designed to stimulate appropriate cognitive processes and to meet targeted learning objectives. A theory for designing instructional software to meet these criteria, The Integrated Processes Method, was presented.