The purpose of this study was to determine how policies regarding remedial education can influence the experiences of students who identify as low socioeconomic (SES) Native American women at a Midwestern community college. This study proposed to use interpretive policy analysis and phenomenological qualitative research to learn more about how low SES Native American women view their experiences in the classroom. An interpretive policy analysis determined how various interpretive communities understood policies, how they enacted these policies in the classroom, and how students reacted to them. For the qualitative research portion, I interviewed three low SES Native American women at a community college and three of their instructors. I found that this institution’s policies considered the cost and value of education as paramount. Subsequently, the Native American students I interviewed found themselves on the outside of the college, isolated and struggling to succeed.

It is the purpose of this experiment to discover and report the effectiveness of applying a standardized diagnosis followed by recommended remedial procedures to a fifth grade reading group.

LD2668 .T4 1947 W4 / Master of Science

A single-case research design was used to test the effectiveness of combining three instructional strategies to improve the word recognition, reading comprehension, and reading fluency of one post-primary child with a history of reading difficulty. The strategies selected, phonological decoding, metacognitive thinking, and rehearsal were shown throughout the literature to be effective on their own and in various combinations for supporting children with reading difficulty. The ten-year old female subject was given instruction in using these strategies in an intensive 1 : 1 setting. The subject met with a Research Assistant for three, 1-1 54 hour sessions each week over a ten week period. Prior to collecting baseline data, pre-testing was conducted using standardized instruments, the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test 11 (2002) and the Slosson Oral Reading Test (1 963) and a non-standardized instrument, the Classroom Reading Inventory (Silvaroli, 1982). Graded word lists and passages taken from the Diagnostic Reading Program, an inventory prepared for the Alberta Ministry of Education, Student Evaluation Branch (1 986) were used to assess the subject's skills in word recognition, comprehension, and fluency. During Session #9, the intervention, a combination of phonological decoding, metacognitive thinking, and rehearsal strategies were taught prior to testing and data collection. At Session #15, the intervention was applied to comprehension. Although data was collected for fluency scores throughout the study, the intervention was not directly applied to this variable. Post testing revealed the subject's word recognition and comprehension skills improved after the intervention was introduced, demonstrated by the generally positive trend on the multiple baseline whereas fluency scores actually dropped as she slowed her reading down to use the strategies for decoding unknown words. The quantitative data collected during post-testing with the WIAT I1 indicates an increase in percentile and age level scores that the subject's scores in word recognition (13%, 1 year), comprehension (57%, 4.4 years), and pseudoword decoding (lo%, 1 year) and scores on the SORT demonstrate a grade level equivalent growth of 1.2 years. Qualitative data in form of daily field notes by the Research Assistant signifl an overall positive change in the subject's view of herself as a reader. The strategies gave her more confidence, she abandoned her key strategy of guessing in favor of metacognitive thinking and decoding strategies, and focused on meaning, all of which contributed to higher post-testing scores for word recognition and in particular, comprehension as well as generally positive trends in baselines. After the study was completed, the subject was observed by her classroom teacher to have improved her performance and participation in the reading program and most significantly, was presenting a more positive and enthusiastic attitude toward reading. It is acknowledged by the researcher that although provision of intensive 1 : 1 instruction in the use of reading strategies is not always feasible for schools attempting to provide quality instruction and programming for students with a wide range of abilities, these strategies, when applied, can significantly improve the word recognition and reading comprehension skills of a post-primary student with a history of reading dificulty although they caused a reduction in reading fluency scores.

This study explored the potential value of alternating Philosophy with Picture Books (PB) within the Integrated Approach to Literacy Instruction (IATLI), to support two boys with dyslexia. PB was chosen in this explorative study because of its use of visual instruction, which a child with dyslexia is likely to respond more favourably to, because visual modes of learning is more complimentary to such learners. PB originates from the approach Philosophy with Children (P4C) that supports a pedagogy involving communicative virtues and collaborative thinking. Such attributes are likely to add value to an intervention as it may lead to the development of meta-cognitive strategies, which could both support and motivate their learning. The Integrated Approach to Literacy Instruction (IATLI) was also chosen in this explorative study because research suggests that children with dyslexia struggle with the acquisition of phonological awareness. One of the aims of the IATLI is to develop such a weakness. This study explores in particular how alternating the IALTI and PB could possibly add value in supporting two boys with dyslexia. The responses of both boys to the two approaches, in-depth interviews with both boys’ English teachers, and developmental diaries kept by the English teachers, the researcher, as well as the participants was analysed utilising thematic coding. In addition, pre and posttesting was administered and added to the triangulation of this study. The main findings indicated that alternating the IATLI and PB was valuable for these two boys and led to some improvement, relating to their personal development, positive attitude to engagement in remedial therapy, improved self esteem and areas of literacy improvement. It did not however result in significant improvement, as the boys did not transfer the skills taught in remedial therapy to the classroom, nor was significant improvement noticed by their English teachers.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether good and poor second grade readers differed in their abilities to respond orally with words which were syntactically correct and were semantically equivalent while reading aloud a fifty item oral cloze test. An extreme range in variance on the dependent measure of semantic equivalence prohibited the planned multivariate analysis of the two dependent measures of syntactic correctness and semantic equivalence. A nonorthogonal univariate analysis of variance was conducted on the dependent measure of syntactic correctness, with intelligence and sex controlled.The subjects for the study were second grade students randomly selected from six middle class elementary schools in a middle size midwestern city. Only students who fit the criteria of a second grade reader and a user of language, employed in this study, formed the population from which the sample was selected. In order to control for the effects of sex, four groups of subjects were used -- twenty male good readers; twenty female good readers; twenty male poor readers; and eighteen female poor readers. Level of reading achievement was based on the subject's score on the reading subtest of the Metropolitan Achievement Tests: Reading Tests, Primary II, Form F. Intelligence was controlled in the statistical analysis through use of the stanine scores of the subjects on the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test, Elementary I Level, Form J.The subjects were administered a fifty item cloze test, constructed and piloted by the researcher. Subjects read the cloze test aloud and supplied responses for the deleted items, which were recorded on answer sheets. A trained judge scored the responses. The criterion for syntactic correctness was as follows: A response was considered to be syntactically correct if it belonged to the same grammatical class as the deleted word. The criterion for semantic equivalence was as follows: A response was considered to be semantically equivalent if, when substituted for the deleted word, it did not alter the meaning of the passage up to the point of the deletion and the meaning of the sentence in which it occurred.The three independent variables in the study were intelligence with two levels (high and average), sex with two levels (male and female), and reading achievement with two levels (good and poor.) Intelligence and sex were used as controlling factors. The two dependent measures were syntactic correctness and semantic equivalence. However, the extreme variability within the dependent measure of semantic equivalence prohibited statistical analysis.A nonorthogonal univariate analysis of variance was conducted on the dependent measure of syntactic correctness, with intelligence and sex controlled. The null hypothesis was rejected (F=13.195, with 1 and 70 degrees of freedom p < .0001). Good second grade readers did have significantly higher syntactic correctness scores on the oral cloze test than poor second grade readers. While the difference between the marginal means for good and poor second grade readers was small, it was statistically significant. Although the dependent measure of semantic equivalence was not analyzed, the within-cell correlation between syntactic correctness and semantic equivalence was high (.794).The finding of the study was interpreted to mean that good second grade readers appeared to be more aware of and more able to use the syntactical constraints of the printed text to supply missing words. It was concluded that poor readers may need to be specifically taught to use the syntactical constraints of the printed text, rather than expecting this ability to develop naturally.

Thesis (EdD)--Open University.

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