Your search found 5823 results.

Descriptors:
Literacy; Books; Clubs; Student Reaction; Literacy Education; Reading Comprehension; Childrens Literature; Elementary School Students; Elementary School Teachers; Reading; Reading Instruction; Grade 2; Grade 3; Early Childhood Education; Emergent Literacy; Writing Instruction; Childrens Writing

Abstract:
This article positions a view of student responses with relation to current literacy expectations. Student responses to a single book, "The Egypt Game," are explored. The responses are analysed from a group and individual student perspectives. The responses demonstrate the complex understandings that young students created about this book. Connections to current classroom practices are explored. (Contains 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

Related Items: Show Related Items

Full-Text Availability Options:

More Info:
Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text |  More Info:
Help Find in a Library |  Publisher's website

Descriptors:
Item Response Theory; Morphemes; Semantics; Reading Comprehension; Word Frequency; Vocabulary Development; Reading Ability; Adolescents; Reading; Literacy; Middle School Students; Models; Literacy Education; Grade 7; Grade 8; Vocabulary; Raw Scores; Correlation; Syllables

Abstract:
The current study uses a crossed random-effects item response model to simultaneously examine both reader and word characteristics and interactions between them that predict the reading of 39 morphologically complex words for 221 middle school students. Results suggest that a reader's ability to read a root word (e.g., "isolate") predicts that reader's ability to read a related derived word (e.g., "isolation"). After controlling for root-word reading, results also suggest that the remaining variability in derived-word reading can be explained by word and reader characteristics. The significant word characteristics include derived-word frequency and root-word frequency but not morpheme neighborhood size, average family frequency, number of morphemes, or semantic opaqueness. The significant reader characteristics include morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge but not reading comprehension. Only phonological and orthographic-phonological opaqueness interacted with the effect of root-word reading, suggesting that students were less able to apply root-word knowledge when the root word changed phonologically (with or without an orthographic change) in the larger derived word. Discussion is included regarding how findings from this study inform the development of models of word reading for adolescents. (Contains 3 tables, 3 figures, and 2 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

Related Items: Show Related Items

Full-Text Availability Options:

More Info:
Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text |  More Info:
Help Find in a Library |  Publisher's website

Descriptors:
Teaching Methods; Social Studies; Reading Comprehension; Content Area Reading; Academic Achievement; Reading Improvement; Middle Schools; Grade 8; Comparative Analysis; Reading; Pretests Posttests; Intervention; Core Curriculum; State Standards; Alignment (Education)

Abstract:
This study aimed to determine the efficacy of a content acquisition and reading comprehension treatment implemented by eighth-grade social studies teachers. Using a within-teacher design, the eighth-grade teachers' social studies classes were randomly assigned to treatment or comparison conditions. Teachers (n = 5) taught the same instructional content to both treatment and comparison classes, but the treatment classes used instructional practices focused on teaching essential words, text as a source for reading and discussion, and team-based learning approaches. Students in the treatment conditions (n = 261) scored statistically higher than students in the comparison conditions (n = 158) on all three outcomes: content acquisition (ES = 0.17), content reading comprehension (ES = 0.29), and standardized reading comprehension (ES = 0.20). Findings are interpreted as demonstrating support for the treatment in improving both knowledge acquisition and reading comprehension within content area instruction. (Contains 8 tables, 1 figure, and 1 note.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

Related Items: Show Related Items

Full-Text Availability Options:

More Info:
Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text |  More Info:
Help Find in a Library |  Publisher's website

Descriptors:
Self Efficacy; Intervention; Reading Instruction; Grade 7; Reading Motivation; Reading; Reading Achievement; Adolescents; Middle School Students; Correlation; Measurement; Reading Teachers; Language Arts; Control Groups; Experimental Groups; Structural Equation Models; Reading Comprehension

Abstract:
This study modeled the interrelationships of reading instruction, motivation, engagement, and achievement in two contexts, employing data from 1,159 seventh graders. In the traditional reading/language arts (R/LA) context, all students participated in traditional R/LA instruction. In the intervention R/LA context, 854 students from the full sample received Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) while the remainder continued to receive traditional R/LA. CORI emphasizes support for reading motivation, reading engagement, and cognitive strategies for reading informational text. Seven motivation constructs were included: four motivations that are usually positively associated with achievement (intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, valuing, and prosocial goals) and three motivations that are usually negatively associated with achievement (perceived difficulty, devaluing, and antisocial goals). Reading engagement was also represented by positive and negative constructs, namely dedication to and avoidance of reading. Gender, ethnicity, and income were statistically controlled in all analyses. In the traditional R/LA context, a total network model prevailed, in which motivation was associated with achievement both directly and indirectly through engagement. In contrast, in the intervention R/LA context, a dual-effects model prevailed, in which engagement and achievement were separate outcomes of instruction and motivation. The intervention R/LA context analyses revealed that CORI was associated with positive changes in motivation, engagement, and achievement relative to traditional R/LA instruction. The discussion explains why there were different relations in the two instructional contexts and demonstrates the importance of simultaneously examining both positive (affirming) and negative (undermining) forms of motivation and engagement. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures, and 1 note.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

Related Items: Show Related Items

Full-Text Availability Options:

More Info:
Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text |  More Info:
Help Find in a Library |  Publisher's website

Descriptors:
Literacy; Foreign Countries; Control Groups; Phonemes; Rhyme; Reading Instruction; Computer Assisted Instruction; Reading; Intervention; Comparative Analysis; Reading Difficulties; Young Children; Literacy Education; Spelling; Phoneme Grapheme Correspondence; Phonics; Phonemic Awareness; Phonological Awareness; Effect Size; Pretests Posttests; Grade 2; Elementary School Students

Abstract:
We report an empirical comparison of the effectiveness of two theoretically motivated computer-assisted reading interventions (CARI) based on the Finnish GraphoGame CARI: English GraphoGame Rime (GG Rime) and English GraphoGame Phoneme (GG Phoneme). Participants were 6-7-year-old students who had been identified by their teachers as being relatively poor at reading. The students were divided into three groups. Two of the groups played one of the games as a supplement to normal classroom literacy instruction for five sessions per week for a period of 12 weeks. The third group formed an untreated control. Both games led to gains in reading, spelling, and phonological skills in comparison with the untreated control group. The two interventions also had some differential effects. The intervention gains were maintained at a four-month follow-up. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures, and 1 note.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

Related Items: Show Related Items

Full-Text Availability Options:

More Info:
Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text |  More Info:
Help Find in a Library |  Publisher's website

Descriptors:
Reading; Essay Tests; Language Tests; Integrated Activities; English (Second Language); Undergraduate Students; Language Usage; Syntax; Grammar; Accuracy; Language Fluency; Information Sources; Statistical Analysis; Foreign Countries

Abstract:
As a growing number of testing programs use integrated writing tasks, more validation research is needed to inform stakeholders about score use and interpretation. The current study investigates the relationship between writing proficiency and discourse features in an integrated reading-writing task. At a Middle Eastern university, 136 undergraduate students completed a reading-based writing task. The essays were holistically scored by two raters and then classified into three proficiency levels. In addition, the essays were analyzed for a number of discourse features, including fluency, lexical sophistication, syntactic complexity, grammatical accuracy, verbatim source use, and direct and indirect source use. A one-way analysis of variance was employed to look into the relationship between writing proficiency and the discourse features of interest. The results yielded significant differences across proficiency levels for a number of discourse features. Nonetheless, follow-up comparisons indicated that the differences were greater between the lowest level and the two upper levels. As for the upper levels, no statistically significant differences were found between these two levels for most of the discourse features. The implications of the study suggest that the selected discourse features play a major role at lower levels, whereas other textual features, such as cohesion, content, and organization, are more critical at higher level writing. The results also support the need in a construct of integrated writing for the inclusion of reading proficiency and knowledge about discourse synthesis. (Contains 7 tables, 1 figure and 3 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

Related Items: Show Related Items

Full-Text Availability Options:

More Info:
Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text |  More Info:
Help Find in a Library |  Publisher's website

Descriptors:
Writing Assignments; Reading; Comprehension; Persuasive Discourse; Academic Discourse; Writing Processes; College Students; Foreign Students; Asians; English (Second Language); Interviews; Ethnography; Foreign Countries; Classroom Research

Abstract:
This article argues that task representation should be considered as part of the construct of classroom-based academic writing. Task representation is a process that writers move through when creating a unique mental model of the requirements for each new writing task they encounter. Writers' task representations evolve throughout the composing process and continue to change even after a writing assignment is submitted for evaluation. The article presents data from an ethnographic study of an argumentative writing-from-readings assignment given in an academic writing class. The data show that the task representations of the four participants heavily influenced the form and substance of their final written products. It was particularly difficult for these second-language writers to interpret task cues emanating from the teacher and context to understand the boundaries of the writing-from-sources task and construct appropriate task representations. Consequently, two received a score of 0% for plagiarism and one intentionally avoided part of the source use requirement of the writing task. Because the participants' writing performance was partially a result of the accuracy and appropriateness of their task representations, this article argues that task representation should be considered when defining the construct of an academic writing-from-sources assessment. (Contains 2 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

Related Items: Show Related Items

Full-Text Availability Options:

More Info:
Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text |  More Info:
Help Find in a Library |  Publisher's website

Descriptors:
Language Tests; Integrated Activities; Reading; Writing (Composition); Information Sources; Writing Tests; Academic Discourse; Evaluation Research

Abstract:
The five studies presented in this special issue offer unique evidence, analyses, and theoretical rationales for assessment tasks that involve writing in reference to information from source material with substantial content. I review the five studies in respect to five "promises" and five "perils," concluding that, collectively, the promises were mostly fulfilled, but so were most of the perils. The promises are that these task types (a) provide realistic, challenging literacy activities; (b) engage test takers in writing that is responsible to specific content; (c) countertest method or practice effects associated with conventional item types; (d) evaluate language abilities consistent with construction-integration or multiliteracies models of literacy; and (e) offer diagnostic value for instruction or self-assessment. The perils of these task types, however, are that they (a) confound the measurement of writing abilities with abilities to comprehend source materials; (b) muddle assessment and diagnostic information together; (c) involve genres that are ill-defined and so difficult to score; (d) require threshold levels of abilities for competent performance, producing test results that may not compare neatly across different ability levels; and (e) elicit texts in which the language from source materials is hard to distinguish from examinees' own language production. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

Related Items: Show Related Items

Full-Text Availability Options:

More Info:
Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text |  More Info:
Help Find in a Library |  Publisher's website

Descriptors:
Academic Achievement; Teacher Effectiveness; Reading Fluency; Educational Research; Grade 3; Grade 1; Twins; Comparative Analysis; Models; Oral Reading; Reading; Grade 2; Elementary School Students; Inferences; Experiments; Scores; Quasiexperimental Design; Measures (Individuals)

Abstract:
This study introduces a co-twin control method commonly used in the medical literature but not often within educational research. This method allows for a comparison of twins discordant for an "exposure," approximating alternative outcomes in the counterfactual model. Example analyses use data drawn from the Florida Twin Project on Reading to determine whether exposure to "teacher quality," measured by growth in oral reading fluency (ORF) scores of classmates, causally affects ORF performance of twins in the subsequent years. The analysis highlights PROC MIXED in SAS, including a novel expansion to allow for the nested data. Results from 2,788 twins suggested that being in classrooms with lower teacher quality in first grade leads to lower ORF scores in second and third grade with little indication of possible genetic or environmental confounding. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

Related Items: Show Related Items

Full-Text Availability Options:

More Info:
Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text |  More Info:
Help Find in a Library |  Publisher's website

Descriptors:
Individual Differences; Reading Fluency; Curriculum Based Assessment; Correlation; Scores; Benchmarking; Data; Models; Statistical Analysis; Reading; Measurement; Factor Analysis; Intervals

Abstract:
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate ways to model nonlinear growth using three testing occasions. We demonstrate our growth models in the context of curriculum-based measurement using the fall, winter, and spring passage reading fluency benchmark assessments. We present a brief technical overview that includes the limitations of a growth model with three time points, and how nonlinear growth can be modeled and the associated limitations. We present results for a piecewise growth mixture modeling approach to model nonlinear growth for 1 to 3 classes, as well as to further explain individual differences and to capture heterogeneity of growth patterns. We discuss our interpretation of these results, as well as the implications of different methods for modeling nonlinear growth with three occasions. (Contains 3 tables, 3 figures, and 2 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

Related Items: Show Related Items

Full-Text Availability Options:

More Info:
Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text |  More Info:
Help Find in a Library |  Publisher's website