Effects of children\u27s literature on students\u27 on-task behavior during mathematics instruction.

Nationally, there are increasing numbers of students who are at-risk for academic and/or social failure (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). In an attempt to address this trend, the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (PL 108-446) encouraged educators to provide early and appropriate interventions not only to identify and help children with disabilities, but to also provide additional supports for students with academic difficulties and challenging behaviors. Although there have been evidenced-based academic interventions pertaining to students with challenging behaviors, most of the literature has been focused on reading interventions rather than mathematics interventions (Bos & Vaughn, 2005). This study examined the effects of integrating children\u27s literature in mathematics instruction on the academic and behavioral outcomes of students with academic difficulty and challenging behaviors. A single subject, multiple baseline design across participants was implemented to examine the effects of this curricular approach on increasing student engagement, reducing disruptive behaviors, and increasing the teacher\u27s rate of providing opportunities to respond for four elementary students identified as exhibiting academic difficulty and challenging behaviors during Tier II mathematics instruction. In addition, two pretest/posttest designs were used to assess the academic achievement of the student participants. Results of this study suggest that integrating children\u27s literature in mathematics instruction is an effective curricular approach for increasing engagement for students with academic difficulties and challenging behaviors. Furthermore, results suggest that this curricular approach was effective in increasing the teacher\u27s rate of providing opportunities for students to respond. However, results were not definitive regarding the effectiveness of integrating children\u27s literature in mathematics instruction on decreasing disruptive behavior and there were no results of significance on student mathematics achievement. Directions for future research and educational implications are discussed

Design and analysis of a database to evaluate children’s reading aloud performance

To evaluate the reading performance of children, human assessment is usually involved, where a teacher or tutor has to take time to individually estimate the performance in terms of fluency (speed, accuracy and expression). Automatic estimation of reading ability can be an important alternative or complement to the usual methods, and can improve other applications such as e-learning. Techniques must be developed to analyse audio recordings of read utterances by children and detect the deviations from the intended correct reading i.e. disfluencies. For that goal, a database of 284 European Portuguese children from 6 to 10 years old (1st–4th grades) reading aloud amounting to 20 h was collected in private and public Portuguese schools. This paper describes the design of the reading tasks as well as the data collection procedure. The presence of different types of disfluencies is analysed as well as reading performance compared to known curricular goals.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Understanding Children’s Help-Seeking Behaviors: Effects of Domain Knowledge

This dissertation explores children’s help-seeking behaviors and use of help features when they formulate search queries and evaluate search results in IR systems. This study was conducted with 30 children who were 8 to 10 years old. The study was designed to answer three research questions with two parts in each: 1(a) What are the types of help-seeking situations experienced by children (8-10 years old) when they formulate search queries in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 1(b) What are the types of help-seeking situations experienced by children (8-10 years old) when they evaluate search results in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 2(a) What types of help features do children (8-10 years old) use and desire when they formulate search queries in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 2(b) What types of help features do children (8-10 years old) use and desire when they evaluate search results in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 3(a) How does children’s (8-10 years old) domain knowledge affect their help seeking and use of help features when they formulate search queries in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal?, 3(b) How does children’s (8-10 years old) domain knowledge affect their help seeking and use of help features when they evaluate search results in a search engine and a kid-friendly web portal? This study used multiple data collection methods including performance-based domain knowledge quizzes as direct measurement, domain knowledge self-assessments as indirect measurement, pre-questionnaires, transaction logs, think-aloud protocols, observations, and post-interviews. Open coding analysis was used to examine children’s help-seeking situations. Children’s cognitive, physical, and emotional types of help-seeking situations when using Google and Kids.gov were identified. To explore help features children use and desire when they formulate search queries and evaluate results in Google and Kids.gov, open coding analysis was conducted. Additional descriptive statistics summarized the frequency of help features children used when they formulated search queries and evaluated results in Google and Kids.gov. Finally, this study investigated the effect of children’s domain knowledge on their help seeking and use of help features in using Google and Kids.gov based on linear regression. The level of children’s self-assessed domain knowledge affects occurrences of their help-seeking situations when they formulated search queries in Google. Similarly, children’s domain knowledge quiz scores showed a statistically significant effect on occurrences of their help-seeking situations when they formulated keywords in Google. In the stage of result evaluations, the level of children’s self-assessed domain knowledge influenced their use of help features in Kids.gov. Furthermore, scores of children’s domain knowledge quiz affected their use of help features when they evaluated search results in Kids.gov. Theoretical and practical implications for reducing children’s cognitive, physical, and emotional help-seeking situations when they formulate search queries and evaluate search results in IR systems were discussed based on the results

An investigation on emergent literacy skills of preschool children with disabilities

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between home literacy activities provided by parents and their children\u27s emergent literacy skills. A total of 11 parents and their preschool children with disabilities participated in the study. A survey was provided to obtain parents\u27 strategies used during parent-child joint reading activities in the home. The Emergent Literacy Skills Assessment was administered to participating children to evaluate their emergent literacy skills in six areas including identifying primary shapes and colors, letter identification, reciting the alphabet, identifying the parts of a book and identifying their own name in print. The surveyed parents reported they often read to their child, identify signs and logos, sing songs and nursery rhymes and point to and read the words aloud but are less likely to encourage their children to write words, recall story details and point to words while reading. Results suggest that watching Sesame Street, reciting the alphabet, pointing to the words while reading aloud and singing nursery rhymes positively affect a child\u27s emergent literacy skills. Their influence on preschoolers\u27 emergent literacy skills indicates that parents need training or learning strategies for home literacy activities to enhance their children\u27s emergent literacy skills

The Impact of Teachers\u27 Social Emotional Competency and Reading Pedagogy on the Emergent Literacy of Children in Early Childhood Classrooms

According to the study, teachers\u27 beliefs significantly shape the instructional practices they choose to employ in the classroom. The study\u27s overarching goal was to ascertain whether children’s emergent literacy development (ages 3 and 4) is positively influenced by their early childhood teachers\u27 social-emotional instruction, reading pedagogy, phonological awareness activities, and educational qualifications. This study focuses on early childhood centers across the southeastern jurisdiction of the United States. The researcher selected participants from a comprehensive list of over 2,300 regional non-governmental financed early childhood programs that were publicly available through the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), a state-managed database. One hundred seventy-four early childhood teachers participated in the research. Multiple regression statistics were utilized to investigate the predictability of the research hypotheses at the .05 level of significance, with a primary emphasis on four independent variables. According to the findings of this study, early childhood teachers\u27 beliefs and practices regarding phonological awareness, social-emotional learning, and reading pedagogy improved the emergent literacy development of prekindergarten children (ages 3 and 4) participating in non-government-sponsored childcare centers

The Crazy Ideas You Had: The Impact of a Literacy Course Design, Delivery, and Teacher on Preservice Teachers\u27 Reading Attitudes

This study sought to determine whether the design and/or the instructor of a required literacy course impacted preservice teachers\u27 attitudes toward reading. Furthermore, the study sought to contrast the attitudinal impact of varying course delivery (onsite versus online). Additionally, the study attempted to identify those course activities and/or instructor behaviors perceived by the preservice teachers to have most affected their reading attitudes. Using mixed methodology research design, this study made use of empirical data obtained from three subscales of the Adult Survey of Reading Attitudes, or ASRA, (Smith, 1990a): Reading Activity and Enjoyment; Social Reinforcement; and Tutoring. Preservice teachers enrolled in two sections (online versus onsite) of an undergraduate literacy course completed pre- and post-course instruments. In order to determine whether the design of a required literacy course impacted preservice teachers\u27 attitudes toward reading and if varying course delivery (onsite versus online) affected any such impact, the pre- and post-course data was subject to statistical analysis. The study also utilized qualitative narrative analysis of pre- and post-course writing pieces, Reading Autobiographies and Final Reflections, to identify specific course activities and instructor behaviors perceived by the preservice teachers to have affected their reading attitudes. Statistical analysis in this research confirmed that intentional course design and delivery of both online and onsite literacy classes does significantly impact respondents\u27 attitudes in terms of Reading Activity and Enjoyment. Participation in an onsite section was also determined to significantly impact respondents\u27 attitudes with regards to the Social Reinforcement of reading; however, no statistically significant result was obtained on the Social Reinforcement subscale in the online section. Neither online nor onsite course delivery significantly impacted respondents\u27 reading attitudes as displayed on the Tutoring subscale. Qualitative narrative analysis of preservice teachers\u27 assigned writings was consistent with previous studies indicating that social modeling, learning communities, and authentic experiences with literature most influence students\u27 dispositions towards reading. Narrative analysis also provided subjects\u27 perceptions about those course activities and teacher behaviors believed to have most affected attitudinal change. Because these activities and behaviors are replicable, future teacher education courses may be intentionally modified to attain similar results

Reciprocal teaching and its effect on inference skills to enhance reading comprehension

The purpose of this study is to determine how the use of reciprocal teaching affects the learning of inference skills in four, 4th grade excel readers. By utilizing reciprocal teaching as the instructional component and incorporating engaging read alouds, this study seeks to determine how these effect the development of inference skills. The students in this study received explicit instruction about inference skills and the reciprocal teaching model. Students participated in daily read alouds and reciprocal teaching for twenty minutes over the period of four weeks. Through teacher observations, focus group discussions, excerpts from teacher research journal, and video clips the study showed some increase in inference making among focus group participants. Out of four focus group participants, all participants increased their ability to make inferences in reading. The findings of this study suggest that read alouds along with reciprocal teaching, teacher questioning, and reader\u27s schema effect students\u27 development of inference skills in reading

Using a Previewing Strategy to Enhance Reading Comprehension of Secondary Students

A multiple-baseline-across-participants design was used to evaluate the effects of the TELLS procedure on reading comprehension levels, reading comprehension rates, and words correct per minute on previewed and un-previewed passages in three ninth-grade students with reading skills deficits. Results showed an immediate increase from baseline to intervention phases across all three students and dependent variables. However, these increases were not maintained. Effect sizes across all three students were from moderate to large, suggesting that the TELLS procedure had an affect on reading comprehension levels and rates, as well as words correct per minute. Thus, the TELLS procedure is an effective accommodation tool for children with reading skills deficits. However, data collected during generalization phase showed no improvements on un-previewed passages. Consequently, these data prevent one from concluding that the intervention caused generalizable increases in reading skills

Semantic and inferencing abilities in children with communication disorders

Background: Semantic and inferencing abilities have not been fully examined in children with communication difficulties. Aims: To investigate the inferential and semantic abilities of children with communication difficulties using newly designed tasks. Methods & Procedures: Children with different types of communication disorder were compared with each other and with three groups of typically developing children: those of the same chronological age and two groups of younger children. In total, 25 children aged 11 years with specific language impairment and 22 children, also 11 years of age, with primary pragmatic difficulties were recruited. Typically developing groups aged 11 (n = 35; age‐match), and those aged 9 (n = 40) and 7 (n = 37; language similar) also participated as comparisons. Outcomes & Results: For Semantic Choices, children with specific language impairment performed significantly more poorly than 9‐ and 11‐year‐olds, whilst the pragmatic difficulties group scored significantly lower than all the typically developing groups. Borderline differences between specific language impairment and pragmatic difficulties groups were found. For inferencing, children with communication impairments performed significantly below the 11‐year‐old peers, but not poorer than 9‐ and 7‐year‐olds, suggesting that this skill is in line with language ability. Six children in the pragmatic difficulties group who met diagnosis for autism performed more poorly than the other two clinical groups on both tasks, but not statistically significantly so. Conclusions: Both tasks were more difficult for those with communication impairments compared with peers. Semantic but not inferencing abilities showed a non‐significant trend for differences between the two clinical groups and children with pragmatic difficulties performed more poorly than all typically developing groups. The tasks may relate to each other in varying ways according to type of communication difficulty