A Single-Case Experimental Investigation of Sketch and Speak Expository Intervention for Adolescents with Language-Related Learning Disabilities via Telepractice

This study investigated the effects of Sketch and Speak expository language intervention for adolescent students with language-related learning disabilities (LLD). Students with LLD have trouble understanding and using academic language for reading and writing and often benefit from explicit instruction in these areas. Sketch and Speak is an expository language intervention that teaches students to take notes in two forms and to systematically use oral practice to facilitate understanding and memory of notes. First, students learn to take notes using simple sketch writing, or pictography, which allows them to focus on the ideas of the text rather than the spelling, letter formulation, and other cognitive demands of written language. Students then generate full oral sentences from their pictographic note and practice saying the sentences aloud to solidify the information in their memory. In the second session, students transfer their pictography notes and full sentences to the more traditional form of bulleted notes by identifying key words from their well-formed oral sentences. Students are also scaffolded into practicing full oral reports from their notes in each session. This combination of repeated oral practice of sentences and full reports and two types of note-taking helps students to comprehend and express information from complex informational texts. This study is a multiple baseline across participants single-case experiment. Participants completed three, six, or nine baseline sessions before moving into the treatment phase. All participants completed 12 45-minute sessions of intervention. This study is the first to investigate Sketch and Speak with adolescent students. Three ninth grade students with LLD participated in one-on-one instruction sessions via telepractice in the summer of 2021. Data was collected in each baseline and treatment session on participants’ abilities to generate Oral Reports and answer Short-Answer Recall questions about a novel topic. In baseline, participants followed along with a read-aloud informational text and then took notes on the article with no further instructional support prior to the Independent Session Test. In treatment, participants were provided with instruction on two different types of notes and systematic oral practice prior to the Guided Session Tests (Oral Report and Short-Answer Recall). Additionally, participant’s notes were examined for Note Quantity and Note Quality across session types (i.e., baseline and treatment). All three students significantly improved on their ability to compose accurate oral reports and generate more high-quality notes about the topic after participating in the intervention. Participants also completed an expository oral reporting task about a different expository content area at pre-/post-treatment. This semi-standardized activity allows for comparisons of oral report performance to typically developing peers of the same age. Though a pre-/post-treatment test is not common in a single-case design like this one, this test allowed the researcher to examine whether learned note-taking and oral reporting skills were used independently by the students in a different expository content area than was taught in treatment. All three students made significant gains in note-taking and oral reporting at post-test when compared to their independent pre-test performance. The perceived importance of the intervention and delivery mode was also examined through social validity questionnaires. Participants, parents, and speech-language pathologists answered social validity questions about the intervention and study strategies for adolescents at pre- and post-test. Responses for all three groups indicated that the intervention was viewed as meaningful. Participants reported that they had learned strategies that they could apply independently in the high school setting. The participants also answered questions about the telepractice delivery mode, with most responses indicating that it was viewed as a positive experience. This study provides evidence for the use of Sketch and Speak intervention with older students and lays the groundwork for future studies with this population. This study also contributes to the literature base on telepractice service delivery for intervention, which is important as this delivery style has become more popular after the onset of COVID-19

Using interactive multimedia (IMM) to help year four and five students identified as experiencing reading difficulties: A formative approach

This study involved four formative experiments, each of which investigated ways in which IMM (Interactive Multimedia) could be used to help children who experienced reading difficulties. In each of the four contexts, classroom teachers identified a number of students with reading difficulties, selected pedagogical goals for them and worked with the researcher to plan IMM-based activities that targeted the selected goals. The implementations were evaluated formatively and modifications were made accordingly, with the intention of \u27fine-tuning\u27 them to facilitate achievement of the pedagogical goals. Facilitative and inhibitive factors were identified during and after each formative experiment, as were unplanned outcomes. Finally, attempts were made to ascertain the preferability of the interventions, in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and appeal, as well as with reference to factors that facilitated and inhibited them. Two of the formative experiments took place at a private girls\u27 school. Boh of the participating classroom teachers, a Year 4 teacher and a Year 5 teacher, selected oral reading fluency as a pedagogical goal. A strategy that was termed \u27Interactive Multimedia Assisted Repeated Readings\u27 (IMMARR) using electronic storybooks was implemented, in addition to the creation of electronic talking books with the multimedia authoring program, Illuminatus Opus (2001), as a context for enhancing oral reading fluency. Many facilitative and inhibitive factors were identified during the implementations, although both teachers judged that the interventions had been effective and appealing. Post-intervention assessments also showed some gains in oral reading fluency, as well as unplanned outcomes, especially for the Year 5 group

El Desarrollo de la Capacidad Lectora de un grupo de apoyo en un centro de Educación Primaria Bilingüe

En la sociedad actual, la lectura es una destreza, en la que todas las personas deben ser competentes. Nos permite, como seres sociales que somos, comunicarnos con otros y es, en la educación una herramienta fundamental en el proceso de la construcción del aprendizaje. La lectura nos permite reflexionar e interpretar información, ayudándonos a entender el mundo en el que vivimos. En la escuela, la lectura es un vehículo puesto que es necesario en todas las áreas del currículo escolar. Por lo tanto es imprescindible, que aquellos niños que tienen problemas de aprendizaje, y específicamente retrasos de la lectura reciban un apoyo apropiado diseñado específicamente para ellos. El presente trabajo se centra en un pequeño grupo de apoyo en un colegio bilingüe y el trabajo abarca dos aspectos generales, por un lado, en la mejora de la capacidad lectora de los alumnos, y por otro, en el desarrollo en los niños de un auto concepto positivo a través de materiales elaborados por el autor.Grado en Educación Primari

Validation of the Monitoring Academic Progress: Reading (MAP: R): Development and Investigation of a Group-Administered Comprehension-Based Tool for RTI

Monitoring Academic Progress: Reading (MAP: R), a silent, group-administered screener was piloted as part of a comprehensive Response to Intervention program. MAP: R along with AIMSweb© Maze and STAR reading were administered to 1,688 students in Grades 1-3. Overall alternate-form reliabilities for MAP: R resulted in moderately high stability (Grade 1 = .79, Grade 2 = .78, and Grade 3 = .75). Test-retest reliability was .90 for Grade1, .84 for Grade 2, and .89 for Grade 3. Concurrent validity, correlations for MAP: R and AIMSweb© Maze ranged from .43 to .69, with correlations for MAP: R and STAR ranging from .48 to .67. Predictive validity was determined using end-of-the-year STAR reading scores as the criterion for MAP: R and AIMSweb© Maze. Results of a stepwise regression indicated that MAP: R scores predicted 37% of the variance in STAR scores and AIMSweb© Maze failed to add additional predictive variance. Data support the utility of MAP: R as a reading screener for progress monitoring within a Response to Intervention framework, though additional data are needed

Tutoring as an Elementary Reading Intervention to Benefit Bilingual Learners in Mexico

The research question addressed in this capstone project is, can peer tutoring be used as an effective elementary reading intervention to benefit bilingual learners in Mexico? Key influence for this capstone was the author’s observation of a lack of effective reading interventions in bilingual environments. The study is a qualitative study in which the author implemented a seven-week peer tutoring training with nineteen fifth grade tutors. These peer tutors each worked one on one with a fourth grade student to apply specific reading strategies. The goal of the capstone was to determine whether peer tutors could positively affect student outcomes in reading fluency, reading comprehension and reading disposition. The study results indicate that peer tutoring does have a positive effect on student fluency, reading comprehension and disposition, however in the case of struggling students, additional structure and strategies are needed for the peer tutors to foster student growth

UTILIZING SCRIBBLENAUTS TO INCREASE READING COMPREHENSION AND IMPROVE LITERACY SKILLS OF THIRD GRADE STUDENTS

The LEA’s problem of practice upon which this research was focused on improving academic achievement in the areas of reading comprehension, fluency and other literacy skills. In particular, the LEA is very concerned about third grade reading scores in the light of North Carolina legislation that implements a reading proficiency test to be taken by all third grade students. The focus of this research was to use "Scribblenauts Unlimited," a commercial-off-the-shelf video game to bolster the reading skills of third grade students in an elementary school located in a rural school district in eastern North Carolina. The research design of this action research study utilized pre - and post- assessment to measure the effectiveness of students’ involvement with “Scribblenauts Unlimited.� The intervention time-line consisted of sixteen weeks of intervention during which two sections of students alternated the roles of intervention and control groups at the eight-week mark. The intervention was implemented for one hour per week during student computer laboratory times. The one-hour per week exposure was divided into two thirty-minute sessions, one on each of two days each week. The quantitative data consisted of participant’s scores on the Reading 3D assessment. The qualitative data was gathered by means of video observations of selected small groups of students and, snapshot insights into individual participants’ learning experiences by means of experience sampling methodology. During each intervention time, a video camera was set up in the computer laboratory and focused on a small group of four or five participants. One or two of the members of the group on which the video camera was focused were invited to “think aloud� through excerpts of the edited videos. The aim was to capture the participants’ learning experience in their own words at what they seem to be key points of their learning trajectory. At the end of each eight-week intervention session, a survey designed to measure the extent to which participants experienced flow was administered to the participants in the intervention

EFFECTS OF SUPPORTED ELECTRONIC TEXT AND EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION ON SCIENCE COMPREHENSION BY STUDENTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

Supported electronic text (eText), or text that has been altered to increase access and provide support to learners, may promote comprehension of science content for students with disabilities. According to CAST, Book BuilderTM uses supported eText to promote reading for meaning for all students. Although little research has been conducted in the area of supported eText for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), technology (e.g., computer assisted instruction) has been used for over 35 years to instruct students with ASD in academic areas. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a supported eText and explicit instruction on the science vocabulary and comprehension of four middle school students with ASD. Researchers used a multiple probe across participants design to evaluate the Book BuilderTM program on measures of vocabulary, literal comprehension, and application questions. Results indicated a functional relation between the Book BuilderTM and explicit instruction (i.e., model-lead-test, examples and non-examples, and referral to the definition) and the number of correct responses on the probe. In addition, students were able to generalize concepts to untrained exemplars. Finally, teachers and students validate the program as practical and useful

Technology In The Classroom

The purpose of this study was to discover how I, a kindergarten teacher, used technology within the classroom. The authors of the articles and case studies in the literature review discuss the various technological tools available in school districts and how teachers utilize them effectively. This was a qualitative, self-study where I looked at my practices concerning technology in the classroom. The data were collected during a six-week period using journaling, factual information, and lesson plans. The results of the study showed that I used 10 different forms of technology in the classroom during lessons created. Results also showed the deficiencies in the amount of training of technological devices there were in the Appleton Central School District (pseudonym). This study opened the possibilities into the world of technology and how it can effectively be used in the classroom. In an interconnected world it is important for students to have more access to information about the world. Technology provides that opportunity for students. The real strength of technology in the classroom is differentiation. They have a greater pool of knowledge but also have an ability to interact with the knowledge unique to their learning styles

A two-tiered approach to a Buddy Reading Programme for struggling adolescent readers

This thesis reports on a study of the effects of a two-tiered Buddy Reading Programme on the reading skills of 12 to 14 year old middle school students in a high-poverty urban school in a Midwestern United States school. The research took place during one school year with white and African American students. The research, influenced by action research, was in the form of a Buddy Reading intervention programme using a reciprocal teaching model, within a constructivist paradigm. The key finding of the study was that the social nature of the programme allowed the middle school students to rehearse texts, engage in dialogue surrounding texts, and led to improvement in the affective aspects of reading, as well as in reading skills. This social aspect led many of the students to engage in literacy activities beyond those required either for the programme or in classroom instruction. A second finding of the study was that a comprehensive, balanced approach to literacy instruction was effective for simulating the process of reading for the struggling readers and leading them to emulate the reading processes of proficient readers. Through the programme, the students were immersed in a literacy-rich environment and interacted with texts in a positive, natural way