Differing instructional needs for children of similar reading achievement grades two, four, and six

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Reading problems of the bottom third: grades one through six

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

The decoding ability of elementary school students

Bibliography: leaves 39-42Supported in part by the National Institute of Education under contract no. NIE 400-81-003

An evaluation of a service program in reading in grades one through six,

Includes tests in separate folders in back of dissertation. Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Twice Upon a Time

Perhaps inflation is the last thing you want to explore, especially in the midst of an economic recession. Yet it can inspire enjoyable classroom exploits with syllabication, sequencing, and homophones

Spelling in the Middle School: The Testing of Three Teacher Approaches

The objective of this study was to evaluate three current practices in the teaching of spelling to see if these approaches were effective. These approaches were the teaching of spelling rules, the practice of independently assigned word lists, and the teaching of syllabication to aid in the memorization of list words. Each method was also compared to see if any one approach was more effective than another. The subjects of this study were 51 twelve year olds heterogeneously grouped into three seventh grade classes. Data were collected from identical teacher-made pre and posttests. Posttests were administered six weeks after direct instruction was concluded. An analysis of variance was used to determine the statistical difference between each treatment\u27s pretest and posttest means, and a secondary analysis was used to determine which pairs of pretest and posttest means were significant across groups. The statistical evidence indicated that there was a significant difference between pre and post tests for all three treatment groups. A significant difference was also found to exist between the syllabication and list groups for both the pretest and posttest means. There was no significant difference for either pre or post between syllabication and rule, or between list and rule. This difference between syllabication and list groups seemed to indicate that the list group\u27s knowledge was higher at the pretest level. Therefore, it was concluded that all three treatments were statistically effective, but no single treatment was more effective than another

Divide and Conquer: Syllabication Assessment and Older Students

The authors describe the development of an informal syllabication instrument which has been useful in determining strengths and weaknesses of secondary students\u27 word attack ability

Using Technology to Develop Early Phonological Awareness Skills

Differentiated instruction, a necessary practice in inclusive education, allows teachers to meet the needs of all students in a given classroom. The partnership of education and technology provides teachers with an interactive and focused means to present student-specific content. This three week, action research project explores the use of an ACTIVboard and classroom desktop computers to engage and motivate students in a variety of activities targeting phonological awareness skills, specifically syllabication and rhyming. The literature review examines the history of technology in schools, the benefits of using technology in the classroom, notes the relationship between phonological awareness and reading readiness, and discusses the relationship between technology and student achievement. The study was performed in a suburban school district in Western New York and included 37 kindergarten students from two classrooms. A control group of students learning the same content, syllabication and rhyming, without the use of an ACTIVboard, was maintained. Data was gathered with pre and post student assessments; teacher observations were also noted. Conclusions report that students in both classrooms demonstrated an increased understanding of skills taught while the average scores for both the rhyming and syllabication assessments were higher in the targeted “technology” group. Results suggest that the technology-based instruction was more effective in supporting student learning and align with current research on technology integration in the classroom

Primary Teachers\u27 Knowledge and Knowledge Calibration of Early Literacy Practices

This research design was based on the knowledge calibration work by Cunningham, Perry, Stanovich, and Stanovich (2004). One hundred and forty-one full time teachers participated in a four day professional development workshop on research-based reading instruction. Participants were administered a three-part survey comprised of 1) demographic information 2) knowledge calibration items measuring perceived understanding of phonics, phonological awareness, and syllabication and 3) phonics pretest published in Self-Paced Phonics: A Text for Educators (2005). There were statistically significant differences between participants who rated their knowledge as high and those who rated their knowledge as low on the phonological and phonics items. However, teachers in this study overestimated their knowledge of phonological awareness and phonics. There were no significant differences between those who rated their knowledge as high as compared to those who rated their knowledge as low on the subtest knowledge of syllabication. In addition, no significant differences were found between new teachers and experienced teachers in their knowledge in the three domains. The results and discussion address the importance of knowledge calibration to develop professional educational experiences for new and experienced teachers

Word analysis skills in the intermediate grades.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University