Supporting first-grade writers who fail to learn: multiple single-case evaluation of a response to intervention approach

We report a multiple-baseline single-case study, based in the response to intervention framework, evaluating transcription-only and transcription-and-planning interventions for young, struggling writers. In a baseline phase, 8 classes of Spanish children at the start of their first year of primary (elementary) education completed short, probe writing tasks twice-weekly over the first 120 days of their school career. During this period, all students received researcher-developed classroom instruction in spelling, handwriting, and text-planning. Students then completed a battery of tests including measures of spelling, handwriting and composition quality. On the basis of writing probe tasks and test scores we identified 12 struggling writers for whose written composition performance was below the 15th percentile, relative to the full sample, whose spelling performance was below 25th percentile, and whose handwriting was poor. For the next 72 days, these students received twice-weekly, parent-delivered training in transcription skills (handwriting and spelling) or transcription skills plus text planning. Researcher-developed classroom instruction and regular probe tasks continued during this phase. All students, in both intervention conditions, showed improvement in handwriting quality relative to Phase 1. 10 students also showed improvement in composition quality, with 8 performing, post intervention, within normal range relative to peers. Our findings demonstrate the value of a response-to-intervention approach to identification and remediation for struggling writes in their first school year

Exploring the short-term and maintained effects of strategic instruction on the writing of 4th grade students: should strategies be focused on the process?

p.1769-1790The principal aim of strategy-focused instruction is to teach students strategies to control their writing processes and achieve quality writing. For this purpose, nine 4th grade Elementary School classes from three diferent schools (N=215) were randomly allocated to two forms of strategy-focused program called cognitive selfregulation instruction (CSRI). The full-CSRI (experimental condition 1, n=72) taught students a strategic approach to set appropriate product goals along with planning strategies. However, in the brief-CSRI (experimental condition 2, n=69), the direct teaching of planning procedures was removed. These two experimental conditions were compared with a control condition (n=74). We used a pre-test/posttest design and we also collected a maintenance writing performance 7 months after the intervention. Writing performance was holistically evaluated through readerbased measures made up of aspects related to structure, coherence, and quality. Only the full-CSRI condition wrote better compare–contrast texts than the control group in both the short term and at the maintenance timepoint. The study discusses the efects of the intervention on each measure and whether or not it is necessary to train process strategiesS

How portuguese and american teachers plan for literacy instruction

This study explored American and Portuguese elementary teachers' preferences in planning for literacy instruction using the Language Arts Activity Grid (LAAG; Cunningham, Zibulsky, Stanovich, & Stanovich, 2009), on which teachers described their preferred instructional activities for a hypothetical 2-h language arts block. Portuguese teachers (N = 186) completed Portuguese versions of a background questionnaire and LAAG electronically, in Survey Monkey; American teachers (N = 102) completed identical English measures using paper and pencil. Results showed that teachers in both groups usually addressed comprehension and reading fluency on their LAAGs and that they also allocated the most time to these two areas. However, American teachers were more likely to include teacher-directed fluency activities, whereas Portuguese teachers were more likely to include fluency activities that were not teacher directed. Significantly more American than Portuguese teachers addressed phonics in their planning, whereas significantly more Portuguese than American teachers addressed writing processes such as revision. Both groups of educators demonstrated large variability in planning, with many teachers omitting important components of literacy identified by researchers, for writing as well as reading. The study highlights the importance of providing teachers with comprehensive, research-based core literacy curricula as well as professional development on key components of literacy. Study findings also suggest significant relationships between orthographic transparency and teachers' instructional planning.This research was supported by a 2-year grant from the Foundation Francisco Manuel dos Santos in Portugal as well as by a Connecticut State University research grant in the U.S.A. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to these funding agencies as well as to the teachers and school districts who participated in the study and sent messages of interest about our research. In addition, warm thanks to our research assistants for their help with data collection, coding, and analysis, and to Anne Cunningham for providing us with inspiration as well as guidance in this work.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Does audio‐visual binding as an integrative function of working memory influence the early stages of learning to write?

Working memory has been proposed to account for the differential rates in pro- gress young children make in writing. One crucial aspect of learning to write is the encoding (i.e., integration) and retrieval of the correct phoneme–grapheme pairings, known as binding. In addition to executive functions, binding is regarded as central to the concept of working memory. To test the developmental increase in binding ability and its comparative influence on writing, an experimental study assessed 5- and 6-year-olds’ accuracy in retaining and retrieving bound audio-visual information alongside measures of verbal and visual complex working memory span (i.e., cen- tral executive functions), and transcription skills (i.e., alphabet and spelling). Results demonstrated an age-related increase in the ability to bind, and that binding had sig- nificant associations with working memory and early writing ability, but once bind- ing and age were controlled for it was verbal working memory that made an inde- pendent contribution to individual differences in writing performance. Although the contribution this paper made was through an exploration and expansion of theoreti- cal ideas within writing research, it is likely to make an important practical contribu- tion to instruction in the future both at the level of transcription and text generation as writers develop those skills

A study on the effects of video billboards on the visual processing of drivers

Vehicular accidents are the fifth leading cause of death in the Philippines, majority of which are caused by driver error. Driving errors are defined as the resulting wrong action of by the wrong guidance and stabilization driving decisions. These necessary abilities for the task of driving rely heavily on the visual processing of the mind. The two types of visual processing are focal visual processing and ambient visual processing. The former has to do with the recognition of objects which guides the driver to his desired destination ahead. The latter is said to deal with the gauging the presence of objects and their distance from the driver in order for maneuvering decisions to be made around them. Previous studies have found that billboards reduce the driving performance of drivers, however, none have explored yet their distinctions between focal and ambient visual processing especially in the case of video billboards. As such, ambient and visual processing continues to be highly theoretical and its behavior in the presence of billboards has yet to be studied. This study was conducted to see how video billboards and their characteristics, height and size, affect the focal visual processing and ambient visual processing of drivers. Experimentation included a driving simulator for participants to drive through, in which the data was collected and analyzed. The results showed that focal visual processing worsened with higher billboards but not statistically worsened by presence or size. Ambient visual processing worsened in the presence of video billboards

Psychophysiological synchrony during verbal interaction in romantic relationships

Previous studies about romantic relationships have shown that the reciprocal influence between partners occurs not only at the behavioral and socio-emotional levels, but also at the psychophysiological level. This reciprocal influence is expressed in a pattern of physiological synchrony between partners (i.e., coordinated dynamics of the physiological time series). The main aim of the present study was to explore the presence of a pattern of physiological synchrony in electrodermal activity (EDA) during a couple interaction task. A second objective was to compare the synchrony levels during a negative interaction condition versus a positive interaction condition. Finally, we analyzed the association between synchrony and self-perception of empathy, dyadic empathy, and relationship satisfaction. Thirty-two couples (64 individuals) participated in this study. Each couple performed a structured interaction task while the EDA of both partners was being registered. The quantification of synchrony was based on the cross-correlation of both members' EDA time-series. In order to control for coincidental synchrony, surrogate datasets were created by repeatedly shuffling the original data of spouses X and Y of a dyad and computing synchronies on the basis of the shuffled data (pseudosynchrony values). Our results confirmed the presence of significant EDA synchrony during the interaction. We also found that synchrony was higher during the negative interactions relative to the positive interactions. Additionally, physiological synchrony during positive interaction was higher for those couples in which males scored higher in dyadic empathy. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed