The predictive power of phonological awareness for later literacy outcomes has prompted educators to develop interventions targeting these skills in children at-risk for qualifying for special education services. These programs have proven successful in positively affecting later literacy achievement. However, studies comparing different intervention strategies are relatively lacking. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of two phonological awareness intervention strategies (drill-based and naturalistic). Forty-four at-risk preschool children were assigned to one of three groups (drill-based, naturalistic, or control group). The intervention groups received twenty minutes of intervention, twice a week for four weeks. Results indicate that both intervention methods were successful in increasing preschooler’s phonological awareness skills compared to a non-treatment control group.

The predictive power of phonological awareness for later literacy outcomes has prompted educators to develop interventions targeting these skills in children at-risk for qualifying for special education services. These programs have proven successful in positively affecting later literacy achievement. However, studies comparing different intervention strategies are relatively lacking. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of two phonological awareness intervention strategies (drill-based and naturalistic). Forty-four at-risk preschool children were assigned to one of three groups (drill-based, naturalistic, or control group). The intervention groups received twenty minutes of intervention, twice a week for four weeks. Results indicate that both intervention methods were successful in increasing preschooler’s phonological awareness skills compared to a non-treatment control group.

The predictive power of phonological awareness for later literacy outcomes has prompted educators to develop interventions targeting these skills in children at-risk for qualifying for special education services. These programs have proven successful in positively affecting later literacy achievement. However, studies comparing different intervention strategies are relatively lacking. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of two phonological awareness intervention strategies (drill-based and naturalistic). Forty-four at-risk preschool children were assigned to one of three groups (drill-based, naturalistic, or control group). The intervention groups received twenty minutes of intervention, twice a week for four weeks. Results indicate that both intervention methods were successful in increasing preschooler’s phonological awareness skills compared to a non-treatment control group.

The predictive power of phonological awareness for later literacy outcomes has prompted educators to develop interventions targeting these skills in children at-risk for qualifying for special education services. These programs have proven successful in positively affecting later literacy achievement. However, studies comparing different intervention strategies are relatively lacking. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of two phonological awareness intervention strategies (drill-based and naturalistic). Forty-four at-risk preschool children were assigned to one of three groups (drill-based, naturalistic, or control group). The intervention groups received twenty minutes of intervention, twice a week for four weeks. Results indicate that both intervention methods were successful in increasing preschooler’s phonological awareness skills compared to a non-treatment control group.

The predictive power of phonological awareness for later literacy outcomes has prompted educators to develop interventions targeting these skills in children at-risk for qualifying for special education services. These programs have proven successful in positively affecting later literacy achievement. However, studies comparing different intervention strategies are relatively lacking. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of two phonological awareness intervention strategies (drill-based and naturalistic). Forty-four at-risk preschool children were assigned to one of three groups (drill-based, naturalistic, or control group). The intervention groups received twenty minutes of intervention, twice a week for four weeks. Results indicate that both intervention methods were successful in increasing preschooler’s phonological awareness skills compared to a non-treatment control group.

The overall objective of this study was to determine the extent to which reading competency accounted for individual variability and group SES, race) differences in mathematics achievement. Special emphasis was placed on the a) extent to which the relationship between reading and mathematics achievement was consistent for students of different races, sexes, and socioeconomic backgrounds, b) the extent to which reading competency operated in a consistent fashion for Blacks and Whites and for males and females to account for SES differences in mathematics, and c) the extent to which reading competency operated in a consistent fashion for free lunch status students and paid lunch status students and for males and females to account for race differences in mathematics achievement. Data on the socioeconomic status lunch status), sex, race and achievement in reading and mathematics of over 8000 students were analyzed in the study. In all of the analyses performed to investigate the reading-mathematics relationship, achievement in mathematics was found to be strongly and positively associated with reading competency. The overall reading-mathematics relationship, based on the analysis of the data for all the students in the study, had a coefficient greater than 0.77. For the total group of students, the reading variable explained 60% of the individual variability in mathematics achievement. In the separate analyses performed to investigate the extent to which the reading-mathematics relationship was consistent for SES lunch status), sex, and ethnicity/race subgroups, the association between reading competency and mathematics achievement was greater than 0.68, and at its lowest level of performance, reading accounted for at least 48% of the variability in students mathematics scores. The separate analyses of the data for the different categories of students identified by combinations of their race-, lunch-status, and sex-group memberships also revealed a strong association between mathematics achievement and reading competency. The results of all the relevant analyses performed in this study confirmed that SES lunch status) difference in mathematics achievement was largely a function of the SES difference in reading competency. Lunch status accounted for 23.1% of the variance in mathematics scores when the difference in reading competency between the two groups was not accounted for； when the difference in reading was accounted for, it explained 4.4%. Overall, reading was found to operate in a similar fashion for Black students and White students and for female students and male students in accounting for the difference found in mathematics achievement based on lunch status. Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Purpose, scope, and method of study. This study compared reading achievement between two groups of students in Christian schools: one used a phonics approach, while the other used a balanced approach to teach reading to fourth-grade students. The difference of the means of the spring 2002 SAT reading comprehension scores and the spring 2003 SAT reading comprehension scores of the students in the two groups were compared. Scaled scores were used because the scaled score enables one to compare students test scores with those of other students and evaluate changes in student performance across subtests and testing occasions. School administrators provided data from spring 2002 SAT scores and spring 2003 SAT scores for each student. The students were divided into four different levels based on their spring 2002 SAT scaled score. The data was analyzed by a factorial ANOVA. The independent variables were the method of instruction and the scaled score level of the students, while the dependent variable was the change in the students scores from pretest to posttest. Findings and conclusions. The findings indicated that there was no significant difference between the two groups phonics approach and balanced approach). Thus, the hypothesis of this study was rejected. Teaching methodology had no significant effect on reading comprehension achievement for this study. A significant main effect for Level was found. Students in both groups) that started fourth grade at the lowest level showed a significant increase in scaled score on reading comprehension by the end of fourth grade when compared against the other three reading performance levels.

The results of this inquiry suggested that reluctant readers can and will open up to reading when it is presented in an interesting form, and in an environment that is “outside” of the classroom arena. By presenting a group of eight reluctant readers with comic books to read in a book club setting after school, their interest in reading blossomed. Over the ten weeks that the students involved participated, they significantly changed from students uninterested in reading into readers who were not only enjoying the act of reading, but also analyzing the material and requesting more. The effects did not carry over into the classroom in this particular study, but the potential for this approach applied to the classroom setting could offer support to those students deemed to be reluctant readers.

This study examined the effects of text revised for improved readability/coherence and a graphic organizer on sixth-graders’ social studies content learning within the context of research-supported instructional support. Instruction was controlled so that treatments differed only in type of text and text aid. With the exception of main effects for reading ability, no statistically significant results were found, most likely due to underpowered statistical analyses. Recognizing the lack of power, effect sizes were considered to gain insight into trends in the data. Accordingly, trends suggest that, within the context of effective content literacy instruction, text comprehensibility improvements may have varying impact on content learning, depending on the reader’s skills. For skilled readers, research-recommended instructional support throughout the reading process might compensate for comprehension difficulties due to low-coherence text. Notably, the trends of facilitative effects of revised texts for below-grade level readers suggest that texts are important to content instruction with struggling readers, particularly for long-term content learning. Trends in effect sizes present the possibility of delayed interactive effects of texts revised for improved coherence and text aids, a phenomenon that has not been investigated in previous text coherence research. Text aids in general, instead of text aids in particular, might facilitate text comprehension as suggested by the lack of statistically significant results differences in text aid effects； likewise, trends in the data suggest the possibility that certain text aids may be paired more successfully with particular types of texts and instructional contexts for improved text comprehension.

As reading teacher and researcher, I studied my instructional interactions with my students in my one-to-one first grade reading interventions to observe identity and social relationship positioning that served and disrupted student engagement and learning. A total of 16 interactions selected from 73 half-hour Reading Recovery lessons videotaped with five children were analyzed, reflecting negotiation of power, as well as positive and negative politeness breaches and repairs in communication. Power, theorized as a circulating current that alternates between members of an interaction, was observed as functioning to maintain and deflect instructional interactions. When circulation was stymied, usually with the intent of controlling the lesson agenda, the struggle to regain control resulted in a breach of positive or negative politeness features and a breakdown of productive instructional communication. Power struggles and face-threatening acts were shown to pull the students and/or the teachers attention away from the reading work, with a resultant loss of lesson productivity. A Reading Recovery program served as the setting for teacher-student interactions which were analyzed through discourse analysis. Situation network Gee, 1999) analysis demonstrated the reflexive contexts of interactions. Analysis of pragmatic aspects of the shared discourse revealed examples of face-threatening acts, breaches in politeness, neglect of teacher and student situated identities, and examples of resistance. Application of positive politeness strategies, affirming approval of the injured party, and negative politeness strategies, minimizing imposition on her/him, are shown to effect communication repairs and a return to collaborative productivity. The study informs six-year-olds expressions of power and politeness. A proposed professional development program for the benefit of pre-service and in-service teachers is offered, as well as suggestions for implementing the study of power and politeness using discourse analysis in a regular classroom. Future research possibilities include contrasting one-to-one structures with small groups in a reading intervention, as well as targeting low-achieving children within the regular classroom, using the techniques applied in this study.