Effects of SRSD college entrance essay exam instruction for high school students with disabilities or at-risk for writing difficulties

Reading and Writing - Strategies instruction has improved the writing of high school struggling writers in previous studies, including students with disabilities. This study examined the...     

Examining the impacts of the structures writing intervention for teaching fourth-grade students to write informational text

Reading and Writing - Expository writing may be especially difficult for elementary grade students due to lack of background knowledge and unfamiliar text structures. A text structure writing...     

Writing instruction in kindergarten: examining an emerging area of research for children with writing and reading difficulties

This review examines the literature on how to teach kindergarten children with reading and writing difficulties how to write. Specifically, research on handwriting instruction, spelling instruction, and composition writing is discussed. Due to the limited number of empirical studies on writing that included kindergarten students with diagnosed reading and writing difficulties, selected studies conducted with the full range of kindergarten children, as well as studies conducted in the early elementary grades, are presented to highlight future directions for research.     

Early reading instruction for children with reading difficulties: meeting the needs of diverse learners

Several multiple-probe-across-participants design studies were employed to evaluate the effectiveness of a supplemental tutoring intervention using Read Well (Sprick, Howard, & Fidanque, 1998-2000). In Year 1, we conducted two studies with 7 first-, second-, and third-grade children (1 girl and 6 boys), who were classified as having learning disabilities, having attention-deficit disorder, or being English language learners and were identified by their teachers as poor readers. The results of the two studies indicated that 3 of the 5 children who received Read Well instruction showed improvement in passage fluency. Student performance on other measures of reading and comprehension was varied. Differences in student characteristics and in the amount of Read Well instruction received (2 to 7 weeks) seemed to account for the differences in performance. In Year 2, we implemented the same tutoring intervention for a longer duration (up to 16 weeks) and included 5 children in second and third grades (2 girls and 3 boys) with reading difficulties. Two of these children had previously participated in the Year 1 studies. The results indicated growth in reading, spelling, and comprehension for most children. Overall, the findings from Year 1 and 2 studies indicate the benefits of increased instructional intensity and duration for children who struggle with emerging reading skills.     

Code-oriented instruction for kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties: a replication and comparison of instructional groupings

The purposes of this study were to replicate previous research on phonics-based tutoring in kindergarten and to compare treatment effects for students who received individual instruction compared to instruction in dyads. Thirty classroom teachers from 13 urban elementary schools referred at-risk students for participation. Students who met screening criteria were quasi-randomly assigned, within classroom, to one of three conditions: individual tutoring (n = 22), tutoring in dyads (n = 32), or no tutoring (n = 22, classroom instruction only). Twenty-one paraeducators provided 18 weeks of explicit instruction in phonemic skills and the alphabetic code to students during the latter half of kindergarten. Multilevel model results showed that tutored students outperformed non-tutored controls on posttest measures of phonological awareness, word reading accuracy, oral reading fluency, spelling, and comprehension. However, no significant differences were found between the two tutored groups on any measure, suggesting that code-oriented tutoring for pairs of students is a viable alternative to the gold standard of individual instruction.     

Examining reading comprehension text and question answering time differences in university students with and without a history of reading difficulties

The current study aimed to examine performance times during text reading and question answering of students with and without a history of reading difficulties. Forty-three university students with a history of reading difficulties (HRD) were compared to 124 university students without a history of reading difficulties on measures of word and nonword reading rate, text reading rate and comprehension, and question answering times. Results showed that students with HRD demonstrated slower word, nonword, and text reading rates than their peers, but had comparable reading comprehension scores. Results also showed that students with HRD took longer to answer specific types of questions even when reading rate was controlled. Specifically, when word reading rate was controlled, students with HRD took longer to answer vocabulary, literal, inferential, and background knowledge questions. When text reading rate was controlled, they still took longer to answer literal, inferential, and background knowledge questions. These results suggest that students with a history of reading difficulties require extra time to complete reading comprehension measures for reasons other than just slower word and text reading rate. Findings of this study have implications for supporting university students with a history of reading difficulties.     

Computer-assisted instruction to prevent early reading difficulties in students at risk for dyslexia: Outcomes from two instructional approaches

The relative effectiveness of two computer-assisted instructional programs designed to provide instruction and practice in foundational reading skills was examined. First-grade students at risk for reading disabilities received approximately 80 h of small-group instruction in four 50-min sessions per week from October through May. Approximately half of the instruction was delivered by specially trained teachers to prepare students for their work on the computer, and half was delivered by the computer programs. At the end of first grade, there were no differences in student reading performance between students assigned to the different intervention conditions, but the combined-intervention students performed significantly better than control students who had been exposed to their school’s normal reading program. Significant differences were obtained for phonemic awareness, phonemic decoding, reading accuracy, rapid automatic naming, and reading comprehension. A follow-up test at the end of second grade showed a similar pattern of differences, although only differences in phonemic awareness, phonemic decoding, and rapid naming remained statistically reliable.     

Reading to write an argumentation: the role of epistemological,reading and writing beliefs

The general aim of this study was to examine the relations among epistemological, reading and writing beliefs held by psychology undergraduates and the role played by these three types of belief in influencing the degree of perspectivism manifested in a written argumentation task based on reading two texts presenting conflicting perspectives on the same topic. A total of 118 fourth‐year psychology students took part. Only 76 students performed the written argumentation task. The three types of belief were assessed using different questionnaires. The results show that the different types of belief do not occur in isolation, but have an internal coherence. They also indicate that only reading beliefs, together with the degree of perspectivism shown in a prior argumentation task, help to predict the degree of perspectivism in the written task following the reading of the texts.     

Issues in the identification and ongoing assessment of ESL students with reading difficulties for reading intervention

Reading difficulties and second language acquisition have attracted international interest among researchers and practitioners in recent years. This is because increased mobility between countries means that educators are faced with the problem of providing appropriate assessment and assistance for students with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. There is a growing international consensus in the literature that second-language (L2) learners have generally been underdiagnosed and overrepresented in special education classes. Consequently there is a need to help teachers more adequately identify and assist L2 students who experience specific reading difficulties. This article proposes the use of a language model of reading difficulties based on the Simple View of Reading to identify students with reading difficulties. It also discusses relevant ongoing assessment issues to prevent inappropriate special education referrals. It recommends a responsive approach to intervention and suggests using multi-faceted intervention programs including the promotion of positive home-school climates to address the needs of such students.     

How to improve reading comprehension in high-risk students: effects of class practices in Grade 5

This study investigated the effect of class practices on students’ learning gains in reading comprehension in the 5th grade. A sample of 4,344 students in 283 classes in 176 schools was studied. Several class practices that have previously been demonstrated to be effective were tested while controlling for student characteristics and socioeconomic and ethnic class composition. Differential effects were tested to identify class practices that can contribute to narrowing the achievement gap between high- and low-risk students. Most class practices turned out to have a similar effect for both low- and high-risk students. However, “discovery learning” and “well-organised and attractive instruction” appeared to be more beneficial for low-risk than for high-risk students. Group composition in terms of social and ethnic background turned out to have no significant effect on learning gains in reading comprehension.     

Improving content area reading comprehension of Spanish speaking English learners in Grades 4 and 5 using web-based text structure instruction

Reading and comprehending content area texts is important for academic and professional success as well as life skills necessary to maintain good health and quality lifestyle. Spanish speaking English language learners have shown poor performance on high-stakes assessments in reading comprehension. The number of Spanish speaking English learners (ELs) in our schools continues to increase at a fast pace, and therefore it is imperative that we address their reading comprehension needs swiftly and effectively. The text structure strategy has shown positive results on comprehension outcomes in many research studies with students at Grades 2, 4, 5, and 7. This study is the first implementation of instruction about the text structure strategy expressly designed to accommodate the linguistic and comprehension needs of Spanish speaking ELs in Grades 4 and 5. Strategy instruction on the web for English learners (SWELL) was designed to deliver instruction about the text structure strategy to Spanish speaker English learners. A randomized controlled study with pre and post-tests was conducted with 14 classrooms at fourth-grade and 17 classrooms at fifth-grade in high poverty schools where over 85% of students were Spanish speaking bilinguals or ELs. Analysis of data using multi-level models show moderate to large-effects favoring the students in the SWELL classrooms over the business as usual control classrooms on important measures such as a standardized reading comprehension test and main idea and cloze tasks. This research has practical implications for the use of web-based tools to provide high-quality and supportive instruction to improve Spanish speaking ELs reading comprehension skills.     

Using balanced and interactive writing instruction to improve the higher order and lower order writing skills of deaf students

This article reports the findings of balanced and interactive writing instruction used with 16 deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Although the instruction has been used previously, this was the first time it had been modified to suit the specific needs of deaf children and the first time it had been implemented with this subpopulation of students. The intervention took place in two elementary classrooms (N = 8) and one middle school classroom (N = 8) for a total of 21 days. A comparison of pre- and posttest scores on both writing and reading measures evidenced that students made significant gains with use of genre-specific traits, use of contextual language, editing/revising skills, and word identification. Students showed neither gains nor losses with conventions and total word count. In addition, a one-way multiple analysis of variance was used to detect any school-level effects. Elementary students made significantly greater gains with respect to conventions and word identification, and middle school students made significantly greater gains with editing and revising tasks.     

Retrospective analyses of the reading development of grade 4 students with reading disabilities: risk status and profiles over 5 years

This study presents a longitudinal examination of the development of reading and reading-related skills of 22 Grade 4 children identified as having reading disabilities (RD) who had been followed since kindergarten. The analyses were conducted to investigate the patterns of emergence of RD as well as reading ability and risk status across the 5 years. The findings of the study are presented with an examination of the trajectories of the children with RD as compared to Grade 4 typical readers (matched for grade, gender, language status, and school) with a similar profile on literacy skills in kindergarten. The results demonstrate the heterogeneous nature of the trajectory of RD in school-age children; although many of the children with RD were at risk in kindergarten, there was a subsample who did not demonstrate reading and phonological difficulties until the third and fourth grades.     

Improving beginning reading instruction and intervention for students with LD: reconciling "all" with "each"

We begin with an examination of the tensions that exist between educational efforts that target the needs of all students and efforts that target the needs of individual students with disabilities. Next, we provide reasons why, in beginning reading, a schoolwide system designed to teach all students to read can also support individualized and flexible instruction designed to teach each student to read. Finally, we describe a schoolwide beginning reading model that includes a schoolwide framework or infrastructure that supports comprehensive and coordinated reading goals, assessment, and instruction for all students integrated with ongoing progress monitoring and instructional adjustments that allow for differentiated and individualized instruction for each student, including students with disabilities.     

An observation study of reading instruction provided to elementary students with learning disabilities in the resource room

This study documents the amount and quality of reading instruction provided to second‐ through fifth‐grade students with learning disabilities provided resource‐room services. Reading instruction provided by 10 special education resource‐room teachers was observed. Findings reveal that teachers and students were on task during instructional time that included phonological awareness, word study, comprehension, reading fluency, and vocabulary instruction of average to high average quality. Although class size was small overall, whole‐group instructional delivery was most common. Students made statistically significant gains in oral reading fluency but did not increase their standard scores on measures of comprehension or word reading. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.