Relationship between language proficiency and growth during reading interventions

Many English language learners (ELLs) experience difficulties with basic English reading due in part to low language proficiency. The authors examined the relationship between English language proficiency and growth during reading interventions for ELLs. A total of 201 second- and third-grade students with a variety of home languages participated. The students were identified as needing a targeted intervention, because scores on the fall oral reading fluency screening measure fell below the benchmark criterion. Thus, all participating students received reading interventions approximately four times each week throughout the school year. Results indicated that those students identified in the lowest English proficiency stage on the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State (ACCESS) made the highest growth as indicated in the spring benchmark assessment, and the ACCESS score added negligible variance beyond baseline reading skills. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Parental involvement in reading remediation with young children

In an era of increasing educational need and decreasing resources, school psychologists must be aware of alternatives to school-based learning. This article reviews research on the effectiveness of parental involvement in improving elementary school-aged children's reading skills. Studies have shown that parents can contribute to the remediation and maintenance of children's reading ability, but that parents want and need training in specific methods of reading with their children. Direct Instruction and Paired Reading are presented as viable methods to teach parents of poor readers. The authors issue a call for further research comparing various home reading methods. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Keeping U. S. Companies Competitive: How Performance Technologists Can and Should Contribute

Even in a U. S. economy that is suffering from falling productivity rates, declining market share, and continuing trade balance deficits, some businesses are successful. This article describes some strategies these companies have adopted to stay competitive. What sets the productive companies apart is their ability to shift rapidly to new ways of doing business. In making such transitions, the successful companies recognize that, while machinery and equipment are important factors in winning the race for productivity improvement and global competitiveness, the most important factor is the effort made by human beings. We suggest that since the improvement of human performance is the concern of performance technologists, they should be contributing to the competitiveness of their own and their clients' organization. This article gives examples of innovations that have restored companies to competitiveness and suggests ways that performance technologists can prepare themselves to assist their own companies and clients to introduce similar innovations.     

Using guided notes with academically at‐risk high school students during a remedial summer social studies class

This study evaluated the effects guided notes on the performance of academically at‐risk high school students during a remedial summer American History class. The study compared students' own notetaking strategies with that of short‐ and long‐form guided notes. Three students were selected for data collection due to their low baseline notetaking accuracy and quiz scores and a history of severe learning problems: One was enrolled in special education programs for developmental disabilities and the other two were enrolled in English as a Second Language programs (ESL). A modified ABAB reversal design with an imbedded alternating treatments design during intervention (A. E. Kazdin, 1982) was used to compare the effects of students' notetaking accuracy and daily quiz scores while taking their own notes with the effects of responding under the short‐ and long‐form guided notes. The results indicated that both guided notes procedures were successful at increasing the accuracy of students' notes, improving session quiz scores, and were overwhelmingly preferred when compared with students taking their own notes. Differences were the number of concepts written correctly. Practical considerations and implications for adoption in the classroom were discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Connections and critique: Feminist pedagogy and science teacher education

In this article, we authors and feminist science and teacher educators share assignments we developed and used in our undergraduate and graduate teacher education classes. We designed these varied assignments to help students feel comfortable with science, to begin to understand and critique the many ways science has been narrowly and powerfully shaped and has marginalized significant groups of individuals, and to begin to deconstruct scientific knowledge and construct alternative views of science and science education that are gender and culture sensitive. We also challenged them to use what they were learning to develop pedagogical strategies that would be inviting to their own students. The focus of the article is our students' reactions to these assignments and how these reactions—both inviting and resisting—informed us about their notions of science, of teaching, of themselves as learners, and of the social context in which they would teach. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 897–918, 1998.     

What your patient reads: creating a value-added tool for physicians

Through a number of media sources, today's consumers have unprecedented access to health information of varying reliability and authority. Empowered by this information, patients are more involved in their health care decisions and more willing to question physicians' advice. This poses a challenge for physicians who must now find time to read mass media health reports in addition to medical research. In order to help physicians with this task, librarians at the University of Manitoba Health Sciences Libraries created What Your Patient Reads - one-page summaries of health-related media reports supplemented with references to evidence-based medical literature.