Functional color components used in reading instruction

One hundred ninety third through sixth graders were given either 6, 16, or 26 months of reading instruction with functional color components (FCC) of parts of words. Another 160 children in the same schools did not receive FCC instruction. The results showed that: (a) FCC brought about improvement in reading scores for disability and nondisability children, (b) increasing months of FCC did not bring accelerated improvement in rate of reading, and (c) nondisability children showed greater improvement than did disability children from FCC.     

Correction to: What do upper‑elementary and middle school teachers know about the processes of text comprehension?

Reading and Writing -     

Media Covid misinformation due to confounding

We discuss a case study on how misinformation regarding Covid-19 health outcomes can arise due to confounding. Data from the UK on mortality rates suggest that people who have some level of vaccination and contract the Delta variant of Covid are twice as likely to die than those who are unvaccinated. Age, however, a confounding variable, when accounted for, produces a more complicated picture. The mortality rates for the vaccinated are statistically lower than the unvaccinated for the older but not younger age group. We present several approaches for teaching confounding to help students better understand this underemphasized concept's cause, effects, and origins.