Copyright (c) 2009 University of Nebraska - Lincoln All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw Recent documents in Research and Evaluation in Literacy en-us Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:20:08 PST 3600 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/20 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/20 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:14:23 PST The 2008-2009 Annual Reading First Progress Report reflects on the final year of implementation for Round I schools and the third full year of implementation for Round II schools. This report focuses on the effect that Reading First implementation has had on selected schools across Nebraska with a special focus on vulnerable populations: English language learners, students of different ethnicities, special education students, and economically disadvantaged students. Guy Trainin http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/19 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/19 Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:51:27 PST A critical component of reading development identified by the National Reading Panel (2002) is fluency. Fluency is often described as accurate, rapid, and expressive reading (Kuhn & Stahl, 2003), and is generally acknowledged to be an outcome of well-developed word recognition skills. Recently, researchers have placed considerable focus on the understanding of fluency development; the factors that influence fluency growth, and methods or approaches that help produce fluent readers [See Kuhn & Stahl (2003) and Rasinski & Hoffman (2003) for recent reviews]. There is a need to better understand what methods and conditions positively impact fluency development in young readers. This study examined the impact of one fluency curriculum (QuickReads) in two different presentation formats on reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills for students in 2nd through 5th grades. The QuickReads curriculum is based on strong theoretical foundations, and is organized for ease of use by teachers. This study reports the results of a large-scale implementation of QuickReads, comparing its teacher-mediated print delivery format and technology delivery format to standard classroom fluency instruction. Guy Trainin http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/18 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/18 Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:30:53 PDT The 2007-08 Annual Report presents results and analysis of student performance in Nebraska Reading First schools for the 2007-08 school year. Teacher responses are also reported, along with comparisons of two districts from the year just prior to Reading First implementation through the 4 years of implementation. Emily Hayden M.S. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/16 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/16 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:23:53 PDT This paper is presented at AERA 2008 and discusses an innovative assessment of silent reading fluency. Fluency is a critical component of proficient reading. The NRP's conclusions regarding the efficacy of oral reading in instruction and assessment led to an emphasis on oral reading experiences. Ultimately, however, the goal of reading instruction is for students to read extended texts on their own (i.e., silently) with comprehension. While previous studies have not been successful in measuring silent reading fluency accurately, we present evidence that such assessment is possible using a comprehension based approach through a computer. The paper will present evidence to the validity and reliability of such assessment. Results further show a consistent rate positively associated with comprehension with all students except those in the bottom quartile in comprehension. Guy Trainin http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/15 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/15 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:05:06 PDT Volume 3 issue 1 of the newsletter of Nebraska Reading First evaluation team. Updates on spring assessments and demographics for 2006-07 school year, contact information for the evaluation team. Emily Hayden http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/14 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/14 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:01:47 PDT The Nebraska Reading First Fall 2007 Report presents an analysis of the progress and assessment results for Nebraska Reading First schools in the 4th year of implementation. Emily Hayden http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/13 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/13 Wed, 20 Feb 2008 10:29:22 PST The Winter 2008 newsletter of the Nebraska Reading First Evaluation team presents articles from the Fall 2007 evaluation report. Emily Hayden http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/12 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/12 Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:55:06 PDT Reading First is a Federal grant program aimed at improving basic literacy skills in kindergarten through third grade in schools identified as underachieving. In the third year of implementation we find that achievement in second and third grade is improving. Round two schools are moving faster than round one schools did in their first year. Gaps for most at-risk populations are decreasing, however, gaps for students in special education are actually growing. There is clear change in teacher beliefs and teacher practice that is strongly associated with changes in student achievement. Finally Reading First is having an impact beyond Reading First schools throughout the state. Malinda Mary Murphy http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/11 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/11 Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:02:52 PDT While Readers' Theatre has often been cited as a repeated reading strategy (Rasinski, 2000) few studies have shown its actual contribution to students reading performance. The series of studies presented here show that a carefully conducted Readers' Theatre component can increase student performance in both fluency and comprehension. The evidence from the three studies shows not only that Readers' Theatre is an effective strategy when used by experts but that it can be implemented successfully in the classroom. Guy Trainin http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/10 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cehsgpirw/10 Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:00:44 PDT ENHANCING PRINT KNOWLEDGE, PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS, AND ORAL LANGUAGE SKILLS WITH AT-RISK PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN HEAD START CLASSROOMS Malinda M. Murphy, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2007 Adviser: Guy Trainin This study examined the impact of two language and literacy interventions on the emergent literacy and language skills of 27, four and five-year old children in three Head Start classrooms. Interventions took place three times per week for approximately fifteen minutes over an eight week period. One intervention, WordWork (Calfee, Norman, Trainin, & Wilson, 2001; Calfee & Patrick, 1995) provided explicit instruction in print knowledge and phonological awareness. The second intervention, Dialogic Reading (Whitehurst, Falco et al., 1988), involved interactive storybook reading designed to provide opportunities to enhance language and vocabulary development with young children. The control group received no intervention beyond the curriculum, Creative Curriculum® (Dodge, Colker, Heroman, & Bickart, 2002), offered in the classroom. After an eight-week intervention, children in the WordWork group performed significantly higher on measures of print knowledge and phonological awareness skills than children in both the Dialogic Reading group and the control group. The children in the WordWork group performed significantly higher than students in the control group in oral language ability. The substantial gains in performance made by the children in the WordWork group are attributed to the developmentally appropriate nature of the explicit instruction provided in the program combined with the social constructivist nature of the lessons. Implications for classroom practice are offered, as well as directions for future research. Malinda Mary Murphy