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The Accelerated Reader Program has been a widely used reading program in elementary schools in the United States. However, even with its popularity, there have been controversies on if and how it should be used in the classroom. Arguments in support say the program gets children to read and that

The Accelerated Reader Program has been a widely used reading program in elementary schools in the United States. However, even with its popularity, there have been controversies on if and how it should be used in the classroom. Arguments in support say the program gets children to read and that it is a helpful tool for teachers to keep track of each students reading abilities. Arguments against suggest that book choice is decreased, book levels are askew, the quizzes do not promote higher level thinking, and the use of incentives may send the wrong signals to students. Schools have started to abandon the program in the recent years, but maybe it will come back bigger and stronger. In the meantime, schools need to make sure that enriching books fill the schools and classrooms to promote reading for their students.
ContributorsGeske, Tara Briana (Author) / Serafini, Frank (Thesis director) / Esch, Mark (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2013-12
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Description
This study looked at college-age students' ability to comprehend and retain information learned from news articles depending on what platform they read from. Fifteen participants read three local New York Times articles on each of the platforms provided: iPad, laptop, and paper. They took one test immediately after to test

This study looked at college-age students' ability to comprehend and retain information learned from news articles depending on what platform they read from. Fifteen participants read three local New York Times articles on each of the platforms provided: iPad, laptop, and paper. They took one test immediately after to test comprehension and another two weeks later to test their retention. Participants were also asked if they found the articles interesting, enjoyable, clear, etc. Results showed that participants' views on each format had little, if any, affect on their number of correct responses. The most consistent results on the participants' perceptions of the formats came from the laptop and paper, whereas the iPad received a bimodal pattern of responses. Participants were also asked to share their news habits while taking the test by selecting how frequently they gain news from various sources such as social media or television. These habits also seemed to have very little effect on their scores.
ContributorsKillin, Jamie Faye (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Russomanno, Joseph (Committee member) / Dodge, Nancie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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Description
This study looked at college-age students' ability to comprehend and retain information learned from news articles depending on what platform they read from. Fifteen participants read three local New York Times articles on each of the platforms provided: iPad, laptop, and paper. They took one test immediately after to test

This study looked at college-age students' ability to comprehend and retain information learned from news articles depending on what platform they read from. Fifteen participants read three local New York Times articles on each of the platforms provided: iPad, laptop, and paper. They took one test immediately after to test comprehension and another two weeks later to test their retention. Participants were also asked if they found the articles interesting, enjoyable, clear, etc. Results showed that participants' views on each format had little, if any, affect on their number of correct responses. The most consistent results on the participants' perceptions of the formats came from the laptop and paper, whereas the iPad received a bimodal pattern of responses. Participants were also asked to share their news habits while taking the test by selecting how frequently they gain news from various sources such as social media or television. These habits also seemed to have very little effect on their scores.
ContributorsKillin, Jamie Faye (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Russomanno, Joseph (Committee member) / Dodge, Nancie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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Description
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the EMBRACE Spanish support intervention for at-risk dual language learners and to determine which verbal and nonverbal characteristics of students were related to benefit from the intervention. The first study examined oral language and reading characteristics and the

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the EMBRACE Spanish support intervention for at-risk dual language learners and to determine which verbal and nonverbal characteristics of students were related to benefit from the intervention. The first study examined oral language and reading characteristics and the second study examined motor characteristics in predicting the children's outcomes on a reading comprehension intervention.

Method: Fifty-six participants in 2nd-5th grade were randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) Spanish-support intervention, or 2) Spanish-support control. Outcome measures included performance on comprehension questions related to intervention texts, questions on the final narrative and expository text without strategy instruction, and difference scores on alternate forms of the Gates-MacGinitie (GMRT-4, MacGinitie, MacGinitie, Maria, & Dreyer, 2002) reading comprehension subtest administered pre- post-intervention. Multi-level hierarchical linear models were used to account for nesting of question within child within classroom. Regression models were used to examine the power of motor predictors in predicting Spanish and English language performance.

Results: Results from study 1 indicated that the intervention was most effective for narrative (vs. expository) texts and easy (vs. more difficult) texts. Dual language learners (DLLs) with lower initial English reading comprehension abilities benefitted more from the intervention than those with stronger reading skills. Results from Study 2 indicated that oral fine motor abilities predicted Spanish (but not English) oral language abilities in the expected direction (i.e. faster performance associated with higher language scores). The speed of /pata/ productions predicted reading comprehension during the intervention, but not in the expected direction (i.e. slower speeds associated with higher accuracy). Manual fine motor performance on tapping tasks was not related to language or reading.

Conclusions: The EMBRACE intervention has promise for use with at-risk DLLs. Future research should take care to match text difficulty with child skills so as to maximize benefit from the intervention. Oral fine motor abilities were related to language abilities in DLLs, but only for the native language. Slower oral fine motor performance predicted higher accuracy on intervention questions, suggesting that EMBRACE may be particularly effective for children with weak fine motor skills.
ContributorsAdams, Ashley (Author) / Restrepo, Maria Adelaida (Thesis advisor) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Connor, Carol M (Committee member) / Peter, Beate (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017