UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    Explicit Instruction on Rhetorical Patterns and Student-Constructed Graphic Organizers: The Impact on Sixth-Grade Students' Comprehension of Social Studies Text
    (2011) Scott, Deborah Beth; Dreher, Mariam J; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Using a pretest, posttest two group design, this study investigated the effect of explicit instruction on rhetorical patterns and using those patterns to represent the content graphically on sixth-grade students’ ability to comprehend social studies text. Students in 13 classes from four middle schools in Pennsylvania received either explicit instruction in identifying rhetorical patterns found in social studies textbooks and representing that text graphically or routine social studies instruction. Routine social studies instruction was identified as the instructional activities documented during observations conducted six weeks prior to the intervention. When the intervention began, intervention group students learned to identify rhetorical patterns, construct graphic organizers using the rhetorical patterns, and write summaries of textbook content. Comparison group students continued with routine social studies instruction. All students were assessed with (a) pre- and posttests in which they constructed graphic organizers and wrote summaries using social studies passages and (b) comprehension quizzes during on-going instruction. Randomly selected students from each group engaged in think-aloud tasks at the end of the study. The pre- and posttests results indicated a statistically significant interaction between time and group for both graphic organizer construction (with a very large effect size) and summary writing (with a moderate effect size). Intervention group students outperformed students in the routine social studies group in both constructing graphic organizers based on rhetorical patterns and writing complete summaries. For the comprehension quizzes, students receiving routine social studies instruction outperformed students in the intervention group when answering multiple-choice and essay questions requiring recall of content. Think-aloud responses demonstrated that students in the intervention group were able to graphically represent social studies textbook content using rhetorical patterns as well as transfer that knowledge to a textbook from a different domain while students in the comparison group recognized there was a structure to the content of the text but did not accurately represent that content graphically according to the appropriate rhetorical pattern. Observational data showed intervention students were more engaged with graphic organizers and work samples demonstrated they were able to identify key information in the text and represent it in graphic form.
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    Challenging Task in Appropriate Text: Designing Discourse Communities to Increase the Literacy Growth of Adolescent Struggling Readers
    (2005-03-31) russell, sharon lynn; Chambliss, Marilyn J.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This six-month intervention study focusing on ninth-grade struggling readers had three goals: to determine the overall literacy growth of adolescent struggling readers when engaged in a task-through-text instructional framework situated within specially designed discourse communities, to determine the effectiveness of text structure instruction, and to track intrinsic motivational changes related to reading. Small discourse communities were designed for the purpose of apprenticing students into literate high school culture. Within the discourse communities, students engaged in challenging tasks in appropriate text to increase academic literacy. Most students began the intervention reading below a second-grade level. Students who were receiving special education, second language, and no services participated in the study. Using the task-in-text discourse community framework, students in six small reading classes received daily intervention given by the researcher. This study also used low-level expository text with four characteristics: links to interest and prior knowledge, sufficient density of ideas, clear rhetorical patterns, and clear signaling devices. When compared with the control group, at post- testing, students receiving intervention showed a statistically significant difference in overall literacy growth as well as in their ability to use and transfer knowledge of text structure. A within-groups counterbalanced design showed that students who received text structure instruction first scored statistically significantly better on a summarization task even after they were no longer receiving text structure instruction. Students in the instruction group completed a self-reported questionnaire about motivation for reading. Statistically significant increases in reading efficacy and reading challenge were observed indicating that students increased both their personal beliefs about reading as well as their willingness to take risks as readers. Results indicate that adolescents who are reading at very low levels can increase their literacy abilities rapidly under the right learning conditions and when given appropriate texts. Further, instruction in text structure assisted students with both comprehension and content knowledge acquisition. Finally, students in the instruction group increased their motivation for reading. Outcomes in literacy growth, text structure, and motivation, all support future research concerning pedagogically sound methods for providing reading intervention to adolescent struggling readers.