Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item Engagement as a Mediator of the Associations Among Expectancies and Values for Reading and Reading Outcomes(2014) Cambria, Jenna; Wigfield, Allan; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Previous research studies have shown that cognitive engagement could be included in the Eccles et al. (1983) expectancy-value model as the indirect means, or mediator, by which motivational influencers drive achievement (e.g., Greene et al., 2004; Hardré et al., 2007; Skinner et al., 2008). To explore the associations between values, expectancies, cognitive engagement and reading performance, I conducted a study with 1197 seventh graders. Values, expectancies, and cognitive engagement were measured using survey data. Performance was measured using the informational text comprehension test (ITC) and Reading/Language Arts grades. The main finding of this study was that cognitive engagement was a significant mediator of both expectancies and values with reading performance. Guthrie et al. (2012) discussed how reading requires effort and attention. Expectancies and values partially drive engagement, which is to say, they initiate engagement and not that motivation stops when a student becomes engaged in a task. When reading is valued and students believe they can be successful, students will be more persistent and put in more effort in deducing meaning from passages, like the ITC test. If students are more motivated, they will put in more effort and will result in better Reading/Language Arts grades. As discussed, the indirect effects of values and expectancies, and the direct of values, expectancies, cognitive engagement, and demographic controls were the same across the ITC and Reading/Language Arts grades. One exception to this association was the effects of gender and race on the reading outcomes. For gender, girls had higher grades than boys, but boys and girls did the same on ITC. This finding replicated previous research that males and females do not differ on standardized tests at this age and girls often perform better in Reading/Language Arts grades, which are typically seen as favoring females than do other classes such as mathematics (Banks & Banks, 2010). For race, there was no difference in performance in Reading/Language Arts grades, but there was a race difference on ITC. From an expectancy-value framework, mediation may mean that through engagement, expectancies for success and values may be actualized into achievement.Item Occasions for Reading: Literary Encounters and the Making of the West Indies(2011) Esprit, Schuyler Kirshten; Ray, Sangeeta; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)"Occasions for Reading" argues for a new methodology of postcolonial reading that traces the origins of Anglophone Caribbean literary history and redirects the routes of West Indian literary production and canon formation. Historically, West Indian writers have sought an "ideal" reader of their work, though the definition and depiction of that ideal reader have varied. Anglophone Caribbean authors' own relationships to the act of reading and to the influence of reading on their own and on their characters' identity formation also direct or re-direct nation and canon formation. By engaging postcolonial theory, reader-response theory, post-structuralism, and reception studies, the dissertation investigates the production of the reader in and of Caribbean literary texts and of the social spaces in which they circulate. This dissertation situates the act of reading at the core of colonial and postcolonial representations of the Anglophone Caribbean and offers the culture of reception as a mode through which the geography of the West Indies is implicated in connecting West Indian people and identities across the diaspora. Acts and scenes of reading in West Indian novels produce a critique of Imperial knowledge production and illustrate how Caribbean subjects transform the intellectual, psychological or political meanings derived from reading colonial texts into a postcolonial epistemology. Such transformations provoke a range of consequences for these character-readers who must either leave the Caribbean region or continue to stake out their legitimacy and rootedness. Reading prompts characters' transgressions or resistance against persistent political, aesthetic or cultural narratives of colonialism historically informing Caribbean identity. By extension, characters' engagements with reading reveal twentieth-century West Indian authors' preoccupations with and resistance to colonial ontology. Issues of race, class, and gender influence the acts and scenes of reading in canonical West Indian novels analyzed in this study, including C.L.R. James's Minty Alley, V.S. Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur, Phyllis Shand Allfrey's The Orchid House, Michelle Cliff's Abeng and Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John. Following the historiography of the function of the reader in West Indian novels, the dissertation contends with contemporary concerns, in the late twentieth and into the twenty-first century, about where and how novels on the Caribbean experience are read, particularly by non-academic reading publics. Significant moments of literary reception in the U.K. and reception culture of Caribbean literature in the United States allow for a focus on contemporary novels and memoirs including Andrea Levy's Small Island and Jamaica Kincaid's My Brother. In an examination of how writers such as Kincaid and Edwidge Danticat have responded to the readers who encounter and assess their work, I critique apparent conflations of Caribbean literature, Caribbean geography or landscape, and Caribbean identity. Slippages in understanding the differences and boundaries between these concepts - literature, geography, and identity - in reading practices warrant a more methodological view of the impact of reading and reception on Caribbean literary history and its global reach. While representations of readers within the Caribbean space reveal a desire for a distinct origin and rootedness in the Caribbean landscape, migrant writers redefine the legacy and relevance of Caribbean literature through a discourse of emotion without boundaries or frontiers. As a whole, this dissertation challenges the dominant view of primarily political origins of postcolonial Caribbean literature, upholding its less recognized genealogy in intellectual and aesthetic discourses.Item Validation of Teacher Reading Ratings with Direct Measures of Reading(2011) Grossman, Julie Adina; Speece, Deborah L; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Recent legislation has mandated that students are proficient in reading. Thus, efficient methods of assessment are essential at the present time. Although direct assessments of reading have been shown to be valid in depicting students' skills, they are not efficient methods. It would be cost and time efficient if there were a valid teacher rating instrument. The present study assessed the concurrent and predictive validity of first and fourth grade teacher ratings on Ratings of Overall Reading and Ratings of Reading Problems when compared with several direct measures of reading. Teachers' ratings on Ratings of Overall Reading produced higher validity coefficients than their ratings of the Ratings of Reading Problems. Given that this measure demonstrated the concurrent and predictive validity of teachers' ratings in both first and fourth grades, it is hoped that it can begin to be incorporated into screenings for identifying students experiencing reading difficulties.Item AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF READ 180® ON FOURTH GRADE READING ACHIEVEMENT AND HOW SELECTED TEACHERS IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAM(2011) Hubbard, Anne Judith; McLaughlin, Margaret J.; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined the effects of the READ 180®® program on the reading achievement levels of fourth grade students who participated in the READ 180®® program (Scholastic Incorporated, 2005) compared to fourth grade students who were reading below grade level but who were not participating in the READ 180®® program. The study compared the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) scores of each group administered in September 2009 and May or June 2010. The mean reading achievement gain for each group was compared to determine if there was a significant difference between the reading scores. Results of the One-Way ANCOVA yielded no significant statistical differences, at the probability level (p level) of .05, in the posttest SRI reading score means for students in READ 180®® and non-READ 180®® reading programs, after controlling for initial differences on the pretest SRI scores. However, if the probability was set for p=< .10, the results of the study would demonstrate a statistically significant difference between the posttest SRI scores. Although there was evidence READ 180®® was statistically significant and beneficial to students, the results are not conclusive. The results of the Two-Way ANCOVA showed no significance of interaction between reading program status and TerraNova Third EditionTM qualification criteria on posttest reading scores. The study also investigated whether teachers supplemented the standard READ 180®® program with other reading interventions, activities, and modifications based upon the needs of the students. Teachers who taught READ 180®® and special education teachers who assisted with READ 180®® implementation were surveyed using a web-based survey program. Survey results indicated teachers supplemented the standard READ 180®® program including Whole Group, Small Group, and Independent Reading Group rotations with reading interventions, activities, and modifications based upon the needs of the students. Supplementary activities included the use of Internet resources, reading materials, Smartboard activities, and alternate methods for evaluating student progress. The use of other commercially available materials and activities for written language instruction were included to expand the READ 180®® curriculum. Modifications and interventions were rarely made to READ 180®® Software instructional sessions, with the exception of keyboarding devices and headsets.Item The Effects of Two Summarization Strategies Using Expository Text on the Reading Comprehension and Summary Writing of Fourth- and Fifth-Grade Students in an Urban, Title 1 School(2009) Braxton, Diane Marie; Dreher, Mariam J.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation:THE EFFECTS OF TWO SUMMARIZATION STRATEGIES USING EXPOSITORY TEXT ON THE READING COMPREHENSION AND SUMMARY WRITING OF FOURTH- AND FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS IN AN URBAN, TITLE 1 SCHOOL Diane M. Braxton, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Directed By: Dr. Mariam Jean Dreher Department of Curriculum and Instruction University of Maryland, College Park Using a quasi-experimental pretest/post test design, this study examined the effects of two summarization strategies on the reading comprehension and summary writing of fourth- and fifth- grade students in an urban, Title 1 school. The strategies, Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text (GIST) and Rule-based, were taught using authentic social studies materials that are part of the school system's curriculum. Four intact classes participated in fifteen 40 - 60 minute lessons. One fourth-grade (17 students) and one fifth-grade (13 students) received GIST instruction, and one fourth-grade (20 students) and one fifth-grade (14 students) received Rule-based instruction. The Qualitative Reading Inventory - 4 was used to determine the effects on the expository reading comprehension. For the fourth graders, there was no significant interaction between time and intervention. However, there was a significant main effect for time with a very large effect size. Additional analyses showed a significant time by intervention by gender interaction for implicit questions (but no effect for explicit questions). GIST group males outperformed the females, while Rule-based group females outperformed males. For the fifth graders, there was no significant interaction between time and intervention. However, there was a significant main effect for time with a very large effect size. For the quality of summaries, there was a significant interaction between time and intervention with a very large effect size for both grades, favoring the Rule-based group. Questionnaire responses showed the greatest change for students in both grades and interventions on concepts of summary writing. Ratings indicated an increase in knowledge about summary writing, paralleling the gained knowledge that was evident in students' post test summaries. These results suggest that both summarization methods can improve the expository reading comprehension and summary writing of urban, Title 1 students. These findings provide evidence to encourage the teaching of summarization strategies to promote reading achievement especially with students who are lagging behind their peers in the area of reading. This study extended summarization research by (a) using authentic expository text rather than research-generated material, and (b) instructing a student population that has had limited representation in past studies.Item Teacher Sense-making and Policy Implementation: A Qualitative Case Study of a School District's Reading Initiative in Science(2009) Quinn, John Rory; Mawhinney, Hanne; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In response to No Child Left Behind federal legislation and Maryland's Bridge to Excellence Act, a school district created a strategic plan that included a program initiative for improving reading in secondary schools. The initiative involved the implementation of Reading Apprenticeship, a program that required content teachers to infuse reading instruction into their practice by modeling reading behaviors and utilizing tools designed to promote metacognitive conversations with their students. This qualitative case study used a cognitive perspective to explore the sense-making of a team of middle school science teachers who received training and sought to implement the program in their instructional practice during the 2004-2005 school year. The findings revealed that policy implementation varied for the different members of the team and was adversely affect by other policies and resistance by students. At the same time, policy implementation was enhanced by teacher participation in the communities of practice associated with the initiative. Implications from the study advocate that school districts actively engage in sense-giving activities and support the communities of practice that are established when new policy measures are introduced. The study calls for further research on how students respond to policy initiatives and how they shape their teachers' sense-making. This study contributed to the sparse body of literature in this new field of education policy implementation research.Item The bilingual acquisition of compound words and its relation to reading skills(2008-04-22) Cheng, Chenxi; Wang, Min; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated how Chinese-English bilingual children process compound words in their two languages and how that processing skill in one language affects reading skill in the other language. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated the bilingual acquisition of compound words, using a lexical-decision paradigm. Each compound was composed of two constituent morphemes in the target language. The combination of the translated equivalents of the constituents formed a new translated compound word (or nonword) in the nontarget language. In both Experiments 1 and 2, when the target language was English, the lexical status of translated compounds in the nontarget language was shown to affect the accuracy of lexical decisions in the target language. When the target language was Chinese, the effect of the lexical status in English was not significant in Experiment 1 and disappeared after the effect of familiarity was controlled in Experiment 2. The results of Experiment 2 further showed that the effect of the lexical status of translated compounds was independent of semantic transparency and language proficiency. Those results provided evidence of decomposition in both semantically transparent and semantically opaque compounds. The stronger effect from L1 to L2 than from L2 to L1 is consistent with the Revised Hierarchical Model (Kroll & Stewart, 1994). Experiment 3 investigated the awareness of compound words and reading skills and their relationship in a group of Grade 2 and Grade 3 Chinese-English bilingual children. Comparable tasks in Chinese and English were designed to test students' morphological awareness of compounds, phonological awareness, oral vocabulary, word reading, and reading comprehension. Results of structural equation modeling showed that, within each language, compound awareness was a significant predictor for both real-word naming and reading comprehension. Across languages, English compound awareness was a significant predictor for reading comprehension in Chinese. Those results suggest that compound awareness might play a critical role in the reading development of Chinese-English bilingual children.Item Pre-Service Reading Teachers as Tutors: An Examination of Efficacy and Content Knowledge(2007-05-14) Rogers Haverback, Heather; Parault, Susan J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research examined pre-service teachers' efficacy and content knowledge in the domain of reading. The Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) was adapted to create a domain specific reading TSES (RTSES). This scale was used to investigate whether the opportunity to engage in a one-on-one tutoring experience or the opportunity to observe children being taught reading related skills would result in differences in changes in efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers enrolled in a required reading course. In addition, this research investigated whether observation or tutoring experiences in reading were related to changes in growth of pedagogical knowledge in reading. Analyses of pre-test and post-test data showed that both the tutoring and observation groups rated themselves higher in the area of reading teacher efficacy and grew in their reading content knowledge from the beginning of the course to the end. However, there was only a marginally significant difference in the amount of change between the tutors and observers in their total RTSES and RTSES reading motivation scores, and there was not a difference between group in RTSES reading assessment efficacy or reading content knowledge scores. Both of the marginal differences, total RTSES and the RTSES reading motivation efficacy subscale, showed that the observers rated themselves higher in efficacy beliefs than the tutors after participation in this study. Additional analyses showed that reading efficacy and content knowledge were not correlated in either group, and that tutors with high pre-test efficacy scores did not use significantly more instructional practices while tutoring than those with low pre-test efficacy scores. However, 100% of tutors felt that the field experience should be implemented in future classes opposed to 57% of the observers. While the tutors had a hands-on experience that they found valuable, the observers who did not have a hands-on experience reported higher post-test efficacy scores. However, one may question on what these efficacy scores were based. This question suggests that there is a need for more research to further investigate whether this field experience is a benefit to pre-service teachers..Item The Effectiveness of a Color-Coded, Onset-Rime Reading Intervention With First Grade Students At Serious Risk For Reading Disabilities(2007-04-25) Hines, Sara Jane; Speece, Deborah L.; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Beginning readers who are weak decoders usually continue to fall behind in reading as they progress through school, negatively affecting their overall academic performance, self-esteem, and motivation. Therefore, it is imperative to develop instructional practices to assist the acquisition of effective decoding skills. Although existing remedial approaches have proven effective with a number of students with reading problems, they have not been successful with those students most at risk and have generally not resulted in transfer of skills to decoding novel words not targeted in instruction. I used a single-subject multiple probe design across participants to investigate the effectiveness of a color-coded, onset-rime based decoding intervention. The participants were first grade students determined to be at serious risk for reading disabilities based on their performance on screening measures. All four of the students made strong progress in learning the instructional words, increasing on average 73% over baseline (range 66%-78%). In addition, for novel words from instructed rime patterns, students increased their scores from baseline to post-intervention by an average of 56% (range 50% to 62%). There was limited transfer at the vowel level to uninstructed rime patterns, with students improving their scores by an average of 29% (range 17% to 50%). All students maintained their improvement in decoding skills for both instructional and transfer words at one week and one month maintenance. The fact that the children were able not only to master instructional words but also to use their knowledge of rime patterns to decode uninstructed words is important given the difficulty of students most at-risk for reading disabilities to master instructional words and transfer decoding gains. Furthermore, the three participants with the lowest performance prior to instruction showed strong improvement on a standardized measure of reading achievement (Woodcock-Johnson Reading Mastery Test-Revised, Normative Update). The effectiveness of the program in improving the decoding skills of readers who are significantly at-risk is a promising first step in finding an instructional approach that is successful with students who have been left behind not just by traditional classroom instruction but by remedial approaches as well.Item EFFECTS OF TEXT MARKERS AND FAMILIARITY ON COMPONENT STRUCTURES OF TEXT-BASED REPRESENTATIONS(2006-10-20) Davis, Marcia Hardisky; Guthrie, John T.; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Reading theorists agree that the outcome of reading comprehension is a text representation (Gernsbacher, Varner, & Faust, 1990; Kintsch, 1998). To measure reading comprehension, however, many use testing formats such as multiple-choice and short answer, that have been shown to provide very little information about the text representations created during reading (Kintsch & Kintsch, 2005). A different type of format, proximity measures, is a promising measure for text based representations, although few studies have examined the validity of this type of comprehension measure. The current dissertation addressed this issue by creating a proximity measure named the Passage Comprehension for Structured Text (PCST) and by examining the validity of the PCST through experimental manipulations on the text. This investigation tested the comprehension of 236 ninth-grade students with the PCST. Students were asked to read a short text followed by a computer task where the students rated the similarity of 11 concepts. Two components were extracted from the PCST, the textbase component and the situation model component. Text manipulations included changes in text coherence and familiarity. It was hypothesized that a coherence manipulation should have an effect on the textbase component and a familiarity manipulation should have an effect on the situation model component. Further, both manipulations should influence the strength of the factor that determines the scores on these components. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to compare the conditions. Results confirmed that students with coherent text outperformed students with incoherent text on the textbase component and students with familiar text outperformed students with unfamiliar text on the situation model component. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to further explore the effect of text manipulations on the structure of the PCST components. Results indicated that there was a stronger factor for the situation model component when the text was familiar compared to when the text was unfamiliar. Limited evidence suggests that there was also a stronger factor for the textbase component when the text included macrosignals compared to when the text did not include macrosignals.