Browsing by Subject "reading"
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Item AMD Home-based training experiment - Vertical reading(2016-07-05) Calabrese, Aurelie J; Legge, Gordon E; Liu, Tingting; acalabre@umn.edu; Calabrese, Aurelie JParticipants with age related (AMD) or juvenile macular degeneration (JMD) took part in a remotely conducted, home-based rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) reading training. Participants were randomly assigned to three training groups, for which the training differed by the text orientation. In Group ‘V’, participants were trained with vertical text display. In Group ‘VH’, participants were first trained with vertical text display; a few months later, they also completed training with horizontal text. In Group ‘H’, participants were trained with horizontal text display only. Whether vertical or horizontal, participants were all trained with RSVP reading, and tested on reading speed for horizontal or vertical texts. The datasets contain measures of RSVP reading speed after each training session (training.csv), and RSVP and flashcard reading speed, as well as visual span, for tests conducted pre and post training (pre-post.csv).Item Anoka-Hennepin Compensatory Education Pilot Program, Year 1 Report(Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, 2007-01) Wahlstrom, Kyla; Hornbacher, Judy; Dretzke, Beverly; Peterson, Kristin; London, RachelThe Anoka-Hennepin Compensatory Pilot Program is a state funded effort to examine student impact when Compensatory Education dollars are reallocated to 2nd and 3rd grades in three pilot schools. Shifting the traditional allocation of funds allows the district to provide a major intervention in three schools with high populations of at-risk students. The intervention includes program structures for mathematics and reading, changing instructional delivery methods in math and reading, providing intense professional development for teachers in math and reading, coaching follow-up at each site, and significant oversight. The Year 1 Report reviews student achievement results from the pilot schools and a matched set of control students, levels of implementation of the project in classrooms, impact of strategies on outcomes and changes in teacher and staff attitudes toward the project.Item Anoka-Hennepin Compensatory Education Pilot Program, Year 4 Report(Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, 2009-12) Peterson, Kristin; Klingbeil, DaveThe purpose of the Anoka‐Hennepin Compensatory Education Pilot Program was to determine how the reallocation of funds affects program structure, changes instructional delivery, and provides opportunities for intense professional development in schools. The reallocation allowed the district to change program structure in reading and math instruction at three pilot site schools that were selected for this project because of their proportions of learners at risk. It was at those schools that a number of best practices components were added over four years of programming. Annual evaluation reports have been written every year of the program. This report looks specifically at the components in place in Year 4 of the program. The goals of the program were to have all students: 1) reach high standards; 2) attain proficiency in literacy and mathematics; and have all teachers: 1) vary instruction; and 2) use assessments to guide instruction for diverse learners. The CAREI team collected data using protocols and rubrics while observing classroom teachers and staff at the three pilot schools and 18 extension sites. Data were also drawn from district Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) and Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments – Series II (MCA‐II) test databases.Item Disciplinary Literacy, Reading, and Middle School ELA Teachers: A Multi-Case Exploratory Study(2024) Taylor, AnnaMiddle school serves as an important transitional stage in U.S. educational systems, as the foundational learning of the elementary grades gives way to the specialized, disciplinary studies privileged in secondary and post-secondary schools. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how middle school English Language Arts (ELA) teachers shaped the operational curriculum in their classrooms, in light of disciplinary literacy. Disciplinary literacy has emerged as an important field of research in secondary literacy in the past fifteen years; this study built upon several bodies of literature, including disciplinary literacy, ELA, and studies of educator decision-making. After examining this literature, I created a complex conceptual framework that anchored my study of educator decision-making in middle school ELA classrooms. Research questions examined teacher factors such as training and beliefs, contextual factors such as school and state expectations, and the ways that the operational curriculum in their classrooms reflected these factors.A qualitative, multi-case design was implemented to examine the instructional decision-making of two focal ELA teachers in a single school: Erin, a first-year teacher of eighth grade, and Natasha, a 16th year teacher of seventh grade. Conducting the study in one school enabled careful examination of shared contextual factors, such as school expectations and the absence of official curriculum, as well as unique individual factors, such as teachers’ beliefs, training, and past teaching experiences. Data collected included multiple rounds of interview data, notes from 8-10 classroom observations, artifacts of classroom instruction, and researcher memos and jottings. Data were analyzed through rounds of qualitative coding and analysis, drawing on provisional codes from the study’s conceptual framework. The study showed that educators shape their classrooms’ operational curriculum based on myriad factors. Teacher factors, such as access to materials and personal interest, and contextual factors, such as state standards and school-level expectations for instruction, directly shaped the operational curriculum in each classroom. Literary study, generally viewed as the heart of ELA in traditional and disciplinary literacy paradigms, was evident but not central to instruction in participants’ classrooms. This study indicates the need for additional teacher- and classroom-focused ELA disciplinary literacy research.Item Effects of Data-Based Writing Instruction on the Reading Outcomes of Elementary Students with Writing Difficulties(2023) Shanahan, EmmaDifficulties in writing can emerge as early as preschool, and often coincide with developing difficulties in reading (Berninger et al., 1997; Graham & Santangelo, 2014; Graham et al., 2020), as reading and writing are fundamentally connected skills (e.g., Fitzgerald & Shanahan, 2000). Writing instruction in general has had positive effects on reading outcomes of students across grade levels (Graham & Hebert, 2011). However, more research is needed to examine whether writing instruction can support the reading skills of elementary students with writing difficulties (Graham, 2020). Data-based instruction (DBI) in writing, which includes research-based writing instruction activities, frequent progress monitoring using curriculum-based measures (CBM) in writing, and data-based decision-making (DBDM) to individualize instruction, has been found to have promising effects on the writing outcomes of students with significant writing difficulties (McMaster et al., 2020), and may similarly support reading. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation was to examine whether DBI in writing can play a positive role in the foundational reading development of elementary students who benefit from intensive writing support. The current study used data from one cohort of participants in a multi-cohort randomized control trial evaluating the effects of DBI professional development on teachers’ use of DBI in writing and students’ writing outcomes. Participants in this study included 42 teachers (19 treatment, 23 control) and their 105 students with significant writing difficulties in Grades 1 to 5 (46 treatment, 59 control). Treatment teachers implemented writing instruction, collected CBM-writing data, and engaged in DBDM with fidelity while receiving ongoing, collaborative support via learning modules and twice-monthly coaching. Treatment students received an average of 37.3 hours of DBI in writing across 20 weeks of study participation. Depending on teachers’ assessment of students’ needs, teachers typically targeted spelling, but also taught handwriting and/or text generation. Pretest correlations indicated that the two reading outcomes, letter sound knowledge and decodable word reading, as measured by FastBridge Letter Sounds correct letter sounds per minute (LS CLSPM) and Decodable Words correct words per minute (DW CWPM), were associated with writing skills spanning from spelling to written expression. Hierarchical linear models controlling for the effect of teacher intercept indicated that DBI in writing did not have a positive effect on LS CLSPM. DBI did, however, have a significant positive effect on log-transformed DW CWPM after controlling for log-transformed pretest scores, meaning that DBI in writing had the strongest effect on the reading of students with higher initial decoding skills. Future research should investigate the effects of more specific letter sound writing interventions on letter sound knowledge and examine whether and why Matthew effects (Stanovich, 1986) may occur in DBI. Implications for teachers’ integration of reading and writing interventions as well as next steps for system-level writing assessment are discussed.Item Identifying the Preferred Retinal Locus for Reading(2023-04) Fidanci, ArdaPeople with central vision loss (CVL) often adopt a specific retinal location, known as the preferred retinal locus (PRL), outside of the region of loss to fixate targets in the visual field. The PRL is most often measured using simple fixation tasks. It has been reported that this location on the retina, also known as fixational PRL (fPRL), does not necessarily correspond to the retinal locus used in other tasks. However, it has been challenging to measure the PRL while observers are reading, a task involving frequent eye movements. This thesis presents a study investigating whether the attended location during reading in CVL participants corresponds to the fixation PRL. In our study, we developed a method to determine the retinal area engaged during fixations in reading. We validated this method for identifying the retinal location attended to during reading with ten control participants. We then used this method for assessing reading PRLs in three patients with central vision loss. Results showed that while two of the CVL patients used the fixational PRL location in reading, another patient with CVL appeared to use a different retinal location in reading. These findings help us to understand the practical use of PRL locations across tasks, especially for uncovering whether and how often the fixational PRL corresponds to the PRL used for reading.Item Improving Letter Recognition and Reading in Peripheral Vision: Sensory and Cognitive Constraints(2017-05) He, YingchenReading is an important daily task, but it is very difficult for people who have lost their central vision, because they must use peripheral vision to read. One hypothesis for slow reading speed in peripheral vision is the shrinkage of the visual span, which is the number of identifiable letters within a glimpse. Previous studies have shown that perceptual training tasks of letter recognition can enlarge peripheral visual span, as well as improving peripheral reading speed by 40% or more. This thesis focuses on sensory and cognitive factors that facilitate or limit the training-related improvements, with an ultimate goal of developing rehabilitation protocols for people with central-field loss. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the thesis. Chapter 2 demonstrates that there are common constraints limiting the size of the visual span across languages (Korean and English), and that extensive training of reading Korean characters using peripheral vision enlarges Korean visual span as well as English visual span. This transfer of training suggests a pre-symbolic nature of the visual span, and a strong potential for training benefits to generalize to untrained scripts. Chapter 3 discusses visual crowding, the inability to recognize objects in clutter, which is proposed to be the major sensory factor limiting the size of the visual span and reading. The results lead to the conclusion that reducing the impact of crowding can enlarge the visual span and can potentially facilitate reading, but not when adverse attentional bias is introduced, for example directing attention to one specific, small area in the visual field. By dissociating the influence of sensory and attentional factors, the link between crowding, visual span and reading was clarified. Finally, Chapter 4 reports on a study where the training was implemented in a word-guessing video game. The game training successfully enlarged the visual span and improved reading speed. Embedding the training in a game enhanced the enjoyment of the training and can temporarily boost letter-recognition performance during the game, but the quality of the training was not altered compared with similar training without the game. Together, the studies presented in this thesis not only speak to the theoretical basis for the training-related changes, but also provide practical guidance for designing potential reading rehabilitation protocols for people with central-field-loss.Item Letter Transposition Project [GELLAB 2018](2018-11-16) Xiong, Yingzi; Chen, Qiaoyue; Legge, Gordon E; yingzi@umn.edu; Xiong, Yingzi; Minnesota Low Vision LabWe used a letter transposition (LT) technique to investigate letter position coding during reading in central and peripheral vision. Eighteen subjects read aloud sentences in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. The tests contained a Baseline and three LT conditions with Initial, Internal and Final transpositions (e.g., “reading” to “erading”, “raeding” and “readign”). In each block 6 word-exposure times (central reading: 34, 51, 76, 113, 168 and 250 ms; peripheral reading: 53, 93, 165, 290, 511 and 900 ms) were measured in a random order, each tested 8 times. Eight blocks were tested, with each reading conditions tested once in both central and peripheral vision in a random order.Item Looking More Deeply: Fidelity of Implementation as a Critical Component in Evaluating Intervention Impacts(Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, 2008-03) Hornbacher, Margaret; Dretzke, Beverly; Peterson, Kristin; Hickey, MeghanThis study investigated the use of fidelity of implementation measures in concert with standardized tests in a matched-pairs, quasi-experimental design for evaluation of a pilot intervention program that was designed to increase second and third graders’ mathematics and reading achievement. Although students in pilot classrooms characterized by high fidelity generally performed at the same level as control students , students in low fidelity pilot classrooms performed at a significantly lower level compared to both control students and students in high fidelity pilot classrooms. We found that the fidelity measures allowed more indepth analysis of the intervention’s component parts and increased the confidence with which the project’s major questions could be addressed, thereby providing more useful information to school district personnel.Item Reconciling Print-Size and Display-Size Constraints on Reading (Minnesota Lab for Low-Vision Research, 2020)(2020-03-20) Atilgan, Nilsu; Xiong, Yingzi; Legge, Gordon E.; atilg001@umn.edu; Atilgan, Nilsu; University of Minnesota - MN Lab for Low Vision ResearchThe data includes both normally-sighted (Times and Courier groups) and low-vision subjects' reading performance. The main dependent variable in this dataset is reading speed. Reading speed measure is indicated by how many characters per minute were read. In addition, two independent variables with their different levels are provided. These variables are display format (laptop, tablet, phone) and blur condition for normally-sighted participants (normal-viewing condition and viewing under artificial blur through goggles).Item Visual Constraints on Reading in Normal Vision, Low Vision and Dyslexia(2020-12) Atilgan, NilsuReading is one of the most important daily visual tasks. Majority of people become expert readers at a very young age and perform this complex task effortlessly and automatically throughout most of their lives. However, in this “effortless” task, multiple complex processes must be efficiently carried out in a very short amount of time. That is why, reading processes and their underlying mechanisms have been a great interest for researchers. For decades, researchers have been studying the constraints that prevent people from becoming “experts” in reading. These constraints may result from many different sources such as sensory limitations, cognitive disabilities, linguistic difficulties and so on. This thesis focuses on some of the sensory constraints that affect reading performance and present three studies that approach these constraints from different angles. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the thesis. Chapter 2 addresses the close relationship between text properties and reading performance. Specifically, in this chapter, the joint impact of print-size and display-size limitations on reading speed is investigated. The findings indicate that a minimum number of characters per line, which is determined by print-size and display-size constraints together, is required to achieve a criterion of 80% of maximum reading speed. Chapter 3 discusses the neural substrates of crowding, the inability to recognize objects when surrounded by other objects, which is directly related to reading performance given the nature of text materials (i.e. letters are surrounded by other letters). Specifically, the relationship between object recognition performance in crowding settings and the nature of visual parallel pathways (i.e. Magnocellular and Parvocellular pathways) were examined. The results showed that the magnitude of crowding is different depending on the visual stimuli and their relative engagement in the visual parallel pathways. For example, processing of spatial forms like letters is affected by crowding the most while color processing does not seem to be impaired by the crowding effect. Finally, Chapter 4 investigates the visual limitations in reading through testing people with dyslexia. Visual span, the number of identifiable letters at one fixation, and visual crowding were studied to examine the differences between typical readers and individuals with dyslexia. In addition, various standardized assessments and Flashcard reading speed tests were administered to examine the individual differences, and potentially the sub-groups of dyslexia. Chapter 4 aims to address the relationship between individual differences and the performance in visual-attentional tasks in dyslexia. The findings indicated that despite large individual variabilities in the assessments and visual experiments, the dyslexia group on average demonstrated slower reading speeds, narrower visual span profiles and larger critical spacing values compared to the control group. Together, these three studies provide a better understanding of sensory factors that limit reading performance.Item Writing Boxes: The Reading/Writing Connection in Libraries(University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2019-07-15) Von Drasek, LisaWriting Boxes: The Reading/Writing Connection in Libraries is a guidebook and source of programming inspiration for all librarians working with early to young adult readers. Librarians will find thematic, easy to implement, hour-long writing workshops that require only paper, markers, and excited young writers. Writing Boxes further explores the essential connection between reading and writing by pairing each workshop with mentor texts to model writing, providing librarians with exemplary books to spark writing responses across genres, formats, and curricula.