Comparisons of Beginning Literacy Programs: Alternative Paths to the Same Learning Outcome

University-based researchers consulted with first-grade teachers in a comparison of Integrated Reading-Writing (IR-W) and DISTAR programs in comparable urban schools with students “at risk” for literacy problems. Students in the two programs made comparable relative gains in achievement outcomes in word recognition from the beginning to the end of first grade. Level of orthographic and phonological awareness at the end of the first grade, but not instructional program, predicted level of reading achievement at the end of first grade. However, differences in processes underlying end-of-year achievement outcome were observed. Children in Integrated Reading-Writing tended to acquire orthographic-phonological connections at the whole word and subword levels, whereas children in DISTAR tended to acquire only subword connections. No differences were noted in developmental level of composition between the two instructional programs at the middle or end of first grade when coded compositions were available. The results are consistent with the notion that there is more than one way to learn to read and write.

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Normal Variation in Reading Acquisition

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1986.62.3.691 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 691-716 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Virginia Wise Berninger

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Reading Instruction ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Verbal Ability ◽

First Grade ◽

Normal Variation ◽

Word Decoding ◽

Linguistic Skills ◽

Whole Word ◽

Reading And Spelling

Visual, linguistic, reading, and spelling tests were administered to the same 45 children at the end of kindergarten and of first grade. Normal variation, i.e., diversity not related to pathology, was found in the visual and linguistic skills and was shown to be related to reading and spelling achievement for a sample of suburban children of similar socioeconomic status. Individual differences in three visual skills—selective attention to letter information (RT), memory for a component letter (accuracy), and memory for a whole word (accuracy)—and two linguistic skills—phonemic analysis and vocabulary understanding—were reliable over the first year of formal reading instruction and had concurrent validity in that they were correlated with achievement in word decoding/encoding at the end of kindergarten and of first grade. Of these five skills, phonemic analysis accounted for more variance in achievement (52% to 64%, depending upon achievement measure) than any other single skill. Significantly mote variance in achievement was accounted for when both a visual skill (memory for a sequence) and a linguistic skill (phonemic analysis) were considered than when either alone was at end of first grade. The predictive validity of quantitatively defined “disabilities” (at or more than a standard deviation below the mean) was investigated; disabilities in both visual and linguistic skills at the end of kindergarten were associated with low achievement in word decoding/encoding at the end of first grade. Two pairs of identical twin girls (each co-twin taught by a different teacher) were not mote congruent on several achievement measures than two pairs of unrelated girls, taught by the same teacher and matched to each other and a twin pair on verbal ability and age. Normal variation in acquisition of word decoding/encoding probably results from an interaction between genetic individual differences in cognitive skills and the processes of assimilation and accommodation during environmental transactions proposed by Piaget.

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Effects of Instruction in Methodological Reasoning on Information Evaluation

Teaching of Psychology ◽

10.1207/s15328023top2901_02 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 5-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Barry Leshowitz ◽

Kristen Eignor DiCerbo ◽

Morris A. Okun

Keyword(s):

Scientific Method ◽

Causal Reasoning ◽

Comparison Group ◽

Daily Life ◽

Instructional Program ◽

Classroom Setting ◽

Instructional Programs ◽

Persuasive Communications ◽

Attitude Polarization ◽

Interactive Classroom

In this article we describe an instructional program that focuses on applying causal reasoning and related principles of the scientific method to problems faced in daily life. In a highly interactive classroom setting, the instructor gives students repeated opportunities to apply methodological reasoning to real-world scenarios for the purpose of making informed decisions. In addition to describing the program, we report the findings of a capstone exercise that examined changes in students' beliefs toward legalization of marijuana after reading persuasive communications. Students who experienced the instructional program exhibited less bias in evaluating information and less attitude polarization than students in a comparison group. We discuss the implications of these findings for developing and evaluating instructional programs in methodological reasoning in psychology.

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A general study of tests and testing with special emphasis on concepts, controversy, and teaching ideas applicable at the first grade level

10.15760/etd.930 ◽

2000 ◽

Author(s):

Jean Dimick

Keyword(s):

Grade Level ◽

First Grade ◽

General Study ◽

Teaching Ideas

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An analysis of individual differences in arithmetic

The Arithmetic Teacher ◽

10.5951/at.11.7.0471 ◽

1964 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 471-473

Author(s):

Oscar T. Jarvis

Keyword(s):

Elementary School ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Grade Level ◽

Common Knowledge ◽

Sixth Grade ◽

First Grade ◽

Level 1 ◽

Level 2

It is common knowledge among teachers of arithmetic that individual pupil differences in the elementary school are very pronounced at every grade level. It is equally apparent that the range of individual differences increases from grade level to grade level. Wrightstone has stated that these differences may be as great as three to four years in the first-grade, five to six years in the fourth-gmde, and seven to eight years at the sixth-grade level.1 Beck, Cook and Kearney have observed, however, that normally in “arithmetic reasoning and computation the range is … between six and seven years at the sixth-grade level.”2

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Evaluating the Learning Effectiveness of Using Web-Based Instruction

Online and Distance Learning ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-935-9.ch138 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 1740-1751

Author(s):

Sherry Y. Chen

Keyword(s):

Instructional Program ◽

Learning Performance ◽

Instructional Programs ◽

Master's Students ◽

Web Based ◽

Perceptions And Attitudes ◽

Web Based Instruction ◽

Post Test ◽

Based Instruction ◽

The Web

The use of Web-based instruction is becoming widespread in higher education; however, much remains to be learned about how different learners react to such instructional programs. The study presented in this article evaluates students’ learning performance and their perceptions in a Web-based instructional program, which was applied to teach students how to use HTML in Brunel University’s Department of Information Systems and Computing. Sixty-one master’s students participated in this study. A number of interesting interactions were found. Students’ task achievements were affected by the levels of their previous system experience. On the other hand, the post-test and gain scores were positively influenced by their perceptions and attitudes toward the Web-based instructional program. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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Discrepancies between perceptions of first-grade students at risk for learning disabilities, their parents and teachers

European Journal of Special Needs Education ◽

10.1080/08856257.2019.1603600 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 (5) ◽

pp. 702-711 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Evguenia Shilshtein ◽

Malka Margalit

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Learning Disabilities ◽

First Grade ◽

Students At Risk

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Hearing Other Voices: A Critical Assessment of Popular Views on Literacy and Work

Harvard Educational Review ◽

10.17763/haer.63.1.u0762m971p0645t4 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 63 (1) ◽

pp. 20-50 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

Glynda Hull

Keyword(s):

Job Performance ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

Critical Assessment ◽

Literacy Programs ◽

Ethnographic Research ◽

Instructional Programs ◽

School Based ◽

The Relationship

Current popular discussion about the role of literacy in the workplace is often based on the largely unquestioned beliefs that workers are deficient in basic literacy skills and, further, that there are clear links among illiteracy, poor job performance, and the declining economy. These assumptions lead to demands for school-based, skill-driven literacy programs tied to the workplace. In this article, Glynda Hull challenges these demands and the characterizations of workers that underlie them, suggesting that these demands are based on overly simplistic notions about literacy and its relationship to job performance and the economy. Hull argues that ethnographic research on literacy and the workplace demonstrates that the relationship between work and literacy is far more complex than the current popular discussion would have us believe. She concludes that we must pay more attention to how literacy skills are actually used in the workplace and that we can best do this by asking workers about their experiences in workplace-related instructional programs.

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Children's own names influence their spelling

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716401004040 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 555-570 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

REBECCA TREIMAN ◽

BRETT KESSLER ◽

DERRICK BOURASSA

Keyword(s):

Grade Level ◽

First Grade ◽

Lower Proportion ◽

Second Grade ◽

Special Role ◽

Own Name

We analyzed spellings that were produced by children in kindergarten (N = 115), first grade (N = 104), and second grade (N = 77) in order to determine whether children's own names influence their spellings of other words. Kindergartners overused letters from their own first names (or commonly used nicknames) when spelling. Kindergartners with longer names, who had more own-name letters available for intrusions, tended to produce longer spellings than did children with shorter names. Moreover, the spellings of kindergartners with long names tended to contain a lower proportion of phonetically reasonable letters than did the spellings of children with short names. These effects appeared to be confined to children who read below the first grade level. The results support the view that children's own names play a special role in the acquisition of literacy. They further show that children choose letters in a way that reflects their experience with the letters.

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Reading minds in motion: Mouse tracking reveals transposed-character effects in Chinese compound word recognition

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716420000181 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 41 (4) ◽

pp. 727-751

Author(s):

Yu-Cheng Lin ◽

Pei-Ying Lin

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Word Frequency ◽

Grade Level ◽

Dominant Role ◽

Vocabulary Knowledge ◽

Compound Word ◽

Decision Task ◽

Mouse Tracking ◽

Whole Word ◽

Compound Word Recognition

AbstractThis study investigated the development of character transposition effects during Chinese compound word recognition via computer mouse movements instead of the conventional key presses. Empirical evidence to reveal the impacts of vocabulary knowledge, grade level, and whole word frequency on Chinese transposed-character effect is lacking. In the present study, we measured the transposed-character effect in two groups of Taiwanese children (second and fourth graders) in a mouse-tracking lexical-decision task including nonwords derived from real words by transposing two characters (e.g., “習學” from “學習” [learning]) and control nonwords in which two characters are replaced (e.g., “以修”). Our results indicate that participants showed longer mouse movement times and larger spatial attraction in recognizing transposed-character nonwords than in replaced-character nonwords, suggesting that the dominant role of whole-word representation in processing Chinese compound words. Our results also further demonstrate that how the degree of character transposition was affected by vocabulary knowledge, grade level, and word frequency.

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