Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
John Reynolds
Committee Member
Karen B. Kamin
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
below-level readers, Clio, Clio Elementary School, curriculum design, daily instruction, elementary school students, explicit instruction, Grade 6 students, intervention programs, reading achievement, reading difficulties, reading instruction, reading levels, reading, rural schools, student outcomes, vocabulary development, vocabulary instruction, vocabulary, word knowledge enhancement
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to increase the reading level of below-level readers who attend a small rural school through an interventional vocabulary instruction program at Clio Elementary School in Clio, Alabama. The school had an enrollment of 135 students in Grades kindergarten through Grade 8.
The targeted group in this program consisted of 18 Grade 6 students who attended Clio Elementary School. The program provided the students with explicit vocabulary instruction for 1 hour per day, 5 days a week for 24 weeks. The components of the vocabulary instructional program consisted of various types of research (e.g. correlational, descriptive-interpretive, experimental) that laid claim to improve reading achievement among below-level readers. The researcher felt it was important to use a wide range of research that was in accordance with the purpose of the program. To sustain a claim of effectiveness, the program included an experimental evaluation and a summative evaluation.
The intended outcome of the program was to determine what effects daily explicit vocabulary instruction had on improving the students’ reading level. All findings were used for recommendations for improving the reading levels of students in similar school settings.
An analysis of the data revealed that students who participated in the program in addition to traditional in-class reading instruction showed a significant increase in their reading levels as compared to students who only receive traditional in-class reading instruction.