WorldWideScience

Sample records for included standardized reading

  1. Towards identifying dyslexia in Standard Indonesian: the development of a reading assessment battery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jap, Bernard A J; Borleffs, Elisabeth; Maassen, Ben A M

    2017-01-01

    With its transparent orthography, Standard Indonesian is spoken by over 160 million inhabitants and is the primary language of instruction in education and the government in Indonesia. An assessment battery of reading and reading-related skills was developed as a starting point for the diagnosis of dyslexia in beginner learners. Founded on the International Dyslexia Association's definition of dyslexia, the test battery comprises nine empirically motivated reading and reading-related tasks assessing word reading, pseudoword reading, arithmetic, rapid automatized naming, phoneme deletion, forward and backward digit span, verbal fluency, orthographic choice (spelling), and writing. The test was validated by computing the relationships between the outcomes on the reading-skills and reading-related measures by means of correlation and factor analyses. External variables, i.e., school grades and teacher ratings of the reading and learning abilities of individual students, were also utilized to provide evidence of its construct validity. Four variables were found to be significantly related with reading-skill measures: phonological awareness, rapid naming, spelling, and digit span. The current study on reading development in Standard Indonesian confirms findings from other languages with transparent orthographies and suggests a test battery including preliminary norm scores for screening and assessment of elementary school children learning to read Standard Indonesian.

  2. Efficient reading in standardized tests for EFL learners : a case study of reading strategies used by Chinese English major students in TEM-4

    OpenAIRE

    Xia, Yan

    2011-01-01

    The aim of this study is to investigate the reading strategies used by Chinese English major students in the reading component in standardized national tests of TEM-4 with regard to reading efficiency. The research questions include: 1) what strategies are used by the students in TEM-4 test context; 2) whether there is a significant correlation between strategy use and efficient reading in the test; 3) what kinds of reading problems are revealed in the students’ use of processing strategies; ...

  3. Toward developing a standardized Arabic continuous text reading chart.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alabdulkader, Balsam; Leat, Susan Jennifer

    Near visual acuity is an essential measurement during an oculo-visual assessment. Short duration continuous text reading charts measure reading acuity and other aspects of reading performance. There is no standardized version of such chart in Arabic. The aim of this study is to create sentences of equal readability to use in the development of a standardized Arabic continuous text reading chart. Initially, 109 Arabic pairs of sentences were created for use in constructing a chart with similar layout to the Colenbrander chart. They were created to have the same grade level of difficulty and physical length. Fifty-three adults and sixteen children were recruited to validate the sentences. Reading speed in correct words per minute (CWPM) and standard length words per minute (SLWPM) was measured and errors were counted. Criteria based on reading speed and errors made in each sentence pair were used to exclude sentence pairs with more outlying characteristics, and to select the final group of sentence pairs. Forty-five sentence pairs were selected according to the elimination criteria. For adults, the average reading speed for the final sentences was 166 CWPM and 187 SLWPM and the average number of errors per sentence pair was 0.21. Childrens' average reading speed for the final group of sentences was 61 CWPM and 72 SLWPM. Their average error rate was 1.71. The reliability analysis showed that the final 45 sentence pairs are highly comparable. They will be used in constructing an Arabic short duration continuous text reading chart. Copyright © 2016 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  4. Comparing Performance Standards on the Retention of Words Read Correctly per Minute

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kubina, Richard M., Jr.; Amato, Janelle; Schwilk, Christopher L.; Therrien, William J.

    2008-01-01

    To measure retention of oral reading fluency, three students attending a learning support classroom used a repeating reading strategy with two passages. Each student read one passage to a high performance standard and the other passage to a lower performance standard. Results show it took the students more practice to reach the higher performance…

  5. Student Reading Growth Illuminates the Common Core Text-Complexity Standard: Raising Both Bars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williamson, Gary L.; Fitzgerald, Jill; Stenner, Jackson A.

    2014-01-01

    The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) establish a challenging text-complexity standard for all high school graduates to read at college and workplace text-complexity levels. We argue that implementation of the CCSS standard requires concurrent examination of historical student reading-growth trends. An example of a historical student average…

  6. [Ophthalmologic reading charts : Part 2: Current logarithmically scaled reading charts].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radner, W

    2016-12-01

    To analyze currently available reading charts regarding print size, logarithmic print size progression, and the background of test-item standardization. For the present study, the following logarithmically scaled reading charts were investigated using a measuring microscope (iNexis VMA 2520; Nikon, Tokyo): Eschenbach, Zeiss, OCULUS, MNREAD (Minnesota Near Reading Test), Colenbrander, and RADNER. Calculations were made according to EN-ISO 8596 and the International Research Council recommendations. Modern reading charts and cards exhibit a logarithmic progression of print sizes. The RADNER reading charts comprise four different cards with standardized test items (sentence optotypes), a well-defined stop criterion, accurate letter sizes, and a high print quality. Numbers and Landolt rings are also given in the booklet. The OCULUS cards have currently been reissued according to recent standards and also exhibit a high print quality. In addition to letters, numbers, Landolt rings, and examples taken from a timetable and the telephone book, sheet music is also offered. The Colenbrander cards use short sentences of 44 characters, including spaces, and exhibit inaccuracy at smaller letter sizes, as do the MNREAD cards. The MNREAD cards use sentences of 60 characters, including spaces, and have a high print quality. Modern reading charts show that international standards can be achieved with test items similar to optotypes, by using recent technology and developing new concepts of test-item standardization. Accurate print sizes, high print quality, and a logarithmic progression should become the minimum requirements for reading charts and reading cards in ophthalmology.

  7. Adolescents' Motivation for Reading: Group Differences and Relation to Standardized Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolters, Christopher A.; Denton, Carolyn A.; York, Mary J.; Francis, David J.

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to extend the research on adolescents' motivation for reading by examining important group differences and the relation of motivation to standardized achievement. Adolescents (N = 406) ranging from grade 7 to grade 12 completed a self-report survey that assessed 13 different aspects of their reading motivation…

  8. Development and Relationships Between Phonological Awareness, Morphological Awareness and Word Reading in Spoken and Standard Arabic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rachel Schiff

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available This study addressed the development of and the relationship between foundational metalinguistic skills and word reading skills in Arabic. It compared Arabic-speaking children’s phonological awareness (PA, morphological awareness, and voweled and unvoweled word reading skills in spoken and standard language varieties separately in children across five grade levels from childhood to adolescence. Second, it investigated whether skills developed in the spoken variety of Arabic predict reading in the standard variety. Results indicate that although individual differences between students in PA are eliminated toward the end of elementary school in both spoken and standard language varieties, gaps in morphological awareness and in reading skills persisted through junior and high school years. The results also show that the gap in reading accuracy and fluency between Spoken Arabic (SpA and Standard Arabic (StA was evident in both voweled and unvoweled words. Finally, regression analyses showed that morphological awareness in SpA contributed to reading fluency in StA, i.e., children’s early morphological awareness in SpA explained variance in children’s gains in reading fluency in StA. These findings have important theoretical and practical contributions for Arabic reading theory in general and they extend the previous work regarding the cross-linguistic relevance of foundational metalinguistic skills in the first acquired language to reading in a second language, as in societal bilingualism contexts, or a second language variety, as in diglossic contexts.

  9. Development and Relationships Between Phonological Awareness, Morphological Awareness and Word Reading in Spoken and Standard Arabic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schiff, Rachel; Saiegh-Haddad, Elinor

    2018-01-01

    This study addressed the development of and the relationship between foundational metalinguistic skills and word reading skills in Arabic. It compared Arabic-speaking children’s phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness, and voweled and unvoweled word reading skills in spoken and standard language varieties separately in children across five grade levels from childhood to adolescence. Second, it investigated whether skills developed in the spoken variety of Arabic predict reading in the standard variety. Results indicate that although individual differences between students in PA are eliminated toward the end of elementary school in both spoken and standard language varieties, gaps in morphological awareness and in reading skills persisted through junior and high school years. The results also show that the gap in reading accuracy and fluency between Spoken Arabic (SpA) and Standard Arabic (StA) was evident in both voweled and unvoweled words. Finally, regression analyses showed that morphological awareness in SpA contributed to reading fluency in StA, i.e., children’s early morphological awareness in SpA explained variance in children’s gains in reading fluency in StA. These findings have important theoretical and practical contributions for Arabic reading theory in general and they extend the previous work regarding the cross-linguistic relevance of foundational metalinguistic skills in the first acquired language to reading in a second language, as in societal bilingualism contexts, or a second language variety, as in diglossic contexts. PMID:29686633

  10. Towards identifying dyslexia in Standard Indonesian: : the development of a reading assessment battery

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jap, Bernard Amadeus Jaya; Borleffs, Elisabeth; Maassen, Bernardus

    2017-01-01

    With its transparent orthography, Standard Indonesian is spoken by over 160 million inhabitants and is the primary language of instruction in education and the government in Indonesia. An assessment battery of reading and reading-related skills was developed as a starting point for the diagnosis of

  11. Developing and Standardization of a Diagnostic Reading Test

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tahereh Sima-Shirazi

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available Objective: This paper is a report on the development, structure and content of a diagnostic dyslexia reading test. The target population of this test is persian children who have problems in learning reading and may be considered as dyslexic. This diagnostic test is the first reading test developed for the native speakers of persian. Materials & Methods: The theoretical framework of the test is based on two well- established reading tests for the English speaking children, namely Durrell Analysis of Reading and Neale Analysis of Reading Ability. The linguistic content of the subtests is selected from the vocabulary and texts of the textbook used in the primary schools. Both the vocabulary and the sentences of the parrallel passeges were controlled for frequency, phonemic/graphemic regularity, syllable structure, morphology, syntax and semantics. They were also controlled for value judgement by two linguistics and three first grader teachers.The first version of the test is normed on 605 boy and girl first graders from different educational sectors and schools selected randomly.The method used in this research is cross- sectional, descriptive- analytic and the data analysis is based on pearson, and mann-whitney u. Results: Reliability of the test is calculated based on parrallel forms (~ 90% and validity is based on content validity.This test has a supplementary section including spelling, graphem/ phoneme correspondness, nonword reading, irregular word reading, and copy subtests. Conclusion: Considering highreliability and precise validation of the test it can be used to diagnose the dyslexia and related linguistic impairments.

  12. Standards and Guidelines of the Reading Recovery [TM] Council of North America. Third Edition: Fall 1998.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reading Recovery Council of North America, Columbus, OH.

    This booklet outlines the Reading Recovery Council of North America's (RRCNA) standards and guidelines for those who are responsible for the establishment and maintenance of effective Reading Recovery and/or "Descubriendo La Lectura" sites. The standards are deemed essential for assuring quality services to children and effective…

  13. Motivation for Reading and Upper Primary School Students' Academic Achievement in Reading in Kenya

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mucherah, Winnie; Herendeen, Abbey

    2013-01-01

    This study examined primary school students' reading motivation and performance on the standardized exam. Participants included 901 seventh and eighth grade students from Kenya. There were 468 females and 433 males. Contrary to previous studies, results showed reading challenge and aesthetics, but not efficacy, predicted reading achievement,…

  14. Developing standard transmission system for radiology reporting including key images

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Seon Chil

    2007-01-01

    Development of hospital information system and Picture Archiving Communication System is not new in the medical field, and the development of internet and information technology are also universal. In the course of such development, however, it is hard to share medical information without a refined standard format. Especially in the department of radiology, the role of PACS has become very important in interchanging information with other disparate hospital information systems. A specific system needs to be developed that radiological reports are archived into a database efficiently. This includes sharing of medical images. A model is suggested in this study in which an internal system is developed where radiologists store necessary images and transmit them is the standard international clinical format, Clinical Document Architecture, and share the information with hospitals. CDA document generator was made to generate a new file format and separate the existing storage system from the new system. This was to ensure the access to required data in XML documents. The model presented in this study added a process where crucial images in reading are inserted in the CDA radiological report generator. Therefore, this study suggests a storage and transmission model for CDA documents, which is different from the existing DICOM SR. Radiological reports could be better shared, when the application function for inserting images and the analysis of standard clinical terms are completed

  15. Standard deviation analysis of the mastoid fossa temperature differential reading: a potential model for objective chiropractic assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hart, John

    2011-03-01

    This study describes a model for statistically analyzing follow-up numeric-based chiropractic spinal assessments for an individual patient based on his or her own baseline. Ten mastoid fossa temperature differential readings (MFTD) obtained from a chiropractic patient were used in the study. The first eight readings served as baseline and were compared to post-adjustment readings. One of the two post-adjustment MFTD readings fell outside two standard deviations of the baseline mean and therefore theoretically represents improvement according to pattern analysis theory. This study showed how standard deviation analysis may be used to identify future outliers for an individual patient based on his or her own baseline data. Copyright © 2011 National University of Health Sciences. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Adding access to a video magnifier to standard vision rehabilitation: initial results on reading performance and well-being from a prospective, randomized study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Mary Lou; Schoessow, Kimberly A.; Selivanova, Alexandra; Wallis, Jennifer

    2017-01-01

    Purpose Both optical and electronic magnification are available to patients with low vision. Electronic video magnifiers are more expensive than optical magnifiers, but they offer additional benefits, including variable magnification and contrast. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of access to a video magnifier (VM) added to standard comprehensive vision rehabilitation (VR). Methods In this prospective study, 37 subjects with central field loss were randomized to receive standard VR (VR group, 18 subjects) or standard VR plus VM (VM group, 19 subjects). Subjects read the International Reading Speed Texts (IReST), a bank check, and a phone number at enrollment, at 1 month, and after occupational therapy (OT) as indicated to address patient goals. The Impact of Vision Impairment (IVI) questionnaire, a version of the Activity Inventory (AI), and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) were administered at enrollment, 1 month, after OT, 1 month later, and 1 year after enrollment. Assessments at enrollment and 1 month later were evaluated. Results At 1 month, the VM group displayed significant improvement in reading continuous print as measured by the IReST (P = 0.01) but did not differ on IVI, AI, or DASS. From enrollment to 1 month all subjects improved in their ability to spot read (phone number and check; P read a number in a phone book more than the VR group at 1 month after initial consultation (P = 0.02). All reported better well-being (P = 0.02). Conclusions All subjects reported better well-being on the IVI. The VM group read faster and was better at two spot reading tasks but did not differ from the VR group in other outcome measures. PMID:28924412

  17. Evaluation of a device for standardized measurements of reading performance in a prepresbyopic population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arad, Tschingis; Baumeister, Martin; Bühren, Jens; Kohnen, Thomas

    2017-04-20

    Automated measurements of reading performance are required for clinical trials involving presbyopia-correcting surgery options. Repeatability of a testing device for reading (Salzburg Reading Desk) was evaluated in a prepresbyopic population. Subjective reading performance of 50 subjects divided into 2 age groups (23-30 years and 38-49 years) with distance-corrected eyes was investigated with different log-scaled reading charts. At study entry, refractive parameters were measured and distance visual acuity assessed. Two standardized binocular measurements were performed for each subject (32.24 ± 9.87 days apart [mean ± SD]). The repeatability of the tests was estimated using correlation coefficients, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and Bland-Altman method. The test parameters at both maximum reading rate (MRR) measurements demonstrate a strong relationship of age group 2 subjects (correlation coefficient [r] = 0.74 p = 10-4) and of younger subjects (age group 1: r = 0.69, p = 10-4). Prepresbyopic subjects of age group 2 showed moderate results for near reading distance (r = 0.67, p = 10-4); by contrast, younger subjects had poorer results (r = 0.55, p = 10-3). The Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed agreement between measurements and Bland-Altman plots showed a wide data spread for MRR and near reading distance in both groups. The device measures repeatedly selected reading performance parameters of near real world conditions, such as MRR, in prepresbyopic populations if several factors are taken into account. The option to choose preferred distance leads to more variance in measuring repeated reading performance. German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS) registration reference number: DRKS00000784.

  18. A new principle for the standardization of long paragraphs for reading speed analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radner, Wolfgang; Radner, Stephan; Diendorfer, Gabriela

    2016-01-01

    To investigate the reliability, validity, and statistical comparability of long paragraphs that were developed to be equivalent in construction and difficulty. Seven long paragraphs were developed that were equal in syntax, morphology, and number and position of words (111), with the same number of syllables (179) and number of characters (660). For validity analyses, the paragraphs were compared with the mean reading speed of a set of seven sentence optotypes of the RADNER Reading Charts (mean of 7 × 14 = 98 words read). Reliability analyses were performed by calculating the Cronbach's alpha value and the corrected total item correlation. Sixty participants (aged 20-77 years) read the paragraphs and the sentences (distance 40 cm; font: Times New Roman 12 pt). Test items were presented randomly; reading length was measured with a stopwatch. Reliability analysis yielded a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.988. When the long paragraphs were compared in pairwise fashion, significant differences were found in 13 of the 21 pairs (p differ significantly, and these paragraph combinations are therefore suitable for comparative research studies. The mean reading speed was 173.34 ± 24.01 words per minute (wpm) for the long paragraphs and 198.26 ± 28.60 wpm for the sentence optotypes. The maximum difference in reading speed was 5.55 % for the long paragraphs and 2.95 % for the short sentence optotypes. The correlation between long paragraphs and sentence optotypes was high (r = 0.9243). Despite good reliability and equivalence in construction and degree of difficulty, a statistically significant difference in reading speed can occur between long paragraphs. Since statistical significance should be dependent only on the persons tested, either standardizing long paragraphs for statistical equality of reading speed measurements or increasing the number of presented paragraphs is recommended for comparative investigations.

  19. Development of the Portuguese version of a standardized reading test: the Radner-Coimbra Charts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreia Martins Rosa

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Purpose: To develop 27 short sentence optotypes for the Portuguese version of the Radner Reading Charts. Methods: Thirty-four Portuguese sentences were constructed following the concept of the Radner Reading Charts to obtain highly comparable sentences in terms of lexical difficulty, syntactical complexity, word length, number of syllables, and position of words. A long text (106 words at the 5th grade reading level was also tested to assess the validity of the reading speeds obtained with the short sentences. The short sentences and long text were tested in 50 volunteers with similar educational backgrounds (mean age 30.98 years ± 6.99 years, range 19-47 years. Reading speeds were measured with a stop-watch and reported as words per minute (wpm. The reading time for each of the short sentences to be selected for the chart was defined as falling within the range of the mean ± 0.40 × standard deviation (SD. Results: The overall mean reading speed for each of the short sentences was 235.43 ± 36.39 wpm. The 27 sentences with a mean between 220.8 and 250.0 wpm (overall mean ± 0.40 × SD were selected for construction of the reading charts. The mean reading speed for the long text was 212.42 ± 26.20 wpm. Correlation between the selected short sentences and long text was high (r =0.86. Reliability analysis yielded an overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.97. Conclusions: The 27 short Portuguese sentences were highly comparable in terms of syntactical structure, number, position and length of words, lexical difficulty, and reading length. This reading test can overcome the limitations of the current tests for homogeneity and comparability, reducing subjectivity in the evaluation of the functional outcomes of medical and surgical ophthalmologic treatments.

  20. Differences in Students' Reading Comprehension of International Financial Reporting Standards: A South African Case

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coetzee, Stephen A.; Janse van Rensburg, Cecile; Schmulian, Astrid

    2016-01-01

    This study explores differences in students' reading comprehension of International Financial Reporting Standards in a South African financial reporting class with a heterogeneous student cohort. Statistically significant differences were identified for prior academic performance, language of instruction, first language and enrolment in the…

  1. Measuring adult literacy students' reading skills using the Gray Oral Reading Test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenberg, Daphne; Pae, Hye Kyeong; Morris, Robin D; Calhoon, Mary Beth; Nanda, Alice O

    2009-12-01

    There are not enough reading tests standardized on adults who have very low literacy skills, and therefore tests standardized on children are frequently administered. This study addressed the complexities and problems of using a test normed on children to measure the reading comprehension skills of 193 adults who read at approximately third through fifth grade reading grade equivalency levels. Findings are reported from an analysis of the administration of Form A of the Gray Oral Reading Tests-Fourth Edition (Wiederholt & Bryant, 2001a, b). Results indicated that educators and researchers should be very cautious when interpreting test results of adults who have difficulty reading when children's norm-referenced tests are administered.

  2. Examining Associations between Reading Motivation and Inference Generation beyond Reading Comprehension Skill

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clinton, Virginia

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between reading motivation and inference generation while reading. Undergraduate participants (N = 69) read two science articles while thinking aloud, completed a standardized reading comprehension assessment, and self reported their habitual reading motivation. Findings indicate that…

  3. ELL High School Students' Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategy Use and Reading Proficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong-Nam, Kay

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the metacognitive awareness and reading strategies use of high school-­aged English language learners (ELLs) and the relationship between ELL reading strategy use and reading proficiency as measured by a standardized reading test and self-­rated reading proficiency. Results reveal that participants reported moderate use of…

  4. How Reading Volume Affects both Reading Fluency and Reading Achievement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard L. ALLINGTON

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Long overlooked, reading volume is actually central to the development of reading proficiencies, especially in the development of fluent reading proficiency. Generally no one in schools monitors the actual volume of reading that children engage in. We know that the commonly used commercial core reading programs provide only material that requires about 15 minutes of reading activity daily. The remaining 75 minute of reading lessons is filled with many other activities such as completing workbook pages or responding to low-level literal questions about what has been read. Studies designed to enhance the volume of reading that children do during their reading lessons demonstrate one way to enhance reading development. Repeated readings have been widely used in fostering reading fluency but wide reading options seem to work faster and more broadly in developing reading proficiencies, including oral reading fluency.

  5. Text-Based Vocabulary Intervention Training Study: Supporting Fourth Graders with Low Reading Comprehension and Learning Disabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solís, Michael; Scammacca, Nancy; Barth, Amy E.; Roberts, Garrett J.

    2017-01-01

    This experimental study examined the effectiveness of a text-based reading and vocabulary intervention with self-regulatory supports for 4th graders with low reading comprehension. Students with standard scores on the Gates MacGinitie Reading Test between 1.0 standard deviation (SD) and 0.5 SD below the normative sample were included (N=44) and…

  6. Training on Movement Figure-Ground Discrimination Remediates Low-Level Visual Timing Deficits in the Dorsal Stream, Improving High-Level Cognitive Functioning, Including Attention, Reading Fluency, and Working Memory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teri Lawton

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to determine whether neurotraining to discriminate a moving test pattern relative to a stationary background, figure-ground discrimination, improves vision and cognitive functioning in dyslexics, as well as typically-developing normal students. We predict that improving the speed and sensitivity of figure-ground movement discrimination (PATH to Reading neurotraining acts to remediate visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream, thereby improving processing speed, reading fluency, and the executive control functions of attention and working memory in both dyslexic and normal students who had PATH neurotraining more than in those students who had no neurotraining. This prediction was evaluated by measuring whether dyslexic and normal students improved on standardized tests of cognitive skills following neurotraining exercises, more than following computer-based guided reading (Raz-Kids (RK. The neurotraining used in this study was visually-based training designed to improve magnocellular function at both low and high levels in the dorsal stream: the input to the executive control networks coding working memory and attention. This approach represents a paradigm shift from the phonologically-based treatment for dyslexia, which concentrates on high-level speech and reading areas. This randomized controlled-validation study was conducted by training the entire second and third grade classrooms (42 students for 30 min twice a week before guided reading. Standardized tests were administered at the beginning and end of 12-weeks of intervention training to evaluate improvements in academic skills. Only movement-discrimination training remediated both low-level visual timing deficits and high-level cognitive functioning, including selective and sustained attention, reading fluency and working memory for both dyslexic and normal students. Remediating visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream revealed the causal role of visual

  7. Training on Movement Figure-Ground Discrimination Remediates Low-Level Visual Timing Deficits in the Dorsal Stream, Improving High-Level Cognitive Functioning, Including Attention, Reading Fluency, and Working Memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawton, Teri; Shelley-Tremblay, John

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine whether neurotraining to discriminate a moving test pattern relative to a stationary background, figure-ground discrimination, improves vision and cognitive functioning in dyslexics, as well as typically-developing normal students. We predict that improving the speed and sensitivity of figure-ground movement discrimination ( PATH to Reading neurotraining) acts to remediate visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream, thereby improving processing speed, reading fluency, and the executive control functions of attention and working memory in both dyslexic and normal students who had PATH neurotraining more than in those students who had no neurotraining. This prediction was evaluated by measuring whether dyslexic and normal students improved on standardized tests of cognitive skills following neurotraining exercises, more than following computer-based guided reading ( Raz-Kids ( RK )). The neurotraining used in this study was visually-based training designed to improve magnocellular function at both low and high levels in the dorsal stream: the input to the executive control networks coding working memory and attention. This approach represents a paradigm shift from the phonologically-based treatment for dyslexia, which concentrates on high-level speech and reading areas. This randomized controlled-validation study was conducted by training the entire second and third grade classrooms (42 students) for 30 min twice a week before guided reading. Standardized tests were administered at the beginning and end of 12-weeks of intervention training to evaluate improvements in academic skills. Only movement-discrimination training remediated both low-level visual timing deficits and high-level cognitive functioning, including selective and sustained attention, reading fluency and working memory for both dyslexic and normal students. Remediating visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream revealed the causal role of visual movement

  8. Training on Movement Figure-Ground Discrimination Remediates Low-Level Visual Timing Deficits in the Dorsal Stream, Improving High-Level Cognitive Functioning, Including Attention, Reading Fluency, and Working Memory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawton, Teri; Shelley-Tremblay, John

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine whether neurotraining to discriminate a moving test pattern relative to a stationary background, figure-ground discrimination, improves vision and cognitive functioning in dyslexics, as well as typically-developing normal students. We predict that improving the speed and sensitivity of figure-ground movement discrimination (PATH to Reading neurotraining) acts to remediate visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream, thereby improving processing speed, reading fluency, and the executive control functions of attention and working memory in both dyslexic and normal students who had PATH neurotraining more than in those students who had no neurotraining. This prediction was evaluated by measuring whether dyslexic and normal students improved on standardized tests of cognitive skills following neurotraining exercises, more than following computer-based guided reading (Raz-Kids (RK)). The neurotraining used in this study was visually-based training designed to improve magnocellular function at both low and high levels in the dorsal stream: the input to the executive control networks coding working memory and attention. This approach represents a paradigm shift from the phonologically-based treatment for dyslexia, which concentrates on high-level speech and reading areas. This randomized controlled-validation study was conducted by training the entire second and third grade classrooms (42 students) for 30 min twice a week before guided reading. Standardized tests were administered at the beginning and end of 12-weeks of intervention training to evaluate improvements in academic skills. Only movement-discrimination training remediated both low-level visual timing deficits and high-level cognitive functioning, including selective and sustained attention, reading fluency and working memory for both dyslexic and normal students. Remediating visual timing deficits in the dorsal stream revealed the causal role of visual movement

  9. Reading Evaluation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fagan, W. T.

    1978-01-01

    The Canadian Institute for Research in Behavioral and Social Sciences of Calgary was awarded a contract by the Provincial Government of Alberta to assess student skills and knowledge in reading and written composition. Here evaluation is defined and the use of standardized and criterion referenced tests for evaluating reading performance are…

  10. Reading fluency: implications for the assessment of children with reading disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meisinger, Elizabeth B; Bloom, Juliana S; Hynd, George W

    2010-06-01

    The current investigation explored the diagnostic utility of reading fluency measures in the identification of children with reading disabilities. Participants were 50 children referred to a university-based clinic because of suspected reading problems and/or a prior diagnosis of dyslexia, where children completed a battery of standardized intellectual, reading achievement, and processing measures. Within this clinical sample, a group of children were identified that exhibited specific deficits in their reading fluency skills with concurrent deficits in rapid naming speed and reading comprehension. This group of children would not have been identified as having a reading disability according to assessment of single word reading skills alone, suggesting that it is essential to assess reading fluency in addition to word reading because failure to do so may result in the under-identification of children with reading disabilities.

  11. 501 reading comprehension questions

    CERN Document Server

    2014-01-01

    This updated edition offers the most extensive and varied practice for all types of questions students might face on standardized and in-class tests. With this guide, students will learn to develop expert reading strategies, understand how to read faster and with greater comprehension, overcome reading anxiety, and increase appreciation of reading for pleasure. This book's step-by-step approach provides graduated coverage that moves from the basics to more advanced reading.

  12. Using early standardized language measures to predict later language and early reading outcomes in children at high risk for language-learning impairments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flax, Judy F; Realpe-Bonilla, Teresa; Roesler, Cynthia; Choudhury, Naseem; Benasich, April

    2009-01-01

    The aim of the study was to examine the profiles of children with a family history (FH+) of language-learning impairments (LLI) and a control group of children with no reported family history of LLI (FH-) and identify which language constructs (receptive or expressive) and which ages (2 or 3 years) are related to expressive and receptive language abilities, phonological awareness, and reading abilities at ages 5 and 7 years. Participants included 99 children (40 FH+ and 59 FH-) who received a standardized neuropsychological battery at 2, 3, 5, and 7 years of age. As a group, the FH+ children had significantly lower scores on all language measures at 2 and 3 years, on selected language and phonological awareness measures at 5 years, and on phonological awareness and nonword reading at 7 years. Language comprehension at 3 years was the best predictor of later language and early reading for both groups. These results support past work suggesting that children with a positive family history of LLI are at greater risk for future language and reading problems through their preschool and early school-age years. Furthermore, language comprehension in the early years is a strong predictor of future language-learning status.

  13. The Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners' Stress and Their Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peyman, Somayeh; Sadighi, Firooz

    2011-01-01

    This investigation intended to find out the relationship between EFL learners' stress and their reading comprehension. The subjects who included ninety EFL juniors from Shiraz Azad University were asked to answer a standardized reading comprehension test and a stress questionnaire. After finding out the results of stress questionnaire, 10% of the…

  14. Anticipation Guides: Reading for Mathematics Understanding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Anne E.; Pegg, Jerine; Case, Melissa

    2015-01-01

    With the acceptance by many states of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, new emphasis is being placed on students' ability to engage in mathematical practices such as understanding problems (including word problems), reading and critiquing arguments, and making explicit use of definitions (CCSSI 2010). Engaging students in…

  15. The English-Language and Reading Achievement of a Cohort of Deaf Students Speaking and Signing Standard English: A Preliminary Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Diane Corcoran; Luetke, Barbara; McLean, Meigan; Stryker, Deborah

    2016-01-01

    Research suggests that English-language proficiency is critical if students who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) are to read as their hearing peers. One explanation for the traditionally reported reading achievement plateau when students are D/HH is the inability to hear insalient English morphology. Signing Exact English can provide visual access to these features. The authors investigated the English morphological and syntactic abilities and reading achievement of elementary and middle school students at a school using simultaneously spoken and signed Standard American English facilitated by intentional listening, speech, and language strategies. A developmental trend (and no plateau) in language and reading achievement was detected; most participants demonstrated average or above-average English. Morphological awareness was prerequisite to high test scores; speech was not significantly correlated with achievement; language proficiency, measured by the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4 (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003), predicted reading achievement.

  16. 2016 Updated American Society of Clinical Oncology/Oncology Nursing Society Chemotherapy Administration Safety Standards, Including Standards for Pediatric Oncology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neuss, Michael N; Gilmore, Terry R; Belderson, Kristin M; Billett, Amy L; Conti-Kalchik, Tara; Harvey, Brittany E; Hendricks, Carolyn; LeFebvre, Kristine B; Mangu, Pamela B; McNiff, Kristen; Olsen, MiKaela; Schulmeister, Lisa; Von Gehr, Ann; Polovich, Martha

    2016-12-01

    Purpose To update the ASCO/Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Chemotherapy Administration Safety Standards and to highlight standards for pediatric oncology. Methods The ASCO/ONS Chemotherapy Administration Safety Standards were first published in 2009 and updated in 2011 to include inpatient settings. A subsequent 2013 revision expanded the standards to include the safe administration and management of oral chemotherapy. A joint ASCO/ONS workshop with stakeholder participation, including that of the Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Nurses and American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, was held on May 12, 2015, to review the 2013 standards. An extensive literature search was subsequently conducted, and public comments on the revised draft standards were solicited. Results The updated 2016 standards presented here include clarification and expansion of existing standards to include pediatric oncology and to introduce new standards: most notably, two-person verification of chemotherapy preparation processes, administration of vinca alkaloids via minibags in facilities in which intrathecal medications are administered, and labeling of medications dispensed from the health care setting to be taken by the patient at home. The standards were reordered and renumbered to align with the sequential processes of chemotherapy prescription, preparation, and administration. Several standards were separated into their respective components for clarity and to facilitate measurement of adherence to a standard. Conclusion As oncology practice has changed, so have chemotherapy administration safety standards. Advances in technology, cancer treatment, and education and training have prompted the need for periodic review and revision of the standards. Additional information is available at http://www.asco.org/chemo-standards .

  17. Books and reading: evidence-based standard of care whose time has come.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zuckerman, Barry; Augustyn, Marilyn

    2011-01-01

    Reach Out and Read (ROR) is the only systematically evaluated clinical activity to promote child development in primary care used throughout the United States. The ROR intervention is straightforward: clinicians provide advice about the benefits of reading aloud, as well as directly giving books to high-risk children and parents to take home at each pediatric visit of children aged 6 months to 5 years. ROR builds upon a significant evidence base of the value of reading aloud to young children. The studies evaluating ROR from different sites from subjects from different racial backgrounds and numerous outcome measures are consistently positive. From its initial single site at Boston City Hospital in 1989, to over 4600 clinical sites in 2010, over 30 000 clinicians distributed over 6.2 million books a year to 3.9 million children across the United States. The future efforts for ROR include integrating mental health competencies found in American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines as part of residency and clinician training into the ROR paradigm, quality improvement to ensure fidelity to the intervention, and expanded pediatric clinician involvement in local early childhood/school readiness community efforts. Finally, the most important future goal is the adoption of giving advice about reading aloud and giving developmentally appropriate books to high-risk families as best practice by official bodies. Copyright © 2011 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Brain bases of reading fluency in typical reading and impaired fluency in dyslexia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joanna A Christodoulou

    Full Text Available Although the neural systems supporting single word reading are well studied, there are limited direct comparisons between typical and dyslexic readers of the neural correlates of reading fluency. Reading fluency deficits are a persistent behavioral marker of dyslexia into adulthood. The current study identified the neural correlates of fluent reading in typical and dyslexic adult readers, using sentences presented in a word-by-word format in which single words were presented sequentially at fixed rates. Sentences were presented at slow, medium, and fast rates, and participants were asked to decide whether each sentence did or did not make sense semantically. As presentation rates increased, participants became less accurate and slower at making judgments, with comprehension accuracy decreasing disproportionately for dyslexic readers. In-scanner performance on the sentence task correlated significantly with standardized clinical measures of both reading fluency and phonological awareness. Both typical readers and readers with dyslexia exhibited widespread, bilateral increases in activation that corresponded to increases in presentation rate. Typical readers exhibited significantly larger gains in activation as a function of faster presentation rates than readers with dyslexia in several areas, including left prefrontal and left superior temporal regions associated with semantic retrieval and semantic and phonological representations. Group differences were more extensive when behavioral differences between conditions were equated across groups. These findings suggest a brain basis for impaired reading fluency in dyslexia, specifically a failure of brain regions involved in semantic retrieval and semantic and phonological representations to become fully engaged for comprehension at rapid reading rates.

  19. Comparison of reading speed with 3 different log-scaled reading charts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buari, Noor Halilah; Chen, Ai-Hong; Musa, Nuraini

    2014-01-01

    A reading chart that resembles real reading conditions is important to evaluate the quality of life in terms of reading performance. The purpose of this study was to compare the reading speed of UiTM Malay related words (UiTM-Mrw) reading chart with MNread Acuity Chart and Colenbrander Reading Chart. Fifty subjects with normal sight were randomly recruited through randomized sampling in this study (mean age=22.98±1.65 years). Subjects were asked to read three different near charts aloud and as quickly as possible at random sequence. The charts were the UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart, MNread Acuity Chart and Colenbrander Reading Chart, respectively. The time taken to read each chart was recorded and any errors while reading were noted. Reading performance was quantified in terms of reading speed as words per minute (wpm). The mean reading speed for UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart, MNread Acuity Chart and Colenbrander Reading Chart was 200±30wpm, 196±28wpm and 194±31wpm, respectively. Comparison of reading speed between UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart and MNread Acuity Chart showed no significant difference (t=-0.73, p=0.72). The same happened with the reading speed between UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart and Colenbrander Reading Chart (t=-0.97, p=0.55). Bland and Altman plot showed good agreement between reading speed of UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart with MNread Acuity Chart with the Colenbrander Reading Chart. UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart in Malay language is highly comparable with standardized charts and can be used for evaluating reading speed. Copyright © 2013 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  20. The Habit of Reading: A Neglected Dimension of Adult Reading Instruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fink, Katherine T.; Devine, Thomas G.

    1993-01-01

    Less competent adult readers have not developed the habit of reading. Ways to cultivate adult reading habits include relevant material, environment saturated with reading material, reading aloud to adults, having them read to children, sustained silent reading, modeling, book sharing, author conferences, and recognition. (SK)

  1. Miraculous Readings: Using Fantasy Novels about Reading to Reflect on Reading the Bible

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dalton, Russell W.

    2009-01-01

    This article reflects on the vivid images of reading presented in several popular fantasy novels, including "The Spiderwick Chronicles," "The Great Good Thing," and "The Neverending Story." It suggests that these images can be used to help children, youth, and adults reflect on the nature of reading and the potential power of reading sacred texts.…

  2. Digitized molecular diagnostics: reading disk-based bioassays with standard computer drives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yunchao; Ou, Lily M L; Yu, Hua-Zhong

    2008-11-01

    We report herein a digital signal readout protocol for screening disk-based bioassays with standard optical drives of ordinary desktop/notebook computers. Three different types of biochemical recognition reactions (biotin-streptavidin binding, DNA hybridization, and protein-protein interaction) were performed directly on a compact disk in a line array format with the help of microfluidic channel plates. Being well-correlated with the optical darkness of the binding sites (after signal enhancement by gold nanoparticle-promoted autometallography), the reading error levels of prerecorded audio files can serve as a quantitative measure of biochemical interaction. This novel readout protocol is about 1 order of magnitude more sensitive than fluorescence labeling/scanning and has the capability of examining multiplex microassays on the same disk. Because no modification to either hardware or software is needed, it promises a platform technology for rapid, low-cost, and high-throughput point-of-care biomedical diagnostics.

  3. Phonological Processing and Word Reading in Typically Developing and Reading Disabled Children : Severity Matters

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Groot, Barry; van den Bos, Kornelis; Minnaert, Alexander; van der Meulen, Bieuwe

    2015-01-01

    This chapter concerns the word reading predictive values and the dynamics of alphanumeric rapid automatized naming (RAN) and phonemic awareness (PA) in the general population of Dutch elementary school–aged children (grades 3 through 6). A composite index of word reading based on standardized tests

  4. The Politics of the Teaching of Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soler, Janet

    2016-01-01

    Historically, political debates have broken out over how to teach reading in primary schools and infant classrooms. These debates and "reading wars" have often resulted from public concerns and media reportage of a fall in reading standards. They also reflect the importance placed on learning to read by parents, teachers, employers, and…

  5. The role of speech prosody and text reading prosody in children's reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veenendaal, Nathalie J; Groen, Margriet A; Verhoeven, Ludo

    2014-12-01

    Text reading prosody has been associated with reading comprehension. However, text reading prosody is a reading-dependent measure that relies heavily on decoding skills. Investigation of the contribution of speech prosody - which is independent from reading skills - in addition to text reading prosody, to reading comprehension could provide more insight into the general role of prosody in reading comprehension. The current study investigates how much variance in reading comprehension scores is explained by speech prosody and text reading prosody, after controlling for decoding, vocabulary, and syntactic awareness. A battery of reading and language assessments was performed by 106 Dutch fourth-grade primary school children. Speech prosody was assessed using a storytelling task and text reading prosody by oral text reading performance. Decoding skills, vocabulary, syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension were assessed using standardized tests. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that text reading prosody explained 6% of variance and that speech prosody explained 8% of variance in reading comprehension scores, after controlling for decoding, vocabulary, and syntactic awareness. Phrasing was the significant factor in both speech and text reading. When added in consecutive order, phrasing in speech added 5% variance to phrasing in reading. In contrast, phrasing in reading added only 3% variance to phrasing in speech. The variance that speech prosody explained in reading comprehension scores should not be neglected. Speech prosody seems to facilitate the construction of meaning in written language. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

  6. Fluent Reading in Special Primary Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houtveen, Anthonia A. M.; van de Grift, Wim J. C. M.; Brokamp, Saskia K.

    2014-01-01

    The learning gains in reading of students in 57 classrooms in special primary education doubled as a result of implementing the Reading Impulse in Special Education (RISE) programme. Raising the scheduled reading time with 1.5 hr in all classrooms and implementing standards-based teaching characterised by "monitoring of pupil progress",…

  7. Reading Strategy Guides to Assist Middle School Educators of Students with Dyslexia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nichols-Yehling, M.; Strohl, C.

    2014-07-01

    According to the 2010 International Dyslexia Association publication, “Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading,” effective instruction is the key to addressing students' reading difficulties associated with dyslexia, a language-based disorder of learning to read and write. “Informed and effective classroom instruction. . . can prevent or at least effectively address and limit the severity of reading and writing problems.” The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission Education and Public Outreach program recently funded the development of six strategy guides for teachers of middle school students with reading difficulties, especially dyslexia. These guides utilize space science-themed reading materials developed by the Great Exploration in Math and Science (GEMS), including the IBEX-funded GEMS Space Science Sequence (Grades 6-8). The aforementioned reading strategy guides are now available on the IBEX mission website.

  8. The relationship between component skills, reading experience, and reading comprehension in Danish 3rd graders

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rønberg, Louise Flensted-Jensen; Petersen, Dorthe Klint

    data sets were obtained from 179 Danish Grade 3 pupils. Participants were given a standard reading comprehension test requiring multiple-choice answers to six different texts of various length and type. Orthographic and phonological coding, as well as non-verbal problem solving were assessed by means......Purpose The main aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of aspects of vocabulary, word reading abilities, and reading experience to reading comprehension, and to analyse sub-samples of students with comprehension difficulties. Method The study employed a cross-sectional design. Full......: path, street, road, river). Results Data analyses showed that in the entire sample, skills of semantic lexical structuring and reading experience made strong contributions to reading comprehension. Analyses of the pupils below the 25%-percentile in reading comprehension revealed that for the vast...

  9. Clinical and microperimetric predictors of reading speed in low vision patients: a structural equation modeling approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giacomelli, Giovanni; Virgili, Gianni; Giansanti, Fabrizio; Sato, Giovanni; Cappello, Ezio; Cruciani, Filippo; Varano, Monica; Menchini, Ugo

    2013-06-27

    To investigate the simultaneous association of several psychophysical measures with reading ability in patients with mild and moderate low vision attending rehabilitation services. Standard measurements of reading ability (Minnesota Reading [MNREAD] charts), visual acuity (Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study [ETDRS] charts), contrast sensitivity (Pelli-Robson charts), reading contrast threshold (Reading Explorer [REX] charts), retinal sensitivity, and fixation stability and localization (Micro Perimeter 1 [MP1] fundus perimetry) were obtained in 160 low vision patients with better eye visual acuity ranging from 0.3 to 1.0 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution and affected by either age-related macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy. All variables were moderately associated with reading performance measures (MNREAD reading speed and reading acuity and REX reading contrast threshold), as well as among each other. In a structural equation model, REX reading contrast threshold was highly associated with MNREAD reading speed (standardized coefficient, 0.63) and moderately associated with reading acuity (standardized coefficient, -0.30). REX test also mediated the effects of Pelli-Robson contrast sensitivity (standardized coefficient, 0.44), MP1 fixation eccentricity (standardized coefficient, -0.19), and the mean retinal sensitivity (standardized coefficient, 0.23) on reading performance. The MP1 fixation stability was associated with both MNREAD reading acuity (standardized coefficient, -0.24) and MNREAD reading speed (standardized coefficient, 0.23), while ETDRS visual acuity only affected reading acuity (standardized coefficient, 0.44). Fixation instability and contrast sensitivity loss are key factors limiting reading performance of patients with mild or moderate low vision. REX charts directly assess the impact of text contrast on letter recognition and text navigation and may be a useful aid in reading rehabilitation.

  10. Engaging Struggling Early Readers to Promote Reading Success: A Pilot Study of Reading by Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendez, Linda M. Raffaele; Pelzmann, Catherine A.; Frank, Michael J.

    2016-01-01

    In this study, we piloted a Tier 2 intervention designed to improve reading skills among struggling early readers using an intervention that included SRA Reading Mastery, listening-while-reading activities, strategies to increase motivation and engagement in reading, and parent involvement in reading homework. The study included 6 students in…

  11. Iowa City Reads! The Reading Event Worth Shouting About.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donham van Deusen, Jean; Langhorne, Mary Jo

    1997-01-01

    Describes the Community Reading Month (CRM) initiative in Iowa City, Iowa; its goals are to promote the value of reading and to build a sense of community. Topics include the development of CRM, increased reading scores of Iowa City's elementary school students, activities for people of all ages, and planning and evaluation. (AEF)

  12. Whole genome complete resequencing of Bacillus subtilis natto by combining long reads with high-quality short reads.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mayumi Kamada

    Full Text Available De novo microbial genome sequencing reached a turning point with third-generation sequencing (TGS platforms, and several microbial genomes have been improved by TGS long reads. Bacillus subtilis natto is closely related to the laboratory standard strain B. subtilis Marburg 168, and it has a function in the production of the traditional Japanese fermented food "natto." The B. subtilis natto BEST195 genome was previously sequenced with short reads, but it included some incomplete regions. We resequenced the BEST195 genome using a PacBio RS sequencer, and we successfully obtained a complete genome sequence from one scaffold without any gaps, and we also applied Illumina MiSeq short reads to enhance quality. Compared with the previous BEST195 draft genome and Marburg 168 genome, we found that incomplete regions in the previous genome sequence were attributed to GC-bias and repetitive sequences, and we also identified some novel genes that are found only in the new genome.

  13. Reading the New Standard ISA700

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Botez

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Review of permanent professional standards is a requirement for professional bodies of professional accountants, resulting in broader processes of globalization and harmonization. A set of revised standards on financial audit engagement was published by IFAC in April 2009. International Standard on Auditing (ISA 700 "Forming an opinion and reporting on financial statements” is one of them. This standard deals with the auditor's responsibility to form an opinion on the financial statements and determine the form and content of the auditor's report issued following an audit of financial statements. Even if you do not have major changes, the revised standard contains several provisions that emphasize the important role of the auditor's report and more specifically defines its responsibility.

  14. Evaluation of attention training and metacognitive facilitation to improve reading comprehension in aphasia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jaime B; Moore Sohlberg, McKay

    2013-05-01

    This pilot study investigated the impact of direct attention training combined with metacognitive facilitation on reading comprehension in individuals with aphasia. A single-subject, multiple baseline design was employed across 4 participants to evaluate potential changes in reading comprehension resulting from an 8-week intervention using Attention Process Training-3 (APT-3). The primary outcome measure was a maze reading task. Pre- and posttesting included attention and reading comprehension measures. Visual inspection of graphed performance data across conditions was used as the primary method of analysis. Treatment effect sizes were calculated for changes in reading comprehension probes from baseline to maintenance phases. Two of the study's 4 participants demonstrated improvements in maze reading, with corresponding effect sizes that were small in magnitude according to benchmarks for aphasia treatment research. All 4 participants made improvements on select standardized measures of attention. Interventions that include a metacognitive component with direct attention training may elicit improvements in participants' attention and allocation of resources. Maze passage reading is a repeated measure that appears sensitive to treatment-related changes in reading comprehension. Issues for future research related to measurement, candidacy, and clinical delivery are discussed.

  15. What All Reading Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fedora, Pledger

    2014-01-01

    When students experience reading difficulties--or even before they do--teachers can use specialized knowledge to help them achieve success. This overview of the International Dyslexia Association's "Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading" describes those reading and literacy standards and provides resources for teacher…

  16. Reading Fluency and Students with Reading Disabilities: How Fast Is Fast Enough to Promote Reading Comprehension?

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Connor, Rollanda E.

    2018-01-01

    The goal of improving reading rate and fluency is to positively impact reading comprehension; however, it is unclear how fast students with learning disabilities (LD) need to read to reap this benefit. The purpose of this research was to identify the point of diminishing return for students who were dysfluent readers. Participants included 337…

  17. libgapmis: extending short-read alignments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alachiotis, Nikolaos; Berger, Simon; Flouri, Tomáš; Pissis, Solon P; Stamatakis, Alexandros

    2013-01-01

    A wide variety of short-read alignment programmes have been published recently to tackle the problem of mapping millions of short reads to a reference genome, focusing on different aspects of the procedure such as time and memory efficiency, sensitivity, and accuracy. These tools allow for a small number of mismatches in the alignment; however, their ability to allow for gaps varies greatly, with many performing poorly or not allowing them at all. The seed-and-extend strategy is applied in most short-read alignment programmes. After aligning a substring of the reference sequence against the high-quality prefix of a short read--the seed--an important problem is to find the best possible alignment between a substring of the reference sequence succeeding and the remaining suffix of low quality of the read--extend. The fact that the reads are rather short and that the gap occurrence frequency observed in various studies is rather low suggest that aligning (parts of) those reads with a single gap is in fact desirable. In this article, we present libgapmis, a library for extending pairwise short-read alignments. Apart from the standard CPU version, it includes ultrafast SSE- and GPU-based implementations. libgapmis is based on an algorithm computing a modified version of the traditional dynamic-programming matrix for sequence alignment. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the functions of the CPU version provided in this library accelerate the computations by a factor of 20 compared to other programmes. The analogous SSE- and GPU-based implementations accelerate the computations by a factor of 6 and 11, respectively, compared to the CPU version. The library also provides the user the flexibility to split the read into fragments, based on the observed gap occurrence frequency and the length of the read, thereby allowing for a variable, but bounded, number of gaps in the alignment. We present libgapmis, a library for extending pairwise short-read alignments. We

  18. Reading, Writing & Rings: Science Literacy for K-4 Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    McConnell, S.; Spilker, L.; Zimmerman-Brachman, R.

    2007-12-01

    Scientific discovery is the impetus for the K-4 Education program, "Reading, Writing & Rings." This program is unique because its focus is to engage elementary students in reading and writing to strengthen these basic academic skills through scientific content. As science has been increasingly overtaken by the language arts in elementary classrooms, the Cassini Education Program has taken advantage of a new cross-disciplinary approach to use language arts as a vehicle for increasing scientific content in the classroom. By utilizing the planet Saturn and the Cassini-Huygens mission as a model in both primary reading and writing students in these grade levels, young students can explore science material while at the same time learning these basic academic skills. Content includes reading, thinking, and hands-on activities. Developed in partnership with the Cassini-Huygens Education and Public Outreach Program, the Bay Area Writing Project/California Writing Project, Foundations in Reading Through Science & Technology (FIRST), and the Caltech Pre-College Science Initiative (CAPSI), and classroom educators, "Reading, Writing & Rings" blends the excitement of space exploration with reading and writing. All materials are teacher developed, aligned with national science and language education standards, and are available from the Cassini-Huygens website: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/edu-k4.cfm Materials are divided into two grade level units. One unit is designed for students in grades 1 and 2 while the other unit focuses on students in grades 3 and 4. Each includes a series of lessons that take students on a path of exploration of Saturn using reading and writing prompts.

  19. Reading aids for adults with low vision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Virgili, Gianni; Acosta, Ruthy; Bentley, Sharon A; Giacomelli, Giovanni; Allcock, Claire; Evans, Jennifer R

    2018-04-17

    The purpose of low-vision rehabilitation is to allow people to resume or to continue to perform daily living tasks, with reading being one of the most important. This is achieved by providing appropriate optical devices and special training in the use of residual-vision and low-vision aids, which range from simple optical magnifiers to high-magnification video magnifiers. To assess the effects of different visual reading aids for adults with low vision. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Trials Register) (2017, Issue 12); MEDLINE Ovid; Embase Ovid; BIREME LILACS, OpenGrey, the ISRCTN registry; ClinicalTrials.gov and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). The date of the search was 17 January 2018. This review includes randomised and quasi-randomised trials that compared any device or aid used for reading to another device or aid in people aged 16 or over with low vision as defined by the study investigators. We did not compare low-vision aids with no low-vision aid since it is obviously not possible to measure reading speed, our primary outcome, in people that cannot read ordinary print. We considered reading aids that maximise the person's visual reading capacity, for example by increasing image magnification (optical and electronic magnifiers), augmenting text contrast (coloured filters) or trying to optimise the viewing angle or gaze position (such as prisms). We have not included studies investigating reading aids that allow reading through hearing, such as talking books or screen readers, or through touch, such as Braille-based devices and we did not consider rehabilitation strategies or complex low-vision interventions. We used standard methods expected by Cochrane. At least two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. The primary outcome of the review was reading speed in words per minute. Secondary

  20. Child-centered reading intervention: See, talk, dictate, read, write!

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammet BAŞTUĞ

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Poor reading achievement of children in elementary schools has been one of the major concerns in education. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a child-centered reading intervention in eliminating the reading problems of a student with poor reading achievement. The research was conducted with a student having difficulty in reading. A reading intervention was designed that targeted multiple areas of reading and aimed to improve reading skills through the use of multiple strategies. This intervention is child-centered and includes visual aids, talking, dictating, reading and writing stages. The study was performed in 35 sessions consisting of stages of a single sentence (5 sessions, two sentences (5 sessions, three sentences (20 sessions and the text stage (5 sessions. The intervention sessions were audio-taped. These recordings and the written responses to the reading comprehension questions provided the data for analysis. The findings on the reading intervention revealed positive outcomes. The student exhibited certain improvements at the levels of reading, reading rate and reading comprehension. These results were discussed in the literature and the findings suggest that child-centered reading strategies such as talking, dictating and writing should be the main focus of instruction for students with low reading literacy achievement to enable these students to meet the demands of the curriculum.

  1. Reading assessment and training program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lewis, C.L.

    1991-01-01

    The objective was to ensure ourselves and the general public that the workers in the Nuclear Materials Processing Department (NMPD) could read, follow, and understand procedures. Procedures were randomly selected and analyzed for reading levels. A tenth grade reading level was established as the standard for all NMPD employees. Employees were tested to determine reading levels and approximately 12% could not read at the target level. A Procedure Walk-Through Evaluation was administered to each person not reaching tenth grade reading level. This was a job performance measure given to ensure that the worker was competent in his/her present job, and should remain there while completing reading training. A mandatory Reading Training Program utilizing Computer Based Training was established. This program is self-paced, individualized instruction and provided to the worker on Company time. Results of the CBT Program have been very good. Instruction is supplemented with test-taking skills seminars, practice exams, individual conferences with their own reading specialist, and some self-directed study books. This paper describes the program at Savannah River Site

  2. Why should I read? - A cross-cultural investigation into adolescents' reading socialisation and reading attitude

    Science.gov (United States)

    Broeder, Peter; Stokmans, Mia

    2013-06-01

    While reading behaviour of adolescents is a frequent object of research, most studies in this field are restricted to a single country. This study investigates reading as a leisure-time activity across social groups from three regions differing in reading tradition as well as in the facilities available for reading. The authors analyse the reading behaviour of a total of 2,173 adolescents in the Netherlands, in Beijing (China), and in Cape Town (South Africa). Taking Icek Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour as a starting point, the authors adjusted it to model the three most important determinants of reading behaviour, namely (1) reading attitude; (2) subjective norms (implicit and explicit social pressure to read); and (3) perceived behavioural control, which includes reading proficiency and appropriateness of the available books (book supply). While they found the adjusted model to fit the Dutch and Beijing situation quite well, it appeared to be inappropriate for the Cape Town situation. Despite considerable cultural and situational differences between the Netherlands and Beijing, the results show a similar pattern for these two environments. The most important determinants turn out to be: the hedonic reading attitude, the implicit norm of family and friends, the attractiveness of the available choice of books, and the perceived reading proficiency.

  3. Pre-reading activities in EFL/ESL reading textbooks and Turkish preparatory school teachers' attitudes toward pre-reading activities

    OpenAIRE

    Jecksembieyva, Nurgaisha

    1993-01-01

    Ankara : Faculty of Humanities and Letters and the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University, 1993. Thesis (Master's) -- -Bilkent University, 1993. Includes bibliographical references leaves 35-40. The main focus of this study was to investigate pre-reading activities in EFL/ESL reading textbooks and to determine teachers' attitudes toward pre-reading activities. Fifteen reading textbooks for EFL/ESL students for different proficiency levels (beginning, interm...

  4. Standardized cine-loop documentation in abdominal ultrasound facilitates offline image interpretation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dormagen, Johann Baptist; Gaarder, Mario; Drolsum, Anders

    2015-01-01

    One of the main disadvantages of conventional ultrasound is its operator dependency, which might impede the reproducibility of the sonographic findings. A new approach with cine-loops and standardized scan protocols can overcome this drawback. To compare abdominal ultrasound findings of immediate bedside reading by performing radiologist with offline reading by a non-performing radiologist, using standardized cine-loop sequences. Over a 6-month period, three radiologists performed 140 dynamic ultrasound organ-based examinations in 43 consecutive outpatients. Examination protocols were standardized and included predefined probe position and sequences of short cine-loops of the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidneys, and urine bladder, covering the organs completely in two planes. After bedside examinations, the studies were reviewed and read out immediately by the performing radiologist. Image quality was registered from 1 (no diagnostic value) to 5 (excellent cine-loop quality). Offline reading was performed blinded by a radiologist who had not performed the examination. Bedside and offline reading were compared with each other and with consensus results. In 140 examinations, consensus reading revealed 21 cases with renal disorders, 17 cases with liver and bile pathology, and four cases with bladder pathology. Overall inter-observer agreement was 0.73 (95% CI 0.61-0.91), with lowest agreement for findings of the urine bladder (0.36) and highest agreement in liver examinations (0.90). Disagreements between the two readings were seen in nine kidneys, three bladder examinations, one pancreas and bile system examinations each, and in one liver, giving a total number of mismatches of 11%. Nearly all cases of mismatch were of minor clinical significance. The median image quality was 3 (range, 2-5) with most examinations deemed a quality of 3. Compared to consensus reading, overall accuracy was 96% for bedside reading and 94% for offline reading. Standardized cine

  5. Evaluation of Fermi read-out of the Atlas Tilecal prototype

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ajaltouni, Z.; Alifanov, A.

    1998-01-01

    Prototypes of the FERMI system have been used to read out a prototype of the ATLAS hadron calorimeter in a beam test at the CERN SPS. The FERMI read-out system, using a compressor and a sampling ADC, is compared to a standard charge integrating read-out by measuring the energy resolution of the calorimeter separately with the two systems on the same events. Signal processing techniques have been designed to optimize the treatment of FERMI data. The resulting energy resolution is better than the one obtained with the standard read-out. (orig.)

  6. Clinical Evaluation of Reading Performance Using the Salzburg Reading Desk With a Refractive Rotational Asymmetric Multifocal Intraocular Lens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linz, Katharina; Attia, Mary S A; Khoramnia, Ramin; Tandogan, Tamer; Kretz, Florian T; Auffarth, Gerd Uwe

    2016-08-01

    To evaluate functional results and reading performance using the Salzburg Reading Desk after implantation of a sector-shaped near-embedded, rotational asymmetrical multifocal intraocular lens (IOL) and a multifocal toric IOL with a +3.00 diopter (D) near addition. In a prospective study, the LentisMplus and Mplus toric IOLs (Oculentis GmbH, Berlin, Germany) were implanted in 34 eyes of 18 patients at the University Eye Hospital of Heidelberg. Uncorrected and corrected distance visual acuity (UDVA, CDVA) and uncorrected and corrected near visual acuity (UNVA, CNVA) were evaluated using standardized visual acuity charts (ETDRS). The Salzburg Reading Desk was used to analyze unilateral and bilateral uncorrected and corrected reading acuity, reading distance, reading speed, and the smallest log-scaled print size that could be read effectively at a set (40 cm/80 cm) and subjective chosen near and intermediate distance. Postoperatively, the median UDVA was 0.08 logMAR (20/25 Snellen) and the median CDVA was 0.01 logMAR (20/20 Snellen). The median UNVA was 0.12 logMAR (20/25 Snellen) and the median CNVA was 0.03 logMAR (20/20 Snellen). The median uncorrected reading acuity measured with the Salzburg Reading Desk for near distance at 40 cm was 0.18 logMAR (20/32 Snellen). The subjectively preferred near distance was 39 cm and revealed similar visual acuity results. The best reading acuity for intermediate distance with a median of 0.22 logMAR (20/32 Snellen) was achieved at a median distance of 62 cm. Reading performance of the multifocal IOL corresponded for near standardized and individual distance, whereas reading function was better at the patient's preferred intermediate distance. [J Refract Surg. 2016;32(8):526-532.]. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

  7. Measurement properties of continuous text reading performance tests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brussee, Tamara; van Nispen, Ruth M A; van Rens, Ger H M B

    2014-11-01

    Measurement properties of tests to assess reading acuity or reading performance have not been extensively evaluated. This study aims to provide an overview of the literature on available continuous text reading tests and their measurement properties. A literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase and PsycInfo. Subsequently, information on design and content of reading tests, study design and measurement properties were extracted using consensus-based standards for selection of health measurement instruments. Quality of studies, reading tests and measurement properties were systematically assessed using pre-specified criteria. From 2334 identified articles, 20 relevant articles were found on measurement properties of three reading tests in various languages: IReST, MNread Reading Test and Radner Reading Charts. All three reading tests scored high on content validity. Reproducibility studies (repeated measurements between different testing sessions) of the IReST and MNread of commercially available reading tests in different languages were missing. The IReST scored best on inter-language comparison, the MNread scored well in repeatability studies (repeated measurements under the same conditions) and the Radner showed good reproducibility in studies. Although in daily practice there are other continuous text reading tests available meeting the criteria of this review, measurement properties were described in scientific studies for only three of them. Of the few available studies, the quality and content of study design and methodology used varied. For testing existing reading tests and the development of new ones, for example in other languages, we make several recommendations, including careful description of patient characteristics, use of objective and subjective lighting levels, good control of working distance, documentation of the number of raters and their training, careful documentation of scoring rules and the use of Bland-Altman analyses or similar for

  8. Morpho-phonemic analysis boosts word reading for adult struggling readers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Susan H; Ehri, Linnea C; Locke, John L

    2018-01-01

    A randomized control trial compared the effects of two kinds of vocabulary instruction on component reading skills of adult struggling readers. Participants seeking alternative high school diplomas received 8 h of scripted tutoring to learn forty academic vocabulary words embedded within a civics curriculum. They were matched for language background and reading levels, then randomly assigned to either morpho-phonemic analysis teaching word origins, morpheme and syllable structures, or traditional whole word study teaching multiple sentence contexts, meaningful connections, and spellings. Both groups made comparable gains in learning the target words, but the morpho-phonemic group showed greater gains in reading unfamiliar words on standardized tests of word reading, including word attack and word recognition. Findings support theories of word learning and literacy that promote explicit instruction in word analysis to increase poor readers' linguistic awareness by revealing connections between morphological, phonological, and orthographic structures within words.

  9. Performance evaluation of a 'dual-side read' dedicated mammography computed radiography system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fetterly, Kenneth A.; Schueler, Beth A.

    2003-01-01

    The image quality of a dedicated mammography computed radiography (CR) system was characterized. A unique feature of this system is that it collects image signals from both sides of the storage phosphor. Measurements of the modulation transfer function (MTF), noise power spectrum (NPS), and detective quantum efficiency (DQE) were made. This work included improvements in our measurement methods to specifically account for the detrimental effects of system glare on the MTF and to accurately characterize the low-frequency NPS components. Image quality measurements were performed using a 25 kVp beam filtered with 2 mm Al and an exposure range of 1 to 100 mR (87 to 870 μGy). The DQE was found to decrease with increasing exposure due to an increased contribution of storage phosphor structure noise. The DQE of this system was compared to similar measurements made using a standard CR system. The dual-side read system demonstrated superior DQE compared to the standard system. The decrease in DQE with increasing exposure was more severe for the standard system than the dual-side read system. This finding suggests that the CR system noise was reduced for the dual-side read system compared to the standard system

  10. 32 CFR 37.620 - What financial management standards do I include for nonprofit participants?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What financial management standards do I include... financial management standards do I include for nonprofit participants? So as not to force system changes..., your expenditure-based TIA's requirements for the financial management system of any nonprofit...

  11. Oral Reading Fluency as a Predictor of Silent Reading Fluency at Secondary and Postsecondary Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seok, Soonhwa; DaCosta, Boaventura

    2014-01-01

    This research investigated oral reading fluency as a predictor of silent reading fluency at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Several measures were used, including the Gray Oral Reading Test, the Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency, the Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency, and the Reading Observation Scale. A total of 223 students…

  12. Colorado Student Assessment Program: 2001 Released Passages, Items, and Prompts. Grade 4 Reading and Writing, Grade 4 Lectura y Escritura, Grade 5 Mathematics and Reading, Grade 6 Reading, Grade 7 Reading and Writing, Grade 8 Mathematics, Reading and Science, Grade 9 Reading, and Grade 10 Mathematics and Reading and Writing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colorado State Dept. of Education, Denver.

    This document contains released reading comprehension passages, test items, and writing prompts from the Colorado Student Assessment Program for 2001. The sample questions and prompts are included without answers or examples of student responses. Test materials are included for: (1) Grade 4 Reading and Writing; (2) Grade 4 Lectura y Escritura…

  13. Reading Strategies Used by Iranian EFL Learners While Reading Academic Texts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vida Yousefian

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The major aim of this study was to explore the nature and frequency of the reading strategies used by the EFL learners while reading academic texts. Normally, students tend to read all the information provided in reading materials. This study explores whether learners use reading strategies to assist them in reading comprehension. There was a sample of 45 English language (EFL learners from Islamic Azad University, Falavarjan Branch. The instrument utilized in this study was a survey questionnaire with 30 items including 13 global reading strategies, 8 problem solving strategies and 9 support reading strategies. The survey was going to signify how much EFL learners use each of these strategies while reading academic texts. The findings indicated that the participants used global reading strategies more (44.5% than problem solving strategies (29.0% and support reading strategies (26.5%. The results of the present study will let the instructors improve the reading strategies which are not used by EFL learners frequently. It also helps learners to promote the ability of using reading strategies and utilize the strategies in an appropriate and effective way.

  14. The relevance of 7-day patch test reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Higgins, Eleanor; Collins, Paul

    2013-01-01

    Patch test readings are usually performed on day 2 (48 hours) and day 4 (96 hours). However, reports in the literature identify delayed allergy to metals, corticosteroids, antibiotics, some preservatives, acrylic and methacrylic monomers and p-phenylenediamine. The aim of our study was to identify the benefit of performing a day 7 (168 hours) reading to identify relevant late positive reactions. Two hundred three consecutive patients were patch tested to the British Society for Cutaneous Allergy standard series with additional test series selected according to clinical history and applied at the same time. Twenty-six patients (12.8%) had new positive reactions on day 7 (168 hours), with 28 relevant positive reactions to 21 allergens. These included mercury 0.5% (2/26); cobalt chloride 1% (2/26); colophony 20% (2/26); disperse blue mix 106/124 1% (2/26); preservatives (4/26) that included Methylchloroisothiazolinone/methylisothiazolinone, sodium metabisulfite, and diazolidinyl urea; fragrances (7/26); and gentamycin sulfate 20% (1/26). These results confirm findings in the literature and support the argument for performing a day 7 reading (168 hours) to identify relevant late positive reactions.

  15. Does Use of Text-to-Speech and Related Read-Aloud Tools Improve Reading Comprehension for Students with Reading Disabilities? A Meta-Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, Sarah G.; Moxley, Jerad H.; Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Wagner, Richard K.

    2018-01-01

    Text-to-speech and related read-aloud tools are being widely implemented in an attempt to assist students' reading comprehension skills. Read-aloud software, including text-to-speech, is used to translate written text into spoken text, enabling one to listen to written text while reading along. It is not clear how effective text-to-speech is at…

  16. Early Identification of Reading Difficulties

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Poulsen, Mads; Nielsen, Anne-Mette Veber; Juul, Holger

    2017-01-01

    Early screening for reading difficulties before the onset of instruction is desirable because it allows intervention that is targeted at prevention rather than remediation of reading difficulties. However, early screening may be too inaccurate to effectively allocate resources to those who need...... them. The present study compared the accuracy of early screening before the onset of formal reading instruction with late screening six months into the first year of instruction. The study followed 164 Danish students from the end of Grade 0 to the end of Grade 2. Early screening included measures...... of phonemic awareness, rapid naming, letter knowledge, paired associate learning, and reading. Late screening included only reading. Results indicated that reading measures improved substantially as predictors over the first six months of Grade 1, to the point where late reading measures alone provided...

  17. Exposure times and ratio of readings produced by irradiation of thermoluminescence dosemeters in PTB neutron standard fields between 0.1 MeV and 19 MeV

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jahr, R.; Guldbakke, S.; Cosack, M.

    1979-06-01

    6 LiF and 7 LiF thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLD) irradiated in a standard field of monoenergetic neutrons (Esub(n) = 0.1 MeV to 19 MeV), respond as well to the photon as to the neutron component of this radiation field. The ratio of the two TLD readings as well as the duration of irradiation required to obtain a preset TLD reading are calculated as a function of the neutron energy. (orig.) [de

  18. Reading for All; Proceedings of the IRA (International Reading Association) World Congress on Reading (4th, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 3-5, 1972).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karlin, Robert, Ed.

    This book contains papers presented at the Fourth International Reading Association World Congress on Reading in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in August 1972. The contents of the book are divided into three parts: "Literacy and Literature" includes papers on libraries, books, and reading by Jorge Borges, the future of reading by Theodore Harris, the…

  19. The Keefe Inventory of Silent Reading: A Window into the Reading Process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keefe, Donald

    1993-01-01

    Contains part of the Keefe Inventory of Silent Reading, a silent informal reading inventory. Presents a case study of a student to whom it was administered, including analysis of this individual's reading ability and description of the specific strategies used with this individual on the basis of the results of the inventory. (RS)

  20. SchemaOnRead Manual

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    North, Michael J. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

    2015-09-30

    SchemaOnRead provides tools for implementing schema-on-read including a single function call (e.g., schemaOnRead("filename")) that reads text (TXT), comma separated value (CSV), raster image (BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and JPG), R data (RDS), HDF5, NetCDF, spreadsheet (XLS, XLSX, ODS, and DIF), Weka Attribute-Relation File Format (ARFF), Epi Info (REC), Pajek network (PAJ), R network (NET), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), SPSS (SAV), Systat (SYS), and Stata (DTA) files. It also recursively reads folders (e.g., schemaOnRead("folder")), returning a nested list of the contained elements.

  1. LHCb: FPGA based data-flow injection module at 10 Gbit/s reading data from network exported storage and using standard protocols

    CERN Multimedia

    Lemouzy, B; Garnier, J-C

    2010-01-01

    The goal of the LHCb readout upgrade is to speed up the DAQ to 40 MHz. Such a DAQ system will certainly employ 10 Gigabit or similar technologies and might also need new networking protocols such as a customized, light-weight TCP or more specialised protocols. A test module is being implemented, which integrates in the existing LHCb infrastructure. It is a multiple 10-Gigabit traffic generator, driven by a Stratix IV FPGA, which is flexibile enough to either generate LHCb's raw data packets internally or read them from external storage via the network. For reading the data we have implemented a light-weight industry standard protocol ATA over Ethernet (AoE) and we present an outlook of using a filesystem on these network-exported disk-drivers.

  2. SchemaOnRead: A Package for Schema-on-Read in R

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    North, Michael J.

    2016-08-01

    Schema-on-read is an agile approach to data storage and retrieval that defers investments in data organization until production queries need to be run by working with data directly in native form. Schema-on-read functions have been implemented in a wide range of analytical systems, most notably Hadoop. SchemaOnRead is a CRAN package that uses R’s flexible data representations to provide transparent and convenient support for the schema-on-read paradigm in R. The schema-on- read tools within the package include a single function call that recursively reads folders with text, comma separated value, raster image, R data, HDF5, NetCDF, spreadsheet, Weka, Epi Info, Pajek network, R network, HTML, SPSS, Systat, and Stata files. The provided tools can be used as-is or easily adapted to implement customized schema-on-read tool chains in R. This paper’s contribution is that it introduces and describes SchemaOnRead, the first R package specifically focused on providing explicit schema-on-read support in R.

  3. Informational Text Comprehension: Its Challenges and How Collaborative Strategic Reading Can Help

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCown, Margaret Averill; Thomason, Gina B.

    2014-01-01

    With the increased emphasis on informational text with Common Core State Standards and the difficulty many students have with this type of text, this study examined the effects of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) on informational text comprehension and metacognitive awareness of fifth grade students. Participating students included a…

  4. Factoring AAVE into Reading Assessment and Instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wheeler, Rebecca; Cartwright, Kelly B.; Swords, Rachel

    2012-01-01

    In our increasingly diverse schools, students bring diverse ways of speaking to the classroom. In turn, as features from students' home language varieties transfer into their readings of texts, teachers' assessment and intervention plans may be directly affected. If teachers conflate dialect influence with reading error in Standard English, they…

  5. Reading While Listening on Mobile Devices: An Innovative Approach to Enhance Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rochdi, Aicha; Eppard, Jenny

    2017-01-01

    This poster session will describe a study that took place at a university in the United Arab Emirates. The study included a reading app that was downloaded onto each student's individual mobile device. Students could read while listening to the stories. The primary goal of the study was to determine how, if at all, listening while reading in a…

  6. MisReading LIS Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiegand, Wayne

    1997-01-01

    Discusses the need to place a greater emphasis on the subject of reading in library and information science (LIS) education and research. Topics include literacy studies, print culture history, reader-response theory, ethnography of reading, genre fiction and cultural studies, information versus reading, and access to information versus content of…

  7. The Importance of Reading in Earnest: Non-Fiction for Young Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Job, Jennifer; Coleman, Mary Ruth

    2016-01-01

    Until recently, reading instruction for early grades has focused on fiction. However, the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards both emphasize the reading of nonfiction texts to gain specific skill sets for analyzing information. Research has shown that gifted students and children with culturally/linguistically…

  8. Direct Reading Instruction and the NYS ELA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones-Carey, Margaret H.

    2013-01-01

    This study analyzed the impact of classroom based reading instruction ("direct instruction") on the standardized test scores of 6th grade students as measured by the New York State English Language Arts assessment (NYS ELA). It was hypothesized that the implementation of direct instruction in reading in grade 6 would improve NYS ELA…

  9. Measuring the Effects of Reading Assistance Dogs on Reading Ability and Attitudes in Elementary Schoolchildren

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lenihan, Dawn; McCobb, Emily; Diurba, Amanda; Linder, Deborah; Freeman, Lisa

    2016-01-01

    Reading assistance dogs can be incorporated into reading programs to increase a child's desire and ability to read. However, more data is needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of such programs. A 5-week reading assistance dog program was implemented to assess feasibility and effectiveness. Participants included 18 children entering the 2nd grade…

  10. Reading Approach Use Effectiveness And EFL Reading Comprehension In University Muhammadiyah Of Parepare

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baharuddin

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated Indonesian EFL learners approach of two reading approaches cognitive and metacognitive their perceived contact on effectiveness and the association between reading approach and effectiveness on their English reading comprehension. Fifty-Three English-major freshmen from University Muhammadiyah of Parepare participated in these lessons. Two principal questions were addressed 1 what is the most frequent use of reading approach reported by individual students 2 Is there any significant association between reading approach and effectiveness on their English reading comprehension To examine the effects of approach instruction on students reading performance a qualitative interview technique and quantitative research methods including a paired-sample t-test and Person Product Moment Correlation were used to estimate the relationship between reading approach use and effectiveness on students reading accomplishment. Significance showed that the most frequent use of reading approach was found to be metacognitive approach followed by the cognitive approach. In addition there was a significant positive connection between reading approach and effectiveness on their English reading comprehension. Reading approach on the other hand was unrelated to reading achievement. Results of interview findings were analyzed to explore in-depth in sequence about the condition of approach used. The implications of these findings for implementing effective reading strategy instruction are discussed.

  11. INTEREST AND READING MOTIVATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alhamdu Alhamdu

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between interest and reading motivation based on literature review. The concept of the interest portrayed as a psychological state that occurs during interaction between individual and specific topic, object or activity including process of willingness, increased attention, concentration and positive feeling to the topic, object or activity. Meanwhile reading motivation emphasized to mental readiness, willingness and refers to beliefs and perception of individual to engage in reading activity. Some researchers were identified factors that influenced reading motivation such as intrinsic and extrinsic factors, self-concept and value of reading, and interest. In general, the literature review described that have positive relationship between interest and reading motivation.

  12. Enhancing Reading Comprehension of Iranian Advanced EFL Learners through Task-based Reading Activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vahid Fallah Golchin

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Language learning has experienced a shift of focus from a form-focused to a meaning-focused approach, and the necessity of using task-based learning, a relatively recent approach, has emerged. The vital role of task-based materials makes it obligatory not to exclude them from the language learning syllabi.  The current study aims at investigating whether task-based reading can contribute significantly to the development of reading comprehension of Iranian advanced EFL learners of English. An experimental study was carried out in order to scrutinize the applicability of task-based language teaching. To this end, 60 female advanced EFL learners, selected from among a pool of 100 learners, were assigned equally and randomly into two groups of thirty, consisting of an experimental and a control group. The selection of the participants was based on the results of a standard and piloted version of Paper-based TOEFL. The participant’s mean age was about 23, ranging from 20 to 27 years of age. Both groups received a pretest and a post-test of reading. During the treatment period the experimental group received task-based reading activities while the control group received reading instructions through traditional methods. The impact of the treatment upon the reading comprehension ability of the participants was analyzed through an independent-samples t-test, and comparisons between groups were made. The results clearly indicated the development of reading comprehension ability of the participants in the first group (the experimental group through the application of task-based reading activities.

  13. Encouraging Recreational Reading (The Printout).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balajthy, Ernest

    1988-01-01

    Describes computer software, including "The Electronic Bookshelf" and "Return to Reading," which provides motivation for recreational reading in various ways, including: quizzes, games based on books, and whole language activities for children's literature and young adult fiction. (MM)

  14. Investigating the Effects of Repeated Reading and NLP : Language Patterns on Reading Rate

    OpenAIRE

    Ben, Backwell; Brian, Cullen

    2018-01-01

    This paper investigates EFL student reading speed and describes a quasi-experimental study that attempted to quantify the effects of repeated reading and the use of NLP language patterns in the instructions. An experimental group (n=30) and a control group (n=30) carried out the same timed reading activity three times each lesson for five lessons. The instructions for the experimental group included NLP language patterns designed to promote faster reading. It was shown that the repeated readi...

  15. Teaching of reading to school beginners : a study of reading programmes in primary one in Uganda

    OpenAIRE

    Kemizano, Rosert

    2007-01-01

    Abstract The study examines reading programmes with the reference to the teaching/learning of reading to school beginners. The teaching of reading at the early stages is important because it is the quality of the experiences that children get that affect or lay the foundation for reading development (Chall, 1996).Therefore, the phenomenon, “teaching of reading to school beginners” studied is of great importance. The theoretical background used includes reading and its importance, Languag...

  16. Comparison of standard reading and computer aided detection (CAD) on a national proficiency test of screening mammography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ciatto, Stefano; Del Turco, Marco Rosselli; Risso, Gabriella; Catarzi, Sandra; Bonardi, Rita; Viterbo, Valeria; Gnutti, Pierangela; Guglielmoni, Barbara; Pinelli, Lelio; Pandiscia, Anna; Navarra, Francesco; Lauria, Adele; Palmiero, Rosa; Indovina, Pietro Luigi

    2003-01-01

    Objective: To evaluate the role of computer aided detection (CAD) in improving the interpretation of screening mammograms Material and methods: Ten radiologists underwent a proficiency test of screening mammography first by conventional reading and then with the help of CAD. Radiologists were blinded to test results for the whole study duration. Results of conventional and CAD reading were compared in terms of sensitivity and recall rate. Double reading was simulated combining conventional readings of four expert radiologists and compared with CAD reading. Results: Considering all ten readings, cancer was identified in 146 or 153 of 170 cases (85.8 vs. 90.0%; χ 2 =0.99, df=1, P=0.31) and recalls were 106 or 152 of 1330 cases (7.9 vs. 11.4%; χ 2 =8.69, df=1, P=0.003) at conventional or CAD reading, respectively. CAD reading was essentially the same (sensitivity 97.0 vs. 96.0%; χ 2 =7.1, df=1, P=0.93; recall rate 10.7 vs. 10.6%; χ 2 =1.5, df=1, P=0.96) as compared with simulated conventional double reading. Conclusion: CAD reading seems to improve the sensitivity of conventional reading while reducing specificity, both effects being of limited size. CAD reading had almost the same performance of simulated conventional double reading, suggesting a possible use of CAD which needs to be confirmed by further studies inclusive of cost-effective analysis

  17. Comorbidity of Auditory Processing, Language, and Reading Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Mridula; Purdy, Suzanne C.; Kelly, Andrea S.

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: The authors assessed comorbidity of auditory processing disorder (APD), language impairment (LI), and reading disorder (RD) in school-age children. Method: Children (N = 68) with suspected APD and nonverbal IQ standard scores of 80 or more were assessed using auditory, language, reading, attention, and memory measures. Auditory processing…

  18. Reading speed, comprehension and eye movements while reading Japanese novels: evidence from untrained readers and cases of speed-reading trainees.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hiromitsu Miyata

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: A growing body of evidence suggests that meditative training enhances perception and cognition. In Japan, the Park-Sasaki method of speed-reading involves organized visual training while forming both a relaxed and concentrated state of mind, as in meditation. The present study examined relationships between reading speed, sentence comprehension, and eye movements while reading short Japanese novels. In addition to normal untrained readers, three middle-level trainees and one high-level expert on this method were included for the two case studies. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In Study 1, three of 17 participants were middle-level trainees on the speed-reading method. Immediately after reading each story once on a computer monitor, participants answered true or false questions regarding the content of the novel. Eye movements while reading were recorded using an eye-tracking system. Results revealed higher reading speed and lower comprehension scores in the trainees than in the untrained participants. Furthermore, eye-tracking data by untrained participants revealed multiple correlations between reading speed, accuracy and eye-movement measures, with faster readers showing shorter fixation durations and larger saccades in X than slower readers. In Study 2, participants included a high-level expert and 14 untrained students. The expert showed higher reading speed and statistically comparable, although numerically lower, comprehension scores compared with the untrained participants. During test sessions this expert moved her eyes along a nearly straight horizontal line as a first pass, without moving her eyes over the whole sentence display as did the untrained students. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In addition to revealing correlations between speed, comprehension and eye movements in reading Japanese contemporary novels by untrained readers, we describe cases of speed-reading trainees regarding relationships between these variables

  19. Including alternative resources in state renewable portfolio standards: Current design and implementation experience

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heeter, Jenny; Bird, Lori

    2013-01-01

    As of October 2012, 29 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have instituted a renewable portfolio standard (RPS). Each state policy is unique, varying in percentage targets, timetables, and eligible resources. Increasingly, new RPS polices have included alternative resources. Alternative resources have included energy efficiency, thermal resources, and, to a lesser extent, non-renewables. This paper examines state experience with implementing renewable portfolio standards that include energy efficiency, thermal resources, and non-renewable energy and explores compliance experience, costs, and how states evaluate, measure, and verify energy efficiency and convert thermal energy. It aims to gain insights from the experience of states for possible federal clean energy policy as well as to share experience and lessons for state RPS implementation. - Highlights: • Increasingly, new RPS policies have included alternative resources. • Nearly all states provide a separate tier or cap on the quantity of eligible alternative resources. • Where allowed, non-renewables and energy efficiency are being heavily utilized

  20. Developmental dyslexia: dysfunction of a left hemisphere reading network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fabio eRichlan

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available This mini-review summarizes and integrates findings from recent meta-analyses and original neuroimaging studies on functional brain abnormalities in dyslexic readers. Surprisingly, there is little empirical support for the standard neuroanatomical model of developmental dyslexia, which localizes the primary phonological decoding deficit in left temporo-parietal regions. Rather, recent evidence points to a dysfunction of a left hemisphere reading network, which includes occipito-temporal, inferior frontal, and inferior parietal regions.

  1. An Exploratory Study of Reading Comprehension in College Students After Acquired Brain Injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sohlberg, McKay Moore; Griffiths, Gina G; Fickas, Stephen

    2015-08-01

    This exploratory study builds on the small body of existing research investigating reading comprehension deficits in college students with acquired brain injury (ABI). Twenty-four community college students with ABI completed a battery of questionnaires and standardized tests to characterize self-perceptions of academic reading ability, performance on a standardized reading comprehension measure, and a variety of cognitive functions of this population. Half of the participants in the sample reported traumatic brain injury (n = 12) and half reported nontraumatic ABI (n = 12). College students with both traumatic and nontraumatic ABI cite problems with reading comprehension and academic performance postinjury. Mean performance on a standardized reading measure, the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (Brown, Fischo, & Hanna, 1993), was low to below average and was significantly correlated with performance on the Speed and Capacity of Language Processing Test (Baddeley, Emslie, & Nimmo-Smith, 1992). Injury status of traumatic versus nontraumatic ABI did not differentiate results. Regression analysis showed that measures of verbal attention and suppression obtained from the California Verbal Language Test-II (Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 2000) predicted total scores on the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. College students with ABI are vulnerable to reading comprehension problems. Results align with other research suggesting that verbal attention and suppression problems may be contributing factors.

  2. Adaptive working-memory training benefits reading, but not mathematics in middle childhood.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karbach, Julia; Strobach, Tilo; Schubert, Torsten

    2015-01-01

    Working memory (WM) capacity is highly correlated with general cognitive ability and has proven to be an excellent predictor for academic success. Given that WM can be improved by training, our aim was to test whether WM training benefited academic abilities in elementary-school children. We examined 28 participants (mean age = 8.3 years, SD = 0.4) in a pretest-training-posttest-follow-up design. Over 14 training sessions, children either performed adaptive WM training (training group, n = 14) or nonadaptive low-level training (active control group, n = 14) on the same tasks. Pretest, posttest, and follow-up at 3 months after posttest included a neurocognitive test battery (WM, task switching, inhibition) and standardized tests for math and reading abilities. Adaptive WM training resulted in larger training gains than nonadaptive low-level training. The benefits induced by the adaptive training transferred to an untrained WM task and a standardized test for reading ability, but not to task switching, inhibition, or performance on a standardized math test. Transfer to the untrained WM task was maintained over 3 months. The analysis of individual differences revealed compensatory effects with larger gains in children with lower WM and reading scores at pretest. These training and transfer effects are discussed against the background of cognitive processing resulting from WM span training and the nature of the intervention.

  3. Preliminary Safety Information Document for the Standard MHTGR. Volume 1, (includes latest Amendments)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None

    1986-01-01

    With NRC concurrence, the Licensing Plan for the Standard HTGR describes an application program consistent with 10CFR50, Appendix O to support a US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) review and design certification of an advanced Standard modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (MHTGR) design. Consistent with the NRC's Advanced Reactor Policy, the Plan also outlines a series of preapplication activities which have as an objective the early issuance of an NRC Licensability Statement on the Standard MHTGR conceptual design. This Preliminary Safety Information Document (PSID) has been prepared as one of the submittals to the NRC by the US Department of Energy in support of preapplication activities on the Standard MHTGR. Other submittals to be provided include a Probabilistic Risk Assessment, a Regulatory Technology Development Plan, and an Emergency Planning Bases Report.

  4. Reliable and redundant FPGA based read-out design in the ATLAS TileCal Demonstrator

    CERN Document Server

    Åkerstedt, Henrik; The ATLAS collaboration; Drake, Gary; Anderson, Kelby; Bohm, Christian; Oreglia, Mark; Tang, Fukun

    2015-01-01

    The Tile Calorimeter at ATLAS is a hadron calorimeter based on steel plates and scintillating tiles read out by PMTs. The current read-out system uses standard ADCs and custom ASICs to digitize and temporarily store the data on the detector. However, only a subset of the data is actually read out to the counting room. The on-detector electronics will be replaced around 2023. To achieve the required reliability the upgraded system will be highly redundant. Here the ASICs will be replaced with Kintex-7 FPGAs from Xilinx. This, in addition to the use of multiple 10 Gbps optical read-out links, will allow a full read-out of all detector data. Due to the higher radiation levels expected when the beam luminosity is increased, opportunities for repairs will be less frequent. The circuitry and firmware must therefore be designed for sufficiently high reliability using redundancy and radiation tolerant components. Within a year, a hybrid demonstrator including the new read-out system will be installed in one slice of ...

  5. Effects of Metalinguistic Awareness on Reading Comprehension and the Mediator Role of Reading Fluency from Grades 2 to 4

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Liping; Wu, Xinchun

    2015-01-01

    Purpose This study examined the contribution of metalinguistic awareness including morphological awareness, phonological awareness and orthographical awareness to reading comprehension, and the role of reading fluency as a mediator of the effects of metalinguistic awareness on reading comprehension from grades 2 to 4. Methods Four hundred and fifteen elementary students in China mainland were administered a test battery that included measures of morphological awareness, phonological awareness, orthographical awareness, reading fluency, reading comprehension and IQ. Hierarchical regression and structural equation models (SEM) were used to analyze the data. Results Morphological awareness uniquely explained 9%, 10% and 13% variance of reading comprehension respectively from grade 2 to grade 4, however, phonological awareness and orthographical awareness did not contribute to reading comprehension; Reading fluency partially mediated the effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension in grades 2-4. Conclusions These findings indicated that reading fluency and morphological awareness should be facilitated in the Chinese instruction. Morphological awareness played an important role in Chinese reading and affected reading comprehension in grades 2 to 4; Reading fluency was a significant link between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in grades 2-4. PMID:25799530

  6. Test Anxiety and a High-Stakes Standardized Reading Comprehension Test: A Behavioral Genetics Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, Sarah G.; Hart, Sara A.; Little, Callie W.; Phillips, Beth M.

    2016-01-01

    Past research suggests that reading comprehension test performance does not rely solely on targeted cognitive processes such as word reading, but also on other nontarget aspects such as test anxiety. Using a genetically sensitive design, we sought to understand the genetic and environmental etiology of the association between test anxiety and…

  7. Scaffolded Silent Reading (ScSR): Advocating a Policy for Adolescents' Independent Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Karen P.

    2013-01-01

    Structured independent reading among students is often a vital missing component in many school districts' literacy curriculum. The nationwide implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) requires districts to re-think their literacy curriculum and what instruction might entail in order for students to demonstrate proficiency in…

  8. READING ENGAGEMENT: A COMPARISON BETWEEN E-BOOKS AND TRADITIONAL PRINT BOOKS IN AN ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Troy Jones

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Electronic books (e-books are gaining popularity for personal reading. Options for access to a large selection of book titles and “anytime/anywhere” reading choices have added to the increased use of e-books. For this study, 22 third-grade students completed satisfaction surveys and reading comprehension tests on three separate reading sessions: one traditional print-based and two e-book titles. Indicators of reading engagement included motivation for independent reading and comprehension as measured by standardized tests on the print book and both e-books. Results showed that format was not as important as students’ identification with setting, characters, and theme of the book. Students did, however, indicate a preference for e-books when given the option of a wide selection of titles and the freedom to choose their own e-book. Students further indicated a preference for the amenities associated with e-book reading such as pop-up definitions and pronunciations of words, automatic page turning, and the option of read-aloud narration. The authors concluded that children quickly become comfortable with e-books and welcomed the technology. However, they are not completely ready to disregard print books.

  9. Which Book and Why: Using Book Bands and Book Levels for Guided Reading in Key Stage 1 [Includes CD-ROM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bodman, Sue, Ed.; Franklin, Glen, Ed.

    2014-01-01

    We want all children to love reading, and Which Book and Why demonstrates how effective guided reading for children in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 can help teachers make this happen. Balancing theory and practice, this book explores how schools and teachers can implement guided reading more confidently and more effectively. Which Book and Why…

  10. Conditions of lighting in reading-rooms located in public and school libraries in Silesian Voivodeship

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magdalena Sitek

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Reading-room is a place where special lighting conditions are required to make the reader feel comfortable and satisfied.. Lighting requirements are enclosed in the Polish Standard PN-EN 12464-1:2004. Accordingly, illuminance in the reading-rooms should be 500 lx. The aim of the study was to measure illuminance in reading-rooms in various libraries and make relative comparisons to standard values. Material and methods: Measurements of illuminance were performed in 22 reading-rooms in Silesia Voivodeship. Half of them were made in public libraries and half in reading-rooms at junior lower high schools. Illuminance was measured in 5 measurement points in reading-rooms by digital lux meter Lx-105 manufactured by Lutron. Furthermore , 100 readers of school libraries and 89 readers of public libraries completed a questionnaire on lighting conditions in these places. Results: Only 5 out of 22 reading-rooms meet the requirements of the Polish Standard concerning illuminance. Only in one reading room at junior lower high school illuminance exceeded 500 lx. In two other reading places the requirements were met due to additional desk lamps. Despite the results, 76.4% of approached readers of public libraries and 60% of pupils think that lighting in readingrooms is satisfactory and almost 63% of the readers and 53% of the pupils don’t demand additional lighting. Conclusions: Most of the scrutinized reading rooms do not meet lighting requirements according to the Polish Standard. Lighting conditions in school libraries are worse than in public libraries. According to the respondents lighting in public libraries is adequate.

  11. The role of phonological awareness in reading comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Silvia Cárnio

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Purpose: to characterize the performance of 4th grade-Elementary School students with and without signs of reading and writing disorders as for phonological awareness and reading comprehension, and also verify possible correlations between them. Methods: 60 children enrolled in the 4th grade of Elementary School from two public schools, whose parents signed the Informed Consent Form, participated in the present study. They were selected and organized in groups, with and without signs of reading and writing disorders. All students were individually assessed regarding their phonological awareness and reading comprehension of sentences and texts through standardized tests. The data underwent statistical analysis. Results: those with signs of reading and writing disorders showed the lowest performance in the reading comprehension of sentences and texts. A correlation was found between phonological awareness and reading comprehension of sentences and texts in both groups. Conclusion: students with no signs of reading and writing disorders had a higher performance in the skills assessed. The correlation found between phonological awareness and reading comprehension of sentences and texts shows not only the importance of metaphonological skills for a proficient reading, but also for a comprehensive one.

  12. Attention Therapy Improves Reading Comprehension in Adjudicated Teens in a Residential Facility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shelley-Tremblay, John; Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Jennifer; Eyer, Joshua

    2012-01-01

    This study quantified the influence of visual Attention Therapy (AT) on reading skills and Coherent Motion Threshold (CMT) in adjudicated teens with moderate reading disabilities (RD) residing in a residential alternative sentencing program. Forty-two students with below-average reading scores were identified using standardized reading…

  13. Reading and company

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kuzmičová, Anežka; Dias, Patrícia; Vogrinčič Čepič, Ana

    2017-01-01

    in the environment where one engages in individual silent reading. The primary goal of the study was to explore the role and possible associations of a number of variables (text type, purpose, device) in selecting generic (e.g. indoors vs outdoors) as well as specific (e.g. home vs library) reading environments....... Across all six samples included in the study, participants spontaneously attested to varied, and partly surprising, forms of sensitivity to company and social space in their daily efforts to align body with mind for reading. The article reports these emergent trends and discusses their potential...

  14. Developing reading literacy by reading badge

    OpenAIRE

    Rejc, Blanka

    2017-01-01

    Reading is a fundamental activity of our society and is present in all areas of a person’s life. Authors who deal with reading define reading with different definitions, some of them I also presented in my master’s degree thesis. The ways of reading, typology of readers and knowledge of different reading models are only some of the important theoretical facts that serve as a basis for the research and defining reading. Reading motivation is an important motivational factor, which encourages a...

  15. Exploring the Relationship between Adolescent's Reading Skills, Reading Motivation and Reading Habits

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGeown, Sarah P.; Duncan, Lynne G.; Griffiths, Yvonne M.; Stothard, Sue E.

    2015-01-01

    The present study examines the extent to which adolescents' reading affect (reading motivation) and behaviour (reading habits) predict different components of reading (word reading, comprehension, summarisation and text reading speed) and also adds to the limited research examining group differences (gender, age, ability) in adolescents' reading…

  16. Addressing scientific literacy through content area reading and processes of scientific inquiry: What teachers report

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cooper, Susan J.

    The purpose of this study was to interpret the experiences of secondary science teachers in Florida as they address the scientific literacy of their students through teaching content reading strategies and student inquiry skills. Knowledge of the successful integration of content reading and inquiry skills by experienced classroom teachers would be useful to many educators as they plan instruction to achieve challenging state and national standards for reading as well as science. The problem was investigated using grounded theory methodology. Open-ended questions were asked in three focus groups and six individual interviews that included teachers from various Florida school districts. The constant comparative approach was used to analyze the data. Initial codes were collapsed into categories to determine the conceptual relationships among the data. From this, the five core categories were determined to be Influencers, Issues, Perceptions, Class Routines, and Future Needs. These relate to the central phenomenon, Instructional Modifications, because teachers often described pragmatic and philosophical changes in their teaching as they deliberated to meet state standards in both reading and science. Although Florida's secondary science teachers have been asked to incorporate content reading strategies into their science instruction for the past several years, there was limited evidence of using these strategies to further student understanding of scientific processes. Most teachers saw little connection between reading and inquiry, other than the fact that students must know how to read to follow directions in the lab. Scientific literacy, when it was addressed by teachers, was approached mainly through class discussions, not reading. Teachers realized that students cannot learn secondary science content unless they read science text with comprehension; therefore the focus of reading instruction was on learning science content, not scientific literacy or student

  17. Inference Instruction to Support Reading Comprehension for Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Colby; Barnes, Marcia A.

    2017-01-01

    Making inferences during reading is a critical standards-based skill and is important for reading comprehension. This article supports the improvement of reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities (LD) in upper elementary grades by reviewing what is currently known about inference instruction for students with LD and providing…

  18. I read, you read, we read: the history of reading in Slovenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anja Dular

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACTPurpose: The aim of the article is to research reading habits in Slovenia in the period between 16th and 19th century and to find similarities with Austria and other European countries of that time.Methodology/approach: For the purpose of the analysis different resources were used – study books, catechisms, prayer books and manuals. We were focused on introductions in which readers are advised how to read, explaining to whom the work is intended and emphasizing the importance of meditation on the texts.Results: Historically the laud reading was prefered, as to continue the folk tradition. However, the 16th century texts were transmitted by women while the folk tradition was narrated by males. In the 18th century the higher level of literacy and greater book production and availability caused that the books were not a privilege of a few. At that time more texts were intended for silent, individual reading. Interestingly, the authors emphasized the importance of meditation on the texts, too. It was also advised when to read – it wasrecommedend to read in leisure time on Sundays, and on holidays. The role of books was also to breakaway with the reality and to forget everyday problems. Due to the overproduction of books in the 17th centrury it was concerned that books are misleading the crowds. The church considered the reading of books as inappropriate, and criticized fiction, novels and adventure stories mostly read by women.Research limitation: The study is based on Slovenian texts only, although the foreign literature, especially in German, was generally available, too.Originality/practical implications: The study is fullfiling the gap in the history of reading in Slovenia.

  19. Read-out and calibration of a tile calorimeter for ATLAS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tardell, S.

    1997-06-01

    The read-out and calibration of scintillating tiles hadronic calorimeter for ATLAS is discussed. Tests with prototypes of FERMI, a system of read-out electronics based on a dynamic range compressor reducing the dynamic range from 16 to 10 bits and a 40 MHz 10 bits sampling ADC, are presented. In comparison with a standard charge integrating read-out improvements in the resolution of 1% in the constant term are obtained

  20. Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Young-Suk Grace

    2015-01-01

    The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity)-how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency and reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined (1) developmentally changing relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension; (2) the relation of reading comprehension to text reading fluency; (3) unique emergent literacy predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, letter name knowledge, vocabulary) of text reading fluency vs. word reading fluency; and (4) unique language and cognitive predictors (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, theory of mind) of text reading fluency vs. reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data (two timepoints; Mean age = 5;24 & 6;08) from Korean-speaking children ( N = 143). Results showed that listening comprehension was related to text reading fluency at time 2, but not at time 1. At both times text reading fluency was related to reading comprehension, and reading comprehension was related to text reading fluency over and above word reading fluency and listening comprehension. Orthographic awareness was related to text reading fluency over and above other emergent literacy skills and word reading fluency. Vocabulary and grammatical knowledge were independently related to text reading fluency and reading comprehension whereas theory of mind was related to reading comprehension, but not text reading fluency. These results reveal developmental nature of relations and mechanism of text reading fluency in reading development.

  1. A Comparative Study of Blood Glucose Measurements Using Glucometer Readings and the Standard Method in the Diagnosis of Neonatal Hypoglycemia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Torkaman

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: Hypoglycemia is one of the most common neonatal disorders, associated with severe complications. There has been a great deal of controversy regarding the definition and screening of hypoglycemia. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to determine a cut-off value for blood glucose level in glucometer readings. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 238 newborns at risk of hypoglycemia, admitted to Baqiyatallah Hospital of Tehran, Iran in 2012; the subjects were selected via simple sampling. After obtaining informed consents from the newborns’ parents, 1 cc blood samples were sent to the laboratory for measuring the blood glucose level. Moreover, venous blood samples, as well as heel-stick blood samples, were obtained for glucometer measurements. Blood glucose measurements were used to determine the cut-off value by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC curve and make comparisons with the diagnostic criteria for hypoglycemia in the literature. Results: A total of 238 infants with the mean weight of 2869±821.9 g were enrolled in this study. The mean (±SD blood glucose levels were 65.1±22.9, 82.9±24.7, and 84.4±24.8 mg/dl, based on the standard laboratory method, glucometer reading of venous blood samples, and glucometer reading of heel-stick capillary blood samples, respectively. The optimal cut-off point for hypoglycemia was determined as 65 mg/dl, using glucometer-based assessment of heel-stick blood samples. Conclusion: The significant difference in blood glucose levels measured by the laboratory method and outpatient glucometer readings highlights the importance of a cut-off value for rapid assessment and control of blood glucose and timely detection of hypoglycemia. In fact, the cut-off value introduced in the present study could facilitate such measurements.

  2. Relationship between oculomotor scanning determined by the DEM test and a contextual reading test in schoolchildren with reading difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palomo-Alvarez, Catalina; Puell, María C

    2009-09-01

    The relationship between oculomotor scanning and reading in poor readers of primary school age is not well known. This study was designed to assess this relationship by determining mean Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test times and reading speeds in a Spanish non-clinical population of children with poor reading skills but without dyslexia. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 81 poor readers (8-11 years of age) in the third to fifth grades recruited from 11 elementary schools in Madrid, Spain. In each subject with best spectacle correction, oculomotor scanning was measured using the DEM test, and reading speed (words per minute) was assessed by a standardized Spanish contextual reading test. Mean horizontal DEM times were higher than normative values for children in the third, fourth and fifth grades, by 20 seconds, 12 seconds, and 3 seconds respectively. Mean reading speeds were 18 words per minute lower than the norm for the third and fourth grades respectively, and 30 words per minute lower than the norm for the fifth grade. Reading speeds were significantly related to horizontal DEM times (r = -0.53, p school children at an early stage.

  3. Does Extensive Reading Promote Reading Speed?

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Mu

    2014-01-01

    Research has shown a wide range of learning benefits accruing from extensive reading. Not only is there improvement in reading, but also in a wide range of language uses and areas of language knowledge. However, few research studies have examined reading speed. The existing literature on reading speed focused on students' reading speed without…

  4. Close Reading of Literary Nonfiction: The Three-Column Journal

    Science.gov (United States)

    McConn, Matthew

    2018-01-01

    The Common Core State Standards have placed more emphasis on the close reading of all texts, and have made a point of increasing the use of nonfiction in secondary English classrooms. In this article, the author describes an approach for implementing close reading of literary nonfiction. The approach comes from a small-scale classroom-based…

  5. Effects of EFL Individual Learner Variables on Foreign Language Reading Anxiety and Metacognitive Reading Strategy Use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lien, Hsin-Yi

    2016-08-01

    Past research has shown an association between foreign language reading anxiety and reading strategy. However, individual variables tend to affect foreign language anxiety and strategy use. The present study examined a hypothesized model that specified direct and indirect effects among English and foreign languages readers' distinct variables, including academic level; self-perceived English level; and satisfaction with reading proficiency, reading anxiety, and metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. A total of 523 volunteer Taiwanese college students provided 372 valid responses to a written questionnaire (281 women and 91 men; M age = 19.7 years, SD = 1.1) containing the translated versions of Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale, Survey of Reading Strategies Inventory, and self-assessment background questionnaire. The results showed that self-evaluation of reading proficiency did not correlate with academic level and readers' perceptions. Satisfaction had a direct effect on foreign language reading anxiety but not on metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. Results of path analysis demonstrated that the perception learners who had their own reading proficiency predicted their foreign language reading anxiety and was a mediating variable for metacognitive reading strategy use. © The Author(s) 2016.

  6. VISION AND READING ABILITY.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MANGRUM, CHARLES T.

    SIGNIFICANT RESEARCH ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AND FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF VISION AND READING DISABILITY IS SURVEYED. CONCLUSIONS BASED ON THE LITERATURE IN THE FIELD ARE DISCUSSED. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 70 REFERENCES AND A GLOSSARY OF TERMS ARE APPENDED. A TABLE SUMMARIZING REFRACTIVE ERRORS AND EYE DEFECTS CONTRIBUTING TO READING DISABILITY IS INCLUDED.…

  7. Reading Habit Promotion in ASEAN Libraries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sangkaeo, Somsong

    This paper describes the activities of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) libraries have undertaken to promote reading by increasing awareness among their people. First, factors limiting reading habits in ASEAN libraries are addressed, including: we are not a reading society, but a chatting society; the management of "3…

  8. Measuring up advances in how we assess reading ability

    CERN Document Server

    Sabatini, John; O'Reilly, Tenaha

    2012-01-01

    Sabatini, Albro and O'Reilly believe that in light of federal legislation towards common core standards and assessments, as well as significant national investments in reading and literacy education, it is a critical and opportune time to bring together the research and measurement community to address fundamental issues of measuring reading comprehension, in theory and in practice.

  9. Ethnic identity, school connectedness, and achievement in standardized tests among Mexican-origin youth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santos, Carlos E; Collins, Mary Ann

    2016-07-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the association between school connectedness and performance in standardized test scores and whether this association was moderated by ethnic private regard. The study combines self-report data with school district reported data on standardized test scores in reading and math and free and reduced lunch status. Participants included 436 Mexican-origin youth attending a middle school in a southwestern U.S. state. Participants were on average 12.34 years of age (SD = .95) and 51.8% female and 48.2% male. After controlling for age, gender, free and reduced lunch status, and generational status, school connectedness and ethnic private regard were both positive predictors of standardized test scores in reading and math. Results also revealed a significant interaction between school connectedness and ethnic private regard in predicting standardized test scores in reading, such that participants who were low on ethnic private regard and low on school connectedness reported lower levels of achievement compared to participants who were low on ethnic private regard but high on school connectedness. At high levels of ethnic private regard, high or low levels of school connectedness were not associated with higher or lower standardized test scores in reading. The findings in this study provide support for the protective role that ethnic private regard plays in the educational experiences of Mexican-origin youth and highlights how the local school context may play a role in shaping this finding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. Epilogue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Ability--Implications for Assessment and Instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamhi, Alan G.; Catts, Hugh W.

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: In this epilogue, we review the 4 response articles and highlight the implications of a multidimensional view of reading for the assessment and instruction of reading comprehension. Method: We reiterate the problems with standardized tests of reading comprehension and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of recently developed…

  11. Relations of Perceived Parent and Friend Support for Recreational Reading with Children's Reading Motivations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klauda, Susan Lutz; Wigfield, Allan

    2012-01-01

    This study examined elementary school students' perceived support for recreational reading from their mothers, fathers, and friends. Participants, including 130 fourth graders and 172 fifth graders, completed the researcher-developed Reading Support Survey, which assesses how often children experience and how greatly they enjoy multiple types of…

  12. Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension

    OpenAIRE

    Kim, Young-Suk Grace

    2015-01-01

    The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity)—how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency and reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined (1) developmentally changing relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension; (2) the relation of reading comprehension to text readi...

  13. Emotions in Reading: Disgust, Empathy and the Contextual Learning Hypothesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silva, Catarina; Montant, Marie; Ponz, Aurelie; Ziegler, Johannes C.

    2012-01-01

    Emotion effects in reading have typically been investigated by manipulating words' emotional valence and arousal in lexical decision. The standard finding is that valence and arousal can have both facilitatory and inhibitory effects, which is hard to reconcile with current theories of emotion processing in reading. Here, we contrasted these…

  14. Perceived Challenges to Integrating Reading Strategies in Content Areas: A Single Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pezzolla, Karen

    2017-01-01

    An alarming percentage of middle and high school students find themselves unable to read their textbooks at grade level proficiency; lacking the necessary skills to access and process information, and read critically. The Common Core State Standards require students to apply reading strategies across the curriculum, therefore requiring teachers to…

  15. Developmental relations between reading comprehension and reading strategies

    OpenAIRE

    Muijselaar, M.M.L.; Swart, N.M.; Steenbeek-Planting, E.G.; Droop, W.; Verhoeven, L.T.W.; Jong, P.F. de

    2017-01-01

    We examined the developmental relations between knowledge of reading strategies and reading comprehension in a longitudinal study of 312 Dutch children from the beginning of fourth grade to the end of fifth grade. Measures for reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading fluency, vocabulary, and working memory were administered. A structural equation model was constructed to estimate the unique relations between reading strategies and reading comprehension, while controlling for reading...

  16. Music-reading deficiencies and the brain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lola L. Cuddy

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper reviews the literature on brain damage and music-reading for the past 25 years. Acquired patterns of selective loss and sparing are described, including both the association and dissociation of music and text reading, and association and dissociation among components of music reading. As well, we suggest that developmental music - reading deficiencies may be isolated in a form analogous to developmental dyslexia for text or congenital amusia for auditory music processing. Finally, we propose that the results of brain damage studies can contribute to the development of a model of normal music reading.

  17. Strategies identification in an experimental reading comprehension task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stanković Sanda

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Standardized reading comprehension tests (RCTs usually consist of a small number of texts each accompanied by several multiple-choice questions, with texts and questions simultaneously presented. The score the common measure of reading comprehension ability in RCTs is the score. Literature review suggests that strategies subjects employ may influence their performance on RCT, however the score itself provides no information on the specific strategy employed. Knowledge of test-taking strategies could have impact on understanding of the actual purpose and benefits of using RCTs in pedagogical and psychological practice. With the ultimate objective of constructing a first standard RCT in Serbian language, the preliminary step we took was to conduct an experimental reading comprehension task (ERCT consisting of 27 short texts displayed in succession, each followed by a single multiplechoice question. Using qualitative analysis of subjects’ responses in semi-structured postexperimental interview, we identified four overall strategies used on ERCT. Our results show that groups of students who used specific strategies differed significantly from one another in text reading time, with no differences found regarding the question reading and answering time. More importantly, there were no significant between-group differences found in terms of ERCT score. These findings suggest that choice of strategy is a way to optimize the relation between one’s own potential and ERCT task requirements. RCT based on ERCT principles would allow for a flexible choice of strategy which would not influence the final score.

  18. Epilogue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Ability-Implications for Assessment and Instruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamhi, Alan G; Catts, Hugh W

    2017-04-20

    In this epilogue, we review the 4 response articles and highlight the implications of a multidimensional view of reading for the assessment and instruction of reading comprehension. We reiterate the problems with standardized tests of reading comprehension and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of recently developed authentic tests of reading comprehension. In the "Instruction" section, we review the benefits and limitations of strategy instruction and highlight suggestions from the response articles to improve content and language knowledge. We argue that the only compelling reason to administer a standardized test of reading comprehension is when these tests are necessary to qualify students for special education services. Instruction should be focused on content knowledge, language knowledge, and specific task and learning requirements. This instruction may entail the use of comprehension strategies, particularly those that are specific to the task and focus on integrating new knowledge with prior knowledge.

  19. Kaplan SpellRead. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

    Science.gov (United States)

    What Works Clearinghouse, 2007

    2007-01-01

    "Kaplan SpellRead" (formerly known as "SpellRead Phonological Auditory Training"[R]) is a literacy program for struggling readers in grades 2 or above, including special education students, English language learners, and students more than two years below grade level in reading. "Kaplan SpellRead" integrates the…

  20. Teaching Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Day, Richard R.

    2013-01-01

    "Teaching Reading" uncovers the interactive processes that happen when people learn to read and translates them into a comprehensive easy-to-follow guide on how to teach reading. Richard Day's revelations on the nature of reading, reading strategies, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and reading objectives make fascinating…

  1. Slow Reading: Reading along "Lectio" Lines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badley, K. Jo-Ann; Badley, Ken

    2011-01-01

    The medieval monastic movement preserved and developed reading practices--lectio--from ancient Greek pedagogy as a slow, mindful approach to reading for formation. This ancient way of reading, now better known as lectio divina, challenges the fast, pragmatic reading so characteristic of our time. We propose that the present moment may be ripe for…

  2. Short read sequence typing (SRST: multi-locus sequence types from short reads

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Inouye Michael

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST has become the gold standard for population analyses of bacterial pathogens. This method focuses on the sequences of a small number of loci (usually seven to divide the population and is simple, robust and facilitates comparison of results between laboratories and over time. Over the last decade, researchers and population health specialists have invested substantial effort in building up public MLST databases for nearly 100 different bacterial species, and these databases contain a wealth of important information linked to MLST sequence types such as time and place of isolation, host or niche, serotype and even clinical or drug resistance profiles. Recent advances in sequencing technology mean it is increasingly feasible to perform bacterial population analysis at the whole genome level. This offers massive gains in resolving power and genetic profiling compared to MLST, and will eventually replace MLST for bacterial typing and population analysis. However given the wealth of data currently available in MLST databases, it is crucial to maintain backwards compatibility with MLST schemes so that new genome analyses can be understood in their proper historical context. Results We present a software tool, SRST, for quick and accurate retrieval of sequence types from short read sets, using inputs easily downloaded from public databases. SRST uses read mapping and an allele assignment score incorporating sequence coverage and variability, to determine the most likely allele at each MLST locus. Analysis of over 3,500 loci in more than 500 publicly accessible Illumina read sets showed SRST to be highly accurate at allele assignment. SRST output is compatible with common analysis tools such as eBURST, Clonal Frame or PhyloViz, allowing easy comparison between novel genome data and MLST data. Alignment, fastq and pileup files can also be generated for novel alleles. Conclusions SRST is a novel

  3. Slicing and Dicing the ELA Common Core Standards

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goatley, Virginia

    2012-01-01

    The English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (ELA CCSS) come at a time when many reading teachers, literacy coaches, and classroom teachers seek more extensive literacy practices than the policy mandates of No Child Left Behind and Reading First. These initiatives placed requirements for instruction in core aspects of reading at the…

  4. Reading: Great Expectations. Proceedings of the Annual Reading Conference (11th, Terre Haute, Indiana, June 11-12, 1981).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibbs, Vanita M., Comp.; Pabst, Robert L., Comp.

    One of a series of publications on selected aspects of reading curriculum development, this monograph contains eight papers that deal with expectations in the teaching of reading. Topics covered include (1) the relationship between reading and writing, (2) changing expectations in education, (3) skills programs for remedial readers, (4) ways to…

  5. Lectura y Vida. Revista Latinoamericana de Lectura (Reading and Life. Latinamerican Reading Magazine). 1990-1995.

    Science.gov (United States)

    International Reading Association, Newark, DE.

    This series of 24 magazines offers readings in Spanish on literacy, education problems, psycholinguistics, expository writing, and reading behavior. The magazine's editorial committee includes representatives from Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, the United States, Uruguay, Mexico, Venezuela, and Spain. Articles concern literacy issues of both…

  6. Painless reading comprehension

    CERN Document Server

    Jones, EdD, Darolyn "Lyn"

    2016-01-01

    Reading comprehension gets easier as students learn what kind of reader they are, discover how to keep facts in their head, and much more. Bonus Online Component: includes additional games, including Beat the Clock, a line match game, and a word scramble.

  7. Text-fading based training leads to transfer effects on children’s sentence reading fluency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Telse eNagler

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Previous studies used a text-fading procedure as a training tool with the goal to increase silent reading fluency (i.e., proficient reading rate and comprehension. In recently published studies, this procedure resulted in lasting reading enhancements for adult and adolescent research samples. However, studies working with children reported mixed results. While reading rate improvements were observable for Dutch reading children in a text-fading training study, reading fluency improvements in standardized reading tests post-training attributable to the fading manipulation were not detectable. These results raise the question of whether text-fading training is not effective for children or whether research design issues have concealed possible transfer effects. Hence, the present study sought to investigate possible transfer effects resulting from a text-fading based reading training program, using a modified research design. Over a period of three weeks, two groups of German third-graders read sentences either with an adaptive text-fading procedure or at their self-paced reading rate. A standardized test measuring reading fluency at the word, sentence, and text level was conducted pre- and post-training. Text level reading fluency improved for both groups equally. Post-training gains at the word level were found for the text-fading group, however, no significant interaction between groups was revealed for word reading fluency. Sentence level reading fluency gains were found for the text-fading group, which significantly differed from the group of children reading at their self-paced reading routine. These findings provide evidence for the efficacy of text-fading as a training method for sentence reading fluency improvement also for children.

  8. Reading aids for adults with low vision

    Science.gov (United States)

    Virgili, Gianni; Acosta, Ruthy; Grover, Lori L; Bentley, Sharon A; Giacomelli, Giovanni

    2014-01-01

    assessed trial quality and extracted data. Main results We included nine small studies with a cross-over-like design (181 people overall) and one study with three parallel arms (243 participants) in the review. All studies reported the primary outcome, results for reading speed. Two studies including 92 participants found moderate- or low-quality evidence suggesting that reading speed is higher with stand-mounted electronic devices or electronic devices with the camera mounted in a ‘mouse’ than with optical magnifiers, which in these trials were generally stand-mounted or, less frequently, hand-held magnifiers or microscopic lenses. In another study of 20 participants there was moderate-quality evidence that optical devices are better than head-mounted electronic devices (four types). There was low-quality evidence from three studies (93 participants) that reading using head-mounted electronic devices is slower than with stand-based electronic devices. The technology of electronic devices may have changed and improved since these studies were conducted. One study suggested no difference between a diffractive spectacle-mounted magnifier and either refractive (15 participants) or aplanatic (15 participants) magnifiers. One study of 10 people suggested that several overlay coloured filters were no better and possibly worse than a clear filter. A parallel-arm study including 243 participants with age-related macular degeneration found that custom or standard prism spectacles were no different from conventional reading spectacles, although the data did not allow precise estimates of performance to be made. Authors' conclusions There is insufficient evidence on the effect of different types of low-vision aids on reading performance. It would be necessary to investigate which patient characteristics predict performance with different devices, including costly electronic devices. Better-quality research should also focus on assessing sustained long-term use of each device

  9. Improving South African third graders’ reading skills: Lessons learnt from the use of Guided Reading approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohlanhledi P. Makumbila

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This professional development project, known as Literacy Leadership Project, enabled four Foundation Phase teachers in South Africa to implement the Guided Reading approach. Developed by American researchers Fountas and Pinnell (1996, Guided Reading helps elementary students strengthen their phonemic awareness, vocabulary, reading comprehension and fluency in small group activities. Over an 8-month period, lessons learnt came from data collected from this professional development included workshop activities, classroom observations, teachers’ group discussions and students’ artefacts. Results indicated improvement in students’ literacy engagement and motivation because of the use of levelled books, oral reading and group activities Keywords:  Guided Reading programme; foundation phase; childhood literacy; teacher professional development; literacy leadership; South Africa

  10. Reading Multimodally: What is Afforded?

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Brien, David; Voss, Scott

    2011-01-01

    Technological changes and the proliferation of digital devices have created new reading experiences for students. The rapid transition from print to digital texts is evident in the movement toward the adoption of an e-book standard, increasing sales of e-book readers and tablet devices, and projections that universities and public schools may use…

  11. Grade 12 Diploma Examination, English 30. Part B: Reading (Multiple Choice). Readings Booklet. 1986 Edition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alberta Dept. of Education, Edmonton.

    Intended for students taking the Grade 12 Examination in English 30 in Alberta, Canada, this reading test (to be administered along with the questions booklet) contains 10 short reading selections taken from fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, including the following: "My Magical Metronome" (Lewis Thomas); "Queen Street…

  12. A standard computerised version of the reading span test in different languages

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Noort, M.W.M.L. van den; Bosch, M.P.C.; Hugdahl, K.

    2008-01-01

    The Reading Span Test (RST) is a verbal working-memory test. The original RST (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980), and derivatives of it, are being used increasingly as assessments of central executive functioning and for research on aging-associated cognitive decline (Whitney, Arnett, Driver, & Budd,

  13. Classroom Talk for Rigorous Reading Comprehension Instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolf, Mikyung Kim; Crosson, Amy C.; Resnick, Lauren B.

    2004-01-01

    This study examined the quality of classroom talk and its relation to academic rigor in reading-comprehension lessons. Additionally, the study aimed to characterize effective questions to support rigorous reading comprehension lessons. The data for this study included 21 reading-comprehension lessons in several elementary and middle schools from…

  14. Finding-specific display presets for computed radiography soft-copy reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andriole, K P; Gould, R G; Webb, W R

    1999-05-01

    Much work has been done to optimize the display of cross-sectional modality imaging examinations for soft-copy reading (i.e., window/level tissue presets, and format presentations such as tile and stack modes, four-on-one, nine-on-one, etc). Less attention has been paid to the display of digital forms of the conventional projection x-ray. The purpose of this study is to assess the utility of providing presets for computed radiography (CR) soft-copy display, based not on the window/level settings, but on processing applied to the image optimized for visualization of specific findings, pathologies, etc (i.e., pneumothorax, tumor, tube location). It is felt that digital display of CR images based on finding-specific processing presets has the potential to: speed reading of digital projection x-ray examinations on soft copy; improve diagnostic efficacy; standardize display across examination type, clinical scenario, important key findings, and significant negatives; facilitate image comparison; and improve confidence in and acceptance of soft-copy reading. Clinical chest images are acquired using an Agfa-Gevaert (Mortsel, Belgium) ADC 70 CR scanner and Fuji (Stamford, CT) 9000 and AC2 CR scanners. Those demonstrating pertinent findings are transferred over the clinical picture archiving and communications system (PACS) network to a research image processing station (Agfa PS5000), where the optimal image-processing settings per finding, pathologic category, etc, are developed in conjunction with a thoracic radiologist, by manipulating the multiscale image contrast amplification (Agfa MUSICA) algorithm parameters. Soft-copy display of images processed with finding-specific settings are compared with the standard default image presentation for 50 cases of each category. Comparison is scored using a 5-point scale with the positive scale denoting the standard presentation is preferred over the finding-specific processing, the negative scale denoting the finding

  15. Reading skills in children and adults with albinism: the role of visual impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacDonald, John T; Kutzbach, Beth R; Holleschau, Ann M; Wyckoff, Suzanne; Summers, C Gail

    2012-01-01

    To evaluate whether visual impairment in albinism contributes significantly to the acquisition of normal reading skills. The authors administered standardized reading tests to 41 children and 18 adults with albinism. The Young Children's Achievement Test was used for children between 4 and 6 years old and the Woodcock-Johnson III was used for children 7 years and older and adults. Parents of children and adult subjects also completed a questionnaire to document developmental, academic, and/or work experiences. The Spearman test was used to evaluate the relationship between binocular best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and reading test results. Standardized reading tests in both children and adults with albinism showed a normal distribution of scores. BCVA did not appear to play a significant role in the development of normal reading ability in these individuals who were visually impaired except for a mild correlation of decreased reading fluency on the Woodcock-Johnson III with decreased BCVA (r = 0.287, P = .046). Many young children with albinism had superior reading skills despite having a BCVA of 20/200 or worse (legal blindness). This study of cognitively normal children and adults with albinism demonstrates that impaired vision during childhood does not by itself significantly impede a child's ability to acquire normal reading skills. However, the lower reading fluency that occurs in the more visually impaired individuals suggests they would benefit, both in the school system and workplace, with an accommodation involving more time to complete reading tasks. Copyright 2012, SLACK Incorporated.

  16. Including Alternative Resources in State Renewable Portfolio Standards: Current Design and Implementation Experience

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Heeter, J.; Bird, L.

    2012-11-01

    Currently, 29 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have instituted a renewable portfolio standard (RPS). An RPS sets a minimum threshold for how much renewable energy must be generated in a given year. Each state policy is unique, varying in percentage targets, timetables, and eligible resources. This paper examines state experience with implementing renewable portfolio standards that include energy efficiency, thermal resources, and non-renewable energy and explores compliance experience, costs, and how states evaluate, measure, and verify energy efficiency and convert thermal energy. It aims to gain insights from the experience of states for possible federal clean energy policy as well as to share experience and lessons for state RPS implementation.

  17. Reading comprehension and reading related abilities in adolescents with reading disabilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghelani, Karen; Sidhu, Robindra; Jain, Umesh; Tannock, Rosemary

    2004-11-01

    Reading comprehension is a very complex task that requires different cognitive processes and reading abilities over the life span. There are fewer studies of reading comprehension relative to investigations of word reading abilities. Reading comprehension difficulties, however, have been identified in two common and frequently overlapping childhood disorders: reading disability (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The nature of reading comprehension difficulties in these groups remains unclear. The performance of four groups of adolescents (RD, ADHD, comorbid ADHD and RD, and normal controls) was compared on reading comprehension tasks as well as on reading rate and accuracy tasks. Adolescents with RD showed difficulties across most reading tasks, although their comprehension scores were average. Adolescents with ADHD exhibited adequate single word reading abilities. Subtle difficulties were observed, however, on measures of text reading rate and accuracy as well as on silent reading comprehension, but scores remained in the average range. The comorbid group demonstrated similar difficulties to the RD group on word reading accuracy and on reading rate but experienced problems on only silent reading comprehension. Implications for reading interventions are outlined, as well as the clinical relevance for diagnosis.

  18. The Explicit Instruction of Reading Strategies: Directed Reading Thinking Activity vs. Guided Reading Strategies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Mehdi Yazdani

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Investigating the efficiencies and deficiencies of reading strategies is one of the noticeable issues in the related theory and research in reading comprehension instruction. This study was to examine the impact of Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA and Guided Reading (GR on reading comprehension. Sixty three Iranian students of grade one in Shahed high school in the city of Bojnourd took part in the study. They were assigned in three groups, one control and two experimental groups. The instruction lasted for ten weeks. This study utilized a pretest posttest control group in quantitative quasi- experimental design. The same reading comprehension test was administered as pre-test and post-test. The results were twofold: First, the instruction of learning strategies could foster reading comprehension skill. Second, while the explicit instruction of both strategies could improve the students' reading comprehension skill, Directed Reading Thinking Activity had a more significant positive effect than Guided Reading.

  19. Do eye movements reveal differences between monolingual and bilingual children's first-language and second-language reading? A focus on word frequency effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitford, Veronica; Joanisse, Marc F

    2018-09-01

    An extensive body of research has examined reading acquisition and performance in monolingual children. Surprisingly, however, much less is known about reading in bilingual children, who outnumber monolingual children globally. Here, we address this important imbalance in the literature by employing eye movement recordings to examine both global (i.e., text-level) and local (i.e., word-level) aspects of monolingual and bilingual children's reading performance across their first-language (L1) and second-language (L2). We also had a specific focus on lexical accessibility, indexed by word frequency effects. We had three main findings. First, bilingual children displayed reduced global and local L1 reading performance relative to monolingual children, including larger L1 word frequency effects. Second, bilingual children displayed reduced global and local L2 versus L1 reading performance, including larger L2 word frequency effects. Third, both groups of children displayed reduced global and local reading performance relative to adult comparison groups (across their known languages), including larger word frequency effects. Notably, our first finding was not captured by traditional offline measures of reading, such as standardized tests, suggesting that these measures may lack the sensitivity to detect such nuanced between-group differences in reading performance. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that bilingual children's simultaneous exposure to two reading systems leads to eye movement reading behavior that differs from that of monolingual children and has important consequences for how lexical information is accessed and integrated in both languages. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Developmental Relations Between Reading Comprehension and Reading Strategies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Muijselaar, M.; Swart, N.M.; Steenbeek-Planting, E.G,.; Droop, M.; Verhoeven, L.; de Jong, P.F.

    2017-01-01

    We examined the developmental relations between knowledge of reading strategies and reading comprehension in a longitudinal study of 312 Dutch children from the beginning of fourth grade to the end of fifth grade. Measures for reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading fluency, vocabulary,

  1. Various Models for Reading Comprehension Process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Parastoo Babashamsi

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available In recent years reading can be viewed as a process, as a form of thinking, as a true experience, and as a tool subject. As a process, reading includes visual discrimination, independent recognition of word, rhythmic progression along a line of print, precision in the return sweep of the eyes, and adjustment of rate. In the same line, the present paper aims at considering the various models of reading process. Moreover, the paper will take a look at various factors such as schema and vocabulary knowledge which affect reading comprehension process.

  2. Student Reading Practices in Print and Electronic Media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foasberg, Nancy M.

    2014-01-01

    This paper reports a diary-based qualitative study on college students' reading habits with regard to print and electronic media. Students used a form to record information about their reading practices for twelve days, including length of reading event, location, format used, and the purpose of reading. Students tended to use print for academic…

  3. Forecasting Reading Anxiety for Promoting English-Language Reading Performance Based on Reading Annotation Behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Chih-Ming; Wang, Jung-Ying; Chen, Yong-Ting; Wu, Jhih-Hao

    2016-01-01

    To reduce effectively the reading anxiety of learners while reading English articles, a C4.5 decision tree, a widely used data mining technique, was used to develop a personalized reading anxiety prediction model (PRAPM) based on individual learners' reading annotation behavior in a collaborative digital reading annotation system (CDRAS). In…

  4. Lectura y Vida: Revista Latinoamericana de Lectura (Reading and Life: Latin American Reading Magazine). 1996.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lectura y Vida: Revista Latinoamericana de Lectura, 1996

    1996-01-01

    The four 1996 issues of the journal, written entirely in Spanish and intended for reading teachers, include articles on these topics: design of the school and classroom environment for reading; a university experiment in cooperative learning and learning strategies; use of portfolios for evaluation of student work; evaluation of reading…

  5. The Development of the easyCBM CCSS Reading Assessments: Grade 3. Technical Report #1221

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alonzo, Julie; Park, Bitnara Jasmine; Tindal, Gerald

    2012-01-01

    In this technical report, we document the development and piloting of easyCBM reading measures aligned to the Common Core State Standards, designed for use in screening students at risk for reading difficulty and monitoring their progress as they develop reading skills. The measures, which assess students' ability to respond to…

  6. The Association of ADHD Symptoms and Reading Acquisition during Elementary School Years

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ehm, Jan-Henning; Kerner auch Koerner, Julia; Gawrilow, Caterina; Hasselhorn, Marcus; Schmiedek, Florian

    2016-01-01

    The present longitudinal study aimed to investigate the influence of ADHD symptoms on reading development in elementary schoolchildren. To this end, repeated assessments of ADHD symptoms (teacher ratings of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity) and reading achievement (standardized tests of decoding speed and text comprehension) were…

  7. Effects of working memory and reading acceleration training on improving working memory abilities and reading skills among third graders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nevo, Einat; Breznitz, Zvia

    2014-01-01

    Working memory (WM) plays a crucial role in supporting learning, including reading. This study investigated the influence of reading acceleration and WM training programs on improving reading skills and WM abilities. Ninety-seven children in third grade were divided into three study groups and one control group. The three study groups each received a different combination of two training programs: only reading acceleration, WM followed by reading acceleration, and reading acceleration followed by WM. All training programs significantly improved reading skills and WM abilities. Compared with the control group, the group trained with only the reading acceleration program improved word accuracy, whereas the groups trained with a combination of reading and WM programs improved word and pseudo-word fluency. The reading-acceleration-alone group and the WM-program-followed-by-reading-acceleration group improved phonological complex memory. We conclude that a training program that combines a long reading acceleration program and a short WM program is the most effective for improving the abilities most related to scholastic achievement.

  8. The Standard Model course

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva HR-RFA

    2006-01-01

    Suggested Readings: Aspects of Quantum Chromodynamics/A Pich, arXiv:hep-ph/0001118. - The Standard Model of Electroweak Interactions/A Pich, arXiv:hep-ph/0502010. - The Standard Model of Particle Physics/A Pich The Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics will be described. A detailed discussion of the particle content, structure and symmetries of the theory will be given, together with an overview of the most important experimental facts which have established this theoretical framework as the Standard Theory of particle interactions.

  9. MODELLING OF THE PROCESS OF TEACHING READING ENGLISH LANGUAGE PERIODICALS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Тетяна Глушко

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available The article reveals a scientifically substantiated process of teaching reading English language periodicals in all its components, which are consistently developed, and form of interconnection of the structural elements in the process of teaching reading. This process is presented as a few interconnected and interdetermined models: 1 the models of the process of acquiring standard and expressive lexical knowledge; 2 the models of the process of formation of skills to use such vocabulary; 3 the models of the development of skills to read texts of the different linguistic levels.

  10. Print and Digital Texts: Evaluating the Differences in Reading Comprehension Strategies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maynard, Stephanie Elizabeth

    2016-01-01

    Concerns about the reading comprehension skills of students in the United States have been raised partly because of the introduction of digital products into their lives and the classroom setting. The Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards results from 2013 that were provided by the Arizona Department of Education indicated that reading scores…

  11. A Test of the Relationship between Reading Ability & Standardized Biology Assessment Scores

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allen, Denise A.

    2014-01-01

    Little empirical evidence suggested that independent reading abilities of students enrolled in biology predicted their performance on the Biology I Graduation End-of-Course Assessment (ECA). An archival study was conducted at one Indiana urban public high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, by examining existing educational assessment data to test…

  12. Reading the small print - labelling recommendations for orthopaedic implants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haene, Roger A; Sandhu, Ranbir S; Baxandall, Richard

    2009-11-01

    There exist, currently, no clear guidelines regarding standards for surgical implant labelling. Dimensions of the laminar flow canopies in orthopaedic use fixes the distance at which implant labels can be read. Mistakes when reading the label on an implant box can pose health risks for patients, and financial consequences for medical institutions. Using scientifically validated tools such as the Snellen Chart Formula, a theoretical minimum standard for text on implant labels was reached. This theoretical standard was then tested under real operating conditions. After discovering a minimum practical standard for implant labels, the authors then audited current labels in use on a wide range of orthopaedic implant packages. Furthermore, other non-text-related labelling problems were also noted. There is a definite minimum standard which should be observed when implant labels are manufactured. Implants in current use bear labels on the packaging that are of an insufficient standard to ensure patient safety in theatre. The authors have established text parameters that will increase the legibility of implant labels. In the interests of improving risk management in theatre, therefore, the authors propose a standard for orthopaedic implant labelling, and believe this will provide a useful foundation for further discussion between the orthopaedic community and implant manufacturers.

  13. Reading Letters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Beier, Sofie

    2012-01-01

    In our everyday life we constantly encounter a diversity of reading matters, including display types on traffic signage, printed text in novels, newspaper headlines, or our own writing on a computer screen. All these conditions place different demands on the typefaces applied. The book discusses...

  14. Evaluation of the iPad as a low vision aid for improving reading ability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haji, Shamim A; Sambhav, Kumar; Grover, Sandeep; Chalam, Kakarla V

    2015-01-01

    To evaluate the effect of the iPad as a low vision aid in improving the reading ability of low vision patients (LVPs). In this study, 228 consecutive patients that came for their routine eye care examination at the University of Florida, Jacksonville eye clinic, were enrolled. Patients met inclusion criteria if they had best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 20/100 or worse in the best corrected eye and were willing to participate in the study. The patient's reading ability was assessed both with the patient's own spectacles and an iPad. Patients were encouraged to enlarge the reading material as well as change the contrast until they could read comfortably. The number of patients able to read the text comfortably was recorded. Out of the total 228 participants who qualified, 103 (45%) were male and 125 (55%) were female. Only 22% could read standard newsprint-sized text (N8) without the help of an iPad. With the help of an iPad, 94% participants with impaired vision were able to read standard newsprint-sized text (N8) or smaller text (PiPad, a new portable electronic media device, can be adapted by LVPs to improve their reading ability.

  15. Standardized Competencies for Parenteral Nutrition Order Review and Parenteral Nutrition Preparation, Including Compounding: The ASPEN Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boullata, Joseph I; Holcombe, Beverly; Sacks, Gordon; Gervasio, Jane; Adams, Stephen C; Christensen, Michael; Durfee, Sharon; Ayers, Phil; Marshall, Neil; Guenter, Peggi

    2016-08-01

    Parenteral nutrition (PN) is a high-alert medication with a complex drug use process. Key steps in the process include the review of each PN prescription followed by the preparation of the formulation. The preparation step includes compounding the PN or activating a standardized commercially available PN product. The verification and review, as well as preparation of this complex therapy, require competency that may be determined by using a standardized process for pharmacists and for pharmacy technicians involved with PN. An American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) standardized model for PN order review and PN preparation competencies is proposed based on a competency framework, the ASPEN-published interdisciplinary core competencies, safe practice recommendations, and clinical guidelines, and is intended for institutions and agencies to use with their staff. © 2016 American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.

  16. Predicting the reading skill of Japanese children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ogino, Tatsuya; Hanafusa, Kaoru; Morooka, Teruko; Takeuchi, Akihito; Oka, Makio; Ohtsuka, Yoko

    2017-02-01

    To clarify cognitive processes underlining the development of reading in children speaking Japanese as their first language, we examined relationships between performances of cognitive tasks in the preschool period and later reading abilities. Ninety-one normally developing preschoolers (41 girls and 50 boys; 5years 4months to 6years 4months, mean 5years 10months) participated as subjects. We conducted seven cognitive tasks including phonological awareness tasks, naming tasks, and working memory tasks in the preschool period. In terms of reading tasks, the hiragana naming task was administered in the preschool period; the reading times, which is a composite score of the monomoraic syllable reading task, the word and the non-word reading tasks, and the single sentence reading task, was evaluated in first and second grade; and the kanji reading task (naming task) was tested in second grade. Raven's colored progressive matrices and picture vocabulary test revised were also conducted in first grade. Correlation analyses between task scores and stepwise multiple regression analyses were implemented. Tasks tapping phonological awareness, lexical access, and verbal working memory showed significant correlations with reading tasks. In the multiple regression analyses the performances in the verbal working memory task played a key role in predicting character naming task scores (the hiragana naming task and the kanji reading task) while the digit naming task was an important predictor of reading times. Unexpectedly, the role of phonological (mora) awareness was modest among children speaking Japanese. Cognitive functions including phonological awareness, digit naming, and verbal working memory (especially the latter two) were involved in the development of reading skills of children speaking Japanese. Copyright © 2016 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH IINTERACTIVE READ-ALOUD TECHNIQUE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edi Santoso

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: The present study, entitled Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension through Interactive Read-Aloud, attempts to unlock problems found in teaching and reading comprehension through interactive read-aloud in a Senior High School of Sport (SMAN Olah Raga Lampung, in Metro. The findings revealed that students’ reading comprehension improved through interactive read-aloud. The improvement can be seen from the increase of test results, meaning construction, and motivation. The process of reading activities showed that the teacher’s gesture and body language, 20 questions, explain and guess activities were proven to help the students construct meaning from the given texts. In addition, interactive read-aloud is effective to boost students’ motivation to comprehend the texts.   Key words: Reading comprehension, interactive read-aloud.

  18. Investigation on the Relationship between Information Communication Technology and Reading Literacy for Northeast Asian Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lai Yi-Horng

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of internet communication technologies (ICT usage and reading literacy of Northeast Asian Students in PISA 2009. ICT was crucial for all governments in the world towards promoting equity. ICT had been considered a low cost opportunity towards equalizing educational systems. A multilevel modelling (MLM was applied to identify at which school-level the largest variations in the three indicators exist in this study. With MLM, it could be examine simultaneously the effects of different hierarchical school-level variables; to take account of possible correlations of students’ reading literacy in this study within higher levels (Urbanization, Total number of students Computers for education which may otherwise lead to incorrect standard errors and inefficient estimates; to treat higher levels as related; and to examine inter-area variations at each level. The empirical results include the different between group components was significant. Self-confidence in ICT high level tasks was positive with students’ reading literacy, and self-confidence in ICT high level tasks was negative with students’ reading literacy. The urbanization of schools’ area and total number of students of schools were positive with students’ reading literacy. The urbanization of schools’ area was negative with the relationship of ICT for school related tasks and students’ reading literacy. Total number of students was negative with the relationship of ICT for school related tasks and students’ reading literacy, and ICT availability in school and students’ reading literacy.

  19. Reading faster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul Nation

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available This article describes the visual nature of the reading process as it relates to reading speed. It points out that there is a physical limit on normal reading speed and beyond this limit the reading process will be different from normal reading where almost every word is attended to. The article describes a range of activities for developing reading fluency, and suggests how the development of fluency can become part of a reading programme.

  20. Reading for Pleasure and Creativity among College Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, Kathryn E.; Kneipp, Lee B.

    2009-01-01

    This study explored the relationship between reading for pleasure and creativity. University students (N = 225) completed measures of reading for pleasure and creativity (SCAB). The results indicated that reading for pleasure was significantly, positively correlated to creativity. Implications for the classroom are explored, including possible…

  1. How To Tutor Students with Reading Comprehension Problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Richard; Hasbrouck, Jan E.; Denton, Carolyn

    2002-01-01

    Suggestions for tutoring students with reading comprehension problems include careful selection of books with readable text segments, use of comprehension strategies such as paraphrasing brief sections, and reading to find specific information. Several reading comprehension strategies for students are summarized. (Contains 7 references.) (DB)

  2. Reading for Understanding: How Reading Apprenticeship Improves Disciplinary Learning in Secondary and College Classrooms. Second Edition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schoenbach, Ruth; Greenleaf, Cynthia; Murphy, Lynn

    2012-01-01

    Published in partnership with WestEd, this significantly updated second edition of the bestselling book contains strategies for helping students in middle school through community college gain the reading independence to master subject area textbooks and other material. Features of this book include: (1) Based on the Reading Apprenticeship…

  3. Effect of phonological and morphological awareness on reading comprehension in Hebrew-speaking adolescents with reading disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schiff, Rachel; Schwartz-Nahshon, Sarit; Nagar, Revital

    2011-06-01

    This research explored phonological and morphological awareness among Hebrew-speaking adolescents with reading disabilities (RD) and its effect on reading comprehension beyond phonological and word-reading abilities. Participants included 39 seventh graders with RD and two matched control groups of normal readers: 40 seventh graders matched for chronological age (CA) and 38 third graders matched for reading age (RA). We assessed phonological awareness, word reading, morphological awareness, and reading comprehension. Findings indicated that the RD group performed similarly to the RA group on phonological awareness but lower on phonological decoding. On the decontextualized morphological task, RD functioned on par with RA, whereas in a contextualized task RD performed above RA but lower than CA. In reading comprehension, RD performed as well as RA. Finally, results indicated that for normal readers contextual morphological awareness uniquely contributed to reading comprehension beyond phonological and word-reading abilities, whereas no such unique contribution emerged for the RD group. The absence of an effect of morphological awareness in predicting reading comprehension was suggested to be related to a different recognition process employed by RD readers which hinder the ability of these readers to use morphosemantic structures. The lexical quality hypothesis was proposed as further support to the findings, suggesting that a low quality of lexical representation in RD students leads to ineffective reading skills and comprehension. Lexical representation is thus critical for both lexical as well as comprehension abilities.

  4. Promoting preschool reading

    OpenAIRE

    Istenič, Vesna

    2013-01-01

    The thesis titled Promoting preschool reading consists of a theoretiral and an empirical part. In the theoretical part I wrote about reading, the importance of reading, types of reading, about reading motivation, promoting reading motivation, internal and external motivation, influence of reading motivation on the child's reading activity, reading and familial literacy, the role of adults in promotion reading literacy, reading to a child and promoting reading in pre-school years, where I ...

  5. Slower saccadic reading in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jehangir, Naz; Yu, Caroline Yizhu; Song, Jeehey; Shariati, Mohammad Ali; Binder, Steven; Beyer, Jill; Santini, Veronica; Poston, Kathleen; Liao, Yaping Joyce

    2018-01-01

    Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (PD) is characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic and other neurons, leading to motor and non-motor deficits. Abnormal eye movements in PD, including fixations, saccades, and convergence, are well described. However, saccadic reading, which requires serial and alternating saccades and fixations, is not well studied, despite its obvious impact on the quality of life. In this study, we assessed saccadic reading using variations of the King-Devick (KD) test, a rapid single digit number naming test, as a way to assess the ability to make serial left-to-right ocular motor movements necessary for reading. We recruited 42 treated PD patients and 80 age-matched controls and compared their reading times with a variety of measures, including age, duration of disease, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), the National Eye Institute 25-Item Visual Functioning Questionnaire 25 (VFQ-25), and Montreal Cognitive assessment (MoCA) test. The subjects performed 4 trials of reading 120 single digit numbers aloud as fast as possible without making errors. In each trial, they read 3 pages (KD1, KD2, and KD3), and each page contained 40 numbers per page in 8 lines with 5 numbers/line. We found that PD patients read about 20% slower than controls on all tests (KD1, 2, and 3 tests) (p < 0.02), and both groups read irregularly spaced numbers slower than regularly spaced numbers. Having lines between numbers to guide reading (KD1 tests) did not impact reading time in both PD and controls, but increased visual crowding as a result of decreased spacing between numbers (KD3 tests) was associated with significantly slower reading times in both PD and control groups. Our study revealed that saccadic reading is slower in PD, but controls and PD patients are both impacted by visuospatial planning challenges posed by increased visual crowding and irregularity of number spacing. Reading time did not correlate with UPDRS or MoCA scores in PD patients but

  6. Home Environmental and Behavioral Risk Indices for Reading Achievement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Jeanette; Ennis, Chelsea R; Hart, Sara A; Mikolajewski, Amy J; Schatschneider, Christopher

    2017-07-01

    The goal of this study was to identify home environmental and temperament/behavior variables that best predict standardized reading comprehension scores among school-aged children. Data from 269 children aged 9-16 ( M = 12.08; SD = 1.62) were used in discriminant function analyses to create the Home and Behavior indices. Family income was controlled in each index. The final Home and Behavior models each classified around 75% of cases correctly (reading comprehension at grade level vs. not). Each index was then used to predict other outcomes related to reading. Results showed that Home and/or Behavior accounted for 4-7% of the variance in reading fluency and spelling and 20-35% of the variance in parent-rated problems in math, social anxiety, and other dimensions. These metrics show promise as environmental and temperament/behavior risk scores that could be used to predict and potentially screen for further assessment of reading related problems.

  7. Redefining Reading: Comics in the Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ford, Deborah B.

    2011-01-01

    Teachers can use comic books and graphic novels (fiction and nonfiction) to teach curriculum and standards. Publishers see the interest that students have in graphic novels. Some companies have published graphic novels of the classics. These versions make it easier for second language learners or students reading below grade level to grasp the…

  8. Development of a Smartphone-based reading system for lateral flow immunoassay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Sangdae; Kim, Giyoung; Moon, Jihea

    2014-11-01

    This study was conducted to develop and evaluate the performance of the Smartphone-based reading system for the lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA). Smartphone-based reading system consists of a Samsung Galaxy S2 Smartphone, Smartphone application, and a LFIA reader. LFIA reader is composed of the close-up lens with a focal length up to 30 mm, white LED light, lithium polymer battery, and main body. The Smartphone application for image acquisition and data analysis was developed on the Android platform. The standard curve was obtained by plotting the measured P(T)/P(c) or A(T)/A(c) ratio versus Salmonella standard concentration. The mean, standard deviation (SD), recovery, and relative standard deviation (RSD) were also calculated using additional experimental results. These data were compared with that obtained from the benchtop LFIA reader. The LOD in both systems was observed with 10(6) CFU/mL. The results show high accuracy and good reproducibility with a RSD less than 10% in the range of 10(6) to 10(9) CFU/mL. Due to the simple structure, good sensitivity, and high accuracy of the Smartphone-based reading system, this system can be substituted for the benchtop LFIA reader for point-of-care medical diagnostics.

  9. Verbal working memory and reading abilities among students with visual impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Argyropoulos, Vassilios; Masoura, Elvira; Tsiakali, Thomai K; Nikolaraizi, Magda; Lappa, Christina

    2017-05-01

    This study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM) and reading abilities among students with visual impairment (VI). Seventy-five students with VI (visually impairment and blindness), aged 10-15 years old participated in the study, of whom 44 were visually impaired and 31 were blind. The participants' reading ability was assessed with the standardized reading ability battery Test-A (Padeliadu & Antoniou, 2008) and their verbal working memory ability was assessed with the listening recall task from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (Pickering et al., 2001). Data analysis indicated a strong correlation between verbal WM and decoding, reading comprehension and overall reading ability among the participants with VI, while no correlation was found between reading fluency and verbal WM. The present study points out the important role of verbal WM in reading among students who are VI and carries implications for the education of those individuals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Parents' reading-related knowledge and children's reading acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ladd, Megan; Martin-Chang, Sandra; Levesque, Kyle

    2011-12-01

    Teacher reading-related knowledge (phonological awareness and phonics knowledge) predicts student reading, however little is known about the reading-related knowledge of parents. Participants comprised 70 dyads (children from kindergarten and grade 1 and their parents). Parents were administered a questionnaire tapping into reading-related knowledge, print exposure, storybook reading, and general cultural knowledge. Children were tested on measures of letter-word knowledge, sound awareness, receptive vocabulary, oral expression, and mathematical skill. Parent reading-related knowledge showed significant positive links with child letter-word knowledge and sound awareness, but showed no correlations with child measures of mathematical skill or vocabulary. Furthermore, parent reading-related knowledge was not associated with parents' own print exposure or cultural knowledge, indicating that knowledge about English word structure may be separate from other cognitive skills. Implications are discussed in terms of improving parent reading-related knowledge to promote child literacy.

  11. How Logical Reasoning Mediates the Relation between Lexical Quality and Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

    2016-01-01

    The present study aimed to examine the role of logical reasoning in the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension in 146 fourth grade Dutch children. We assessed their standardized reading comprehension measure, along with their decoding efficiency and vocabulary as measures of lexical quality, syllogistic reasoning as measure of…

  12. The Effect of Cooperative Teaching on the Development of Reading Skills among Students with Reading Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghanaat Pisheh, Etrat Alzahra; Sadeghpour, Narges; Nejatyjahromy, Yaser; Mir Nasab, Mir Mahmoud

    2017-01-01

    Cooperative teaching is the result of efforts made by two educators for teaching a heterogeneous group of students, especially one including those with specific needs, due to reading disorders for instance. The present study serves as an experimental investigation focusing on the effect of cooperative teaching on the development of reading skills…

  13. MDMA enhances "mind reading" of positive emotions and impairs "mind reading" of negative emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hysek, Cédric M; Domes, Gregor; Liechti, Matthias E

    2012-07-01

    3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) increases sociability. The prosocial effects of MDMA may result from the release of the "social hormone" oxytocin and associated alterations in the processing of socioemotional stimuli. We investigated the effects of MDMA (125 mg) on the ability to infer the mental states of others from social cues of the eye region in the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. The study included 48 healthy volunteers (24 men, 24 women) and used a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects design. A choice reaction time test was used to exclude impairments in psychomotor function. We also measured circulating oxytocin and cortisol levels and subjective drug effects. MDMA differentially affected mind reading depending on the emotional valence of the stimuli. MDMA enhanced the accuracy of mental state decoding for positive stimuli (e.g., friendly), impaired mind reading for negative stimuli (e.g., hostile), and had no effect on mind reading for neutral stimuli (e.g., reflective). MDMA did not affect psychomotor performance, increased circulating oxytocin and cortisol levels, and produced subjective prosocial effects, including feelings of being more open, talkative, and closer to others. The shift in the ability to correctly read socioemotional information toward stimuli associated with positive emotional valence, together with the prosocial feelings elicited by MDMA, may enhance social approach behavior and sociability when MDMA is used recreationally and facilitate therapeutic relationships in MDMA-assisted psychotherapeutic settings.

  14. Effect of geotropism on instrument readings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rolph, James T.

    2006-01-01

    A review of gravity's effect on instrument readings, also referred to as geotropism. In this essay a review of meter movement construction and the effect are reviewed as it applies to portable radiation instruments. Reference to the three ANSI standards and their requirements are reviewed. An alternate approach to test for the effects is offered

  15. The Impact of Electronic Reading Devices on Reading Speed and Comfort in Patients with Decreased Vision

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henry L. Feng

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background/Aims. To evaluate the impact of back-illuminated and nonilluminated electronic reading devices on reading speed and comfort in patients with decreased vision. Methods. A prospective study involving a convenience sample of 167 patients at a single retina practice from January 2011 to December 2012. Participants were asked to read five different excerpts on five different media in a randomly assigned order. Media included a printed book at 12-point font (12PF, iPad2 at 12PF, iPad2 at 18-point font (18PF, Kindle2 at 12PF, and Kindle2 at 18PF. Reading speed in words per minute (WPM and medium preference were recorded and stratified by visual acuity (VA. Results. Mean reading speeds in WPM: iPad2 at 18PF (217.0, iPad2 at 12PF (209.1, Kindle2 at 18PF (183.3, Kindle2 at 12PF (177.7, and printed book at 12PF (176.8. Reading speed was faster on back-illuminated media compared to nonilluminated media. Text magnification minimized losses in reading performance with worsening patient VA. The majority of participants preferred reading on the iPad2 at 18PF. Conclusions. Back-illuminated devices may increase reading speed and comfort relative to nonilluminated devices and printed text, particularly in patients with decreased VA.

  16. Prick test: evolution towards automated reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Justo, X; Díaz, I; Gil, J J; Gastaminza, G

    2016-08-01

    The prick test is one of the most common medical methods for diagnosing allergies, and it has been carried out in a similar and laborious manner over many decades. In an attempt to standardize the reading of the test, many researchers have tried to automate the process of measuring the allergic reactions found by developing systems and algorithms based on multiple technologies. This work reviews the techniques for automatic wheal measurement with the aim of pointing out their advantages and disadvantages and the progress in the field. Furthermore, it provides a classification scheme for the different technologies applied. The works discussed herein provide evidence that significant challenges still exist for the development of an automatic wheal measurement system that not only helps allergists in their medical practice but also allows for the standardization of the reading and data exchange. As such, the aim of the work was to serve as guideline for the development of a proper and feasible system. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  17. The Effects of Specific Reading Interventions on Elementary Students' Test Scores

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffin, Jacqueline Laverne Meeks

    2016-01-01

    Many students in third, fourth and fifth grades struggle at the lowest levels of reading proficiency. In fact, fewer than 40% of fourth graders in the United States read at or above the "proficient" level on state standardized tests in 2009 (D'Ardenne, Barnes, Hightower, Lamason, Mason, Patterson, Stephens, Wilson, Smith & Erickson,…

  18. FREIGHT CONTAINER LIFTING STANDARD

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    POWERS DJ; SCOTT MA; MACKEY TC

    2010-01-13

    This standard details the correct methods of lifting and handling Series 1 freight containers following ISO-3874 and ISO-1496. The changes within RPP-40736 will allow better reading comprehension, as well as correcting editorial errors.

  19. How Dentists Read a Technique Article: A Grounded Theory Investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chambers, David W; Lyon, Lucinda J

    2017-12-01

    To conduct an empirical investigation using qualitative techniques of the way dentists engage in the process of reading a technique-oriented journal article and what they pay attention to in the process. Grounded theory was used to identify how dentists read an article describing the fabrication of an interim prosthesis in the esthetic zone. Twenty-one experienced practitioners were videotaped, and their verbatim reflections were coded. The sequence of attending to various features of the paper was noted. Ninety-five percent of readers voiced specific, multiple attempts to identify or refine the main purpose of the article as they processed the material. All readers engaged in various activities to navigate through the article, including skipping and backtracking, and none "read" the article straight through. All readers also made repeated observations about the relevance of the technique to their personal practice situation. Eighty percent used some form of "distancing," whereby the content and value of the article were accepted, but the reader reserved the privilege of not being bound by the results because of technical, sponsorship, or methodological issues that "might be present." The quality of photographs was accepted as a proxy for the quality of technical work performed. Dentists actively customized the reading of a journal article that described a technical procedure. They imposed a non-linear structure for absorbing information and a standard of personal relevance, and, while accepting the results, created reasons for not necessarily having to accept them as applicable. The approach clinicians use in reading a procedural article may be different from the structure writers use in preparing a paper. © 2016 by the American College of Prosthodontists.

  20. Identifying high-functioning dyslexics: is self-report of early reading problems enough?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deacon, S Hélène; Cook, Kathryn; Parrila, Rauno

    2012-07-01

    We used a questionnaire to identify university students with self-reported difficulties in reading acquisition during elementary school (self-report; n=31). The performance of the self-report group on standardized measures of word and non-word reading and fluency, passage comprehension and reading rate, and phonological awareness was compared to that of two other groups of university students: one with a recent diagnosis (diagnosed; n=20) and one with no self-reported reading acquisition problems (comparison group; n=33). The comparison group outperformed both groups with a history of reading difficulties (self-report and diagnosed) on almost all measures. The self-report and diagnosed groups performed similarly on most tasks, with the exception of untimed reading comprehension (better performance for diagnosed) and reading rate (better performance for self-report). The two recruitment methods likely sample from the same underlying population but identify individuals with different adaptive strategies.

  1. Improving Reading Comprehension Skills through Reading Strategies Used by a Group of Foreign Language Learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nancy Gómez Torres

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available A research study included the examination and implementation of a variety of strategies in order to improve students’ reading comprehension skills in a foreign language. Reading is the process of identification, interpretation and perception of written or printed material. Comprehension is the understanding of the meaning of written material and involves the conscious strategies that lead to understanding. The reading strategies are conscious techniques or unconscious processes employed by readers in their attempt to make sense of the written text (Barnett as cited by Gascoigne, 2005. Thus, the main goal of this piece of research was to implement some reading strategies in 2 elementary courses in EFL in order to obtain better results in the middle and long term in class and on ECAES, MICHIGAN, MELICET and PET tests.

  2. Teaching Initial Reading in Navajo: Report of a Conference of Educators Held at Kayenta, January 30-31, 1970. Navajo Reading Study, Progress Report No. 6.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, Penny, Ed.

    This report includes descriptions of ongoing reading programs for Navajo students in Rough Rock, Rock Point, and Navajo Community College, presented by teacher-participants in the conference on reading held in Kayenta, Arizona, January 30-31, 1970. Also included are reports from the Navajo Reading Study staff and a discussion of the problems of…

  3. Reading and reading instruction for children from low-income and non-English-speaking households.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lesaux, Nonie K

    2012-01-01

    Although most young children seem to master reading skills in the early grades of elementary school, many struggle with texts as they move through middle school and high school. Why do children who seem to be proficient readers in third grade have trouble comprehending texts in later grades? To answer this question, Nonie Lesaux describes what is known about reading development and instruction, homing in on research conducted with children from low-income and non-English-speaking homes. Using key insights from this research base, she offers two explanations. The first is that reading is a dynamic and multifaceted process that requires continued development if students are to keep pace with the increasing demands of school texts and tasks. The second lies in the role of reading assessment and instruction in U.S. schools. Lesaux draws a distinction between the "skills-based competencies" that readers need to sound out and recognize words and the "knowledge-based competencies" that include the conceptual and vocabulary knowledge necessary to comprehend a text's meaning. Although U.S. schools have made considerable progress in teaching skills-based reading competencies that are the focus of the early grades, most have made much less progress in teaching the knowledge-based competencies students need to support reading comprehension in middle and high school. These knowledge-based competencies are key sources of lasting individual differences in reading outcomes, particularly among children growing up in low-income and non-English-speaking households. Augmenting literacy rates, Lesaux explains, will require considerable shifts in the way reading is assessed and taught in elementary and secondary schools. First, schools must conduct comprehensive reading assessments that discern learners' (potential) sources of reading difficulties--in both skills-based and knowledge-based competencies. Second, educators must implement instructional approaches that offer promise for

  4. What oral text reading fluency can reveal about reading comprehension

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Veenendaal, N.J.; Groen, M.A.; Verhoeven, L.T.W.

    2015-01-01

    Text reading fluency – the ability to read quickly, accurately and with a natural intonation – has been proposed as a predictor of reading comprehension. In the current study, we examined the role of oral text reading fluency, defined as text reading rate and text reading prosody, as a contributor

  5. Supplementary Reading Instruction in Alternative High Schools: A Statewide Survey of Educator Reported Practices and Barriers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkerson, Kimber L.; Yan, Min-Chi; Perzigian, Aaron B.; Cakiroglu, Orhan

    2016-01-01

    Recent data suggest that a majority of secondary students read below the level considered proficient on state standardized tests of reading. Alternative high schools, in particular, serve a high proportion of struggling readers. This survey study investigated reading instruction provided to struggling readers in alternative schools in one state by…

  6. The Art of Teaching Reading: A Study of Teachers' Perceptions of Their Teacher Education Reading Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lebsock, Rene Mendel

    2016-01-01

    This qualitative study examined the influence of a teacher education reading course on teachers' actual classroom reading instruction. The research included a pilot study, followed by a full study consisting of a demographic survey and four focus groups. Fifteen teachers, 9 beginning (1 to 3 years of experience), and 6 seasoned (4 to 8 years of…

  7. Textos padronizados em português (BR para medida da velocidade de leitura: comparação com quatro idiomas europeus New standardized texts in Brazilian Portuguese to assess reading speed: comparison with four European languages

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    André Messias

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Desenvolver textos para medida da velocidade de leitura comparáveis com outros quatro idiomas europeus. MÉTODOS: Dez textos com similar grau de dificuldade, número de caracteres, número de palavras e sintaxe (segundo a teoria de Gibson foram desenvolvidos por um especialista em lingüística, em português (BR, fazendo-se a tradução de textos previamente padronizados em quatro idiomas: inglês, francês, finlandês e alemão. A velocidade de leitura foi medida em 25 indivíduos saudáveis de idade entre 19 e 35 anos (mediana=24 anos com os dez textos. RESULTADOS: A velocidade de leitura nos textos em português foi em média 1100 ± 167 (desvio padrão caracteres por minuto. Pequenas diferenças foram encontradas entre as velocidades de leitura medidas com os dez textos, e essas diferenças não foram estatisticamente significantes em grupos de no mínimo seis textos. A velocidade de leitura dos voluntários da mesma faixa etária nos outros idiomas foi: alemão: 1126 ± 105; finlandês: 1263 ± 142; francês: 1214 ± 152 e inglês: 1234 ± 147. CONCLUSÃO: Os autores desenvolveram um conjunto de textos em português (BR padronizados e homogêneos para medida da velocidade de leitura, que são comparáveis com textos em outros quatro idiomas europeus. Esses textos podem ser usados para estudos multicêntricos internacionais envolvendo leitura e visão subnormal.PURPOSE: To develop standardized texts in Brazilian Portuguese to assess reading speed and compare performances among four European languages. METHODS: 10 texts were designed by a linguistic expert at the level of a sixth grade reading material (reading ages 10-12 years and were matched for length and syntactic complexity, according to the syntactic prediction locality theory of Gibson. Normally sighted native speaking volunteers aged 18-35 years read each text aloud at random. RESULTS: The reading speed was on average 1100 ± 167 (standard deviation characters per minute

  8. The Prevalence of Reading Difficulties among Children in Scholar Age

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Rosita Cecilia

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The study investigates the prevalence of reading difficulties among children in scholar age and analyses the socio-demographic characteristics of learners who presented reading difficulties in central Italy. A sample of 623 students 7-11 aged, was assessed with the Italian MT standardized tests. Information on gender, age, handedness, and other socio-demographic variables were also gathered. The study showed that 11% of learners presented poor comprehension skills. The reading speed difficulties were more common than the reading correctness problems: about 7% of children vs 1% were dyslexics due to slow reading. There were no significant differences regarding gender, age. However, dominant hand and the school location seemed to affect the speed difficulties and the comprehension problems. The analyses showed that attending a school located in a rural area was statistically associated with the reading difficulties. Left-handed children were more likely to be slow decoders and/or poor comprehenders. These findings may be used in the early diagnosis of poor readers. These difficulties often have a chronic progression with substantial psychosocial limitations and psychological stress, so children with reading difficulties should be identified as early as possible.

  9. The Effects of Extensive Reading on Reading Comprehension, Reading Rate, and Vocabulary Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suk, Namhee

    2017-01-01

    Several empirical studies and syntheses of extensive reading have concluded that extensive reading has positive impacts on language learning in second- and foreign-language settings. However, many of the studies contained methodological or curricular limitations, raising questions about the asserted positive effects of extensive reading. The…

  10. FPGA based data-flow injection module at 10 Gbit/s reading data from network exported storage and using standard protocols

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lemouzy, B; Garnier, J-C; Neufeld, N

    2011-01-01

    The goal of the LHCb readout upgrade is to accelerate the DAQ to 40 MHz. Such a DAQ system will certainly employ 10 Gigabit or similar technologies and might also need new networking protocols such as a customized, light-weight TCP or more specialized protocols. A test module is being implemented to be integrated in the existing LHCb infrastructure. It is a multiple 10-Gigabit traffic generator, driven by a Stratix IV FPGA, and flexible enough to generate LHCb's raw data packets. Traffic data are either internally generated or read from external storage via the network. We have implemented a light-weight industry standard protocol ATA over Ethernet (AoE) and we present an outlook of using a file-system on these network-exported disk-drivers.

  11. Teacher Survey of the Accessibility and Text Features of the Computerized Oral Reading Evaluation (CORE). Technical Report #1601

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kahn, Josh; Nese, Joseph T.; Alonzo, Julie

    2016-01-01

    There is strong theoretical support for oral reading fluency (ORF) as an essential building block of reading proficiency. The current and standard ORF assessment procedure requires that students read aloud a grade-level passage (˜ 250 words) in a one-to-one administration, with the number of words read correctly in 60 seconds constituting their…

  12. The Effects of Low-Vision Rehabilitation on Reading Speed and Depression in Age Related Macular Degeneration: A Meta-Analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Noura Hamade

    Full Text Available Age related macular degeneration (AMD is a progressive eye disease that, as of 2015, has affected 11 million people in the U.S. and 1.5 million in Canada causing central vision blindness. By 2050, this number is expected to double to 22 million. Eccentric vision is the target of low-vision rehabilitation aids and programs for patients with AMD, which are thought to improve functional performance by improving reading speed and depression.This study evaluates the effect of various low-vision rehabilitation strategies on reading speed and depression in patients 55 and older with AMD.Computer databases including MEDLINE (OVID, EMBASE (OVID, BIOSIS Previews (Thomson-Reuters, CINAHL (EBSCO, Health Economic Evaluations Database (HEED, ISI Web of Science (Thomson-Reuters and the Cochrane Library (Wiley were searched from the year 2000 to January 2015.Included papers were research studies with a sample size of 20 eyes or greater focused on AMD in adults aged 55 or older with low vision (20/60 or lower.Two independent reviewers screened and extracted relevant data from the included articles. Standardized mean difference (SMD was chosen as an effect size to perform meta-analysis using STATA. Fixed- and random-effect models were developed based on heterogeneity.Reading Speed and Depression Scores.A total of 9 studies (885 subjects were included. Overall, a significant improvement in reading speed was found with a SMD of 1.01 [95% CI: 0.05 to 1.97]. Low-vision rehabilitation strategies including micro-perimetric biofeedback, microscopes teaching program significantly improved reading speed. Eccentric viewing training showed the maximum improvement in reading speed. In addition, a non-significant improvement in depression scores was found with a SMD of -0.44 [95% CI: -0.96 to 0.09].A considerable amount of research is required in the area of low-vision rehabilitation strategies for patients with AMD. Based on current research, low-vision rehabilitation aids

  13. Living Language through Creative Reading; Proceedings of the Annual Reading Conference (4th, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, June 13-14, 1974).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waterman, David C., Ed.; Gibbs, Vanita M., Ed.

    These proceedings are published primarily for the purpose of helping teachers to improve their reading instruction. The contents include "Official Program"; "I Wish Children Literature" by Lee Bennett Hopkins, which discusses the importance of providing children with good reading materials; "Black English and Reading" by Ronald W. Bruton, which…

  14. Enhancing academic reading skills through extensive reading ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Abstract. The current study explores the feasibility of an extensive reading programme in the context of a low-income country (Mozambique), as well as the influence of extensive reading on academic reading. The programme took over 4 months and was conducted among 30 students majoring in Journalism at the Eduardo ...

  15. Explicit Instruction Elements in Core Reading Programs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Child, Angela R.

    2012-01-01

    Classroom teachers are provided instructional recommendations for teaching reading from their adopted core reading programs (CRPs). Explicit instruction elements or what is also called instructional moves, including direct explanation, modeling, guided practice, independent practice, discussion, feedback, and monitoring, were examined within CRP…

  16. Comparison of Reading Levels of Pharmacy Students and Reading Level of Primary Literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cathy H Ficzere

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: The project purpose was to evaluate pharmacy students’ reading levels using the Nelson-Denney Reading Test (NDRT and compare these results with the reading level of primary literature to investigate incongruities between student’s comprehension ability and the readability level of assigned reading in the curriculum. Methods: The NDRT was administered to first- through third-year student pharmacists to determine grade equivalents (GE for vocabulary and reading comprehension. Twenty articles previously identified as Patient-Oriented Evidence that Matters (POEMs were analyzed to determine the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and Gunning-Fog Score. Student demographics, information regarding language spoken, and reading habits, were also assessed. Pearson product moment correlations, t-tests, ANOVA, and descriptive statistics were used to assess relationships between demographic data and NDRT scores. Results: One hundred students participated. The mean NDRT total grade equivalent (±SD was 16.95 ± 2.1 (median = 17.3. NDRT grade equivalents were statistically different for students with different racial or ethnic backgrounds (t(98=3.74, p=0.026, English as a second language (ESL students (t(98=5.19, p=0.021, and students that read works of fiction for pleasure (t(98=4.31, p=0.002. The average Gunning-Fog Score for all primary literature articles was 11.48, with the introduction section being the most complex. The average Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was 17.04, with the results section scoring the lowest average grade level. Implications: While the overall reading grade level of our pharmacy students suggests that they are capable of comprehending reading assigned in the pharmacy curriculum, minority students and students for whom English is a second language may struggle with comprehending complex text. Conflict of Interest We declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests that the authors or members of their immediate families have

  17. Reading: Time

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Annemarie Wennekers; Frank Huysmans; Jos de Haan

    2018-01-01

    Original title: Lees:Tijd The amount of time that Dutch people spend reading has been declining steadily since the 1950s. This decline in reading time contrasts starkly with the positive personal and social benefits that can be derived from reading, according to lots of research. The Reading:

  18. The Impact of Enactive /Vicarious pre-reading Tasks on Reading Comprehension and Self-Efficacy of Iranian Pre-Intermediate EFL Learners

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    Arezoo Eshghipour

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated the effect of enactive pre-reading tasks on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension and self-efficacy. Moreover, it explored whether Iranian per-intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension and self-efficacy are influenced by vicarious pre-reading tasks. The required data was gathered through a reading comprehension passage entailing 20 comprehension questions and a 30-item self-efficacy questionnaire with 5-point Likert-scale response options. A total of 66 participants (including 34 individuals in the enactive group and 32 leaners in the vicarious one took part in this study. The Pearson formula, an independent T-Test, paired T-test, and the Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze the data. Based on the findings of the study, enactive pre-reading tasks played a key role in the Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension ability. Moreover, it was found that vicarious pre-reading tasks served an important role in the Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners’ self-efficacy.

  19. Some implications of an experimental reading comprehension task

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    Lalović Dejan

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Standardized reading comprehension tests (RCTs are indispensable instruments in language abilities assessment. Nevertheless, we do not have such an instrument in Serbian. In the present paper, we attempted to verify the basic assumptions of the RCT conception we proposed: the reading material consisting of a relatively large selection of short newspaper articles followed by a single multiplechoice question each, displayed in temporal succession, not simultaneously. We argued that RCT consisting of such item form and content, as well as the administration procedure, should be of equal or even better construct validity than well-known RTCs in foreign languages, also possessing some other practical advantages. These assumptions were implemented in a computer-ran experimental reading comprehension task (ERCT, in a student sample. ERCT psychometric properties analyses showed good discriminability and somewhat less than preferable reliability. The structure and strength of ERCT x other intelligence tests correlations suggest ERCT belonging to the core of verbal abilities tests. Different strategies subjects employed showed no impact on major performance measure  number correct answers. Our findings obtained by ERCT implementation support the RCT conception we propose. We therefore suggest possible further research towards the construction of standardized RCT in Serbian.

  20. Reading Emotions from Body Movement: A Generalized Impairment in Schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaskinn, Anja; Sundet, Kjetil; Østefjells, Tiril; Nymo, Katharina; Melle, Ingrid; Ueland, Torill

    2015-01-01

    Body language reading is a social cognitive process with importance for successful maneuvering of social situations. In this study, we investigated body language reading as assessed with human point-light displays in participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 84) compared to healthy control participants (n = 84), aiming to answer three questions: (1) whether persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia have poorer body language reading abilities than healthy persons; (2) whether some emotions are easier to read from body language than others, and if this is the same for individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals, and (3) whether there are sex differences in body language reading in participants with schizophrenia and healthy participants. A fourth research aim concerned associations of body language reading with symptoms and functioning in participants with schizophrenia. Scores on the body language reading measure was first standardized using a separate sample of healthy control participants (n = 101). Further results showed that persons with schizophrenia had impaired body language reading ability compared to healthy persons. A significant effect of emotion indicated that some emotions (happiness, neutral) were easier to recognize and this was so for both individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals. There were no sex differences for either diagnostic group. Body language reading ability was not associated with symptoms or functioning. In conclusion; schizophrenia was characterized by a global impairment in body language reading that was present for all emotions and across sex.

  1. Reading emotions from body movement: a generalized impairment in schizophrenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anja eVaskinn

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Body language reading is a social cognitive process with importance for successful maneuvering of social situations. In this study, we investigated body language reading as assessed with human point-light displays in participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 84 compared to healthy control participants (n = 84, aiming to answer three questions: 1 whether persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia have poorer body language reading abilities than healthy persons; 2 whether some emotions are easier to read from body language than others, and if this is the same for individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals, and 3 whether there are sex differences in body language reading in participants with schizophrenia and healthy participants. A fourth research aim concerned associations of body language reading with symptoms and functioning in participants with schizophrenia. Scores on the body language reading measure was first standardized using a separate sample of healthy control participants (n = 101. Further results showed that persons with schizophrenia had impaired body language reading ability compared to healthy persons. A significant effect of emotion indicated that some emotions (happiness, neutral were easier to recognize and this was so for both individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals. There were no sex differences for either diagnostic group. Body language reading ability was not associated with symptoms or functioning. In conclusion; schizophrenia was characterized by a global impairment in body language reading that was present for all emotions and across sex.

  2. Characterizing preservice Teacherʼs responses to literacy: Read alouds a way to experience the joy for reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Judith Castellanos

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available This article reports on a small-scale project which central purpose was to incorporate read-alouds in a pre-intermediate English as a foreign language class of preservice teachers during three weeks. Students responded orally and in a written way on their journals to these readings showing understanding of the texts, relating their personal experiences and / or making connections to them. The project involved students of the undergraduate program in English teaching at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá. In all, 19 students were involved in the project. Data collection sources for this project include studentsʼ journals, after the fact notes on studentsʼ oral interactions and a group interview. Among the findings observed in this inquiry project include the intertextual connections (Short, 1993 students make across the texts read in class with their personal experiences. Most studentsʼ oral responses were characterized by code-switching; in general most students code switched depending on the difficulty of the answer. Students benefited from the reading-alouds in terms of opportunities to interact among themselves, practice their oral and written skills, and enjoy the pleasures of reading, thus building ground to a positive experience that may be emulated in their future teaching exercise. Finally, I discuss some implications of read-alouds with preservice teachers and teacher education programs in Colombia.

  3. The Effectiveness of the Barton’s Intervention Program on Reading Comprehension and Reading Attitude of Students with Dyslexia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mihandoost, Zeinab; Elias, Habibah

    2011-01-01

    Objective: The current research tested the differences in reading attitude and reading comprehension in the dyslexic students between the control group and the experimental group following the Barton intervention program. Methods: Dyslexia screening instrument and reading text were employed in order to identify dyslexic students. The population of the study included 138 dyslexic students studying in schools in Ilam, Iran. From this population, 64 students were randomly selected and assigned to an experimental group as well as a control group. The experimental group was taught for 36 sessions, using the Barton’s method at two levels, and ten lessons were provided to improve the reading skill. The reading comprehension and reading attitude instruments were employed for the measurement of the attitude and comprehension before and after the intervention program. Results: The analysis of covariance showed a significant difference between the control group and the experimental group following the Barton intervention program. Conclusion: This study showed that dyslexic students learned to read, and a more direct instruction related to decoding could influence their progress more than the general exposure to education. PMID:24644446

  4. Dialogic Reading Aloud to Promote Extensive Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobs, George M.

    2016-01-01

    How can teachers motivate students to read extensively in a second language? One strategy is for teachers to read aloud to students to promote the joys of reading generally, to build students' language skills and to introduce students to specific authors, book series, genres, websites, etc. This article begins by discussing why teachers might want…

  5. Aesthetic-Receptive and Critical-Creative in Appreciative Reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Titin Setiartin

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Reading is a process of aesthetically appreciative receptive to emphasize critical-creative reading activities. Metacognitively students understand, address any and explore the idea of the author in the text. Students responded, criticize, and evaluate the author's ideas in the text. At this stage, students can construct their post read text into other forms (new text. The aim of this strategy equips students to understand the meaning of the story, explore ideas, responding critically, and creatively pouring backstory idea. Reading strategies aesthetically-critical-creative receptive grabbed cognitive, effective, and psychomotor toward literacy critical reading and creative writing. Read appreciative included into the activities of reading comprehension. This activity involves the sensitivity and ability to process aesthetically-receptive reading and critical-creative. Readers imagination roam the author to obtain meaningful understanding and experience of reading. Some models of reading comprehension proposed experts covering the steps before reading, when reading, and after reading. At that stage to enable students after reading thinking abilities. Activities that can be done at this stage, for example, examine the back story, retell, make drawings, diagrams, or maps the concept of reading, as well as making a road map that describes the event. Other activities that can be done is to transform our student's text stories through reinforcement form illustrated stories into comic book form, for example (transliteration.

  6. An investigation of Chinese university EFL learner’s foreign language reading anxiety, reading strategy use and reading comprehension performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhongshe Lu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The present study explored the interrelations between foreign language (FL reading anxiety, FL reading strategy use and their interactive effect on FL reading comprehension performance at the tertiary level in China. Analyses of the survey data collected from 1702 university students yielded the following results: (a Both Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS and Foreign Language Reading Strategy Use Scale (FLRSUS had important subcomponents, (b more than half of the students generally did not feel anxious when reading English, and were confident in and satisfied with their English reading proficiency. Meanwhile, (c more than half of them moderately used different types of reading strategies such as planning, checking and confirming, predicting and assessing, when reading English, (d compared with their female peers, male students felt significantly more anxious when facing reading activities, less satisfied with their English reading proficiency, and used specific analyzing and planning strategies significantly less often during a reading activity, (e FLRAS was significantly inversely related to FLRSUS, and both were significantly correlated with the students’ FL reading comprehension performance, and (f FLRAS (overall FL reading anxiety, FLRAS1 (general anxiety about FL reading, and FLRSUS2 (predicting strategies were good predictors of FL reading comprehension performance. Based on the findings, some implications are discussed.

  7. Slower saccadic reading in Parkinson’s disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jehangir, Naz; Yu, Caroline Yizhu; Song, Jeehey; Shariati, Mohammad Ali; Binder, Steven; Beyer, Jill; Santini, Veronica; Poston, Kathleen

    2018-01-01

    Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic and other neurons, leading to motor and non-motor deficits. Abnormal eye movements in PD, including fixations, saccades, and convergence, are well described. However, saccadic reading, which requires serial and alternating saccades and fixations, is not well studied, despite its obvious impact on the quality of life. In this study, we assessed saccadic reading using variations of the King-Devick (KD) test, a rapid single digit number naming test, as a way to assess the ability to make serial left-to-right ocular motor movements necessary for reading. We recruited 42 treated PD patients and 80 age-matched controls and compared their reading times with a variety of measures, including age, duration of disease, Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), the National Eye Institute 25-Item Visual Functioning Questionnaire 25 (VFQ-25), and Montreal Cognitive assessment (MoCA) test. The subjects performed 4 trials of reading 120 single digit numbers aloud as fast as possible without making errors. In each trial, they read 3 pages (KD1, KD2, and KD3), and each page contained 40 numbers per page in 8 lines with 5 numbers/line. We found that PD patients read about 20% slower than controls on all tests (KD1, 2, and 3 tests) (p read irregularly spaced numbers slower than regularly spaced numbers. Having lines between numbers to guide reading (KD1 tests) did not impact reading time in both PD and controls, but increased visual crowding as a result of decreased spacing between numbers (KD3 tests) was associated with significantly slower reading times in both PD and control groups. Our study revealed that saccadic reading is slower in PD, but controls and PD patients are both impacted by visuospatial planning challenges posed by increased visual crowding and irregularity of number spacing. Reading time did not correlate with UPDRS or MoCA scores in PD patients but significantly

  8. The Pulsair 3000 tonometer--how many readings need to be taken to ensure accuracy of the average?

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCaghrey, G E; Matthews, F E

    2001-07-01

    Manufacturers of non-contact tonometers recommend that a number of readings are taken on each eye, and an average obtained. With the Keeler Pulsair 3000 it is advised to take four readings, and average these. This report analyses readings in 100 subjects, and compares the first reading, and the averages of the first two and first three readings with the "machine standard" of the average of four readings. It is found that, in the subject group investigated, the average of three readings is not different from the average of four in 95% of individuals, with equivalence defined as +/- 1.0 mmHg.

  9. Reading to young children : A head-start in life?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kalb, G.; van Ours, J.C.

    This paper investigates the importance of parents reading to their young children. Using Australian data we find that parental reading to children at age 4–5 has positive and significant effects on reading skills and cognitive skills (including numeracy skills) of these children at least up to age

  10. Sequence Read Archive (SRA)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — The Sequence Read Archive (SRA) stores raw sequencing data from the next generation of sequencing platforms including Roche 454 GS System®, Illumina Genome...

  11. Reading Every Single Day: A Journey to Authentic Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hudson, Alida K.; Williams, Joan A.

    2015-01-01

    This article details one teacher's implementation of reading workshop in her second grade classroom. She provided a framework for authentic reading using the five components of reading workshop: time, choice, response, community, and structure. She found that reading workshop is a highly effective practice for not only increasing students'…

  12. Reading Comics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilley, Carol L.

    2008-01-01

    Many adults, even librarians who willingly add comics to their collections, often dismiss the importance of comics. Compared to reading "real" books, reading comics appears to be a simple task and compared to reading no books, reading comics might be preferable. After all, comics do have words, but the plentiful pictures seem to carry most of the…

  13. Reading Processes of University Students with Dyslexia - An Examination of the Relationship between Oral Reading and Reading Comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedersen, Henriette Folkmann; Fusaroli, Riccardo; Lauridsen, Lene Louise; Parrila, Rauno

    2016-11-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of oral reading and how it relates to reading comprehension in students with dyslexia. A group of Danish university students with dyslexia (n = 16) and a comparison group of students with no history of reading problems (n = 16) were assessed on their oral reading performance when reading a complex text. Along with reading speed, we measured not only the number and quality of reading errors but also the extent and semantic nature of the self-corrections during reading. The reading comprehension was measured through aided text retellings. The results showed that, as a group, the dyslexics performed poorer on most measures, but there were notable within-group differences in the reading behaviours and little association between how well university students with dyslexia read aloud and comprehended the text. These findings suggest that many dyslexics in higher education tend to focus their attention on one subcomponent of the reading process, for example, decoding or comprehension, because engaging in both simultaneously may be too demanding for them. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  14. ReadDepth: a parallel R package for detecting copy number alterations from short sequencing reads.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher A Miller

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Copy number alterations are important contributors to many genetic diseases, including cancer. We present the readDepth package for R, which can detect these aberrations by measuring the depth of coverage obtained by massively parallel sequencing of the genome. In addition to achieving higher accuracy than existing packages, our tool runs much faster by utilizing multi-core architectures to parallelize the processing of these large data sets. In contrast to other published methods, readDepth does not require the sequencing of a reference sample, and uses a robust statistical model that accounts for overdispersed data. It includes a method for effectively increasing the resolution obtained from low-coverage experiments by utilizing breakpoint information from paired end sequencing to do positional refinement. We also demonstrate a method for inferring copy number using reads generated by whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, thus enabling integrative study of epigenomic and copy number alterations. Finally, we apply this tool to two genomes, showing that it performs well on genomes sequenced to both low and high coverage. The readDepth package runs on Linux and MacOSX, is released under the Apache 2.0 license, and is available at http://code.google.com/p/readdepth/.

  15. Changing Perspectives on Research in Reading/Language Processing and Instruction. Thirty-Third Yearbook of the National Reading Conference.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niles, Jerome A., Ed.; Harris, Larry A., Ed.

    Reflecting current themes that researchers, by their selective attention, have indicated are important in the field of reading/language processing and instruction, this yearbook presents a collection of 51 selected research articles from the National Reading Conference for 1983. Included are the following articles, listed with their authors: (1)…

  16. Reciprocal Relations between Intrinsic Reading Motivation and Reading Competence: A Comparison between Native and Immigrant Students in Germany

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyamoto, Ai; Pfost, Maximilian; Artelt, Cordula

    2018-01-01

    The present study compares native and immigrant students regarding the direction and the strength of the relation between intrinsic reading motivation and reading competence. Within the framework of the German National Educational Panel Study, 4,619 secondary school students were included in the analyses. The present study confirmed the reciprocal…

  17. Prosody as a Tool for Assessing Reading Fluency of Adult ESL Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seftirina Evina Sinambela

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The prosodic features in reading aloud assignment has been associated with the students’ decoding skill. The goal of the present study is to determine the reliability of prosody for assessing reading fluency of adult ESL students in Indonesia context. The participants were all Indonesian natives, undergraduate students, adult females and males who have learned English in school (at the very least twice a week for more than 12 years. Text reading prosody was assessed by reading aloud task and the students’ speaking manner was taped and measured by using the Multidimensional Fluency Scale, as for text comprehension was assessed with a standardized test. It was discovered by the current study that prosody is a reliable sign to determine reading fluency and also reading comprehension. The student who did not read the text prosodically (with appropriate expression actually showed that he/she failed to comprehend the text. This study also revealed that a struggling reader was also having low comprehension capacity in listening spoken texts. The ESL students’ common problems to acquire prosodic reading skill are low exposure to the target language and do not have a good model to imitate prosodic reading.

  18. "Read the Text, as if!"The Reading Retention Strategy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Divoll, Kent; Browning, Sandra

    2013-01-01

    Students do not always read what is expected in college courses (Berry, Cook, Hill, & Stevens, 2010; Phillips & Phillips, 2007; Sikorski et al., 2002) or they read to cram for an exam or quiz (Clump, Bauer, & Bradley, 2004). The Reading Retention Strategy (RRS) is designed to motivate students to read and assist students in…

  19. Being Bilingual, Being a Reader: Prekindergarten Dual Language Learners' Reading Identities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagner, Christopher J.

    2018-01-01

    This study explores the interplay between early reading, identity and bilingualism. Reading identities, or understandings about what reading is and whom one is as a reader, have been linked to reading achievement and the development of reading skills. Only a small portion of the overall research on reading identities has included dual language…

  20. Do reading additions improve reading in pre-presbyopes with low vision?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alabdulkader, Balsam; Leat, Susan

    2012-09-01

    This study compared three different methods of determining a reading addition and the possible improvement on reading performance in children and young adults with low vision. Twenty-eight participants with low vision, aged 8 to 32 years, took part in the study. Reading additions were determined with (a) a modified Nott dynamic retinoscopy, (b) a subjective method, and (c) an age-based formula. Reading performance was assessed with MNREAD-style reading charts at 12.5 cm, with and without each reading addition in random order. Outcome measures were reading speed, critical print size, MNREAD threshold, and the area under the reading speed curve. For the whole group, there was no significant improvement in reading performance with any of the additions. When participants with normal accommodation at 12.5 cm were excluded, the area under the reading speed curve was significantly greater with all reading additions compared with no addition (p = 0.031, 0.028, and 0.028, respectively). Also, the reading acuity threshold was significantly better with all reading additions compared with no addition (p = 0.014, 0.030, and 0.036, respectively). Distance and near visual acuity, age, and contrast sensitivity did not predict improvement with a reading addition. All, but one, of the participants who showed a significant improvement in reading with an addition had reduced accommodation. A reading addition may improve reading performance for young people with low vision and should be considered as part of a low vision assessment, particularly when accommodation is reduced.

  1. Students with Learning Disabilities Perspective on Reading Comprehension Instruction: A Qualitative Inquiry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rose, Dale Rennard

    2017-01-01

    The three article dissertation was a presentation of students' with learning disabilities perspectives on reading comprehension instruction. Article 1 set out to provide an historical perspective of reading and reading comprehension instruction. Topics covered in this research review included: reading comprehension, reading and learning…

  2. Maternal Reading Self-Efficacy Associated with Perceived Barriers to Reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joyce Lin

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Although early reading practices impact a host of child literacy, language, and school outcomes, many parents do not read to their young children. One possible explanation for this lack of early literacy practices is mothers’ feelings about their ability to successfully read to their children. A series of multiple regressions were used to explore whether new mothers’ reading self-efficacy predicted their perceived barriers to reading to their 18-month-old children. Findings suggest that self-efficacy buffers against mother-centered (e.g., too tired, child-centered (e.g., toddler fussy, and structural (e.g., environmental distractions barriers to reading. Given the importance of early literacy and that not all mothers read to their toddlers, increasing reading self-efficacy may offer a way to reduce perceived barriers to early literacy practices.

  3. Construction of an Arabic reading test for assessment of dyslexic children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abou El-Ella, Mahmoud Y; Sayed, Emam M; Farghaly, Wafaa M; Abdel-Haleem, Emad K; Hussein, Eman S

    2004-07-01

    Dyslexia is a specific language-based disorder of constitutional origin, characterized by difficulties in phonological processing. The Arabic language differs in many aspects from foreign languages and the few previously designed Arabic tests for assessment of dyslexia did not pay attention to phonological awareness problems. This necessitates the design of an Arabic test which could properly assign specific difficulties among Arabic reading dyslexic children, including phonological awareness as a major contributing factor for dyslexia. The study was carried out in Assiut City, Egypt, during the period from September 1999 to the end of January 2001. The newly designed Arabic Reading Test (ART) in this work passed through many stages. Firstly, test construction by 11 Arabic teachers (specific judges). Secondly it was applied, in a pilot study, to 50 normal students (9-10 years old) to ascertain clarity of the test. Then test standardization was proven through application on a second sample (n=252 students), and third sample (n=58 dyslexics). The reliability of the ART was proven by the test-retest method (r=0.913, pdyslexia among Arabic reading children. It has great value in predicting dyslexia even among preschool age Arabic speaking children, through assessment of their phonological awareness skills, and thus, remediation programs can be properly and early directed.

  4. Teachers' perceptions of strategy training in reading instruction

    OpenAIRE

    Sallı, Ayşegül

    2002-01-01

    Ankara : The Department of Teaching English as a Foreign Language, the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University, 2002. Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2002. Includes bibliographical references leaves 93-97. Reading strategies are processes used by a learner to enhance reading and to overcome comprehension failures. In order to better help students overcome such difficulties, training in reading strategies is necessary. Only with the appropriate ...

  5. What Will It Be? Reading or Machismo and Soul?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vail, Edward O.

    1970-01-01

    Children in American schools should be taught to read and write standard English since any attempt to teach them a local dialect or a foreign language will only handicap them when they enter the adult world of work. (CK)

  6. Twenty-First Century Instructional Classroom Practices and Reading Motivation: Probing the Effectiveness of Interventional Reading Programs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taoufik Boulhrir

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Twenty-first century education has undoubtedly witnessed changes of the definition of literacy to cope with the economic, social, and intellectual trends. Technological advances, which include skills of communication, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration have become key in education, especially when dealing with literacy and reading motivation. As motivation hinges around two major theoretical approaches, intrinsic and extrinsic, numerous studies argue for the first to be more sustainable in enhancing reading motivation. Accordingly, many research-based interventional programs have emerged since the late nineties with increasing popularity to offer answers to the dwindling rates in reading among youth. This article discusses traits of 21st century education in light of trends and challenges as it probes the effectiveness of some interventional programs that are meant, and argued for, to enhance literacy skills and reading motivation.

  7. Shared-Reading Volume in Early Childhood Special Education Classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dynia, Jaclyn M.; Justice, Laura M.

    2015-01-01

    This study describes book reading practices occurring in early childhood special education (ECSE) classrooms in comparison to early childhood education (ECE) classrooms. Reading logs submitted by 19 ECSE teachers and 13 ECE teachers over one academic year included all books read in whole class settings; these logs were analyzed to assess the…

  8. Paragraph-reading comprehension ability in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Che-Ming; Lee, Li-Ang; Chao, Wei-Chieh; Tsou, Yung-Ting; Chen, Yen-An

    2015-06-01

    1) To investigate different aspects of paragraph reading in Mandarin-speaking students with cochlear implants (CIs) and the factors associated with unfavorable outcomes, and 2) to understand the replaceability of a paragraph-reading test with a sentence-reading test. Cross-sectional, case-controlled study. Fifty-three students with CIs (aged 11.0 ± 1.4 years) and 53 grade- and gender-matched children with normal hearing (NH) participated in the study. A paragraph-reading comprehension test was conducted. Sentence and word reading, speech perception, language skills, and child/family characteristics were examined. An unfavorable paragraph-reading outcome was defined as a score lower than one standard deviation below the NH mean. The CI subjects had significantly worse paragraph-reading comprehension than did the NH controls (P = 0.017, d = 0.54). Their performance in grades 5 to 6 was not significantly higher than of those with NH in grades 2 to 4. The CI children's abilities to understand semantics (P = 0.012) and syntax (P = 0.020) significantly fell behind the NH controls in grades 2 to 4, and the lag continued in grades 5 to 6 (P = 0.039, P = 0.002, respectively). Grade and sentence reading were independently associated with unfavorable paragraph-reading outcomes (R(2)  = 0.453). The optimal sensitivity and specificity of the sentence-reading test in identifying unfavorable paragraph-reading outcomes were 90.9% and 90.0%, respectively (area under the curve = 0.923). Specialists should pay attention to CI students' development of different reading skills. Paragraph-reading tests enable a multidimensional evaluation of reading competence. Use of sentence-reading tests is suggested only as a tool for preliminary screening for basic reading capacities. 3b. © 2014 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

  9. Davies, Florence (1995. Introducing Reading. Davies, Florence (1995. Introducing Reading.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonia Maria Gomes Ferreira

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Arising at a time of unprecedented growth of interest in fostering critical thinking, Introducing Reading offers a clear introduction and thorough account of contemporary developments in the field of reading. While overtly focusing on the special demands of social and human aspects of the reading practice, the issues raised have crucial resonance in the sphere of critical reading. Explicitly addressed to teachers of mother tongue and foreign language contexts, the book claims to elaborate on aspects of reading which have received meager attention to date: individual readers engaged in different real-world reading tasks, the social contexts where such readers engage and interact with texts, and the nature and variety of texts, here regarded as “participants” in the interaction between reader and writer. To this extent, the book successfully reaches the ambitious aim of “socializing and humanizing reading and the teaching of reading” (p. xi. Arising at a time of unprecedented growth of interest in fostering critical thinking, Introducing Reading offers a clear introduction and thorough account of contemporary developments in the field of reading. While overtly focusing on the special demands of social and human aspects of the reading practice, the issues raised have crucial resonance in the sphere of critical reading. Explicitly addressed to teachers of mother tongue and foreign language contexts, the book claims to elaborate on aspects of reading which have received meager attention to date: individual readers engaged in different real-world reading tasks, the social contexts where such readers engage and interact with texts, and the nature and variety of texts, here regarded as “participants” in the interaction between reader and writer. To this extent, the book successfully reaches the ambitious aim of “socializing and humanizing reading and the teaching of reading” (p. xi.

  10. The struggling reader: Identifying and addressing reading problems successfully at an early stage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Le Cordeur, Michael

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The standard of reading of learners in the intermediate phase is cause for considerable concern. In this article, the intermediate phase refers to grades 4, 5 and 6 (roughly ages 10 – 12. According to the 2008 Evaluation Assessment Tests for Reading, only 15% of learners in Grade 6 achieved the required literacy level. Clearly, reading achievement is a problem in South Africa. Although approximately 4% of any given population experience neurological reading problems, the focus of this article is on the significant number of learners in the intermediate phase who experience reading problems and the generic causes of reading problems for learners in general. The intent is to alert teachers and parents to the characteristics of a struggling reader so that the problem can be identified and addressed early. Firstly, ways in which learning problems are manifested are described. Secondly, a discussion of various types of reading problems, of which four, namely poor reading comprehension, inadequate reading fluency, a lack of vocabulary and a negative attitude towards reading, are discussed in depth. Strategies for struggling readers are presented and recommendations are made. The conclusion is that learners who experience reading problems can learn to read successfully when given the necessary support.

  11. Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incineration Units (CISWI): New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and Emission Guidelines (EG) for Existing Sources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Learn about the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for commercial and industrial solid waste incineration (CISWI) units including emission guidelines and compliance times for the rule. Read the rule history and summary, and find supporting documents

  12. Book Clubs in Developmental Reading: Building Reading Comprehension, Fostering Reading Enjoyment, and Engaging Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maldonado, Michele

    2012-01-01

    The use of book clubs in college developmental reading classes is an effective way to encourage reluctant readers to build and strengthen reading skills, foster reading enjoyment, and engage students. In addition, book clubs build a sense of community within the classroom as the students converse and share their interpretations of the reading…

  13. Evaluation of the iPad as a low vision aid for improving reading ability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haji SA

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Shamim A Haji, Kumar Sambhav, Sandeep Grover, Kakarla V Chalam Department of Ophthalmology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville, FL, USA Purpose: To evaluate the effect of the iPad as a low vision aid in improving the reading ability of low vision patients (LVPs. Methods: In this study, 228 consecutive patients that came for their routine eye care examination at the University of Florida, Jacksonville eye clinic, were enrolled. Patients met inclusion criteria if they had best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA of 20/100 or worse in the best corrected eye and were willing to participate in the study. The patient’s reading ability was assessed both with the patient’s own spectacles and an iPad. Patients were encouraged to enlarge the reading material as well as change the contrast until they could read comfortably. The number of patients able to read the text comfortably was recorded. Results: Out of the total 228 participants who qualified, 103 (45% were male and 125 (55% were female. Only 22% could read standard newsprint-sized text (N8 without the help of an iPad. With the help of an iPad, 94% participants with impaired vision were able to read standard newsprint-sized text (N8 or smaller text (P<0.01. Conclusion: The iPad, a new portable electronic media device, can be adapted by LVPs to improve their reading ability. Keywords: low vision devices, low vision patient, LVP, iPad

  14. How logical reasoning mediates the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

    The present study aimed to examine the role of logical reasoning in the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension in 146 fourth grade Dutch children. We assessed their standardized reading comprehension measure, along with their decoding efficiency and vocabulary as measures of lexical quality, syllogistic reasoning as measure of (verbal) logical reasoning, and nonverbal reasoning as a control measure. Syllogistic reasoning was divided into a measure tapping basic, coherence inferencing skill using logical syllogisms, and a measure tapping elaborative inferencing skill using indeterminate syllogisms. Results showed that both types of syllogisms partly mediated the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension, but also had a unique additional effect on reading comprehension. The indirect effect of lexical quality on reading comprehension via syllogisms was driven by vocabulary knowledge. It is concluded that measures of syllogistic reasoning account for higher-order thinking processes that are needed to make inferences in reading comprehension. The role of lexical quality appears to be pivotal in explaining the variation in reading comprehension both directly and indirectly via syllogistic reasoning.

  15. Motivational reading on education, meaningful reading realisation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adriana Qafa

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available In this study I will present some ideas on today’s educational practice for motivation, the realization of the meaningful reading. There is a special place for the methodical ranking of the reading process, starting in school. Main requests of this reading, consist of the deep meaning of the subject, exploration of the idea, and other elements of the subject, implementation of the technique’s rules of the expressive reading, such as breathing, voice, diction, intonation, spelling, stoppages, logical emphasizes, emotional expressions, temper, timber, gesticulations, and mimic. There is also highlighted the fact that the used method comes from the pupils’ results and depends on the capability and level of the teacher, from the programming’s scale, the tools that are put into disposition, the age and the level of the pupils, and from the environment that the teacher creates during courses. At the end there are some practical guidelines for the realization of the expressive reading in the literature subject.

  16. Translating advances in reading comprehension research to educational practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danielle S. McNamara

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available The authors review five major findings in reading comprehension and their implications for educational practice. First, research suggests that comprehension skills are separable from decoding processes and important at early ages, suggesting that comprehension skills should be targeted early, even before the child learns to read. Second, there is an important distinction between reading processes and products, as well as their causal relationship: processes lead to certain products. Hence, instructional approaches and strategies focusing on processes are needed to improve students’ reading performance (i.e., product. Third, inferences are a crucial component of skilled comprehension. Hence, children need scaffolding and remediation to learn to generate inferences, even when they know little about the text topic. Fourth, comprehension depends on a complex interaction between the reader, the characteristics of the text, and the instructional task, highlighting the need for careful selection of instructional materials for individual students and specific groups of students. Finally, educators may benefit from heightened awareness of the limitations and inadequacies of standardized reading comprehension assessments, as well as the multidimensionality of comprehension to better understand their students’ particular strengths and weaknesses.

  17. The Indonesian EFL Learners' Motivation in Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salikin, Hairus; Bin-Tahir, Saidna Zulfiqar; Kusumaningputri, Reni; Yuliandari, Dian Puji

    2017-01-01

    The motivation will drive the EFL learners to be successful in reading. This study examined the Indonesian EFL learners' motivation in reading activity based on Deci and Ryans' theory of motivation including intrinsic and extrinsic. This study employed mixed-method design. The data obtained by distributing questionnaire and arranging the group…

  18. Accuracy of home blood pressure readings: monitors and operators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stryker, Trina; Wilson, Merne; Wilson, Thomas W

    2004-06-01

    To evaluate the accuracy of automated digital blood pressure monitoring devices and operators in the community. Also, we tested the effects of a simple education program, and looked for arm-arm differences. Subjects who had bought their own automated digital blood pressure monitor were recruited via an advertisement in the local newspaper. On arrival, they were asked to record their blood pressure exactly as they would at home. The investigator noted any technique deficiencies then corrected them. Blood pressures were then recorded by the investigator and the subject, on opposite arms, simultaneously, and repeated with the arms switched. Finally, subjects recorded their blood pressure again. The subjects' readings were compared to the average of monitor and mercury readings using Bland-Altman methods. A total of 80 subjects were tested. Before educating, subjects' systolic blood pressure (SBP) readings were +5.8+/-6.4 (standard deviation) mmHg greater than the mean of all readings, and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were +1.3+/-4.0 mmHg; after educating they were +1.3+/-4.0 and -1.3+/-2.7 respectively. The monitors, as a group, were accurate, and met British Hypertension Society and AAMI highest standards. We found no differences among monitors that had been validated (n=26) and those that had not. There were differences between the arms: 5.3+/-5.2 mmHg for SBP and 3.4+/-3.3 mmHg for DBP. Most patients had never been informed by anyone of proper blood pressure measuring techniques. We conclude that home blood pressure measurement, as practiced in our community, is prone to error, mostly due to mistakes by the operator. These can easily be corrected, so that readings become more accurate. Attention should be paid to arm-arm differences.

  19. Word Reading Efficiency, Text Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension among Chinese Learners of English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Xiangying; Sawaki, Yasuyo; Sabatini, John

    2012-01-01

    This study examined the relationship among word reading efficiency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension for adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Data from 185 adult Chinese EFL learners preparing to take the Test-of-English-as-a-Foreign-Language[TM] (TOEFL[R]) were analyzed in this study. The participants completed a…

  20. Identifying structural variants using linked-read sequencing data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elyanow, Rebecca; Wu, Hsin-Ta; Raphael, Benjamin J

    2017-11-03

    Structural variation, including large deletions, duplications, inversions, translocations, and other rearrangements, is common in human and cancer genomes. A number of methods have been developed to identify structural variants from Illumina short-read sequencing data. However, reliable identification of structural variants remains challenging because many variants have breakpoints in repetitive regions of the genome and thus are difficult to identify with short reads. The recently developed linked-read sequencing technology from 10X Genomics combines a novel barcoding strategy with Illumina sequencing. This technology labels all reads that originate from a small number (~5-10) DNA molecules ~50Kbp in length with the same molecular barcode. These barcoded reads contain long-range sequence information that is advantageous for identification of structural variants. We present Novel Adjacency Identification with Barcoded Reads (NAIBR), an algorithm to identify structural variants in linked-read sequencing data. NAIBR predicts novel adjacencies in a individual genome resulting from structural variants using a probabilistic model that combines multiple signals in barcoded reads. We show that NAIBR outperforms several existing methods for structural variant identification - including two recent methods that also analyze linked-reads - on simulated sequencing data and 10X whole-genome sequencing data from the NA12878 human genome and the HCC1954 breast cancer cell line. Several of the novel somatic structural variants identified in HCC1954 overlap known cancer genes. Software is available at compbio.cs.brown.edu/software. braphael@princeton.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

  1. Cross-Language Transfer of Word Reading Accuracy and Word Reading Fluency in Spanish-English and Chinese-English Bilinguals: Script-Universal and Script-Specific Processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pasquarella, Adrian; Chen, Xi; Gottardo, Alexandra; Geva, Esther

    2015-01-01

    This study examined cross-language transfer of word reading accuracy and word reading fluency in Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilinguals. Participants included 51 Spanish-English and 64 Chinese-English bilinguals. Both groups of children completed parallel measures of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, word reading accuracy,…

  2. Overcoming the Invisibility of Metrology: A Reading Measurement Network for Education and the Social Sciences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, William P., Jr.; Stenner, A. Jackson

    2013-09-01

    The public and researchers in psychology and the social sciences are largely unaware of the huge resources invested in metrology and standards in science and commerce, for understandable reasons, but with unfortunate consequences. Measurement quality varies widely in fields lacking uniform standards, making it impossible to coordinate local behaviours and decisions in tune with individually observed instrument readings. However, recent developments in reading measurement have effectively instituted metrological traceability methods within elementary and secondary English and Spanish language reading education in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Australia. Given established patterns in the history of science, it may be reasonable to expect that widespread routine reproduction of controlled effects expressed in uniform units in the social sciences may lead to significant developments in theory and practice.

  3. Overcoming the Invisibility of Metrology: A Reading Measurement Network for Education and the Social Sciences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fisher, William P Jr; Stenner, A Jackson

    2013-01-01

    The public and researchers in psychology and the social sciences are largely unaware of the huge resources invested in metrology and standards in science and commerce, for understandable reasons, but with unfortunate consequences. Measurement quality varies widely in fields lacking uniform standards, making it impossible to coordinate local behaviours and decisions in tune with individually observed instrument readings. However, recent developments in reading measurement have effectively instituted metrological traceability methods within elementary and secondary English and Spanish language reading education in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Australia. Given established patterns in the history of science, it may be reasonable to expect that widespread routine reproduction of controlled effects expressed in uniform units in the social sciences may lead to significant developments in theory and practice

  4. The Effect of a Reading Accommodation on Standardized Test Scores of Learning Disabled and Non Learning Disabled Students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meloy, Linda L.; Deville, Craig; Frisbie, David

    The effect of the Read Aloud accommodation on the performances of learning disabled in reading (LD-R) and non-learning disabled (non LD) middle school students was studied using selected texts from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) achievement battery. Science, Usage and Expression, Math Problem Solving and Data Interpretation, and Reading…

  5. The relationship between working memory and L2 reading comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammadtaghi Shahnazari-Dorcheh

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Since an important role for working memory has been found in the first language acquisition (e.g., Daneman, 1991 Daneman & Green, 1986 Waters & Caplan, 1996, research on the role of working memory is emerging as an area of concern for second language acquisition (e.g., Atkins & Baddeley, 1998 Miyake & Freidman, 1998 Robinson, 1995, 2002, 2005. The present study focused on the role of working memory capacity in the development of second language reading ability. 55 L1 Persian EFL learners at three proficiency levels from a private language school participated in this study. They completed a battery of reading and working memory measures. Memory measures included phonological short-term memory, and reading span test (RST. Reading measures included two expository reading comprehension tests. Multiple regression analysis was applied to determine whether there are any significant relationships between working memory capacity and reading measures. Results of this study indicated a significant relationship between working memory capacity (as measured by RST and reading ability at lower levels of proficiency.

  6. Comparison of observer performance reading from a video CRT vs. reading from film

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Keyes, J.W. Jr.; Kline, R.C.; Resinger, W.W.; Rose, E.A.; Koral, K.F.; Rogers, W.L.

    1983-01-01

    The developing trend for all medical images to be in digital form raises an important question: should diagnostic interpretations be made directly from a CRT or from some form of hard copy recording of the CRT. This question was studied by having two observers read a series of digital images of the thyroid including both conventional scintigrams and computer-generated tomograms. The CRT images were photographed in a carefully controlled fashion. Images were read once from film and a second time directly from the CRT. No significant difference in performance could be found for either display modality based on an ROC analysis. Although based on uncomplicated images and analysis, this result suggests that the decision to read from film or from the CRT can be made on other grounds than observer performance. This important result needs confirmation with more complex images such as ultrasound or CT

  7. Developing New Reading Assessments to Promote Beginning Reading in Singapore

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koh, Kim H.; Paris, Scott G.

    2011-01-01

    Effective reading instruction and intervention are rooted in effective assessments of children's developing skills in reading. The article aims to describe the development of new reading assessments to help promote beginning reading in Singapore primary schools. We begin with an introduction to the educational landscape and policies before…

  8. Rapid Word Recognition as a Measure of Word-Level Automaticity and Its Relation to Other Measures of Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frye, Elizabeth M.; Gosky, Ross

    2012-01-01

    The present study investigated the relationship between rapid recognition of individual words (Word Recognition Test) and two measures of contextual reading: (1) grade-level Passage Reading Test (IRI passage) and (2) performance on standardized STAR Reading Test. To establish if time of presentation on the word recognition test was a factor in…

  9. Reading Speed as a Constraint of Accuracy of Self-Perception of Reading Skill

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwon, Heekyung; Linderholm, Tracy

    2015-01-01

    We hypothesised that college students take reading speed into consideration when evaluating their own reading skill, even if reading speed does not reliably predict actual reading skill. To test this hypothesis, we measured self-perception of reading skill, self-perception of reading speed, actual reading skill and actual reading speed to…

  10. Opposite cerebral dominance for reading and sign language

    OpenAIRE

    Komakula, Sirisha. T.; Burr, Robert. B.; Lee, James N.; Anderson, Jeffrey

    2010-01-01

    We present a case of right hemispheric dominance for sign language but left hemispheric dominance for reading, in a left-handed deaf patient with epilepsy and left mesial temporal sclerosis. Atypical language laterality for ASL was determined by preoperative fMRI, and congruent with ASL modified WADA testing. We conclude that reading and sign language can have crossed dominance and preoperative fMRI evaluation of deaf patients should include both reading and sign language evaluations.

  11. Reading and spelling skills in German third graders: Examining the role of student and context characteristics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Suchodoletz, Antje; Larsen, Ross A A; Gunzenhauser, Catherine; Fäsche, Anika

    2015-12-01

    Educational processes and outcomes are influenced by a multitude of factors, including individual and contextual characteristics. Recently, studies have demonstrated that student and context characteristics may produce unique and cumulative effects on educational outcomes. The study aimed to investigate (1) the relative contribution of student, classroom, and school characteristics to reading fluency and orthographic spelling, (2) the relative contribution of specific predictors to reading fluency and orthographic spelling within the sets of student, classroom, and school characteristics, and (3) whether the contribution of student, classroom, and school characteristics differs for reading fluency and orthographic spelling. Participants were 789 German third-grade students from 56 classrooms in 34 schools. Students completed an intelligence test and a questionnaire assessing self-control. Reading fluency and orthographic spelling performance were assessed using standardized achievement tests. Multilevel structural equation modelling was used to control for the hierarchical structure of educational data. Variances in students' reading and spelling skills were in large part explained by student characteristics (>90%). Classroom and school characteristics yielded little variance. Student-level intelligence and self-control were significantly related to reading fluency. For orthographic spelling, student-level intelligence and self-control, class-average intelligence, and, at the school level, the socio-economic status of the school's neighbourhood were significant predictors. Future research needs to investigate relevant classroom and school factors that may directly and indirectly relate to academic outcomes. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

  12. Exploring Students' Reading Profiles to Guide a Reading Intervention Programme

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boakye, Naomi A. N. Y.

    2017-01-01

    There have been a number of studies on reading interventions to improve students' reading proficiency, yet the majority of these interventions are undertaken with the assumption that students' reading challenges are obvious and generic in nature. The interventions do not take into consideration the diversity in students' reading backgrounds and…

  13. CBM Maze-Scores as Indicators of Reading Level and Growth for Seventh-Grade Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Siuman; Espin, Christine A.; Stevenson, Claire E.

    2018-01-01

    The technical adequacy of CBM maze-scores as indicators of reading level and growth for seventh-grade secondary-school students was examined. Participants were 452 Dutch students who completed weekly maze measures over a period of 23 weeks. Criterion measures were school level, dyslexia status, scores and growth on a standardized reading test.…

  14. 40 CFR 63.648 - Equipment leak standards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 10 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Equipment leak standards. 63.648...) National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants From Petroleum Refineries § 63.648 Equipment leak...) through (c)(10) and (e) through (i) of this section. (1) The instrument readings that define a leak for...

  15. The Impact of Tutoring on Early Reading Achievement for Children with and without Attention Problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rabiner, David L.; Malone, Patrick S.

    2004-01-01

    This study examined whether the benefits of reading tutoring in first grade were moderated by children's level of attention problems. Participants were 581 children from the intervention and control samples of Fast Track, a longitudinal multisite investigation of the development and prevention of conduct problems. Standardized reading achievement…

  16. Consensus double reading of mammograms in private practice

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pacher, B.; Tscherney, R.; Litmann-Rowenta, B.; Liskutin, J.; Mazewski, I.; Leitner, H.; Tscholakoff, D.

    2004-01-01

    Purpose: To evaluate retrospectively the results of consensus double reading of mammograms in a private practice for a period of 1.5 years (November 2001 to March 2003). Materials and Method: Two independent experts with dedicated training read all mammograms on a weekly basis. All mammograms including sonographic examinations were evaluated independently and categorized using the Bl-RADS classification. The achieved consensus included a possible recommendation for recall or therapy. A total of 3936 mammograms and 1912 sonography studies were evaluated. All cases with BI-RADS 4 and 5 categories were compared with the histologic results. For a period of three months, the acceptance of double reading including a delay of the final report by one week was tested with a questionnaire and informed consent sheet. Results: BI-RADS categories 4 and 5 were found in 57 cases, with 41 consensus results by two independent readers and 26 carcinomas verified by histology. No consensus could be reached in 16 patients, of which 10 had a final histologic result, with 5 benign lesions and 5 carcinomas of less than 1 cm in diameter. Clinical symptoms or alterations were absent in all patients. The 5 carcinomas were discovered by the double reading procedure. The result of the questionnaire (695 questionnaires) showed a refusal rate of 0.7%, with only 5 women refusing the opportunity of double reading their mammograms. Conclusion: Double reading of mammograms by independent experts is feasible, shows a measurable increase in quality and is accepted by almost all women. (orig.)

  17. The Effectiveness of Education Technology for Enhancing Reading Achievement: A Meta-Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheung, Alan C. K.; Slavin, Robert E.

    2011-01-01

    The present review examines research on the effects of technology use on reading achievement in K-12 classrooms. Unlike previous reviews, this review applies consistent inclusion standards to focus on studies that met high methodological standards. In addition, methodological and substantive features of the studies are investigated to examine the…

  18. Teachers Engaging Parents as Tutors to Improve Oral Reading Fluency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kupzyk, Sara S.

    2012-01-01

    This dissertation examined the application of evidence-based tutoring for oral reading fluency (ORF) to a natural setting, using teachers as parent trainers. Measures used to determine the impact of parent tutoring included treatment integrity, student reading outcomes, attitudes towards involvement and reading, and social validity. Six teachers…

  19. School Success for Kids with Dyslexia and Other Reading Difficulties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunson, Walter E.

    2012-01-01

    "School Success for Kids With Dyslexia and Other Reading Difficulties" provides parents and teachers with goals that will meet the needs of students who are struggling with reading, leading them to work through their difficulties and enjoy reading. It includes information, assessments, and techniques that parents, teachers, and school…

  20. Influence of graphic design of the text on reading quality of pupils with dyslexia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zikl Pavel

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The contribution contains research results focused on reading quality of pupils with dyslexia according to the graphic design of the text. Our aim was to prove if commonly recommended graphic text editing has a certain influence on reading speed and occurrence of mistakes of children with dyslexia. The research sample consisted of pupils with dyslexia and a control group then selected in pairs of intact pupils of 4th and 5th class of primary school (in total 150 pupils. For the purpose of data collection there had been a text used in an unfamiliar language (a nonsensical text, which corresponds to the Czech language in its structure; is a part of standardized reading test. There were four text versions prepared for the research which had been modified into frequently recommended modifications for dyslexics (increased font size, a use of bigger gaps between words and also rows, syllables highlight in words and a standard text corresponding to common reading-books. Conclusion depicts a presentation of impacts of individual texts modifications and also subjective opinions of pupils about these texts.

  1. Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of double reading in digital mammography screening: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Posso, Margarita; Puig, Teresa; Carles, Misericòrdia; Rué, Montserrat; Canelo-Aybar, Carlos; Bonfill, Xavier

    2017-11-01

    Double reading is the strategy of choice for mammogram interpretation in screening programmes. It remains, however, unknown whether double reading is still the strategy of choice in the context of digital mammography. Our aim was to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of double reading versus single reading of digital mammograms in screening programmes. We performed a systematic review by searching the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases up to April 2017. We used the QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies) tool and CHEERS (Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards) checklist to assess the methodological quality of the diagnostic studies and economic evaluations, respectively. A proportion's meta-analysis approach, 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) and test of heterogeneity (P values) were used for pooled results. Costs are expressed US$ PPP (United States Dollar purchasing power parities). The PROSPERO ID of this Systematic Review's protocol is CRD42014013804. Of 1473 potentially relevant hits, four high-quality studies were included. The pooled cancer detection rate of double reading was 6.01 per 1000 screens (CI: 4.47‰-7.77‰), and it was 5.65 per 1000 screens (CI: 3.95‰-7.65‰) for single reading (P=0.76). The pooled proportion of false-positives of double reading was 47.03 per 1000 screens (CI: 39.13‰-55.62‰) and it was 40.60 per 1000 screens (CI: 38.58‰-42.67‰) for single reading (P=0.12). One study reported, for double reading, an ICER (Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio) of 16,684 Euros (24,717 US$ PPP; 2015 value) per detected cancer. Single reading+CAD (computer-aided-detection) was cost-effective in Japan. The evidence of benefit for double reading compared to single reading for digital mammography interpretation is scarce. Double reading seems to increase operational costs, have a not significantly higher false-positive rate, and a similar cancer detection rate. Copyright

  2. Connected text reading and differences in text reading fluency in adult readers.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sebastian Wallot

    Full Text Available The process of connected text reading has received very little attention in contemporary cognitive psychology. This lack of attention is in parts due to a research tradition that emphasizes the role of basic lexical constituents, which can be studied in isolated words or sentences. However, this lack of attention is in parts also due to the lack of statistical analysis techniques, which accommodate interdependent time series. In this study, we investigate text reading performance with traditional and nonlinear analysis techniques and show how outcomes from multiple analyses can used to create a more detailed picture of the process of text reading. Specifically, we investigate reading performance of groups of literate adult readers that differ in reading fluency during a self-paced text reading task. Our results indicate that classical metrics of reading (such as word frequency do not capture text reading very well, and that classical measures of reading fluency (such as average reading time distinguish relatively poorly between participant groups. Nonlinear analyses of distribution tails and reading time fluctuations provide more fine-grained information about the reading process and reading fluency.

  3. Readings in risk

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Glickman, Theodore S; Gough, Michael

    1990-01-01

    ... from Resources for the Future are distributed worldwide by The Johns Hopkins University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Readings in risk I Theodore S. Glickman and Michael Gough, editors. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-915707-55-1 (alk. paper) 1. Technology-Risk assessment. 2. Health risk assessment....

  4. Predictors of Reading Comprehension for Struggling Readers: The Case of Spanish-speaking Language Minority Learners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mancilla-Martinez, Jeannette; Lesaux, Nonie K

    2010-08-01

    This longitudinal study examined the process of English reading comprehension at age 11 for 173 low achieving Spanish-speaking children. The influence of growth rates, from early childhood (age 4.5) to pre-adolescence (age 11), in vocabulary and word reading skills on this complex process were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Standardized measures of word reading accuracy and productive vocabulary were administered annually, in English and Spanish, and English reading comprehension measures were administered at age 11. Latent growth curve analyses revealed that English skills accounted for all unique variance in English reading comprehension outcomes. Further, expected developmental shifts in the influence of word reading and vocabulary skills over time were not shown, likely on account of students' below grade level reading comprehension achievement. This work underscores the need for theoretical models of comprehension to account for students' skill profiles and abilities.

  5. Books for Summer Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phi Delta Kappan, 1992

    1992-01-01

    Advises administrators to use their summers to relax and recharge their intellectual batteries. Reading suggestions include Edith Wharton's "House of Mirth," Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club," China Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," Paule Marshall's "The Chosen…

  6. Idea Sharing: The Use of Read-Share-Act to Promote Extensive Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charumanee, Nisakorn

    2014-01-01

    Nisakorn Charumanee believes that a reading teacher has an active role in cultivating reading culture or reading habit and in activating students to "want" to read. One way to do this is to integrate extensive reading into the classroom (Day and Bamford, 1998; Bamford and Day, 2004) where extensive reading can be enhanced if the teacher…

  7. Improving reading comprehension in reading and listening settings: the effect of two training programmes focusing on metacognition and working memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carretti, Barbara; Caldarola, Nadia; Tencati, Chiara; Cornoldi, Cesare

    2014-06-01

    Metacognition and working memory (WM) have been found associated with success in reading comprehension, but no studies have examined their combined effect on the training of reading comprehension. Another open question concerns the role of listening comprehension: In particular, it is not clear whether training to improve reading comprehension must necessarily be based on processing written material or whether, as suggested in a recent study by Clarke et al. (2010, Psychol. Sci., 21, 1106), a programme based on verbal language could also be effective. The study examined the feasibility of improving text comprehension in school children by comparing the efficacy of two training programmes, both involving metacognition and WM, but one based on listening comprehension, the other on reading comprehension. The study involved a sample of 159 pupils attending eight classes in the fourth and fifth grades (age range 9-11 years). The listening and reading programmes focused on the same abilities/processes strictly related to text comprehension, and particularly metacognitive knowledge and control, WM (per se and in terms of integrating information in a text). The training programmes were implemented by school teachers as part of the class's normal school activities, under the supervision of experts. Their efficacy was compared with the results obtained in an active control group that completed standard text comprehension activities. Our results showed that both the training programmes focusing on specific text comprehension skills were effective in improving the children's achievement, but training in reading comprehension generated greater gains than the listening comprehension programme. Our study suggests that activities focusing specifically on metacognition and WM could foster text comprehension, but the potential benefit is influenced by the training modality, that is, the Reading group obtained greater and longer-lasting improvements than the Active control or

  8. Assessment of the Apple iPad as a low-vision reading aid.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morrice, E; Johnson, A P; Marinier, J-A; Wittich, W

    2017-06-01

    PurposeLow-vision clients frequently report having problems with reading. Using magnification, reading performance (as measured by reading speed) can be improved by up to 200%. Current magnification aids can be expensive or bulky; therefore, we explored if the Apple iPad offers comparable performance in improving reading speeds, in comparison with a closed-circuit television (CCTV) video magnifier, or other magnification devices.MethodsWe recruited 100 participants between the ages of 24-97 years, with low vision who were literate and cognitively capable, of whom 57 had age-related macular degeneration. To assess reading, participants read standardized iReST texts and were tested for comprehension. We compared reading speed on the Apple iPad (10 inch) with that of the CCTV, home magnification devices, and baseline measures.ResultsAll assistive devices improved reading rates in comparison to baseline (P1), however, there was no difference in improvement across devices (P>0.05, Hedge's gread, on average, 30 words per minute faster than first time iPad users, whereas CCTV experience did not influence reading speed.ConclusionsIn our sample, the Apple iPad was as effective as currently used technologies for improving reading rates. Moreover, exposure to, and experience with the Apple iPad might increase reading speed with that device. A larger sample size, however, is needed to do subgroup analysis on who would optimally benefit from each type of magnification device.

  9. 32 CFR 37.615 - What standards do I include for financial systems of for-profit firms?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What standards do I include for financial... SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DoD GRANT AND AGREEMENT REGULATIONS TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS Award Terms Affecting Participants' Financial, Property, and Purchasing Systems Financial Matters § 37.615 What...

  10. The Assessment of Reading Comprehension Difficulties for Reading Intervention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woolley, Gary

    2008-01-01

    There are many environmental and personal factors that contribute to reading success. Reading comprehension is a complex interaction of language, sensory perception, memory, and motivational aspects. However, most existing assessment tools have not adequately reflected the complex nature of reading comprehension. Good assessment requires a…

  11. The Role of Speech Prosody and Text Reading Prosody in Children's Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veenendaal, Nathalie J.; Groen, Margriet A.; Verhoeven, Ludo

    2014-01-01

    Background: Text reading prosody has been associated with reading comprehension. However, text reading prosody is a reading-dependent measure that relies heavily on decoding skills. Investigation of the contribution of speech prosody--which is independent from reading skills--in addition to text reading prosody, to reading comprehension could…

  12. Prediction of Poly(A Sites by Poly(A Read Mapping.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Bonfert

    Full Text Available RNA-seq reads containing part of the poly(A tail of transcripts (denoted as poly(A reads provide the most direct evidence for the position of poly(A sites in the genome. However, due to reduced coverage of poly(A tails by reads, poly(A reads are not routinely identified during RNA-seq mapping. Nevertheless, recent studies for several herpesviruses successfully employed mapping of poly(A reads to identify herpesvirus poly(A sites using different strategies and customized programs. To more easily allow such analyses without requiring additional programs, we integrated poly(A read mapping and prediction of poly(A sites into our RNA-seq mapping program ContextMap 2. The implemented approach essentially generalizes previously used poly(A read mapping approaches and combines them with the context-based approach of ContextMap 2 to take into account information provided by other reads aligned to the same location. Poly(A read mapping using ContextMap 2 was evaluated on real-life data from the ENCODE project and compared against a competing approach based on transcriptome assembly (KLEAT. This showed high positive predictive value for our approach, evidenced also by the presence of poly(A signals, and considerably lower runtime than KLEAT. Although sensitivity is low for both methods, we show that this is in part due to a high extent of spurious results in the gold standard set derived from RNA-PET data. Sensitivity improves for poly(A sites of known transcripts or determined with a more specific poly(A sequencing protocol and increases with read coverage on transcript ends. Finally, we illustrate the usefulness of the approach in a high read coverage scenario by a re-analysis of published data for herpes simplex virus 1. Thus, with current trends towards increasing sequencing depth and read length, poly(A read mapping will prove to be increasingly useful and can now be performed automatically during RNA-seq mapping with ContextMap 2.

  13. To read or not to read

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mol, Suzanne Elizabeth

    2010-01-01

    There is a widely held belief that reading (story)books makes us smarter and helps promote success in life. Does scientific evidence support this notion? The three meta-analyses in this thesis comprise 146 studies between 1988 and 2010 (N=10,308 participants) that addressed the role of book reading

  14. Technical Adequacy of the easyCBM Grade 2 Reading Measures. Technical Report #1004

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jamgochian, Elisa; Park, Bitnara Jasmine; Nese, Joseph F. T.; Lai, Cheng-Fei; Saez, Leilani; Anderson, Daniel; Alonzo, Julie; Tindal, Gerald

    2010-01-01

    In this technical report, we provide reliability and validity evidence for the easyCBM[R] Reading measures for grade 2 (word and passage reading fluency and multiple choice reading comprehension). Evidence for reliability includes internal consistency and item invariance. Evidence for validity includes concurrent, predictive, and construct…

  15. Teachers’ beliefs about reading and use of reading strategies

    OpenAIRE

    VASILIKA RRAKU

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this article is to place the focus on teachers’ beliefs about reading and reading strategies to the purpose of emphasizing the im portance of reading strategies in the reading process. The method of study is analytic analysis of teachers’ beliefs obtained through ques tionnaires delivered to 18 English language teachers of elementary, secondary and high level education in the region of Saranda in lbania. The results of the study pointed to a great concordance between teach ers’ bel...

  16. Influence of Prior Knowledge Questions on Pupils’ Performance in Reading Comprehension in Primary Schools in Kaduna, Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hanna Onyi Yusuf

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This study was carried out to determine the influence of prior knowledge questions on pupils’ performance in reading comprehension in primary schools in Kaduna, Nigeria. Two schools were used for the study. Ungwar Dosa primary school was used as the experimental school while Ungwar Rimi primary school was used as the control school. Thirty (30 primary five pupils from each of the two schools were used for the study. A total of sixty pupils were used for the study. A pre-test was administered on both groups of pupils before the commencement of teaching. A post-test was administered after six weeks of teaching. Data was analysed using mean, standard deviation and t-test. The findings revealed significant difference in the performance of pupils taught reading comprehension using prior knowledge questions. Based on the findings, teachers are encouraged among others, to use prior knowledge questions to motivate and stimulate pupils to use their relevant background knowledge to interpret and understand new information in their reading comprehension texts. Curriculum planners and textbook writers are encouraged to include prior knowledge questions as part of the activities pupils should be exposed to during reading comprehension lessons.

  17. The Relationship between Computer Games and Reading Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reed, Tammy Dotson

    2010-01-01

    Illiteracy rates are increasing. The negative social and economic effects caused by weak reading skills include political unrest, social and health service inequality, poverty, and employment challenges. This quantitative study explored the proposition that the use of computer software games would increase reading achievement in second grade…

  18. A spectral algorithm for fast de novo layout of uncorrected long nanopore reads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Recanati, Antoine; Brüls, Thomas; d'Aspremont, Alexandre

    2017-10-15

    New long read sequencers promise to transform sequencing and genome assembly by producing reads tens of kilobases long. However, their high error rate significantly complicates assembly and requires expensive correction steps to layout the reads using standard assembly engines. We present an original and efficient spectral algorithm to layout the uncorrected nanopore reads, and its seamless integration into a straightforward overlap/layout/consensus (OLC) assembly scheme. The method is shown to assemble Oxford Nanopore reads from several bacterial genomes into good quality (∼99% identity to the reference) genome-sized contigs, while yielding more fragmented assemblies from the eukaryotic microbe Sacharomyces cerevisiae. https://github.com/antrec/spectrassembler. antoine.recanati@inria.fr. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

  19. Multicultural Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veltze, Linda

    2004-01-01

    Multicultural reading advocates believe in the power of literature to transform and to change people's lives. They take seriously the arguments that racism and prejudice can be lessened through multicultural reading, and also that children from undervalued societal groups who read books that depict people like themselves in a positive light will…

  20. THE SYNERGISTIC SYLLABUS FOR TEACHING READING IN 32 TOURISM VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahlis Qoidah Noor

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The new Syllabus at 2013 Curriculum for vocational high school created many problems to apply in the class. Based on the Need Analysis, the writer develops a Synergistic Syllabus for teaching Reading in vocational high school. It contains the syllabus combined from Task- Based Learning, Situational Syllabus, Program of International Student Assessment ( PISA item test and Character Building. It is a R and D research uses three phases of Observation, Developing and Try Out. It is in a True Experimental Research. The main findings are Reading Skill cannot be taught effectively for some reasons. There is no appropriate syllabus for teaching Reading; most teachers need some models in a syllabus. The results are the Synergistic Syllabus for teaching Reading, a set of Reading Material for Teaching Reading and a set of the lesson plan for one semester at Grade X of Tourism VHS. It is measured through mean, median and t- Test. To Sum up Synergistic Syllabus can develop many aspects, the systematic and meaningful activities in the class, motivation and good attitude. The standardized item of assignment, and a sense of competition in Reading activities and the Synergistic Syllabus assist teachers in teaching Reading using 2013 curriculum in the class effectively.

  1. Heater design for reading radiation dosimeters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seidel, J.G.; Felice, P.E.

    1982-01-01

    The nichrome heating element of a conventional dosimeter reading apparatus has been redesigned to include a flat-bottomed depression big enough to hold a thermoluminescent dosimeter. A thin glass plate is positioned in the recess on top of the dosimeter to retain it in the recess during the heating and reading process. This technique of securing the dosimeter in contact with the heating element avoids physical scratching or damage to the dosimeter

  2. A System for Detecting Miscues in Dyslexic Read Speech

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Morten Højfeldt; Tan, Zheng-Hua; Lindberg, Børge

    2009-01-01

    While miscue detection in general is a well explored research field little attention has so far been paid to miscue detection in dyslexic read speech. This domain differs substantially from the domains that are commonly researched, as for example dyslexic read speech includes frequent regressions...... that the system detects miscues at a false alarm rate of 5.3% and a miscue detection rate of 40.1%. These results are worse than current state of the art reading tutors perhaps indicating that dyslexic read speech is a challenge to handle....

  3. Reading Amount as a Mediator of the Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reading Motivation on Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaffner, Ellen; Schiefele, Ulrich; Ulferts, Hannah

    2013-01-01

    This study examined the role of reading amount as a mediator of the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation on higher order reading comprehension (comprised of paragraph-and passage-level comprehension) in a sample of 159 fifth-grade elementary students. A positive association between intrinsic reading motivation and reading amount…

  4. The relationship between different measures of oral reading fluency and reading comprehension in second-grade students who evidence different oral reading fluency difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wise, Justin C; Sevcik, Rose A; Morris, Robin D; Lovett, Maureen W; Wolf, Maryanne; Kuhn, Melanie; Meisinger, Beth; Schwanenflugel, Paula

    2010-07-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine whether different measures of oral reading fluency relate differentially to reading comprehension performance in two samples of second-grade students: (a) students who evidenced difficulties with nonsense-word oral reading fluency, real-word oral reading fluency, and oral reading fluency of connected text (ORFD), and (b) students who evidenced difficulties only with oral reading fluency of connected text (CTD). Participants (ORFD, n = 146 and CTD, n = 949) were second-grade students who were recruited for participation in different reading intervention studies. Data analyzed were from measures of nonsense-word oral reading fluency, real-word oral reading fluency, oral reading fluency of connected text, and reading comprehension that were collected at the pre-intervention time point. Correlational and path analyses indicated that real-word oral reading fluency was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension performance in both samples and across average and poor reading comprehension abilities. Results of this study indicate that real-word oral reading fluency was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension and suggest that real-word oral reading fluency may be an efficient method for identifying potential reading comprehension difficulties.

  5. Reading comprehension of deaf students in regular education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luccas, Marcia Regina Zemella; Chiari, Brasília Maria; Goulart, Bárbara Niegia Garcia de

    2012-01-01

    To evaluate and compare the reading comprehension of deaf students included in regular classrooms of public schools with and without specialized educational support. Observational analytic study with 35 students with sensorineural hearing loss, with and without educational support. All subjects were assessed with the Word Reading Competence Test (WRCT), the Picture-Print Matching Test by Choice (PPMT-C), and the Sentence Reading Comprehension Test (SRCT). In the tests regarding comprehension of words (WRCT and PPMT-C), the results showed no difference in the performance of deaf students who attend and do not attend educational support. Regarding reading comprehension of sentences, the application of the SRCT also did not show differences between the groups of deaf students. A significant correlation was found between age and grade, indicating that the older the students and the higher their educational level, the better their performance in reading sentences. The results indicate that deaf students, regardless of attending educational support, read words better than sentences. There is no difference in reading comprehension between deaf students who receive and do not receive specialized pedagogical monitoring.

  6. Eye movements when reading sentences with handwritten words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perea, Manuel; Marcet, Ana; Uixera, Beatriz; Vergara-Martínez, Marta

    2016-10-17

    The examination of how we read handwritten words (i.e., the original form of writing) has typically been disregarded in the literature on reading. Previous research using word recognition tasks has shown that lexical effects (e.g., the word-frequency effect) are magnified when reading difficult handwritten words. To examine this issue in a more ecological scenario, we registered the participants' eye movements when reading handwritten sentences that varied in the degree of legibility (i.e., sentences composed of words in easy vs. difficult handwritten style). For comparison purposes, we included a condition with printed sentences. Results showed a larger reading cost for sentences with difficult handwritten words than for sentences with easy handwritten words, which in turn showed a reading cost relative to the sentences with printed words. Critically, the effect of word frequency was greater for difficult handwritten words than for easy handwritten words or printed words in the total times on a target word, but not on first-fixation durations or gaze durations. We examine the implications of these findings for models of eye movement control in reading.

  7. Guiding Biliteracy Development: Appropriating Cross-Linguistic and Conceptual Knowledge to Sustain Second-Language Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soto Huerta, Mary Esther

    2012-01-01

    To examine the second-language reading development of 45 fourth-grade Latino bilinguals, a sequential mixed methods study was conducted in two phases (Creswell, 2009). The quantitative data collected in the first phase generated an index of the group's reading performance based on two grade-level assessments, a state-mandated standardized reading…

  8. Reading motivation, reading amount, and text comprehension in deaf and hearing adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parault, Susan J; Williams, Heather M

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the variables of reading motivation, reading amount, and text comprehension in deaf and hearing adults. Research has shown that less than 50% of deaf students leave high school reading at or above a fourth-grade level (Allen, 1994). Our question is, how does this affect the levels of reading motivation and amount of reading in which deaf adults engage? Assessments of 30 hearing and 24 deaf adults showed that deaf participants reported significantly higher levels of reading motivation despite having been found to read at less than a sixth-grade level. No significant difference in the amount of reading between hearing and deaf adults was found. Amount of reading for personal reasons was found to be the best predictor of text comprehension in the deaf participants, and intrinsic motivation was found to be the best predictor of amount of reading in the deaf participants.

  9. An investigation of Chinese university EFL learner’s foreign language reading anxiety, reading strategy use and reading comprehension performance

    OpenAIRE

    Zhongshe Lu; Meihua Liu

    2015-01-01

    The present study explored the interrelations between foreign language (FL) reading anxiety, FL reading strategy use and their interactive effect on FL reading comprehension performance at the tertiary level in China. Analyses of the survey data collected from 1702 university students yielded the following results: (a) Both Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) and Foreign Language Reading Strategy Use Scale (FLRSUS) had important subcomponents, (b) more than half of the stu...

  10. Calibration of working standard ionization chambers and dose standardization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abd Elmahoud, A. A. B.

    2011-01-01

    Measurements were performed for the calibration of two working standard ionization chambers in the secondary standard dosimetry laboratory of Sudan. 600 cc cylindrical former type and 1800 cc cylindrical radical radiation protection level ionization chambers were calibrated against 1000 cc spherical reference standard ionization chamber. The chamber were calibrated at X-ray narrow spectrum series with beam energies ranged from (33-116 KeV) in addition to 1''3''7''Cs beam with 662 KeV energy. The chambers 0.6 cc and 0.3 cc therapy level ionization were used for dose standardization and beam output calibrations of cobalt-60 radiotherapy machine located at the National Cancer Institute, University of Gazira. Concerning beam output measurements for 6''0''Co radiotherapy machine, dosimetric measurements were performed in accordance with the relevant per IAEA dosimetry protocols TRS-277 and TRS-398. The kinetic energy released per unit mass in air (air kerma) were obtained by multiplying the corrected electrometer reading (nC/min) by the calibration factors (Gy/n C) of the chambers from given in the calibration certificate. The uncertainty of measurements of air kerma were calculated for the all ionization chambers (combined uncertainty) the calibration factors of these ionization chambers then were calculated by comparing the reading of air kerma of secondary standard ionization chambers to than from radical and farmer chambers. The result of calibration working standard ionization chambers showed different calibration factors ranged from 0.99 to 1.52 for different radiation energies and these differences were due to chambers response and specification. The absorbed dose to to water calculated for therapy ionization chamber using two code of practice TRS-277 and TRS-398 as beam output for 6''0''Co radiotherapy machine and it can be used as a reference for future beam output calibration in radiotherapy dosimetry. The measurement of absorbed dose to water showed that the

  11. Neural Signatures of the Reading-Writing Connection: Greater Involvement of Writing in Chinese Reading than English Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Fan; Perfetti, Charles A

    2016-01-01

    Research on cross-linguistic comparisons of the neural correlates of reading has consistently found that the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) is more involved in Chinese than in English. However, there is a lack of consensus on the interpretation of the language difference. Because this region has been found to be involved in writing, we hypothesize that reading Chinese characters involves this writing region to a greater degree because Chinese speakers learn to read by repeatedly writing the characters. To test this hypothesis, we recruited English L1 learners of Chinese, who performed a reading task and a writing task in each language. The English L1 sample had learned some Chinese characters through character-writing and others through phonological learning, allowing a test of writing-on-reading effect. We found that the left MFG was more activated in Chinese than English regardless of task, and more activated in writing than in reading regardless of language. Furthermore, we found that this region was more activated for reading Chinese characters learned by character-writing than those learned by phonological learning. A major conclusion is that writing regions are also activated in reading, and that this reading-writing connection is modulated by the learning experience. We replicated the main findings in a group of native Chinese speakers, which excluded the possibility that the language differences observed in the English L1 participants were due to different language proficiency level.

  12. Neural Signatures of the Reading-Writing Connection: Greater Involvement of Writing in Chinese Reading than English Reading.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fan Cao

    Full Text Available Research on cross-linguistic comparisons of the neural correlates of reading has consistently found that the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG is more involved in Chinese than in English. However, there is a lack of consensus on the interpretation of the language difference. Because this region has been found to be involved in writing, we hypothesize that reading Chinese characters involves this writing region to a greater degree because Chinese speakers learn to read by repeatedly writing the characters. To test this hypothesis, we recruited English L1 learners of Chinese, who performed a reading task and a writing task in each language. The English L1 sample had learned some Chinese characters through character-writing and others through phonological learning, allowing a test of writing-on-reading effect. We found that the left MFG was more activated in Chinese than English regardless of task, and more activated in writing than in reading regardless of language. Furthermore, we found that this region was more activated for reading Chinese characters learned by character-writing than those learned by phonological learning. A major conclusion is that writing regions are also activated in reading, and that this reading-writing connection is modulated by the learning experience. We replicated the main findings in a group of native Chinese speakers, which excluded the possibility that the language differences observed in the English L1 participants were due to different language proficiency level.

  13. SAMMate: a GUI tool for processing short read alignments in SAM/BAM format

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Flemington Erik

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Next Generation Sequencing (NGS technology generates tens of millions of short reads for each DNA/RNA sample. A key step in NGS data analysis is the short read alignment of the generated sequences to a reference genome. Although storing alignment information in the Sequence Alignment/Map (SAM or Binary SAM (BAM format is now standard, biomedical researchers still have difficulty accessing this information. Results We have developed a Graphical User Interface (GUI software tool named SAMMate. SAMMate allows biomedical researchers to quickly process SAM/BAM files and is compatible with both single-end and paired-end sequencing technologies. SAMMate also automates some standard procedures in DNA-seq and RNA-seq data analysis. Using either standard or customized annotation files, SAMMate allows users to accurately calculate the short read coverage of genomic intervals. In particular, for RNA-seq data SAMMate can accurately calculate the gene expression abundance scores for customized genomic intervals using short reads originating from both exons and exon-exon junctions. Furthermore, SAMMate can quickly calculate a whole-genome signal map at base-wise resolution allowing researchers to solve an array of bioinformatics problems. Finally, SAMMate can export both a wiggle file for alignment visualization in the UCSC genome browser and an alignment statistics report. The biological impact of these features is demonstrated via several case studies that predict miRNA targets using short read alignment information files. Conclusions With just a few mouse clicks, SAMMate will provide biomedical researchers easy access to important alignment information stored in SAM/BAM files. Our software is constantly updated and will greatly facilitate the downstream analysis of NGS data. Both the source code and the GUI executable are freely available under the GNU General Public License at http://sammate.sourceforge.net.

  14. Osteoblastic lesion screening with an advanced post-processing package enabling in-plane rib reading in CT-images.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seuss, Hannes; Dankerl, Peter; Cavallaro, Alexander; Uder, Michael; Hammon, Matthias

    2016-05-20

    To evaluate screening and diagnostic accuracy for the detection of osteoblastic rib lesions using an advanced post-processing package enabling in-plane rib reading in CT-images. We retrospectively assessed the CT-data of 60 consecutive prostate cancer patients by applying dedicated software enabling in-plane rib reading. Reading the conventional multiplanar reconstructions was considered to be the reference standard. To simulate clinical practice, the reader was given 10 s to screen for sclerotic rib lesions in each patient applying both approaches. Afterwards, every rib was evaluated individually with both approaches without a time limit. Sensitivities, specificities, positive/negative predictive values and the time needed for detection were calculated depending on the lesion's size (largest diameter  10 mm). In 53 of 60 patients, all ribs were properly displayed in plane, in five patients ribs were partially displayed correctly, and in two patients none of the ribs were displayed correctly. During the 10-s screening approach all patients with sclerotic rib lesions were correctly identified reading the in-plane images (including the patients without a correct rib segmentation), whereas 14 of 23 patients were correctly identified reading conventional multiplanar images. Overall screening sensitivity, specificity, and positive/negative predictive values were 100/27.0/46.0/100 %, respectively, for in-plane reading and 60.9/100/100/80.4 %, respectively, for multiplanar reading. Overall diagnostic (no time limit) sensitivity, specificity, and positive/negative predictive values of in-plane reading were 97.8/92.8/74.6/99.5 %, respectively. False positive results predominantly occurred for lesions <5 mm in size. In-plane reading of the ribs allows reliable detection of osteoblastic lesions for screening purposes. The limited specificity results from false positives predominantly occurring for small lesions.

  15. Clustering of reads with alignment-free measures and quality values.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Comin, Matteo; Leoni, Andrea; Schimd, Michele

    2015-01-01

    The data volume generated by Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies is growing at a pace that is now challenging the storage and data processing capacities of modern computer systems. In this context an important aspect is the reduction of data complexity by collapsing redundant reads in a single cluster to improve the run time, memory requirements, and quality of post-processing steps like assembly and error correction. Several alignment-free measures, based on k-mers counts, have been used to cluster reads. Quality scores produced by NGS platforms are fundamental for various analysis of NGS data like reads mapping and error detection. Moreover future-generation sequencing platforms will produce long reads but with a large number of erroneous bases (up to 15 %). In this scenario it will be fundamental to exploit quality value information within the alignment-free framework. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study that incorporates quality value information and k-mers counts, in the context of alignment-free measures, for the comparison of reads data. Based on this principles, in this paper we present a family of alignment-free measures called D (q) -type. A set of experiments on simulated and real reads data confirms that the new measures are superior to other classical alignment-free statistics, especially when erroneous reads are considered. Also results on de novo assembly and metagenomic reads classification show that the introduction of quality values improves over standard alignment-free measures. These statistics are implemented in a software called QCluster (http://www.dei.unipd.it/~ciompin/main/qcluster.html).

  16. Pupil's motivation in the 3. grades for required reading and The Reading Badge

    OpenAIRE

    Logar, Renata

    2013-01-01

    Reading is extremely important for pupils and their development. The pupil with reading habits riches his vocabulary and gaining knowledge. On the other hand the pupil through reading entry into the world of imagination and stories. Major role in motivating students to read have parents and teachers. In this graduation thesis I was interested in how third grade teachers motivate their pupils to read. In doing so, I was focused mainly to reading for required reading and The Reading Badge. ...

  17. COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIC READING IMPLEMENTATION TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Desy Olivia Riani

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This collaborative action research is aimed to find out whether or not the implementation of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR improves students' reading comprehension and also to identify students' attitude towards the implementation of CSR. CSR is reading strategy that employs four strategies namely Preview, Click and Clunk, Get the Gist and Wrap Up during students’ cooperative learning. A class of eleventh grade students of a public senior high school in Majalengka, West Java, Indonesia is participated as the participant of the study. The required data were collected through the use of questionnaire, observation checklist, and reading test. The data from the questionnaire indicated that 82% students had positive attitude toward the implementation of CSR. They feel that CSR improves their motivation in learning English and CSR brings more fun to the process of learning. Moreover, it was found from observation data that the students were actively participated during CSR implementation and they were motivated when comprehending a text by means CSR strategy. Finally, the study proved that CSR improved students’ reading comprehension. Students’ mean score of reading test in the beginning of the study was 67, meanwhile, after applying CSR as reading strategy, their mean scores improved to 88.

  18. Reading Makes Cents Resource Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lacie Ashby

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available In today’s economy, it is more crucial than ever to focus our educational efforts on increasing financial literacy. Many young people are unskilled in managing their personal finances, yet this critical life skill will greatly affect their future economic well-being. Reading Makes Cents, developed by Penn State University, is an excellent resource to address this need. A reviewed and recommended curriculum by National 4-H, this complete, easy to use curriculum targets youth in grades 3-5 with a combination of financial literacy and reading. The curriculum explores basic money concepts such as spending, saving, and sharing money. Lessons incorporate hands-on activities and children’s literature to reinforce lesson objectives. With evaluation questions and family activities included, Reading Makes Cents is a perfect guide for educators to easily pick up and teach.

  19. Self-regulated learning with reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petra Regent

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available Self-regulatory skills do not appear on their own, rather they have to be developed, e.g. through modeling of reading and learning strategies in class. Question of development of self-regulatory skills was also important for this research. We examined, whether a planned intervention can promote development of self-regulatory skills and effective learning habits. The intervention for students of experimental group included systematical use and practice in use of two chosen learning strategies in geography class. After intervention was finished, experimental group showed improvement in reading comprehension. As for learning habits, improvement was only inclined. There was also positive correlation between learning habits and reading abilities after intervention was finished. Despite limitations of the study, results are encouraging enough to demonstrate potential use of applying well planned intervention program in class.

  20. The BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism Influences Reading Ability and Patterns of Neural Activation in Children.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaja K Jasińska

    Full Text Available Understanding how genes impact the brain's functional activation for learning and cognition during development remains limited. We asked whether a common genetic variant in the BDNF gene (the Val66Met polymorphism modulates neural activation in the young brain during a critical period for the emergence and maturation of the neural circuitry for reading. In animal models, the bdnf variation has been shown to be associated with the structure and function of the developing brain and in humans it has been associated with multiple aspects of cognition, particularly memory, which are relevant for the development of skilled reading. Yet, little is known about the impact of the Val66Met polymorphism on functional brain activation in development, either in animal models or in humans. Here, we examined whether the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism (dbSNP rs6265 is associated with children's (age 6-10 neural activation patterns during a reading task (n = 81 using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI, genotyping, and standardized behavioral assessments of cognitive and reading development. Children homozygous for the Val allele at the SNP rs6265 of the BDNF gene outperformed Met allele carriers on reading comprehension and phonological memory, tasks that have a strong memory component. Consistent with these behavioral findings, Met allele carriers showed greater activation in reading-related brain regions including the fusiform gyrus, the left inferior frontal gyrus and left superior temporal gyrus as well as greater activation in the hippocampus during a word and pseudoword reading task. Increased engagement of memory and spoken language regions for Met allele carriers relative to Val/Val homozygotes during reading suggests that Met carriers have to exert greater effort required to retrieve phonological codes.

  1. The BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism Influences Reading Ability and Patterns of Neural Activation in Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jasińska, Kaja K; Molfese, Peter J; Kornilov, Sergey A; Mencl, W Einar; Frost, Stephen J; Lee, Maria; Pugh, Kenneth R; Grigorenko, Elena L; Landi, Nicole

    2016-01-01

    Understanding how genes impact the brain's functional activation for learning and cognition during development remains limited. We asked whether a common genetic variant in the BDNF gene (the Val66Met polymorphism) modulates neural activation in the young brain during a critical period for the emergence and maturation of the neural circuitry for reading. In animal models, the bdnf variation has been shown to be associated with the structure and function of the developing brain and in humans it has been associated with multiple aspects of cognition, particularly memory, which are relevant for the development of skilled reading. Yet, little is known about the impact of the Val66Met polymorphism on functional brain activation in development, either in animal models or in humans. Here, we examined whether the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism (dbSNP rs6265) is associated with children's (age 6-10) neural activation patterns during a reading task (n = 81) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), genotyping, and standardized behavioral assessments of cognitive and reading development. Children homozygous for the Val allele at the SNP rs6265 of the BDNF gene outperformed Met allele carriers on reading comprehension and phonological memory, tasks that have a strong memory component. Consistent with these behavioral findings, Met allele carriers showed greater activation in reading-related brain regions including the fusiform gyrus, the left inferior frontal gyrus and left superior temporal gyrus as well as greater activation in the hippocampus during a word and pseudoword reading task. Increased engagement of memory and spoken language regions for Met allele carriers relative to Val/Val homozygotes during reading suggests that Met carriers have to exert greater effort required to retrieve phonological codes.

  2. PEAR: a fast and accurate Illumina Paired-End reAd mergeR.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Jiajie; Kobert, Kassian; Flouri, Tomáš; Stamatakis, Alexandros

    2014-03-01

    The Illumina paired-end sequencing technology can generate reads from both ends of target DNA fragments, which can subsequently be merged to increase the overall read length. There already exist tools for merging these paired-end reads when the target fragments are equally long. However, when fragment lengths vary and, in particular, when either the fragment size is shorter than a single-end read, or longer than twice the size of a single-end read, most state-of-the-art mergers fail to generate reliable results. Therefore, a robust tool is needed to merge paired-end reads that exhibit varying overlap lengths because of varying target fragment lengths. We present the PEAR software for merging raw Illumina paired-end reads from target fragments of varying length. The program evaluates all possible paired-end read overlaps and does not require the target fragment size as input. It also implements a statistical test for minimizing false-positive results. Tests on simulated and empirical data show that PEAR consistently generates highly accurate merged paired-end reads. A highly optimized implementation allows for merging millions of paired-end reads within a few minutes on a standard desktop computer. On multi-core architectures, the parallel version of PEAR shows linear speedups compared with the sequential version of PEAR. PEAR is implemented in C and uses POSIX threads. It is freely available at http://www.exelixis-lab.org/web/software/pear.

  3. Reading Self-Efficacy Predicts Word Reading But Not Comprehension in Both Girls and Boys.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Julia M; Fox, Amy C

    2016-01-01

    The relationship between cognitive skills and reading has been well-established. However, the role of motivational factors such as self-efficacy in reading progress is less clear. In particular, it is not clear how self-efficacy relates to word level reading versus comprehension, and whether this differs in boys and girls. This study examines the relationship between self-efficacy, word reading and reading comprehension across the range of reading abilities after controlling for reading-related cognitive factors. One hundred and seventy nine children (86 males and 93 females) between 8 and 11 years old completed a self-report measure of reading self-efficacy together with measures of reading comprehension and word reading, working memory, auditory short-term memory, phonological awareness, and vocabulary. Boys and girls showed similar levels of attainment and reading self-efficacy. Reading self-efficacy was associated with word reading, but not with reading comprehension in either boys or girls. It is argued that this may reflect important differences between reading self-efficacy and more general measures of reading motivation and engagement. Reading self-efficacy is an element of reading motivation that is closely associated with a child's perceived attainments in reading and is less susceptible to the gender differences seen in broader measures.

  4. Reading Self-Efficacy Predicts Word Reading But Not Comprehension in Both Girls and Boys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Julia M.; Fox, Amy C.

    2017-01-01

    The relationship between cognitive skills and reading has been well-established. However, the role of motivational factors such as self-efficacy in reading progress is less clear. In particular, it is not clear how self-efficacy relates to word level reading versus comprehension, and whether this differs in boys and girls. This study examines the relationship between self-efficacy, word reading and reading comprehension across the range of reading abilities after controlling for reading-related cognitive factors. One hundred and seventy nine children (86 males and 93 females) between 8 and 11 years old completed a self-report measure of reading self-efficacy together with measures of reading comprehension and word reading, working memory, auditory short-term memory, phonological awareness, and vocabulary. Boys and girls showed similar levels of attainment and reading self-efficacy. Reading self-efficacy was associated with word reading, but not with reading comprehension in either boys or girls. It is argued that this may reflect important differences between reading self-efficacy and more general measures of reading motivation and engagement. Reading self-efficacy is an element of reading motivation that is closely associated with a child’s perceived attainments in reading and is less susceptible to the gender differences seen in broader measures. PMID:28144223

  5. The Application of Context Theory in English Teaching of Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Jiang; Han, Lemeng

    2010-01-01

    Context theory is a very important theory in English teaching, especially the teaching of reading. This paper first analyzes the theory of context, including the features of context and some principles in context theory. Then the paper discusses the application of context theory in English teaching of reading, including some problems met in…

  6. Metacognitive Reading Strategies, Motivation, and Reading Comprehension Performance of Saudi EFL Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meniado, Joel C.

    2016-01-01

    Metacognitive reading strategies and reading motivation play a significant role in enhancing reading comprehension. In an attempt to prove the foregoing claim in a context where there is no strong culture for reading, this study tries to find out if there is indeed a relationship between and among metacognitive reading strategies, reading…

  7. Elementary Science and Reading Activities for Teacher Educators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rezba, Richard J.

    The author suggests ways reading can be integrated with science and describes the reading activities in an elementary science methods course. The activities include: (1) selecting a science tradebook for children to review and for the teacher to analyze vocabulary; (2) helping children review science tradebooks; and (3) encouraging independent…

  8. Increasing Academic Growth through Motivating Students To Read.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duignan, Sandra; Klioris, Ann; Porter, Jennifer; Rockett, Nicole; Vogwill, Kathy

    This report describes a program for increasing academic growth through motivating students to read. The targeted population includes kindergarten, first, third, and high school special education students. The lack of motivation in reading was documented through data revealed by pre-surveys and post-surveys of students' interest in books. Analysis…

  9. Relating Knowledge about Reading to Teaching Practice: An Exploratory Validity Study of a Teacher Knowledge Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phelps, Geoffrey; Johnson, David; Carlisle, Joanne

    2009-01-01

    The research reported in this paper is focused directly on assessing the validity of the "Teaching Knowledge about Reading and Reading Practices" (TKRRP) assessment. Following the recommendations of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (APA/AERA, 1999), the authors see validation as a process of constructing an…

  10. Progressive outcomes of collaborative strategic reading to EFL learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sofyan A. Gani

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to discover the effects of using Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR in teaching reading to EFL learners. The method used in this study was experimental research which referred to the true experimental design through tests and a questionnaire as data collection instruments. The questionnaire consisted of items to gain the students' responses toward 3 categories of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR implementation on their reading ability, namely: instruction, procedure, and impact. In total, 67 students in a senior high school in Banda Aceh were involved as participants (32 students in the experimental group and 35 students in the control group. The data were analyzed using the mean, standard deviation, and Z-test percentage. The Z-score between the experimental group and control group was 2.37. The critical value of the Z-score for 68 degrees of freedom was 2.01 at the .05 significance level. Therefore, the critical value of the students' Z-score (2.37 was significant at the .05 level. This indicated that the students who were taught reading using CSR achieved better scores than those who were taught using the non-CSR approach. The results of the questionnaire further showed that more than 80 percent of the students gave vastly positive responses in relation to CSR classroom implementation. This approach not only helped them to develop their reading skills, but also produced positive outcomes in their social relationships and interactions in the classroom.

  11. Effect of standard cuff on blood pressure readings in patients with obese arms. How frequent are arms of a 'large circumference'?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fonseca-Reyes, Salvador; de Alba-García, Javier García; Parra-Carrillo, José Z; Paczka-Zapata, José Antonio

    2003-06-01

    To measure the effect on blood pressure readings when a standard cuff is used on patients with arms of a large circumference, and to determine the frequency of arms of a large circumference. Blood pressures were taken in 120 subjects with an arm circumference greater than 33 cm. Also, the arm circumference was determined in 244 patients from a family health unit, and in 216 patients from a hypertension clinic. A mercury sphygmomanometer and two different cuff sizes were used in a random sequence; therefore, 60 patients' blood pressure were first measured with a large cuff, followed by a standard cuff; the opposite sequence was then applied for another 60 patients. With the obtained values and using a regression analysis, the difference in blood pressure overestimation was calculated. Arm circumference measurement percentages were used to determine the frequency of arms of a large circumference. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressures were significantly greater when the standard cuff was used. For every 5 cm increase in arm circumference, starting at 35 cm, a 2-5 mmHg increase in systolic blood pressure, and a 1-3 mmHg increase in diastolic blood pressure was observed. The prevalence of arms with a large circumference in the family medicine unit and hypertension clinic was 42% and 41.8%, respectively. There is an overestimation of blood pressure when a standard cuff is used in obese subjects. The high prevalence of these individuals in our environment, both in the hypertensive and normotensive population, makes it necessary to have on hand different sizes of cuffs for taking blood pressure in order to avoid incorrect decisions.

  12. 77 FR 54836 - Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-09-06

    ... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 49 CFR Part 571 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards CFR Correction 0 In Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations... read as follows: Sec. 571.119 Standard No. 119; New pneumatic tires for motor vehicles with a GVWR of...

  13. Executive Functions Contribute Uniquely to Reading Competence in Minority Youth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobson, Lisa A.; Koriakin, Taylor; Lipkin, Paul; Boada, Richard; Frijters, Jan; Lovett, Maureen; Hill, Dina; Willcutt, Erik; Gottwald, Stephanie; Wolf, Maryanne; Bosson-Heenan, Joan; Gruen, Jeffrey R.; Mahone, E. Mark

    2018-01-01

    Competent reading requires various skills beyond those for basic word reading (i.e., core language skills, rapid naming, phonological processing). Contributing “higher-level” or domain-general processes include information processing speed and executive functions (working memory, strategic problem solving, attentional switching). Research in this area has relied on largely Caucasian samples, with limited representation of children from racial or ethnic minority groups. This study examined contributions of executive skills to reading competence in 761 children of minority backgrounds. Hierarchical linear regressions examined unique contributions of executive functions (EF) to word reading, fluency, and comprehension. EF contributed uniquely to reading performance, over and above reading-related language skills; working memory contributed uniquely to all components of reading; while attentional switching, but not problem solving, contributed to isolated and contextual word reading and reading fluency. Problem solving uniquely predicted comprehension, suggesting that this skill may be especially important for reading comprehension in minority youth. Attentional switching may play a unique role in development of reading fluency in minority youth, perhaps as a result of the increased demand for switching between spoken versus written dialects. Findings have implications for educational and clinical practice with regard to reading instruction, remedial reading intervention, and assessment of individuals with reading difficulty. PMID:26755569

  14. Reading characteristics of deaf and hard-of-hearing pupils

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karić Jasmina

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Background/Aim. Speech motor mechanisms play a crucial role in the process of demutization, due to the fact that they cover all the elements of the successive development of spech production movements leading to speech formation (socalled kinesthesia in speach. The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of perceptual motor actions on the cognitive process of reading in 130 students in regular schools and schools for the deaf and hard-of-hearing children in the Republic of Serbia. Methods. Kostić and Vladisavljević test consisted of the ten levels weight was used for the assessment of reading speed. To assess understanding of text read by verbal responses, we used three-dimensional adapted reading test of Helene Sax. Results. The triage-articulation test for assessing reading speed (Kostić and Vladisavljević’s test according to the weight of ten levels, revealed that students in regular schools statistically significantly faster read texts as compared to the deaf students. The results of the threedimensional adapted reading test of Helena Sax, show that the words learned by deaf children exist in isolation in their mind, ie, if there is no standard of acoustic performance for graphic image, in deaf child every word, printed or written, is just the sum of letters without meaning. Conclusion. There is a significant difference in text reading speed and its understanding among the children who hear and the deaf and hard of-hearing children. It is essential that in deaf and heard-of hearing children education, apart from the development of speech, parallelly use the concept of semantic processing in order to get each word by the fullness of its content and the possibility of expanding its meaning in a variety of assets.

  15. [Reading characteristics of deaf and hard-of-hearing pupils].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karić, Jasmina; Ristić, Sinisa; Medenica, Snezana; Tadić, Vaska; Slavnić, Svetlana

    2012-10-01

    Speech motor mechanisms play a crucial role in the process of demutization, due to the fact that they cover all the elements of the successive development of spech production movements leading to speech formation (so-called kinesthesia in speach). The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of perceptual motor actions on the cognitive process of reading in 130 students in regular schools and schools for the deaf and hard-of-hearing children in the Republic of Serbia. Kostić and Vladisavljević test consisted of the ten levels weight was used for the assessment of reading speed. To assess understanding of text read by verbal responses, we used three-dimensional adapted reading test of Helene Sax. The triage-articulation test for assessing reading speed (Kostié and Vladisavljević's test according to the weight of ten levels, revealed that students in regular schools statistically significantly faster read texts as compared to the deaf students. The results of the three-dimensional adapted reading test of Helena Sax, show that the words learned by deaf children exist in isolation in their mind, i.e., if there is no standard of acoustic performance for graphic image, in deaf child every word, printed or written, is just the sum of letters without meaning. There is a significant difference in text reading speed and its understanding among the children who hear and the deaf and hard-of-hearing children. It is essential that in deaf and heard-of-hearing children education, apart from the development of speech, parallelly use the concept of semantic processing in order to get each word by the fullness of its content and the possibility of expanding its meaning in a variety of assets.

  16. A comparison of blood pressure in community pharmacies with ambulatory, home and general practitioner office readings: systematic review and meta-analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albasri, Ali; O'Sullivan, Jack W.; Roberts, Nia W.; Prinjha, Suman; McManus, Richard J.; Sheppard, James P.

    2017-01-01

    Background: Blood pressure (BP) readings are traditionally taken in a clinic setting, with treatment recommendations based on these measurements. The clinical interpretation of BP readings taken in community pharmacies is currently unclear. This study aimed to systematically review all literature comparing community pharmacy BP (CPBP) readings with ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM), home BP monitoring and general practitioner clinic readings. Method: Studies were included if they compared CPBP with at least one other measurement modality used for the diagnosis or management of hypertension. Mean CPBP readings were compared with other measurement modalities and summarized using random-effects meta-analyses. The primary outcome was to compare CPBP with gold standard ABPM readings. Results: Searches generated 3815 studies of which eight were included in the meta-analyses. The mean systolic CPBP-daytime ABPM difference was small [+1.6 mmHg (95% confidence interval −1.2 to 4.3) three studies, n = 319]. CPBP was significantly higher than 24-h ABPM [+7.8 mmHg (95% confidence interval 1.5–14.1) three studies n = 429]. Comparisons with general practitioner clinic readings (six studies, n = 2100) were inconclusive with significant heterogeneity between studies. CPBP and home BP monitoring readings (five studies, n = 1848) were nonsignificantly different. Diastolic comparisons mirrored systolic comparisons in all but the CPBP-daytime ABPM comparison, where CPBP was significantly higher. Conclusion: Current evidence around the clinical interpretation of CPBP is inconclusive. Although this review suggests that adopting the 135/85 mmHg threshold for hypertension might be reasonable and potentially result in a higher sensitivity for detecting patients with truly raised BP in pharmacies, the impact of this lower threshold on increased referrals to general practice clinics must be considered. PMID:28594707

  17. The Relationship between Strategic Reading Instruction, Student Learning of L2-Based Reading Strategies and L2 Reading Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akkakoson, Songyut

    2013-01-01

    This study investigates the relationship between strategic reading instruction, the process of learning second language-based reading strategies and English reading achievement for Thai university students of science and technology. In a course in reading general English texts for 16?weeks, 82 students were taught using a strategies-based approach…

  18. [Comparing Two Editions of Wechsler Intelligence Scales and Assessing Reading Skills in Children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Çelik, Cihat; Erden, Gülsen; Özmen, Sevim; Tural Hesapçıoğlu, Selma

    2017-01-01

    This study aimed to examine the cognitive profiles of children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV), the latter of which was recently standardized in Turkey. In addition, the reading abilities and intelligence scores of these children were also investigated. A total of 48 children with ADHD between the ages of 6 and 16 years who were outpatients in Muş State Hospital were included in this study. The children were administered the WISC-R, the WISC-IV, and the Oral Reading Skills and Reading Comprehension Test (ORCT). There were no significant differences between the WISC-R IQ scores and WISC-IV index scores. Moreover, reading comprehension skills (derived from ORCT scores) were predicted with significant accuracy by both the WISC-R Verbal IQ and the WISC-IV WMI (Working Memory Index). Results of this study suggest that the WISC-R and the WISC-IV scale are not sufficient for obtaining a specific cognitive profile for ADHD - there is no significant difference between them. However, the four-factor structure of the WISC-IV is believed to provide more specific information. In addition, results of this study related to reading skills indicate that the importance of reading skills should not be overlooked when assessing children with ADHD.

  19. Reading Instructional Management System (RIMS), Citrus Heights, California.

    Science.gov (United States)

    San Juan Unified School District, Carmichael, CA.

    This program, included in "Effective Reading Programs...," serves an unselected cross section fo 793 students in K-6. The program is designed to provide classroom teachers with information about the needs and progress of each student in order to enable teachers to diagnose reading problems and prescribe activities to correct them. The…

  20. The Effect of Modified Collaborative Strategic Reading on EFL Learners' Reading Anxiety

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shabnam Abbasnezhad

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The present study was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of reading instructional approach called MCSR- Modified Collaborative Strategic Reading on reducing intermediate EFL learner's reading anxiety. Based on a pretest-posttest design, MCSR was implemented with 64 EFL learners at intermediate level. They received EFL reading instruction according to MCSR over two and a half months. A questionnaire called English as a Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Inventory EFLRAI was group-administered atthepretest and the posttest. Quantitative results indicated that participating students demonstrated significant gains in reducing reading anxiety. This study highlighted our understanding by considering the effectiveness of MCSR program and also it elaborated the effects of using strategies like MCSR in overcoming the big problem of reading anxiety among EFL learners as non-native students. And teachers changed the focus of attention from using traditional methods for teaching the essential skill of reading to modern programs like MCSR in order to remove their students' anxiety and stress in reading.

  1. The Effect of Baby Books on Mothers’ Reading Beliefs and Reading Practices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auger, Anamarie; Reich, Stephanie M.; Penner, Emily K.

    2014-01-01

    The impact of a baby book intervention on promoting positive reading beliefs and increasing reading frequency for low-income, new mothers (n = 167) was examined. The Baby Books Project randomly assigned low-income, first-time mothers to one of three study conditions, receiving educational books, non-educational books, or no books, during pregnancy and over the first year of parenthood. Home-based data collection occurred through pregnancy until 18 months post-partum. Mothers who received free baby books had higher beliefs about the importance of reading, the value of having resources to support reading, and the importance of verbal participation during reading. The results showed that providing any type of baby books to mothers positively influenced maternal reading beliefs, but did not increase infant-mother reading practices. Maternal reading beliefs across all three groups were significantly associated with self-reported reading frequency when children were at least 12 months of age. PMID:25264394

  2. Evaluation of use of reading comprehension strategies to improve reading comprehension of adult college students with acquired brain injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffiths, Gina G; Sohlberg, McKay Moore; Kirk, Cecilia; Fickas, Stephen; Biancarosa, Gina

    2016-01-01

    Adults with mild to moderate acquired brain injury (ABI) often pursue post-secondary or professional education after their injuries in order to enter or re-enter the job market. An increasing number of these adults report problems with reading-to-learn. The problem is particularly concerning given the growing population of adult survivors of ABI. Despite the rising need, empirical evaluation of reading comprehension interventions for adults with ABI is scarce. This study used a within-subject design to evaluate whether adult college students with ABI with no more than moderate cognitive impairments benefited from using reading comprehension strategies to improve comprehension of expository text. Integrating empirical support from the cognitive rehabilitation and special education literature, the researchers designed a multi-component reading comprehension strategy package. Participants read chapters from an introductory-level college anthropology textbook in two different conditions: strategy and no-strategy. The results indicated that reading comprehension strategy use was associated with recall of more correct information units in immediate and delayed free recall tasks; more efficient recall in the delayed free recall task; and increased accuracy recognising statements from a sentence verification task designed to reflect the local and global coherence of the text. The findings support further research into using reading comprehension strategies as an intervention approach for the adult ABI population. Future research needs include identifying how to match particular reading comprehension strategies to individuals, examining whether reading comprehension performance improves further through the incorporation of systematic training, and evaluating texts from a range of disciplines and genres.

  3. Reliability and Validity of Curriculum-Based Informal Reading Inventories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuchs, Lynn; And Others

    A study was conducted to explore the reliability and validity of three prominent procedures used in informal reading inventories (IRIs): (1) choosing a 95% word recognition accuracy standard for determining student instructional level, (2) arbitrarily selecting a passage to represent the difficulty level of a basal reader, and (3) employing…

  4. Dosimeter charging and/or reading apparatus

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fine, L.T.; Jackson, T.P.

    1980-01-01

    A device is disclosed for charging and/or reading a capacitor associated with an electrometer incorporated in a radiation dosimeter for the purpose of initializing or ''zeroing'', the dosimeter at the commencement of a radiation measurement cycle or reading it at any time thereafter. The dosimeter electrometer has a movable electrode the position of which is indicative of the charge remaining on the dosimeter capacitor and in turn the amount of radiation incident on the dosimeter since it was zeroed. The charging device also includes means for discharging, immediately upon conclusion of the dosimeter capacitor charging operation, stray capacitance inherent in the dosimeter by reason of its mechanical construction. The charge on the stray capacitance, if not discharged at the conclusion of the dosimeter capacitor charging operation, leaks off during the measurement cycle, introducing measurement errors. A light source and suitable switch means are provided for automatically illuminating the movable electrode of the dosimeter electrometer as an incident to charging the dosimeter capacitor to facilitate reading the initial, or ''zero'', position of the movable electrometer electrode after the dosimeter capacitor has been charged and the stray capacitance discharged. Also included is a manually actuatable switch means, which is operable independently of the aforementioned automatic switch means, to energize the lamp and facilitate reading of the dosimeter without charging

  5. Rapid Automatized Naming, Verbal Working Memory, and Rhythm Discrimination as Predictors of Reading in Italian Undergraduate Students with and without Dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cancer, Alice; Antonietti, Alessandro

    2018-05-13

    Whereas the clinical manifestations and the neuropsychological predictors of Developmental Dyslexia (DD) are already well documented in Italian-speaking children, empirical evidence on DD in Italian adults is in contrast rather scarce. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of a subset of neuropsychological skills, which have been identified by previous literature to be related to reading, in the decoding abilities of a group of Italian undergraduates with and without DD. For this purpose, 39 university students aged between 19 and 27 years, 19 of whom with a diagnosis of DD, underwent an assessment battery including standardized reading tests, rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal working memory, and rhythmic pattern discrimination tests. Cross-group differences confirmed significantly lower performances of undergraduates with DD in all measures but rhythm discrimination, compared to typical readers, thus showing a non-compensated neuropsychological profile. Regression analyses showed that, while reading speed was strongly and uniquely predicted by RAN speed, reading accuracy was concurrently predicted by RAN and rhythmic abilities. Finally, RAN speed emerged as a strong predictor of reading performance and risk of receiving a diagnosis of DD.

  6. Reading in a second language: Considering the "simple view of reading" as a foundation to support ESL readers in Lesotho, Southern Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    van Staden, Annalene

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Globally, reading proficiency has been a major area of difficulty for English second-language (ESL learners. This research inter alia utilised a quantitative, quasi-experimental, pre-test/post-test research design to address the paucity of evidence-based second-language reading research internationally, as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in Lesotho in particular; and to determine if second-language learners (L2 in the experimental group can improve their L2 reading abilities after being exposed to reading intervention strategies, based on the “simple view of reading”. Drawing from both psycholinguistic and cognitive linguistic principles, the authors considered this as a working model to develop reading strategies to support ESL learners in Lesotho who experienced significant delays in L2 reading abilities and comprehension. In the present study, strategies based on the “simple view of reading”, , included, inter alia, effective language exposure, building a rich vocabulary, improving reading fluency and word recognition abilities, and creating socio-linguistic opportunities to develop vocabulary and enhance reading comprehension (for example, creating a “word wall”, interactive story-book reading and the application of the ReQuest reading method. Results from this quantitative study demonstrated that Grade 4 ESL learners in the experimental group (N=36 significantly outperformed those in the control group (N=36 with regard to sight word fluency, word recognition, syntactic awareness, vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. As we move forward in an attempt to understand the nuances of creating a responsive reading environment to support ESL learners’ reading development, assessing the effectiveness of strategies to improve their reading skills is essential.

  7. Information-optimal genome assembly via sparse read-overlap graphs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shomorony, Ilan; Kim, Samuel H; Courtade, Thomas A; Tse, David N C

    2016-09-01

    In the context of third-generation long-read sequencing technologies, read-overlap-based approaches are expected to play a central role in the assembly step. A fundamental challenge in assembling from a read-overlap graph is that the true sequence corresponds to a Hamiltonian path on the graph, and, under most formulations, the assembly problem becomes NP-hard, restricting practical approaches to heuristics. In this work, we avoid this seemingly fundamental barrier by first setting the computational complexity issue aside, and seeking an algorithm that targets information limits In particular, we consider a basic feasibility question: when does the set of reads contain enough information to allow unambiguous reconstruction of the true sequence? Based on insights from this information feasibility question, we present an algorithm-the Not-So-Greedy algorithm-to construct a sparse read-overlap graph. Unlike most other assembly algorithms, Not-So-Greedy comes with a performance guarantee: whenever information feasibility conditions are satisfied, the algorithm reduces the assembly problem to an Eulerian path problem on the resulting graph, and can thus be solved in linear time. In practice, this theoretical guarantee translates into assemblies of higher quality. Evaluations on both simulated reads from real genomes and a PacBio Escherichia coli K12 dataset demonstrate that Not-So-Greedy compares favorably with standard string graph approaches in terms of accuracy of the resulting read-overlap graph and contig N50. Available at github.com/samhykim/nsg courtade@eecs.berkeley.edu or dntse@stanford.edu Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  8. Development of a Case-based Reading Curriculum and Its Effect on Resident Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Messman, Anne M; Walker, Ian

    2018-01-01

    Textbook reading plays a foundational role in a resident's knowledge base. Many residency programs place residents on identical reading schedules, regardless of the clinical work or rotation the resident is doing. We sought to develop a reading curriculum that takes into account the clinical work a resident is doing so their reading curriculum corresponds with their clinical work. Preliminary data suggests an increased amount of resident reading and an increased interest in reading as a result of this change to their reading curriculum.

  9. The Effects of Reading Ability and Sex Difference on Recall Protocols of Japanese University Students

    OpenAIRE

    Hirano, Kinue

    2003-01-01

    This study investigates the concurrent validity of a recall test as a measure of reading comprehension and the effects of the level of reading ability and sex difference on the written recalls of 70 Japanese EFL university students. Results showed that there were moderate significant correlations between a recall test and a standardized reading test (i.e., FCE): for all the students, r = .64, p < .01; for males, r = .61, p < .01; for females, r = .67, p < .01, suggesting that a recall test is...

  10. Vision Problems and Reduced Reading Outcomes in Queensland Schoolchildren.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hopkins, Shelley; Sampson, Geoff P; Hendicott, Peter L; Wood, Joanne M

    2017-03-01

    To assess the relationship between vision and reading outcomes in Indigenous and non-Indigenous schoolchildren to determine whether vision problems are associated with lower reading outcomes in these populations. Vision testing and reading assessments were performed on 508 Indigenous and non-Indigenous schoolchildren in Queensland, Australia divided into two age groups: Grades 1 and 2 (6-7 years of age) and Grades 6 and 7 (12-13 years of age). Vision parameters measured included cycloplegic refraction, near point of convergence, heterophoria, fusional vergence range, rapid automatized naming, and visual motor integration. The following vision conditions were then classified based on the vision findings: uncorrected hyperopia, convergence insufficiency, reduced rapid automatized naming, and delayed visual motor integration. Reading accuracy and reading comprehension were measured with the Neale reading test. The effect of uncorrected hyperopia, convergence insufficiency, reduced rapid automatized naming, and delayed visual motor integration on reading accuracy and reading comprehension were investigated with ANCOVAs. The ANCOVAs explained a significant proportion of variance in both reading accuracy and reading comprehension scores in both age groups, with 40% of the variation in reading accuracy and 33% of the variation in reading comprehension explained in the younger age group, and 27% and 10% of the variation in reading accuracy and reading comprehension, respectively, in the older age group. The vision parameters of visual motor integration and rapid automatized naming were significant predictors in all ANCOVAs (P reading results were explained by reduced visual motor integration and rapid automatized naming results. Both reduced rapid automatized naming and visual motor integration were associated with poorer reading outcomes in Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. This is an important finding given the recent emphasis placed on Indigenous children

  11. Reading Roundup: Rope a Good Book. Louisiana Summer Reading Program, 1995 Manual.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Dorothy, J., Ed.

    A manual for the Louisiana Summer Reading Program is presented in 14 sections with a western theme and illustrations. An evaluation form, a 1995 calendar, and a list of audiovisual materials with addresses and prices are also provided. Section 1 discusses promotion, publicity, and programs; and includes sample news releases; program ideas, and…

  12. Elementary Teacher Knowledge of and Practices for Teaching Reading to African American Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Little, Camille

    2017-01-01

    State standardized tests results indicated that between 2012 and 2016, fewer African American students at a rural, Title I elementary school met state standards in reading compared with other racial/ethnic groups of students. A gap in practice existed because the school and district had not conducted studies to understand teacher knowledge and…

  13. Translating advances in reading comprehension research to educational practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danielle S. McNAMARA

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available The authors review five major findings in reading comprehension and their implications for educational practice. First, research suggests that comprehension skills are separable from decodingprocesses and important at early ages, suggesting that comprehension skills should be targeted early, even before the child learns to read. Second, there is an important distinction between readingprocesses and products, as well as their causal relationship: processes lead to certain products. Hence, instructional approaches and strategies focusing on processes are needed to improve students’reading performance (i.e., product. Third, inferences are a crucial component of skilled comprehension. Hence, children need scaffolding and remediation to learn to generate inferences, even when they know little about the text topic. Fourth, comprehension depends on a complex interaction between the reader, the characteristics of the text, and the instructional task, highlighting the need for careful selection of instructional materials for individual students and specific groups of students. Finally, educators may benefit from heightened awareness of the limitations and inadequacies of standardized reading comprehension assessments, as well as the multidimensionality of comprehension to better understand their students’ particular strengths and weaknesses.

  14. COMBINING COOPERATIVE LEARNING WITH READING ALOUD BY TEACHERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    George Jacobs

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available This article begins with a section that describes cooperative learning and explains eight cooperative learning principles. The second section discusses the interface between cooperative learning and language pedagogy. Next is a section about the why and how of reading aloud by teachers. The heart of the article resides in the last and longest section which describes techniques for integrating cooperative learning with reading aloud by teachers. These techniques include ones that can be used before, while and after the teacher has read aloud to the class.

  15. Flexible taxonomic assignment of ambiguous sequencing reads

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jansson Jesper

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background To characterize the diversity of bacterial populations in metagenomic studies, sequencing reads need to be accurately assigned to taxonomic units in a given reference taxonomy. Reads that cannot be reliably assigned to a unique leaf in the taxonomy (ambiguous reads are typically assigned to the lowest common ancestor of the set of species that match it. This introduces a potentially severe error in the estimation of bacteria present in the sample due to false positives, since all species in the subtree rooted at the ancestor are implicitly assigned to the read even though many of them may not match it. Results We present a method that maps each read to a node in the taxonomy that minimizes a penalty score while balancing the relevance of precision and recall in the assignment through a parameter q. This mapping can be obtained in time linear in the number of matching sequences, because LCA queries to the reference taxonomy take constant time. When applied to six different metagenomic datasets, our algorithm produces different taxonomic distributions depending on whether coverage or precision is maximized. Including information on the quality of the reads reduces the number of unassigned reads but increases the number of ambiguous reads, stressing the relevance of our method. Finally, two measures of performance are described and results with a set of artificially generated datasets are discussed. Conclusions The assignment strategy of sequencing reads introduced in this paper is a versatile and a quick method to study bacterial communities. The bacterial composition of the analyzed samples can vary significantly depending on how ambiguous reads are assigned depending on the value of the q parameter. Validation of our results in an artificial dataset confirm that a combination of values of q produces the most accurate results.

  16. Development of a Case-based Reading Curriculum and Its Effect on Resident Reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anne M. Messman

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Textbook reading plays a foundational role in a resident’s knowledge base. Many residency programs place residents on identical reading schedules, regardless of the clinical work or rotation the resident is doing. We sought to develop a reading curriculum that takes into account the clinical work a resident is doing so their reading curriculum corresponds with their clinical work. Preliminary data suggests an increased amount of resident reading and an increased interest in reading as a result of this change to their reading curriculum.

  17. Emergent literacy skills, behavior problems and familial antecedents of reading difficulties: a follow-up study of reading achievement from kindergarten to fifth grade.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costa, Hugo Câmara; Perdry, Hervé; Soria, Carmen; Pulgar, Salomé; Cusin, Françoise; Dellatolas, Georges

    2013-03-01

    This study examined the relation between emergent literacy skills, teachers' reports of behavioral problems, and word reading achievement in a community sample of French students. Family background was investigated and included familial antecedents of reading difficulties (Fa/Rd) and parents' educational level. The analyses explored the pattern of concurrent relations between behavioral, familial and emergent literacy measures in a sample of 812 preschoolers, and their predictive power in explaining word reading achievement in a sub-sample of 150 children followed from kindergarten to fifth grade. Word reading at fifth grade was predicted by kindergarten measures of phonological awareness and letter knowledge. Teachers' reports of inattention symptoms at each grade level were associated with early reading skills and with subsequent word reading. Fa/Rd were concurrently and longitudinally associated with emergent literacy skills, teachers' reported inattention and word reading. These results indicate that children with a family history of reading difficulties are at increased risk for the co-occurrence of reading difficulties and attention problems from kindergarten onward. These findings confirm the shared influence of Fa/Rd on the comorbidity between inattention symptoms and reading difficulties in a non-diagnosed community sample of preschool children followed through late elementary school. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Reading Comprehension Strategies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Unal Ulker

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The academic success of the university students greatly depends on the mastery of an academic reading skill. However, students as well as teachers, take the learning of this skill for granted, as they tend to presuppose that reading skill is acquired as a part of their secondary education. As a result, most first-year students employ non university strategies to read academic texts, which leads to a surface approach to reading and prevents students from a better understanding of the material. This paper will discuss the strategies that involve students in taking a deep approach to reading academic texts.

  19. Early reading intervention by means of a multicomponent reading game

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ven, M.A.M. van de; Leeuw, L.C. de; Weerdenburg, M.W.C. van; Steenbeek-Planting, E.G.

    2017-01-01

    This study examined the effects of an intervention with a multicomponent reading game on the development of reading skills in 60 Dutch primary school children with special educational needs. The game contains evidence-based reading exercises and is based on principles of applied gaming. Using a

  20. Reading-Related Causal Attributions for Success and Failure: Dynamic Links With Reading Skill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frijters, Jan C; Tsujimoto, Kimberley C; Boada, Richard; Gottwald, Stephanie; Hill, Dina; Jacobson, Lisa A; Lovett, Maureen W; Mahone, E Mark; Willcutt, Erik G; Wolf, Maryanne; Bosson-Heenan, Joan; Gruen, Jeffrey R

    2018-01-01

    The present study investigated the relation among reading skills and attributions, naming speed, and phonological awareness across a wide range of reading skill. Participants were 1,105 school-age children and youths from two understudied populations: African Americans and Hispanic Americans. Individual assessments of children ranging in age from 8 to 15 years were conducted for reading outcomes, cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading, and attributions for success and failure in reading situations. Quantile regressions were formulated to estimate these relations across the full skill span of each outcome. Reading-related attributions predicted contextual word recognition, sight word and decoding fluency, and comprehension skills. Attributions to ability in success situations were positively related to each outcome across the full span. On three reading outcomes, this relation strengthened at higher skill levels. Attributions to effort in success situations were consistently and negatively related to all reading outcomes. The results provide evidence that the strength of the relation between reading and attributions varies according to reading skill levels, with the strongest evidence for ability-based attributions in situations of reading success.

  1. What to use to express the variability of data: Standard deviation or standard error of mean?

    OpenAIRE

    Barde, Mohini P.; Barde, Prajakt J.

    2012-01-01

    Statistics plays a vital role in biomedical research. It helps present data precisely and draws the meaningful conclusions. While presenting data, one should be aware of using adequate statistical measures. In biomedical journals, Standard Error of Mean (SEM) and Standard Deviation (SD) are used interchangeably to express the variability; though they measure different parameters. SEM quantifies uncertainty in estimate of the mean whereas SD indicates dispersion of the data from mean. As reade...

  2. A case for the sentence in reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, Cheryl M

    2009-04-01

    This article addresses sentence comprehension as a requirement of reading comprehension within the framework of the narrow view of reading that was advocated in the prologue to this forum. The focus is on the comprehension requirements of complex sentences, which are characteristic of school texts. Topics included in this discussion are (a) evidence linking sentence comprehension and syntax with reading, (b) syntactic properties of sentences that make them difficult to understand, (c) clinical applications for the assessment of sentence comprehension as it relates to reading, and (d) evidence and methods for addressing sentence complexity in treatment. Sentence complexity can create comprehension problems for struggling readers. The contribution of sentence comprehension to successful reading has been overlooked in models that emphasize domain-general comprehension strategies at the text level. The author calls for the evaluation of sentence comprehension within the context of content domains where complex sentences are found.

  3. The Importance of Metacognitive Reading Strategy Awareness in Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmadi, Mohammad Reza; Ismail, Hairul Nizam; Abdullah, Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan

    2013-01-01

    Metacognitive reading strategy awareness plays a significant role in reading comprehension and educational process. In spite of its importance, metacognitive strategy has long been the ignored skill in English language teaching, research, learning, and assessment. This lack of good metacognitive reading strategy skill is exacerbated by the central…

  4. Nanophotonic lab-on-a-chip platforms including novel bimodal interferometers, microfluidics and grating couplers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duval, Daphné; González-Guerrero, Ana Belén; Dante, Stefania; Osmond, Johann; Monge, Rosa; Fernández, Luis J; Zinoviev, Kirill E; Domínguez, Carlos; Lechuga, Laura M

    2012-05-08

    One of the main limitations for achieving truly lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices for point-of-care diagnosis is the incorporation of the "on-chip" detection. Indeed, most of the state-of-the-art LOC devices usually require complex read-out instrumentation, losing the main advantages of portability and simplicity. In this context, we present our last advances towards the achievement of a portable and label-free LOC platform with highly sensitive "on-chip" detection by using nanophotonic biosensors. Bimodal waveguide interferometers fabricated by standard silicon processes have been integrated with sub-micronic grating couplers for efficient light in-coupling, showing a phase resolution of 6.6 × 10(-4)× 2π rad and a limit of detection of 3.3 × 10(-7) refractive index unit (RIU) in bulk. A 3D network of SU-8 polymer microfluidics monolithically assembled at the wafer-level was included, ensuring perfect sealing and compact packaging. To overcome some of the drawbacks inherent to interferometric read-outs, a novel all-optical wavelength modulation system has been implemented, providing a linear response and a direct read-out of the phase variation. Sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility of the wavelength modulated BiMW sensor has been demonstrated through the label-free immunodetection of the human hormone hTSH at picomolar level using a reliable biofunctionalization process.

  5. The Analogy as a Cognitive Strategy that Encourages Reading Comprehension in Expository Texts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Viveros-Márquez

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available This research arises from the current state of reading in Mexico, because the contextual situation to local and national level has become critical on this issue. Results on standardized tests such as ENLACE (National Assessment of Academic Achievement in Schools and PISA (Program for International Student Assessment have shown that Mexican basic level students have text comprehension problems. Given this reality, this is a qualitative descriptive study on the use of analogies in reading as a strategy for reading comprehension, through application of an ethnographic survey, a questionnaire and the application of a pedagogical model for the use of analogies in reading. The study incorporates the theoretical tenets of Constructivism, referring to Piaget (1969, Vygotsky (1997 and Ausubel (2002. The results show that the use of analogies promotes reading comprehension in 4th grade students, from an expository text that compares the evolution of man and the metamorphosis of a butterfly.

  6. ICANREAD: The Effects of an Online Reading Program on Grade 1 Students' Engagement and Comprehension Strategy Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ciampa, Katia

    2012-01-01

    This pilot study explores the impact of online electronic storybooks (e-books) on the reading motivation and listening comprehension of six grade 1 students (aged 7 years) from Ontario, Canada. The researcher measured participants' perceived enjoyment of the online e-book reading experience using standardized listening comprehension tests,…

  7. An Intercultural Education: Teaching Reading in a Mapuche Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernández, María Elena Mellado; Hermosilla, Adriana del Carmen Huaiquimil

    2015-01-01

    In Chile, there are currently intercultural educational policies; national curricula that assume updated research development including investigational advances in reading and opportunities for improvement of teacher training. However, in La Araucania Region predominates for lagging behind in reading and it is necessary to explain this tendency…

  8. How do children read words? A focus on reading processes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Boer, M.

    2014-01-01

    Being able to read is very important in our literate society. Many studies, therefore, have examined children’s reading skills to improve our understanding of reading development. In general, there have been two types of studies. On the one hand, there is a line of research that focuses on the

  9. Rearing a reading habit

    OpenAIRE

    Sridhar, M. S.

    2009-01-01

    Discusses the importance and ways of inculcating reading habit in children at the right age, describes the five reading phases in children along with interest and the material to satiate the need, explains how four deterministic factors affect the reading habit of children, enlists motivations that are behind the reading process with tips to improve reading habit of children.

  10. Effects of Listening While Reading (LWR on Swahili Reading Fluency and Comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Filipo Lubua

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available A number of studies have examined the contribution of technology in teaching such languages as English, French, and Spanish, among many others. Contrarily, most LCTL’s, have received very little attention. This study investigates if listening while reading (LWR may expedite Swahili reading fluency and comprehension. The study employed the iBook Author tool to create weekly mediated and interactive reading texts, with comprehension exercises, which were eventually used to collect descriptive and qualitative data from four Elementary Swahili students. Participants participated in a seven week reading program, which provided them with some kind of directed self-learning, and met with the instructor for at least 30 minutes every week for observation and more reading activities. The teacher recorded their reading scores, and a number of themes on how LWR influenced reading fluency and comprehension are discussed here. It shows that participants have a positive attitude towards LWR and they suggest it for all the reading classes.

  11. Reading Fluency Instruction for Students at Risk for Reading Failure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ring, Jeremiah J.; Barefoot, Lexie C.; Avrit, Karen J.; Brown, Sasha A.; Black, Jeffrey L.

    2013-01-01

    The important role of reading fluency in the comprehension and motivation of readers is well documented. Two reading rate intervention programs were compared in a cluster-randomized clinical trial of students who were considered at-risk for reading failure. One program focused instruction at the word level; the second program focused instruction…

  12. Early Reading Intervention by Means of a Multicomponent Reading Game

    Science.gov (United States)

    van de Ven, M.; de Leeuw, L.; van Weerdenburg, M.; Steenbeek-Planting, E. G.

    2017-01-01

    This study examined the effects of an intervention with a multicomponent reading game on the development of reading skills in 60 Dutch primary school children with special educational needs. The game contains evidence-based reading exercises and is based on principles of applied gaming. Using a multiple baseline approach, we tested children's…

  13. A tool for standardized collector performance calculations including PVT

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Perers, Bengt; Kovacs, Peter; Olsson, Marcus

    2012-01-01

    A tool for standardized calculation of solar collector performance has been developed in cooperation between SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, DTU Denmark and SERC Dalarna University. The tool is designed to calculate the annual performance of solar collectors at representative locations...... can be tested and modeled as a thermal collector, when the PV electric part is active with an MPP tracker in operation. The thermal collector parameters from this operation mode are used for the PVT calculations....

  14. Implementing Home Health Standards in Clinical Practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorski, Lisa A

    2016-02-01

    In 1986, the American Nurses Association (ANA) published the first Standards of Home Health Practice. Revised in 1992 and expanded in 1999 to become Home Health Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, it was revised in 2008 and again in 2014. In the 2014 edition, there are 6 standards of home healthcare nursing practice and 10 standards of professional performance for home healthcare nursing. The focus of this article is to describe the home healthcare standards and to provide guidance for implementation in clinical practice. It is strongly encouraged that home healthcare administrators, educators, and staff obtain a copy of the standards and fully read this essential home healthcare resource.

  15. Reading Tips for Parents = Consejos practicos de lectura para los padre.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Department of Education, Washington, DC. Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs.

    This booklet for parents, in both English and Spanish, offers suggestions for helping their young children develop and improve their reading skills. The booklet first presents tips for helping infants or preschoolers be ready to read and ready to learn. Suggestions include talking to the infant or toddler, reading aloud starting at 6 months,…

  16. "Show-Me Bedtime Reading'" An Unusual Study of the Benefits of Reading to Deaf Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogers, Deborah

    1989-01-01

    Nine primary-age children at a residential school for the deaf were read bedtime stories using a Total Communication approach. Every child subsequently demonstrated growth on each of several language assessments, including language comprehension and expressive language. (JDD)

  17. STUDENTS’ READING PRACTICES AND ENVIRONMENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aiza Johari

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: The challenges of reading are indeed apparent in most teaching and learning processes in ESL classrooms. As a result, this study is conducted to resolve the issues of students who seem to find reading to be unbearable. Many of them have limited ability to read well and hence, possess insufficient reading habits to become competent readers, particularly out-of-school context. Besides, poor home literacy environments also contribute to their shortcomings in reading. The main objectives of this study are to identify the students’ reasons for reading as well as to find out their home reading environments (reading backgrounds and habits; reading attitudes and motivation; reading exposure and supports. To identify these, questionnaires were distributed to 120 secondary school students (Form 4: 16 years old from one of the urban schools in Sarawak, Malaysia. The findings indicate that the students read to gain information and knowledge though many chose reading as a hobby as their last choice in explaining their motives of reading. Besides, they preferred non-academic reading materials, mainly lighter forms reading materials such as comics, story books and magazines. Though the students acknowledged the importance of reading in their daily lives, their average reading habits, attitude, motivation, exposure and support within the home domain had suggested otherwise. They mainly read for instrumental purposes while reading for pleasure seemed not to be given priority. Besides, the respondents acknowledge that their parents and themselves did not read much at home. As an implication, it is vital for students to improve their reading perceptions, abilities and practices to achieve personal, societal and national progress. On a final note, parents’ early and continuous efforts to be involved in their children’s literacy events in an out-of-school context are believed to be vital to inculcate positive reading environments, habits and culture

  18. Public Library Summer Reading Programs Contribute to Reading Progress and Proficiency. A Review of: Roman, S., & Fiore, C. (2010. Do public library summer reading programs close the achievement gap? Children and Libraries, (Winter, 27-31.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gayle Bogel

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Objectives – To explore summer reading partnerships between public libraries and school libraries, and the impact on student achievement in reading.Design – The design is mixed methods: tests, interviews and surveys.Setting – Eleven US sites involving school and public library partners.Subjects – A total of 357 elementary school students entering fourth grade that met specific criteria. Parents, teachers, school librarians and public librarians were also included.Methods – This study occurred over a three year period from 2006-2009. It was developed as a partnership between Dominican University, the Colorado State Library Agency and the Texas Library and Archives Commission. Additionally, the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University was contracted to conduct the research. It was designed to explore the research question central to a 1978 study by Barbara Heyns.An advisory committee, with representatives from each partner agency, developed evaluation questions and established the objective selection criteria for participants in the study. The criteria included: at least 50% of students qualifying for free and reduced price meals; at least 85 percent of school population would take the reading proficiency test in English; public library summer reading programs with a minimum of six weeks of programming; a history of collaboration between the paired school and public library applicants; both school and public library would sign a partnership agreement and participate in conference calls.In spring of 2008, students at participating sites were given a pre-test using the Scholastic Reading Inventory, and also provided with special summer reading logs developed for the study, to be used during their subsequent participation in the public library summer reading programs.In fall of 2008, the same children were tested on the Scholastic Reading Inventory. In addition, surveys of students, parents, teachers and library staff were

  19. Rate of Speech and Reading in Second and Fifth Grade Primary Students in Tehran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hourieh Ahadi

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: The purpose of this research is to study the standardization of speaking and reading rates in a group of normal speaker of female students, and to compare them. As the rate of speech is an important variable in the evaluation and treatment of stuttering, cluttering, dysarthria and apraxia. Materials and Method: One hundred of second grade students of primary school and an equal number of fifth grade students participated in this study. All subjects were native speakers of Farsi, who passed an informal, screening test of articulation and speech. None of the subjects had a history of speech, hearing, or neurological disorders. The subjects were asked to read from the 180 words portion of their Farsi book and tell story. Their speech was recorded by using a tape recorder. Then the data were analyzed for word and syllable rate. In transcribing the samples, single morpheme was counted as single word and compound words were counted as two words if they had two free morphemes. Non-word interjections were excluded from word and syllable counts while word interjections and repeated words were included in the count. Independent t-test and paired t-test were used for analyzing. Results: In the second grade students the reading rate is, on the average, 189.4 syllable per minute (SPM(94.9 word per minute(WPM, 3.1 syllable per second(SPS and the talking rate is 189.8 SPM (99.1 WPM, 3.1 SPS and in the fifth grade student the reading rate is 223.9 SPM (119.0 WPM, 3.7SPS and the talking rate is 210.26 SPM (109.5 WPM , 3.4 SPS. Conclusion: The result highlight that in the fifth grade students, reading rates are higher than talking rates while in the second grade they are not, because they do not have enough skills for whole word reading. A remarkable finding in this research is that, reading and talking rates in the fifth grade students are higher than the second grade students.

  20. Learning to Read Spectra: Teaching Decomposition with Excel in a Scientific Writing Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muelleman, Andrew W.; Glaser, Rainer E.

    2018-01-01

    Literacy requires reading comprehension, and fostering reading skills is an essential prerequisite to and a synergistic enabler of the development of writing skills. Reading comprehension in the chemical sciences not only consists of the understanding of text but also includes the reading and processing of data tables, schemes, and graphs. Thus,…

  1. Reading: United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weber, Rose-Marie

    1983-01-01

    An exploration of the increasingly important role of linguistics in literacy research and instruction reviews literature on reading comprehension, written language, orthography, metalinguistics, classroom language use, reading disabilities, native tongues, nonstandard dialects, bilingual education, adult literacy, and second-language reading. (86…

  2. Identifying Children in Middle Childhood Who Are at Risk for Reading Problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Speece, Deborah L; Ritchey, Kristen D; Silverman, Rebecca; Schatschneider, Christopher; Walker, Caroline Y; Andrusik, Katryna N

    2010-06-01

    The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate a universal screening battery for reading that is appropriate for older elementary students in a response to intervention model. Multiple measures of reading and reading correlates were administered to 230 fourth-grade children. Teachers rated children's reading skills, academic competence, and attention. Children were classified as not-at-risk or at-risk readers based on a three-factor model reflecting reading comprehension, word recognition/decoding, and word fluency. Predictors of reading status included group-administered tests of reading comprehension, silent word reading fluency, and teacher ratings of reading problems. Inclusion of individually administered tests and growth estimates did not add substantial variance. The receiver-operator characteristic curve analysis yielded an area under the curve index of 0.90, suggesting this model may both accurately and efficiently screen older elementary students with reading problems.

  3. The Effect of Reading Involvement through Open-Ended Strategy vs. Fill-in- the- Blanks Strategy on Young EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension Ability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rita Salehi Sepehr

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The present study investigated the extent to which an instructional framework of integrating strategy instruction (open-ended strategy and fill-in-the blanks strategy with motivation- support affected on reading result for young EFL learners. The central area of exploration included a comparison among three approaches to reading instruction: First, fill-in-the blanks strategy intervention; second, open-ended strategy intervention; and last, a control group which received the conventional reading strategies. The participants were sampled from amongst a group of seventy-seven pre-intermediate EFL learners in a language school in Tehran- Iran based on convenient sampling technique. For the sake of measurement, the researchers administered PET and CELT along with reading strategy based-test to quantify the participants’ current level of knowledge as well as the degree of achievement after treatment. For measurement’s sake, different types of tests such as PET, reading comprehension test (CELT, and reading strategy based- test were employed to quantify the participants’ current level of knowledge as well as the degree of achievement before and after instruction. The result of the present study indicated that the experimental groups had a significant improvement over the control group. Also, the level of learners’ reading engagement during classroom work mediated the instructional effects on reading outcomes. The results of this study can be to the benefit of both EFL and ESL teachers to teach reading comprehension using the student's critical mind as well as critical involvement in the reading tasks.

  4. Reading Disabilities and PASS Reading Enhancement Programme

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahapatra, Shamita

    2016-01-01

    Children experience difficulties in reading either because they fail to decode the words and thus are unable to comprehend the text or simply fail to comprehend the text even if they are able to decode the words and read them out. Failure in word decoding results from a failure in phonological coding of written information, whereas reading…

  5. The Effect of Collaborative Strategic Reading on Grade Six Students’ Reading Achievement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siti Tamah

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the language skills to master by Indonesian EFL learners is reading. In order to assist learners comprehend reading texts, teachers are challenged to apply various teaching strategies. As this paper focuses on teaching reading, two teaching strategies dealing with reading instruction are compared. To be specific, in this paper the writers conduct a study to find the difference between Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR and teacher-centered teaching strategy (by applying skimming and scanning. This study was a quasi experimental, which was conducted upon the sixth graders of an elementary school. The finding showed that reading achievements of the students who are taught using CSR and teacher-centered teaching strategy are not significantly different. Nevertheless, this study using Cohen’s d formula finds that CSR gave a small effect on students’ reading achievement.

  6. African American English-speaking students: an examination of the relationship between dialect shifting and reading outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craig, Holly K; Zhang, Lingling; Hensel, Stephanie L; Quinn, Erin J

    2009-08-01

    In this study, the authors evaluated the contribution made by dialect shifting to reading achievement test scores of African American English (AAE)-speaking students when controlling for the effects of socioeconomic status (SES), general oral language abilities, and writing skills. Participants were 165 typically developing African American 1st through 5th graders. Half were male and half were female, one third were from low-SES homes, and two-thirds were from middle-SES homes. Dialect shifting away from AAE toward Standard American English (SAE) was determined by comparing AAE production rates during oral and written narratives. Structural equation modeling evaluated the relative contributions of AAE rates, SES, and general oral language and writing skills on standardized reading achievement scores. AAE production rates were inversely related to reading achievement scores and decreased significantly between the oral and written narratives. Lower rates in writing predicted a substantial amount of the variance in reading scores, showing a significant direct effect and a significant indirect effect mediated by measures of oral language comprehension. The findings support a dialect shifting-reading achievement hypothesis, which proposes that AAE-speaking students who learn to use SAE in literacy tasks will outperform their peers who do not make this linguistic adaptation.

  7. Adapted shared reading at school for minimally verbal students with autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mucchetti, Charlotte A

    2013-05-01

    Almost nothing is known about the capacity of minimally verbal students with autism to develop literacy skills. Shared reading is a regular practice in early education settings and is widely thought to encourage language and literacy development. There is some evidence that children with severe disabilities can be engaged in adapted shared reading activities. The current study examines the impact of teacher-led adapted shared reading activities on engagement and story comprehension in minimally verbal 5-6-year-old children with autism using a multiple baseline/alternating treatment design. Four students and three teachers participated. Teachers conducted adapted shared reading activities with modified books (visual supports, three-dimensional objects, simplified text) and used specific strategies for increasing student engagement. Student performance during adapted activities was compared to performance during standard shared reading sessions. All four students showed increased story comprehension and engagement during adapted shared reading. Average percentage of session engaged was 87%-100% during adapted sessions, compared with 41%-52% during baseline. Average number of correct responses to story comprehension questions was 4.2-4.8 out of 6 during adapted sessions compared with 1.2-2 during baseline. Visual supports, tactile objects, and specific teaching strategies offer ways for minimally verbal students to meaningfully participate in literacy activities. Future research should investigate adapted shared reading activities implemented classroom-wide as well as joint engagement, language, and literacy outcomes after using such activities over time.

  8. Recognizing Psychiatric Comorbidity With Reading Disorders

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    Robert L. Hendren

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Reading disorder (RD, a specific learning disorder (SLD of reading that includes impairment in word reading, reading fluency, and/or reading comprehension, is common in the general population but often is not comprehensively understood or assessed in mental health settings. In education settings, comorbid mental and associated disorders may be inadequately integrated into intervention plans. Assessment and intervention for RD may be delayed or absent in children with frequently co-occurring mental disorders not fully responding to treatment in both school and mental health settings. To address this oversight, this review summarizes current knowledge regarding RDs and common comorbid or co-occurring disorders that are important for mental health and school settings. We chose to highlight RD because it is the most common SLD, and connections to other often comorbid disorders have been more thoroughly described in the literature. Much of the literature we describe is on decoding-based RD (or developmental dyslexia as it is the most common form of RD. In addition to risk for academic struggle and social, emotional, and behavioral problems, those with RD often show early evidence of combined or intertwined Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition childhood disorders. These include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and other SLDs. The present review highlights issues and areas of controversy within these comorbidities, as well as directions for future research. An interdisciplinary, integrated approach between mental health professionals and educators can lead to comprehensive and targeted treatments encompassing both academic and mental health interventions. Such targeted treatments may contribute to improved educational and health-related outcomes in vulnerable youth. While there is a growing research literature

  9. L2 Reading in Thailand: Vocational College Students' Application of Reading Strategies to Their Reading of English Texts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasemsap, Bharani; Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu

    2015-01-01

    This study aims to explore the application of reading strategies to the reading of English texts by Thai vocational college students. Data were collected via questionnaire surveys, think-aloud experiments and semi-structured interviews. The research results reveal different typologies of reading strategies adopted by lower and higher level English…

  10. An fMRI Study of Nonverbally Gifted Reading Disabled Adults: Has Deficit Compensation Effected Gifted Potential?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeffrey W Gilger

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Neuroscience has advanced our understanding of the neurological basis of reading disability. Yet, no functional imaging work has been reported on the twice-exceptional dyslexic: individuals exhibiting both nonverbal-giftedness and reading disability (RD. We compared groups of reading-disabled (RD, nonverbally-gifted (G, nonverbally-gifted-RD (GRD, and control (C adults on validated word-rhyming and spatial visualization fMRI tasks, and standardized psychometric tests, to ascertain if the neurological functioning of GRD subjects was similar to that of typical RD or G subjects, or perhaps some unique RD subtype. Results demonstrate that GRD adults resemble non-gifted reading disabled (RD adults in performance on paper-and-pencil reading, math and spatial tests, and in patterns of functional activation during rhyming and spatial processing. Data are consistent with what may be a shared etiology of reading disability and giftedness in GRD individuals that yields a lifespan interaction with reading compensation effects, modifying how their adult brain processes text and spatial stimuli.

  11. FASTQSim: platform-independent data characterization and in silico read generation for NGS datasets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shcherbina, Anna

    2014-08-15

    High-throughput next generation sequencing technologies have enabled rapid characterization of clinical and environmental samples. Consequently, the largest bottleneck to actionable data has become sample processing and bioinformatics analysis, creating a need for accurate and rapid algorithms to process genetic data. Perfectly characterized in silico datasets are a useful tool for evaluating the performance of such algorithms. Background contaminating organisms are observed in sequenced mixtures of organisms. In silico samples provide exact truth. To create the best value for evaluating algorithms, in silico data should mimic actual sequencer data as closely as possible. FASTQSim is a tool that provides the dual functionality of NGS dataset characterization and metagenomic data generation. FASTQSim is sequencing platform-independent, and computes distributions of read length, quality scores, indel rates, single point mutation rates, indel size, and similar statistics for any sequencing platform. To create training or testing datasets, FASTQSim has the ability to convert target sequences into in silico reads with specific error profiles obtained in the characterization step. FASTQSim enables users to assess the quality of NGS datasets. The tool provides information about read length, read quality, repetitive and non-repetitive indel profiles, and single base pair substitutions. FASTQSim allows the user to simulate individual read datasets that can be used as standardized test scenarios for planning sequencing projects or for benchmarking metagenomic software. In this regard, in silico datasets generated with the FASTQsim tool hold several advantages over natural datasets: they are sequencing platform independent, extremely well characterized, and less expensive to generate. Such datasets are valuable in a number of applications, including the training of assemblers for multiple platforms, benchmarking bioinformatics algorithm performance, and creating challenge

  12. Parents in Reading; Parents' Booklet (Folleto Para Los Padres).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Truby, Roy

    Developed for Idaho's original Parents in Reading program, this booklet is designed for use by parents of preschool and elementary school students. Topics are discussed in both English and Spanish and include: reading, listening, and talking to children; controlling television viewing; using numbers with children; children's muscles and movements;…

  13. NEW CONTRIBUTIONS TO READING DIFFICULTIES INTERVENTION

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    VÍCTOR SANTIUSTE BERMEJO

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available This article presents a synthesis of the intervention programs and strategies to treat reading difficulties. The synthesisincludes a review of the last published articles on the issue, both in Spanish and English. It also presents the visits todifferent Language Rehabilitation Centers in the Community of Madrid including the approaches applied in thesecenters. Besides the description of the general intervention strategies applied to reading problems, some of theprograms to treat specific difficulties of words decoding and recognizing are explained, and the programs to treatreading comprehension and fluidity.

  14. WWC Review of the Report "The Impact of Collaborative Strategic Reading on the Reading Comprehension of Grade 5 Students in Linguistically Diverse Schools." What Works Clearinghouse Single Study Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    What Works Clearinghouse, 2013

    2013-01-01

    The study reviewed in this paper examined the impact of "Collaborative Strategic Reading" ("CSR"), a set of instructional strategies used to build reading proficiency, on the reading comprehension of fifth-grade students. The analysis included 1,355 students from 74 social studies classrooms within 26 linguistically diverse…

  15. AXAF FITS standard for ray trace interchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsieh, Paul F.

    1993-07-01

    A standard data format for the archival and transport of x-ray events generated by ray trace models is described. Upon review and acceptance by the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) Software Systems Working Group (SSWG), this standard shall become the official AXAF data format for ray trace events. The Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) is well suited for the purposes of the standard and was selected to be the basis of the standard. FITS is both flexible and efficient and is also widely used within the astronomical community for storage and transfer of data. In addition, software to read and write FITS format files are widely available. In selecting quantities to be included within the ray trace standard, the AXAF Mission Support team, Science Instruments team, and the other contractor teams were surveyed. From the results of this survey, the following requirements were established: (1) for the scientific needs, each photon should have associated with it: position, direction, energy, and statistical weight; the standard must also accommodate path length (relative phase), and polarization. (2) a unique photon identifier is necessary for bookkeeping purposes; (3) a log of individuals, organizations, and software packages that have modified the data must be maintained in order to create an audit trail; (4) a mechanism for extensions to the basic kernel should be provided; and (5) the ray trace standard should integrate with future AXAF data product standards.

  16. The Effect of Background Music While Silent Reading on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

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    sakineh sahebdel

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available This study attempted to determine the effect of background music while silent reading on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. The participants were 57 Iranian EFL learners between the ages of 14 and 16 in two 3rd grade high schoolclasses at pre-intermediate proficiency level. Before treatment,both experimental and control groups took a reading comprehension pretest. In the experimental group, the researchers played Mozart sonatas as background music and asked them to read the passage silently and then answer the reading comprehension questions. In the control group, the procedure was the same, but no music was played while silent reading by the students. After ten sessions, the students of both groups were asked to answer another independent but parallel form of reading section of PET as their post-test. The independent samples t-testresultsindicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in reading comprehension posttest, and listening to background music while silent reading had a significantly positive effect on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. The results of the present study have implications for EFL students, teachers, and teacher educators as well as syllabus designers and materials developers.

  17. Are your employees protected from blood-borne pathogens? OSHA standards charge textile rental companies with responsibility for worker safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weller, S C

    1991-11-01

    Congress is putting pressure on OSHA to finalize its Universal Precaution standards by December. When the standards go into effect, textile rental companies that serve medical, dental, and outpatient care facilities--including private physician and dentist offices--must take steps to protect employees from blood-borne pathogens. Soiled linens, towels, gowns, and other items from any customer in risk categories link a textile rental facility and/or commercial laundry with the OSHA regulations. Read and heed this information.

  18. Reading Journal as A Way to Improve Students’ Comprehension toward A Textbook Reading Material

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Menik Winiharti

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Reading journal is one way to record students’ independent learning based on text they read. This study was conducted to find out the students’ level of reading comprehension through some notes written in the reading journal, the extent to which the activity of writing reading journals improved students’ reading comprehension, whether the students got benefit from reading journal. There were 104 respondents coming from four different departments in Bina Nusantara University were asked to read a text related to the subject they learned in a certain session. Then they were assigned to write a journal that records the things they had read. When this task was finished, the lecturer ran a quiz containing related questions to check whether they really understood the content of the text. Afterwards, students were to fill in a questionnaire regarding their opinion on the impact of the reading journal toward their reading comprehension. The findings indicate that more than half of the participants appear to understand the material well, and the task plays a certain role in improving students’ understanding. The most crucial thing is that most students think they get benefit by writing the reading journal.

  19. ConDeTri--a content dependent read trimmer for Illumina data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smeds, Linnéa; Künstner, Axel

    2011-01-01

    During the last few years, DNA and RNA sequencing have started to play an increasingly important role in biological and medical applications, especially due to the greater amount of sequencing data yielded from the new sequencing machines and the enormous decrease in sequencing costs. Particularly, Illumina/Solexa sequencing has had an increasing impact on gathering data from model and non-model organisms. However, accurate and easy to use tools for quality filtering have not yet been established. We present ConDeTri, a method for content dependent read trimming for next generation sequencing data using quality scores of each individual base. The main focus of the method is to remove sequencing errors from reads so that sequencing reads can be standardized. Another aspect of the method is to incorporate read trimming in next-generation sequencing data processing and analysis pipelines. It can process single-end and paired-end sequence data of arbitrary length and it is independent from sequencing coverage and user interaction. ConDeTri is able to trim and remove reads with low quality scores to save computational time and memory usage during de novo assemblies. Low coverage or large genome sequencing projects will especially gain from trimming reads. The method can easily be incorporated into preprocessing and analysis pipelines for Illumina data. Freely available on the web at http://code.google.com/p/condetri.

  20. Psychometric Research in Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Frederick B.

    This review of psychometric research in reading analyzes the factors which seem related to reading comprehension skills. Experimental analysis of reading comprehension by L. E. Thorndike revealed two major components: knowledge of word meanings and verbal reasoning abilities. Subsequent analysis of experimental studies of reading comprehension…

  1. An Investigation of Item Type in a Standards-Based Assessment.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liz Hollingworth

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Large-scale state assessment programs use both multiple-choice and open-ended items on tests for accountability purposes. Certainly, there is an intuitive belief among some educators and policy makers that open-ended items measure something different than multiple-choice items. This study examined two item formats in custom-built, standards-based tests of achievement in Reading and Mathematics at grades 3-8. In this paper, we raise questions about the value of including open-ended items, given scoring costs, time constraints, and the higher probability of missing data from test-takers.

  2. Critical reading and critical thinking Critical reading and critical thinking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Loni Kreis Taglieber

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to provide, for L1 and L2 reading and writing teachers, a brief overview of the literature about critical reading and higher level thinking skills. The teaching of these skills is still neglected in some language classes in Brazil, be it in L1 or in L2 classes. Thus, this paper may also serve as a resource guide for L1 and/or L2 reading and writing teachers who want to incorporate critical reading and thinking into their classes. In modern society, even in everyday life people frequently need to deal with complicated public and political issues, make decisions, and solve problems. In order to do this efficiently and effectively, citizens must be able to evaluate critically what they see, hear, and read. Also, with the huge amount of printed material available in all areas in this age of “information explosion” it is easy to feel overwhelmed. But often the information piled up on people’s desks and in their minds is of no use due to the enormous amount of it. The purpose of this paper is to provide, for L1 and L2 reading and writing teachers, a brief overview of the literature about critical reading and higher level thinking skills. The teaching of these skills is still neglected in some language classes in Brazil, be it in L1 or in L2 classes. Thus, this paper may also serve as a resource guide for L1 and/or L2 reading and writing teachers who want to incorporate critical reading and thinking into their classes. In modern society, even in everyday life people frequently need to deal with complicated public and political issues, make decisions, and solve problems. In order to do this efficiently and effectively, citizens must be able to evaluate critically what they see, hear, and read. Also, with the huge amount of printed material available in all areas in this age of “information explosion” it is easy to feel overwhelmed. But often the information piled up on people’s desks and in their minds is of

  3. Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son: Reading While Having Fun.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holmes, Kerry

    2003-01-01

    This article describes how a first-grade teacher used poetry to provide students of diverse ability levels with reading and language activities that stimulated their interest and improved basic skills. Activities with poetry included reading the poems aloud individually and as a group, discussing and analyzing the poems' words and meanings, and…

  4. The association of abnormal cerebellar function in children with developmental coordination disorder and reading difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Hare, Anne; Khalid, Shabana

    2002-01-01

    Children with developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxia (DCD) are at high risk of reading and writing delay. The difficulties with motor skills are heterogeneous and many children have features of poor cerebellar function, reflected in problems with posture, balance and fast accurate control of movement. This study confirmed a high level of parental reporting of reading and writing delay in a clinical group of 23 children with DCD, defined on the basis of both clinical examination and standardized testing of motor function. Direct measurement of reading delay, identified still further children in the group. Those children with reading delay had associated findings typical of phonological awareness difficulties. The children also underwent a standardized test of neurological function and although they all had difficulties with cerebellar function, no distinctive pattern emerged for those whose presentation was complicated by delayed reading and writing. Both the children with DCD and 136 typically developing children, completed the pilot parental questionnaire on gross motor skills. The three skills of catching a ball, jumping on a moving playground roundabout and handwriting, distinguished the children with DCD. This study therefore confirms that children with DCD should be assessed for difficulties in phonological awareness. Additionally, children aged between 7 and 12 years are on the whole, highly competent in a range of gross motor skills and further study might determine whether a simple parental questionnaire might detect children who would benefit from further assessment. The study also suggests that all the children with DCD have cerebellar dysfunction and further work with a larger group might determine particular patterns associated with reading delay.

  5. Reading and Empathy

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCreary, John J.; Marchant, Gregory J.

    2017-01-01

    The relationship between reading and empathy was explored. Controlling for GPA and gender, reading variables were hypothesized as related to empathy; the relationship was expected to differ for males and females. For the complete sample, affective components were related to GPA but not reading. Perspective taking was related to reading…

  6. Reading Big Words: Instructional Practices to Promote Multisyllabic Word Reading Fluency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toste, Jessica R.; Williams, Kelly J.; Capin, Philip

    2017-01-01

    Poorly developed word recognition skills are the most pervasive and debilitating source of reading challenges for students with learning disabilities (LD). With a notable decrease in word reading instruction in the upper elementary grades, struggling readers receive fewer instructional opportunities to develop proficient word reading skills, yet…

  7. Systematic Tracking of Malaysian Primary School Students’ ESL Reading Comprehension Performance to Facilitate Instructional Processes

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    Lin Siew Eng

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This study was conducted to systematically track and benchmark upper primary school students‟ ESL reading comprehension ability and subsequently generate data at the micro and macro levels according to individual achievement, school location, gender and ethnicity at the school, district, state and national levels. The main intention of this initiative was to provide information to assist ESL teachers about their students‟ reading ability and to determine students' reading comprehension performance standards. The auto generated data is expected to facilitate classroom instructional process without necessitating teachers to prepare test materials or manage data of their students‟ reading comprehension track records. The respondents were 1,514 Year 5 students from urban and rural schools from a district in northern Malaysia. The idea was conceptualised through a series of tests and development of the Reading Evaluation and Decoding System (READS for Primary Schools. The findings indicated that majority of the respondents were „below standard‟ and „at academic warning‟. We believe the generated data can assist the Ministry of Education to develop better quality instructional processes that are evidence based with a more focused reading instruction and reading material to tailor to the needs of students.

  8. Does a dynamic test of phonological awareness predict early reading difficulties?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gellert, Anna Steenberg; Elbro, Carsten

    2017-01-01

    A few studies have indicated that dynamic measures of phonological awareness may contribute uniquely to the prediction of early reading development. However, standard control measures have been few and limited by floor effects, thus limiting their predictive value. The purpose of the present stud...

  9. Theme: Parents and Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jund, Suzanne, Ed.

    1977-01-01

    This journal issue concentrates on the theme "Parents and Reading." It presents articles on sharing books with young children, using public relations in a reading program, guiding preschool learning, assessing language readiness, working with reading problems, and teaching reading readiness in Wisconsin kindergartens. Resources and a review of…

  10. Effects of reading goals on reading comprehension, reading rate, and allocation of working memory in children and adolescents with spina bifida meningomyelocele

    Science.gov (United States)

    ENGLISH, LIANNE; BARNES, MARCIA A.; FLETCHER, JACK M.; DENNIS, MAUREEN; RAGHUBAR, KIMBERLY P.

    2011-01-01

    Spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with intact word decoding and deficient text and discourse comprehension. This study investigated the ability to adjust reading in accordance with specified reading goals in 79 children and adolescents with SBM (9–19 years of age) and 39 controls (8–17 years of age). Both groups demonstrated slower reading times and enhanced comprehension when reading to study or to come up with a title than when reading for specific information or for entertainment. For both groups, verbal working memory contributed to comprehension performance in those reading conditions hypothesized to require more cognitive effort. Despite their sensitivity to the goals of reading, the group with SBM answered fewer comprehension questions correctly across all reading goal conditions. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesized cognitive underpinnings of comprehension deficits in SBM and to current models of text comprehension. PMID:20338082

  11. Effects of reading goals on reading comprehension, reading rate, and allocation of working memory in children and adolescents with spina bifida meningomyelocele.

    Science.gov (United States)

    English, Lianne; Barnes, Marcia A; Fletcher, Jack M; Dennis, Maureen; Raghubar, Kimberly P

    2010-05-01

    Spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with intact word decoding and deficient text and discourse comprehension. This study investigated the ability to adjust reading in accordance with specified reading goals in 79 children and adolescents with SBM (9-19 years of age) and 39 controls (8-17 years of age). Both groups demonstrated slower reading times and enhanced comprehension when reading to study or to come up with a title than when reading for specific information or for entertainment. For both groups, verbal working memory contributed to comprehension performance in those reading conditions hypothesized to require more cognitive effort. Despite their sensitivity to the goals of reading, the group with SBM answered fewer comprehension questions correctly across all reading goal conditions. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesized cognitive underpinnings of comprehension deficits in SBM and to current models of text comprehension.

  12. Read-To-Write-Tasks” in English for Specific Purposes Classes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Galina Kavaliauskienė

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available At university level students face demanding tasks of reading an enormous amount of professional materials in English. Writing various assignments is another challenging part of higher education. Online activities are the priority for conducting assignments at tertiary level. Students usually start doing the English for Specific Purposes (ESP course before learning subject-matters of the future profession, i.e. in their first year. The cornerstone of the ESP is unfamiliar lexis and numerous concepts of subject-matter. In order to succeed, students need to develop proficiency in reading professional texts and writing skillfully on relevant subject issues. The aim of this paper is to study, first, learners‘ attitudes to online reading of professional materials as well as to writing various assignments online and, second, to examine learners‘ self-assessment of proficiency in these skills. Our research employed brief written surveys designed in accordance with the standards in Social Sciences, which were administered to the students doing the ESP course, and the verbal data obtained during individual interviews intended to assess learners‘ success and achievements throughout the academic year. The respondents were the students specializing in psychology at Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania. All the participants were unanimous in the importance of writing and reading skills for the ESP tasks. 100% of respondents support reading professional materials, and 80% of respondents support exercising online writing. Self-assessment of reading proficiency demonstrates that 90% of students believe they possess very good or good skills of reading, and 70% of learners are sure of their good skills in writing. Respondents’ performance in these skills is less impressive. Some recommendations towards perfecting students’ proficiency in “read-to-write-tasks” are suggested. It is important to help learners develop better rates of reading

  13. Promoting toddlers' vegetable consumption through interactive reading and puppetry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Droog, Simone M; van Nee, Roselinde; Govers, Mieke; Buijzen, Moniek

    2017-09-01

    Picture books with characters that promote healthy eating are increasingly being used to make this behavior more attractive. The first aim of this study was to investigate whether the effect of vegetable-promoting picture books on toddlers' vegetable consumption differed according to the reading style and the use of a hand puppet during reading. The second aim was to investigate whether these effects were mediated by toddlers' narrative involvement and character imitation. In a 2 (reading style: interactive vs. passive) x 2 (puppet use: with vs. without puppet) between-subjects design, 163 toddlers (2-3 years) were randomly assigned to one of the four reading conditions. The story was about a rabbit that loves to eat carrots. After the fourth reading day, the eating task was conducted in which children could eat freely from four different snacks, including carrots. The main finding was that interactive reading produced the greatest carrot consumption. The explanation for this effect was that interactive reading stimulated toddlers to imitate poses of the book characters, even more when interactive reading was supported by the use of a hand puppet. The findings underline that young children should be actively involved with health interventions in order for them to be effective. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Reading disorders and dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

    2016-12-01

    We review current knowledge about the nature of reading development and disorders, distinguishing between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading comprehension. Children with decoding difficulties/dyslexia experience deficits in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming in the preschool years and beyond. These phonological/language difficulties appear to be proximal causes of the problems in learning to decode print in dyslexia. We review data from a prospective study of children at high risk of dyslexia to show that being at family risk of dyslexia is a primary risk factor for poor reading and children with persistent language difficulties at school entry are more likely to develop reading problems. Early oral language difficulties are strong predictors of later difficulties in reading comprehension. There are two distinct forms of reading disorder in children: dyslexia (a difficulty in learning to translate print into speech) and reading comprehension impairment. Both forms of reading problem appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. Implications for screening and for the delivery of robust interventions for language and reading are discussed.

  15. Evaluation of radiographers’ mammography screen-reading accuracy in Australia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Debono, Josephine C; Poulos, Ann E; Houssami, Nehmat; Turner, Robin M; Boyages, John

    2015-01-01

    This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of radiographers’ screen-reading mammograms. Currently, radiologist workforce shortages may be compromising the BreastScreen Australia screening program goal to detect early breast cancer. The solution to a similar problem in the United Kingdom has successfully encouraged radiographers to take on the role as one of two screen-readers. Prior to consideration of this strategy in Australia, educational and experiential differences between radiographers in the United Kingdom and Australia emphasise the need for an investigation of Australian radiographers’ screen-reading accuracy. Ten radiographers employed by the Westmead Breast Cancer Institute with a range of radiographic (median = 28 years), mammographic (median = 13 years) and BreastScreen (median = 8 years) experience were recruited to blindly and independently screen-read an image test set of 500 mammograms, without formal training. The radiographers indicated the presence of an abnormality using BI-RADS®. Accuracy was determined by comparison with the gold standard of known outcomes of pathology results, interval matching and client 6-year follow-up. Individual sensitivity and specificity levels ranged between 76.0% and 92.0%, and 74.8% and 96.2% respectively. Pooled screen-reader accuracy across the radiographers estimated sensitivity as 82.2% and specificity as 89.5%. Areas under the reading operating characteristic curve ranged between 0.842 and 0.923. This sample of radiographers in an Australian setting have adequate accuracy levels when screen-reading mammograms. It is expected that with formal screen-reading training, accuracy levels will improve, and with support, radiographers have the potential to be one of the two screen-readers in the BreastScreen Australia program, contributing to timeliness and improved program outcomes

  16. Evaluation of radiographers’ mammography screen-reading accuracy in Australia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Debono, Josephine C, E-mail: josephine.debono@bci.org.au [Westmead Breast Cancer Institute, Westmead, New South Wales (Australia); Poulos, Ann E [Discipline of Medical Radiation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Lidcombe, New South Wales (Australia); Houssami, Nehmat [Screening and Test Evaluation Program, School of Public Health (A27), Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Turner, Robin M [School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Boyages, John [Macquarie University Cancer Institute, Macquarie University Hospital, Australian School of Advanced Medicine, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia); Westmead Breast Cancer Institute, Westmead, New South Wales (Australia)

    2015-03-15

    This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of radiographers’ screen-reading mammograms. Currently, radiologist workforce shortages may be compromising the BreastScreen Australia screening program goal to detect early breast cancer. The solution to a similar problem in the United Kingdom has successfully encouraged radiographers to take on the role as one of two screen-readers. Prior to consideration of this strategy in Australia, educational and experiential differences between radiographers in the United Kingdom and Australia emphasise the need for an investigation of Australian radiographers’ screen-reading accuracy. Ten radiographers employed by the Westmead Breast Cancer Institute with a range of radiographic (median = 28 years), mammographic (median = 13 years) and BreastScreen (median = 8 years) experience were recruited to blindly and independently screen-read an image test set of 500 mammograms, without formal training. The radiographers indicated the presence of an abnormality using BI-RADS®. Accuracy was determined by comparison with the gold standard of known outcomes of pathology results, interval matching and client 6-year follow-up. Individual sensitivity and specificity levels ranged between 76.0% and 92.0%, and 74.8% and 96.2% respectively. Pooled screen-reader accuracy across the radiographers estimated sensitivity as 82.2% and specificity as 89.5%. Areas under the reading operating characteristic curve ranged between 0.842 and 0.923. This sample of radiographers in an Australian setting have adequate accuracy levels when screen-reading mammograms. It is expected that with formal screen-reading training, accuracy levels will improve, and with support, radiographers have the potential to be one of the two screen-readers in the BreastScreen Australia program, contributing to timeliness and improved program outcomes.

  17. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reading Motivation as Predictors of Reading Literacy: A Longitudinal Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becker, Michael; McElvany, Nele; Kortenbruck, Marthe

    2010-01-01

    The purpose in this study was to examine the longitudinal relationships of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with reading literacy development. In particular, the authors (a) investigated reading amount as mediator between motivation and reading literacy and (b) probed for bidirectional relationships between reading motivation and reading…

  18. Visual processing in reading disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and its contribution to basic reading ability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kibby, Michelle Y; Dyer, Sarah M; Vadnais, Sarah A; Jagger, Audreyana C; Casher, Gabriel A; Stacy, Maria

    2015-01-01

    Whether visual processing deficits are common in reading disorders (RD), and related to reading ability in general, has been debated for decades. The type of visual processing affected also is debated, although visual discrimination and short-term memory (STM) may be more commonly related to reading ability. Reading disorders are frequently comorbid with ADHD, and children with ADHD often have subclinical reading problems. Hence, children with ADHD were used as a comparison group in this study. ADHD and RD may be dissociated in terms of visual processing. Whereas RD may be associated with deficits in visual discrimination and STM for order, ADHD is associated with deficits in visual-spatial processing. Thus, we hypothesized that children with RD would perform worse than controls and children with ADHD only on a measure of visual discrimination and a measure of visual STM that requires memory for order. We expected all groups would perform comparably on the measure of visual STM that does not require sequential processing. We found children with RD or ADHD were commensurate to controls on measures of visual discrimination and visual STM that do not require sequential processing. In contrast, both RD groups (RD, RD/ADHD) performed worse than controls on the measure of visual STM that requires memory for order, and children with comorbid RD/ADHD performed worse than those with ADHD. In addition, of the three visual measures, only sequential visual STM predicted reading ability. Hence, our findings suggest there is a deficit in visual sequential STM that is specific to RD and is related to basic reading ability. The source of this deficit is worthy of further research, but it may include both reduced memory for order and poorer verbal mediation.

  19. Visual processing in reading disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and its contribution to basic reading ability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michelle Y. Kibby

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Whether visual processing deficits are common in reading disorders (RD, and related to reading ability in general, has been debated for decades. The type of visual processing affected also is debated, although visual discrimination and short-term memory (STM may be more commonly related to reading ability. Reading disorders are frequently comorbid with ADHD, and children with ADHD often have subclinical reading problems. Hence, children with ADHD were used as a comparison group in this study. ADHD and RD may be dissociated in terms of visual processing. Whereas RD may be associated with deficits in visual discrimination and short-term memory for order, ADHD is associated with deficits in visual-spatial processing. Thus, we hypothesized that children with RD would perform worse than controls and children with ADHD only on a measure of visual discrimination and a measure of visual STM that requires memory for order. We expected all groups would perform comparably on the measure of visual STM that does not require sequential processing. We found children with RD or ADHD were commensurate to controls on measures of visual discrimination and visual STM that do not require sequential processing. In contrast, both RD groups (RD, RD/ADHD performed worse than controls on the measure of visual STM that requires memory for order, and children with comorbid RD/ADHD performed worse than those with ADHD. In addition, of the three visual measures, only sequential visual STM predicted reading ability. Hence, our findings suggest there is a deficit in visual sequential STM that is specific to RD and is related to basic reading ability. The source of this deficit is worthy of further research, but it may include both reduced memory for order and poorer verbal mediation.

  20. Predictors of Foreign Language Reading Comprehension in a Hypermedia Reading Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akbulut, Yavuz

    2008-01-01

    This study investigated factors affecting second/foreign language (L2) reading comprehension in a hypermedia environment within the theoretical framework of dual coding and cognitive load theories, and interactive models of L2 reading. The independent variables were reading ability, topic interest, prior topical knowledge, and the number of times…

  1. Tracking the reading eye: towards a model of real-world reading

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jarodzka, Halszka; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia

    2018-01-01

    Eye tracking has helped to understand the process of reading a word or a sentence, and this research has been very fruitful over the past decades. However, everyday real-world reading dramatically differs from this scenario: we read a newspaper on the bus, surf the Internet for movie reviews or

  2. Parents Using Explicit Reading Instruction with Their Children At-Risk for Reading Difficulties

    Science.gov (United States)

    McConnell, Bethany M.; Kubina, Rick

    2016-01-01

    Kindergarten students at-risk for reading difficulties were selected for participation in a parent implemented reading program. Each parent provided instruction to his or her child using the reading program "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" ("TYCTR"; Engelmann, Haddox, & Bruner, 1983). Parents were expected to…

  3. I Get Deja Vu When I Read You, Mr. Hirsch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hepburn, Mary A.

    In each era of curriculum reform the prevailing perceptions of what the school curriculum must accomplish define the standard of cultural literacy for our society. E. D. Hirsch believes that contemporary youth lack cultural literacy and that without this knowledge of the fundamental facts of U.S. culture they cannot effectively read or…

  4. Investigating Chinese English Majors’ Use of Reading Strategies : A Study on the Relationship between Reading Strategies and Reading Achievements 

    OpenAIRE

    Sun, Ling

    2011-01-01

    For several decades, reading strategies have aroused many researchers’ interest.Readingis a very important language skill for English learners; however, many English majors feel that their reading proficiency is far from satisfying though they have studied English for more than ten years. Therefore, the current situation of using reading strategies among Chinese sophomore English majors is studied in this paper. The research aims to study the relationship between the use of reading strategies...

  5. Who Says They Don’t Read? Slovene Elementary School Students’ Reading Motivation in EFL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anja Pirih

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available A typical (Slovene teenager today no longer finds reading materials on the book shelves in the local library, but forms a reading list of electronic sources, very often in English. However, in contrast with an abundance of studies focusing on first language (L1 reading strategies and motivation, not a lot of literature can be found on reading motivation in a foreign language, even though it is perceived as one of the most important factors influencing second language (L2 development. The aim of this research is to determine the influences on reading motivation in English as a foreign language in the group of young teenagers (11-14-year-olds and a possible transfer of L1 reading attitudes to L2 reading. The theoretical framework relies on Wigfield and Guthrie’s (1997 self-efficacy theory and Day and Bamford’s (1998 expectancy value model. The data obtained from 197 questionnaires give an insight into not only the frequency of reading in English and the type of reading materials, but also the factors influencing teenagers’ reading motivation in EFL.

  6. Lectura y Vida: Revista Latinoamericana de Lectura. (Reading and Life: Latin American Reading Magazine). 1998.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lectura y Vida: Revista Latinoamericana de Lectura, 1998

    1998-01-01

    The four 1998 issues of the journal on literacy education, entirely in Spanish, include these articles: "The Inevitable Radical Weakness of Language: Some Reflections about Forming Readers and Citizens" (Daniel Goldin); "Relationships among Reading and Writing, Thematic Units, Learning Through Research...In Search of Effective…

  7. Gender differences in (metacognitive and motivational-emotional factors of reading comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Svjetlana Kolić-Vehovec

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of our study was to establish, from the aspect of gender, the degree to which reading comprehension is connected with students' academic achievement, potential gender differences between (metacognitive and motivational-emotional factors of reading comprehension, and to identify the most important predictors of reading comprehension for exploratory and narrative texts. The results of study, which included 380 Slovenian and Croatian students with the average age of 10;6 years, showed that: (i reading comprehension significantly determines academic achievement regardless of students' gender; (ii there are significant gender differences in most of the factors of reading comprehension (girls summarize texts better, have more metacognitive knowledge of reading, show greater reading interest, feel more competent for reading and in general feel better while reading; (iii the predictive value of cognitive, motivational, and emotional predictors differ for exploratory and narrative texts (for exploratory texts metacognitive factors have the greatest predictive value; for narrative texts motivatonal-emotional factors have the greatest predictive value for boys, and metacognitive factors for girls.

  8. Using Reading Guides and On-Line Quizzes to Improve Reading Compliance and Quiz Scores

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maurer, Trent W.; Longfield, Judith

    2015-01-01

    This study compared students' daily in-class reading quiz scores in an introductory Child Development course across five conditions: control, reading guide only, reading guide and on-line practice quiz, reading guide and on-line graded quiz, and reading guide and both types of on-line quizzes. At the beginning of class, students completed a 5-item…

  9. GPU-BSM: a GPU-based tool to map bisulfite-treated reads.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Manconi

    Full Text Available Cytosine DNA methylation is an epigenetic mark implicated in several biological processes. Bisulfite treatment of DNA is acknowledged as the gold standard technique to study methylation. This technique introduces changes in the genomic DNA by converting cytosines to uracils while 5-methylcytosines remain nonreactive. During PCR amplification 5-methylcytosines are amplified as cytosine, whereas uracils and thymines as thymine. To detect the methylation levels, reads treated with the bisulfite must be aligned against a reference genome. Mapping these reads to a reference genome represents a significant computational challenge mainly due to the increased search space and the loss of information introduced by the treatment. To deal with this computational challenge we devised GPU-BSM, a tool based on modern Graphics Processing Units. Graphics Processing Units are hardware accelerators that are increasingly being used successfully to accelerate general-purpose scientific applications. GPU-BSM is a tool able to map bisulfite-treated reads from whole genome bisulfite sequencing and reduced representation bisulfite sequencing, and to estimate methylation levels, with the goal of detecting methylation. Due to the massive parallelization obtained by exploiting graphics cards, GPU-BSM aligns bisulfite-treated reads faster than other cutting-edge solutions, while outperforming most of them in terms of unique mapped reads.

  10. Effects of sequential and discrete rapid naming on reading in Japanese children with reading difficulty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wakamiya, Eiji; Okumura, Tomohito; Nakanishi, Makoto; Takeshita, Takashi; Mizuta, Mekumi; Kurimoto, Naoko; Tamai, Hiroshi

    2011-06-01

    To clarify whether rapid naming ability itself is a main underpinning factor of rapid automatized naming tests (RAN) and how deep an influence the discrete decoding process has on reading, we performed discrete naming tasks and discrete hiragana reading tasks as well as sequential naming tasks and sequential hiragana reading tasks with 38 Japanese schoolchildren with reading difficulty. There were high correlations between both discrete and sequential hiragana reading and sentence reading, suggesting that some mechanism which automatizes hiragana reading makes sentence reading fluent. In object and color tasks, there were moderate correlations between sentence reading and sequential naming, and between sequential naming and discrete naming. But no correlation was found between reading tasks and discrete naming tasks. The influence of rapid naming ability of objects and colors upon reading seemed relatively small, and multi-item processing may work in relation to these. In contrast, in the digit naming task there was moderate correlation between sentence reading and discrete naming, while no correlation was seen between sequential naming and discrete naming. There was moderate correlation between reading tasks and sequential digit naming tasks. Digit rapid naming ability has more direct effect on reading while its effect on RAN is relatively limited. The ratio of how rapid naming ability influences RAN and reading seems to vary according to kind of the stimuli used. An assumption about components in RAN which influence reading is discussed in the context of both sequential processing and discrete naming speed. Copyright © 2010 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. The Reading Habits of Developmental College Students at Different Levels of Reading Proficiency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheorey, Ravi; Mokhtari, Kouider

    1994-01-01

    Examines differences in reading habits of developmental college students with varying levels of reading proficiency. Finds that subjects spent an unusually low amount of time on academic reading and even less time on nonacademic reading. Finds no significant differences between high- and low-proficient readers with regard to amount of time spent…

  12. Reading for Pleasure in Paradise: Paired Reading in Antigua and Barbuda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warrington, Molly J.; George, Patricia

    2014-01-01

    Reading for pleasure is essential in the development of literacy. This paper reports on findings from a paired reading strategy introduced into primary schools in Antigua and Barbuda in order to foster children's pleasure in reading. This programme of cross-age peer tutoring intervention began with the training of teachers in a small group of…

  13. A Case for Improved Reading Instruction for Academic English Reading Proficiency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Glenn Ole Hellekjær

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available This article presents a study of the academic reading proficiency in English of 217 senior level Norwegian upper secondary school students who upon graduation are considered qualified for higher education. Testing with an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Reading Module revealed that two thirds of the 178 respondents with ordinary EFL courses did not achieve the equivalent of the IELTS Band 6 score minimum that is usually required for admission to British and Australian universities. In comparison, two thirds of a sample of 39 respondents with a single, sheltered Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL subject achieved a Band 6 score or better. Closer analysis indicates that the poor test scores can be attributed to weaknesses in current English as a Foreign Language (EFL instruction where reading is neglected, where students do not learn to adjust how they read to reading purpose, and where they do not learn how to handle unfamiliar words to avoid disrupting the reading process. The article ends with suggestions on how to improve EFL instruction, in Norway and elsewhere.

  14. Reading use in preschool

    OpenAIRE

    Laísa Cristina dos Santos Guilherme; Rodrigo Ferreira Daverni

    2016-01-01

    Abstract: Reading in preschool is a time of awakening the taste and pleasure in reading, it is also a source of reflection, discovery and learn to listen. It is then necessary that the contact with the reading start from pre-school, with a variety of texts and the teacher also has the habit of reading in their daily lives. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the benefits of daily reading in the classroom pre-school life of a student, which the characteristics of a player and teacher re...

  15. The Role of Reading Skills on Reading Comprehension Ability of Turkish EFL Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ebru Kaya

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Reading is a part of our daily lives. It is performed both for pleasure and information. Reading skills are important for the individuals since they foster comprehension in reading. If the students do not have knowledge of reading skills, they cannot be expected to be successful readers. Thus, they cannot achieve the level of comprehension required to pass exams in their own departments. For this reason, reading skills should be taught in universities for the students to be able to cope with comprehension problems. This case study aims to find out whether or not reading skills has a role on the reading comprehension ability of Turkish EFL students. This study is both a qualitative and a quantitative study which lasted for a duration of 14 weeks. Two groups were selected (experimental and control among prep classes at Kahramanmaraş Sütçü Imam University. Both groups were administered a pre-test and questionnaire at the beginning of the study to find out if they were aware of reading skills. In addition, 10 students were chosen randomly for interview. During the study, reading skills were infused into the curriculum through designing lesson plans in accordance with the language content and topics for level C students, as determined by the Common European Language Framework. The lessons required the students to use reading skills before, during, and post reading. At the end of the study, the same questionnaire was re-administered. The students were given the post-test and then interviewed. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. The obtained data revealed that the students enhanced their comprehension ability provided that they were taught to use reading skills.

  16. The Influence of Translation on Reading Amount, Proficiency, and Speed in Extensive Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakurai, Nobuko

    2015-01-01

    This study attempted to examine the influence of a decrease in translation on the number of words read, reading comprehension, and reading rate in an extensive reading (ER) program. The participants were 70 first-year university students who experienced ER both in and outside the classroom for 15 weeks. The results of regression analyses confirmed…

  17. THE USE OF SCHEMATA IN READING COMPREHENSION: A CASE OF LEARNERS’ READING PROBLEMS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cucu Sutarsyah

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The Use of Schemata in Reading Comprehension: A Case of Learners’ Reading Problems. Schemata have an important role in the process of reading. It is almost impossible for a person to read without utilizing schemata. This study aimed to find learners’ reading problem in terms of using sche­mata.  A group of second year students of English Department of State University of Malang were in­volved in this study. As a case study, an interview, observation, and test were used to collect the data. The study reveals that the main reading problems were lack of background knowledge, over-reliance on background knowledge, and lack of background knowledge activation. In the process of reading, learn­ers’ background knowledge should be activated. Without optimal activation, the process of reading does not reach satisfactory results. It is also suggested that learners should not be over confident in get­ting the meaning from the text. Over-reliance on background knowledge might lead to misinterpretation.

  18. Reimagining Reading: Creating a Classroom Culture That Embraces Independent Choice Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dickerson, Katie

    2015-01-01

    Many of us are plagued by negative memories of sustained silent reading. In some of these memories, we are the students, attempting to read a book that didn't hold our interest or trying to read over the din of our disengaged classmates. In other memories, we are the teachers, suffering through a ten-minute classroom management nightmare, deciding…

  19. Fostering the Love of Reading: The Affective Domain in Reading Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cramer, Eugene H., Ed.; Castle, Marrietta, Ed.

    Representing current thinking about a wide range of issues related to reading motivation, this book offers a look at how to create classroom cultures that foster in students the love of reading. The book is about teachers and the critical role they play in helping children develop into motivated, active, engaged readers who read both for pleasure…

  20. A Comparison of Reading Response Methods to Increase Student Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cheryl J. Davis

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available It is common in college courses to test students on the required readings for that course. With a rise in online education it is often the case that students are required to provide evidence of reading the material. However, there is little empirical research stating the best written means to assess that students read the materials. This study experimentally compared the effect of assigned reading summaries or study questions on student test performance. The results revealed that study questions produced higher quiz scores and higher preparation for the quiz, based on student feedback. Limitations of the study included a small sample size and extraneous activities that may have affected general knowledge on a topic. Results suggest that study questions focusing students on critical information in the required readings improve student learning.

  1. Reading in developmental prosopagnosia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Starrfelt, Randi; Klargaard, Solja K; Petersen, Anders

    2018-01-01

    exposure durations (targeting the word superiority effect), and d) text reading. RESULTS: Participants with developmental prosopagnosia performed strikingly similar to controls across the four reading tasks. Formal analysis revealed a significant dissociation between word and face recognition......, that is, impaired reading in developmental prosopagnosia. METHOD: We tested 10 adults with developmental prosopagnosia and 20 matched controls. All participants completed the Cambridge Face Memory Test, the Cambridge Face Perception test and a Face recognition questionnaire used to quantify everyday face...... recognition experience. Reading was measured in four experimental tasks, testing different levels of letter, word, and text reading: (a) single word reading with words of varying length,(b) vocal response times in single letter and short word naming, (c) recognition of single letters and short words at brief...

  2. Kindergarteners' performance in a sound-symbol paradigm predicts early reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horbach, Josefine; Scharke, Wolfgang; Cröll, Jennifer; Heim, Stefan; Günther, Thomas

    2015-11-01

    The current study examined the role of serial processing of newly learned sound-symbol associations in early reading acquisition. A computer-based sound-symbol paradigm (SSP) was administered to 243 children during their last year of kindergarten (T1), and their reading performance was assessed 1 year later in first grade (T2). Results showed that performance on the SSP measured before formal reading instruction was associated with later reading development. At T1, early readers performed significantly better than nonreaders in learning correspondences between sounds and symbols as well as in applying those correspondences in a serial manner. At T2, SSP performance measured at T1 was positively associated with reading performance. Importantly, serial application of newly learned correspondences at T1 explained unique variance in first-grade reading performance in nonreaders over and above other verbal predictors, including phonological awareness, verbal short-term memory, and rapid automatized naming. Consequently, the SSP provides a promising way to study aspects of reading in preliterate children. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Common hand sanitizer may distort readings of breathalyzer tests in the absence of acute intoxication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, Syed S; Wilson, Michael P; Castillo, Edward M; Witucki, Peter; Simmons, Todd T; Vilke, Gary M

    2013-02-01

    The use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers has recently become widespread. To the authors' knowledge, no previous study has examined whether application of ethanol-based hand sanitizers by the person operating a common breathalyzer machine will affect the accuracy of the readings. This was a prospective study investigating whether the use of hand sanitizer applied according to manufacturer's recommendations (Group I), applied improperly at standard doses (Group II), or applied improperly at high doses (Group III) had an effect on breathalyzer readings of individuals who had not ingested alcohol. The participants of the prospective study were divided into three groups to assess the effect of hand sanitizer on breathalyzer readings. Group I used one pump (1.5 mL) of hand sanitizer (Purell), allowing the hands to dry per manufacturer's recommendations; Group II used one pump (1.5 mL), without allowing the hands to dry; and Group III used two pumps (3 mL), without allowing the hands to dry. Breathalyzer measures for each group are presented as medians with interquartile ranges (IQR) and ranges. Differences between each sequential group (I vs. II and II vs. III) were assessed using a Mann-Whitney U-test (p hand sanitizer may cause false-positive readings with a standard hospital breathalyzer when the operator uses the hand sanitizer correctly. The breathalyzer readings are further elevated if more sanitizer is used or if it is not allowed to dry appropriately. © 2013 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

  4. GLOSSARY TO READINGS IN HINDI LITERATURE.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wisconsin Univ., Madison. Indian Language and Area Center.

    INCLUDED IN THIS GLOSSARY ARE THE IMPORTANT VOCABULARY ITEMS WHICH APPEAR IN THE VOLUME OF READINGS. THESE ITEMS ARE ARRANGED BY SELECTION AND ARE IN SERIAL ORDER. THE LISTING INCLUDES THE DEVANAGARI FORM, AN ABBREVIATION OF THE FORM CLASS, AND A SHORT ENGLISH GLOSS. WHEN A NUMBER OF TRANSLATIONS ARE POSSIBLE, THE FIRST ONE GIVEN IS APPROPRIATE TO…

  5. Basic Reading Instruction for Students in Automotive Occupations. Student's Handbook.

    Science.gov (United States)

    General Behavioral Systems, Inc., Torrance, CA.

    The basic reading course outlined in this student handbook emphasizes the decoding process. The contents consist of a letter-and-sound spelling chart and 87 course modules which are based on single-letter and letter-combination sounds. Many of the modules include exercises, and some contain reading material. (JM)

  6. A New Tool to Facilitate Learning Reading for Early Childhood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Puspitasari, Cita; Subiyanto

    2017-01-01

    This paper proposes a new android application for early childhood learning reading. The description includes a design, development, and an evaluation experiment of an educational game for learning reading on android. Before developing the game, Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams, interfaces, animation, narrative or audio were designed.…

  7. Basic Concepts of Reading Instruction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gökhan ARI

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Reading act is performed by connected physiological, psychological and cognitive processes. The operations taking place in these processes are expected to continue for life by being developed with certain strategies. A lot of information is gained with reading skill in education life. Therefore, basic concepts that constitute reading education in teaching and improving reading are important for teachers. The aim of this study is to submit information compiled from the literature about reading education process and which basic concepts are used in reading education. While teaching reading from part to whole, from whole to part and interactional approaches are used. From part to whole approach is at the forefront. Then with interactional approach strategies, both code solving and making sense is improved. Teachers should know the characteristics of bouncing, stopping, turning back, and scanning movements of the eye both in code solving and making sense. The teacher should configure the teaching for the students to gain fluid reading elements by making use of reading out and reading silently. After reading act is acquired; good reader characteristics should be gained by improving asking questions, guessing, summarizing, interpretation skills in integrated readings. Reading skill is improved by studies on the text. Therefore, the students should come across texts that are suitable to their levels, textuality and readability criteria. The vocabulary of children should be improved in a planned way with text-based word and meaning studies. Fluid reading, making sense and interpretation skills of children should be pursued with different evaluation types. In the long term, work should be done to make reading a habit for them.

  8. Writing-Reading Relationships: Effectiveness of Writing Activities As Pre-Reading Tasks to Enhance L2 Inferential Reading Comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thilina Indrajie Wickramaarachchi

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The study examines the interaction between reading and writing processes in general and more specifically the impact of pre-reading tasks incorporating writing tasks (referred to as “prw tasks” in helping the development of inferential reading comprehension. A sample of 70 first year ESL students of the University of Kelaniya were initially selected with one group (experimental group engaging in “prw tasks” while the other group (control group performing the tasks without a pre-reading component. The intervention was for 6 sessions (one hour in each session. At the end of each session, the performance of the two groups was measured and the test scores were analyzed using the data analysis package SPSS to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. The results indicated that the experimental group had significantly performed better than the control group which indicated the effectiveness of the prw tasks in improving reading comprehension.

  9. Reading comprehension in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, Laura L; Rutledge, Stefanie

    2014-05-01

    Although individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) self-report reading problems and experience difficulties in cognitive-linguistic functions that support discourse-level reading, prior research has primarily focused on sentence-level processing and auditory comprehension. Accordingly, the authors investigated the presence and nature of reading comprehension in PD, hypothesizing that (a) individuals with PD would display impaired accuracy and/or speed on reading comprehension tests and (b) reading performances would be correlated with cognitive test results. Eleven adults with PD and 9 age- and education-matched control participants completed tests that evaluated reading comprehension; general language and cognitive abilities; and aspects of attention, memory, and executive functioning. The PD group obtained significantly lower scores on several, but not all, reading comprehension, language, and cognitive measures. Memory, language, and disease severity were significantly correlated with reading comprehension for the PD group. Individuals in the early stages of PD without dementia or broad cognitive deficits can display reading comprehension difficulties, particularly for high- versus basic-level reading tasks. These reading difficulties are most closely related to memory, high-level language, and PD symptom severity status. The findings warrant additional research to delineate further the types and nature of reading comprehension impairments experienced by individuals with PD.

  10. Using quality scores and longer reads improves accuracy of Solexa read mapping

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xuan Zhenyu

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Second-generation sequencing has the potential to revolutionize genomics and impact all areas of biomedical science. New technologies will make re-sequencing widely available for such applications as identifying genome variations or interrogating the oligonucleotide content of a large sample (e.g. ChIP-sequencing. The increase in speed, sensitivity and availability of sequencing technology brings demand for advances in computational technology to perform associated analysis tasks. The Solexa/Illumina 1G sequencer can produce tens of millions of reads, ranging in length from ~25–50 nt, in a single experiment. Accurately mapping the reads back to a reference genome is a critical task in almost all applications. Two sources of information that are often ignored when mapping reads from the Solexa technology are the 3' ends of longer reads, which contain a much higher frequency of sequencing errors, and the base-call quality scores. Results To investigate whether these sources of information can be used to improve accuracy when mapping reads, we developed the RMAP tool, which can map reads having a wide range of lengths and allows base-call quality scores to determine which positions in each read are more important when mapping. We applied RMAP to analyze data re-sequenced from two human BAC regions for varying read lengths, and varying criteria for use of quality scores. RMAP is freely available for downloading at http://rulai.cshl.edu/rmap/. Conclusion Our results indicate that significant gains in Solexa read mapping performance can be achieved by considering the information in 3' ends of longer reads, and appropriately using the base-call quality scores. The RMAP tool we have developed will enable researchers to effectively exploit this information in targeted re-sequencing projects.

  11. Reading motivation in elementary school students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonja Pečjak

    2005-02-01

    Full Text Available Reading motivation is one of the crucial factors of reading and consequently also learning efficiency of students. The purpose of the contribution is to establish the connection between dimensions of reading motivation and reading achievement in elementary school students. Participating in the study were 1073 third-grade and 1282 seventh-grade students. We used the questionnaire of reading motivation which consists of two factors: the reading competence factor and the interest and perceived reading importance factor. The findings of the study are the following: third-graders are more competent and more interested in reading compared to seventh-graders. The same is true for girls in both educational levels. Reading competence , interest and perceived reading importance reflect also in the actual reading behaviour of students – students who are more competent and more interested in reading read more frequently, for longer periods and more often autonomously decide to read compared to their less motivated peers. Higher reading motivation has implications also for higher reading efficiency. Namely, good readers are more competent, show higher interest and perceive reading as more important compared to average and bad readers.

  12. ConDeTri--a content dependent read trimmer for Illumina data.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linnéa Smeds

    Full Text Available UNLABELLED: During the last few years, DNA and RNA sequencing have started to play an increasingly important role in biological and medical applications, especially due to the greater amount of sequencing data yielded from the new sequencing machines and the enormous decrease in sequencing costs. Particularly, Illumina/Solexa sequencing has had an increasing impact on gathering data from model and non-model organisms. However, accurate and easy to use tools for quality filtering have not yet been established. We present ConDeTri, a method for content dependent read trimming for next generation sequencing data using quality scores of each individual base. The main focus of the method is to remove sequencing errors from reads so that sequencing reads can be standardized. Another aspect of the method is to incorporate read trimming in next-generation sequencing data processing and analysis pipelines. It can process single-end and paired-end sequence data of arbitrary length and it is independent from sequencing coverage and user interaction. ConDeTri is able to trim and remove reads with low quality scores to save computational time and memory usage during de novo assemblies. Low coverage or large genome sequencing projects will especially gain from trimming reads. The method can easily be incorporated into preprocessing and analysis pipelines for Illumina data. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Freely available on the web at http://code.google.com/p/condetri.

  13. Using reading to teach a world language strategies and activities

    CERN Document Server

    Spangler, Donna

    2015-01-01

    To help your students learn a world language, don't forget the power of reading! In this practical book from Donna Spangler and John Alex Mazzante, you'll gain a variety of strategies and activities that you can use to teach students to read in a world language, boosting their comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. Perfect for any age or proficiency level, these classroom-ready activities can easily be adapted to suit your needs! Special features: A discussion of the challenges to teaching reading in the world language classroom A variety of adaptable pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading strategies and activities for students across grade levels and languages Essential tips for cultivating vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension Reader's Theater - a special chapter of strategies for implementing this exciting technique A list of helpful websites and apps for world language teachers Useful appendices, including reproducible material for your classroom Busy world language teachers will love this book's...

  14. The Implementation of Kagan’s Cooperative (Co-Op Technique to Improve Reading Comprehension of Junior High Students

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    Farid Helmi Setyawan

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: This study was aimed to investigate how Co-op technique can be implemented to improve reading comprehension of the eighth grade students of MTsN Ngawi who faced the problems in reading. The students did not comprehend the text and the score was low. The average score of reading test in preliminary study was 67 where as the average score of student’ success based on the minimum standard of students’ score is seventy (70. The design of this study was classroom action research. The technique applied in the research was Co-op technique. The result showed that the students reading average score significantly improved. In two cycle study, in the first test the students reading average score was 69.54, in the second test the students reading score was 76.15. It could be concluded that predetermined criteria of success had been achieved.

  15. Flexible high-speed FASTBUS master for data read-out and preprocessing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wurz, A.; Manner, R.

    1990-01-01

    This paper describes a single slot FASTBUS master module. It can be used for read-out and preprocessing of data that are read out from FASTBUS modules, e.g., and ADC system. The module consists of a 25 MHz, 32-bit processor MC 68030 with cache memory and memory management, a floating point coprocessor MC68882, 4 MBytes of main memory, and FASTBUS master and slave interfaces. In addition, a DMA controller for read-out of FASTBUS data is provided. The processor allows I/O via serial ports, a 16-bit parallel port, and a transputer link. Additional interfaces are planned. The main memory is multi-ported and can be accessed directly by the CPU, the FASTBUS, and external masters via the high-speed local bus that is accessible by way of a connector. The FASTBUS interface supports most of the standard operations in master and slave mode

  16. Morpheme-based Reading and Spelling in Italian Children with Developmental Dyslexia and Dysorthography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angelelli, Paola; Marinelli, Chiara Valeria; De Salvatore, Marinella; Burani, Cristina

    2017-11-01

    Italian sixth graders, with and without dyslexia, read pseudowords and low-frequency words that include high-frequency morphemes better than stimuli not including any morpheme. The present study assessed whether morphemes affect (1) younger children, with and without dyslexia; (2) spelling as well as reading; and (3) words with low-frequency morphemes. Two groups of third graders (16 children with dyslexia and dysorthography and 16 age-matched typically developing children) read aloud and spelt to dictation pseudowords and words. Pseudowords included (1) root + suffix in not existing combinations (e.g. lampadista, formed by lampad-, 'lamp', and -ista, '-ist') and (2) orthographic sequences not corresponding to any Italian root or suffix (e.g. livonosto). Words had low frequency and included: (1) root + suffix, both of high frequency (e.g. bestiale, 'beastly'); (2) root + suffix, both of low frequency (e.g. asprigno, 'rather sour'); and (3) simple words (e.g. insulso, 'vapid'). Children with dyslexia and dysorthography were less accurate than typically developing children. Root + suffix pseudowords were read and spelt more accurately than non-morphological pseudowords by both groups. Morphologically complex (root + suffix) words were read and spelt better than simple words. However, task interacted with morphology: reading was not facilitated by low-frequency morphemes. We conclude that children acquiring a transparent orthography exploit morpheme-based reading and spelling to face difficulties in processing long unfamiliar stimuli. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  17. ESL Students’ Online and Offline Reading Strategies: Scrolling, Clicking, Flipping and Reading

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    Izyani Mohamad Zaki

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available In this borderless world, computers and the Internet have become important tools of communication and learning and they have also become an important part of our lives. The opportunity to seek information through the computer has made reading an important language skill. Despite the importance of reading and technology, little research to date has been carried out to compare the reading strategies employed by readers when reading online compared to offline. Such studies are important because awareness of the similarities and differences on the strategies employed between these two modes of learning will enable teachers to help develop students’ reading ability. Hence, this study investigates if there is a difference between online and offline strategies used by second language readers. The participants in this study were ESL undergraduates at a university in Malaysia. The instrument employed was the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS (Sheorey and Mokhtari, 2001 and Online Survey of Register Strategies (OSORS by Anderson (2003. These questionnaires tap three different types of information: global reading strategies, problem solving strategies, and support strategies. The results of the study are discussed in terms of their pedagogical implications in the L2 classroom.

  18. Effects of reading-oriented tasks on students' reading comprehension of geometry proof

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Kai-Lin; Lin, Fou-Lai

    2012-06-01

    This study compared the effects of reading-oriented tasks and writing-oriented tasks on students' reading comprehension of geometry proof (RCGP). The reading-oriented tasks were designed with reading strategies and the idea of problem posing. The writing-oriented tasks were consistent with usual proof instruction for writing a proof and applying it. Twenty-two classes of ninth-grade students ( N = 683), aged 14 to 15 years, and 12 mathematics teachers participated in this quasi-experimental classroom study. While the experimental group was instructed to read and discuss the reading tasks in two 45-minute lessons, the control group was instructed to prove and apply the same propositions. Generalised estimating equation (GEE) method was used to compare the scores of the post-test and the delayed post-test with the pre-test scores as covariates. Results showed that the total scores of the delayed post-test of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group. Furthermore, the scores of the experimental group on all facets of reading comprehension except the application facet were significantly higher than those of the control group for both the post-test and delayed post-test.

  19. Reading literacy and reading self-concept of year 6 primary school students

    OpenAIRE

    Cegnar, Katja

    2017-01-01

    In the present Master thesis, we research the relation between the reading literacy and its components and the reading self-concept in grade 6 elementary school students. Sixth grade students were chosen because they are partially taught by class teachers and because we assume that they are already familiar with the reading comprehension technique and have a more-or-less stable reading self-concept. In the theoretical part, we present the importance of functional literacy and of other types o...

  20. TEACHER CANDIDATES’ VIEWS ON E-BOOKS AND SCREEN READING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nevin AKKAYA

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Today, it is a necessity to make use of information technologies in creating, distributing and accessing information resources. The electronic resources as products of the developing information technologies include bibliographical text databases, e-journals, e-books, open achieves and web sites. Today, Many printed material can be accesssed by electronically in readers. Furthermore, e-books have been increasingly preferred as a mode of reading because of its advantages such as portability, storage and rich content. Individuals who want to sustain their development on this mode of reading prefer screen reading. Because reading has become a necessity because of the developing information technologies. This study aimed to examine the views of students studying Turkish language teaching at an education faculty on e-books and screen reading. Action research, one of the qualitative research design, was used during the research. Data were analyzed by content analysis. Whereas 40.7% of the ones who have taken part in this study have expressed not knowing anything about e-books, 57.8% of the participants have claimed they have knowledge about the issue of e-books. 55.3% of the participants consider that e-books contribute to the habit of reading. 73% of the participants have expressed that they have no knowledge about screen reading.

  1. Developing a Screening Inventory Reading Test (IRT for the Isfahanian Students of the First to Fifth Grade

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    Bijan Shafiei

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Background and aim: Reading is one of the most essential skills in this century. Reading disorders can cause several problems for the person who has reading disorder. Early assessment and diagnosis play an important role in treatment of this disorder. The main purpose of this study was to develope a screening inventory reading test (IRT for first to fifth grade student in Isfahan in order to early diagnosis of reading disorder.Materials and Methods: The test, consisting of 100 words context and four comprehension questions, named Inventory Reading Test (IRT, was evaluated by several speech therapists. It was standardized by testing on one thousand boys and girls, 200 students in every grade, that were selected through a multi-stage random sampling method. Test was performed on two other groups, a normal and a reading-disordered.Results: Scores of reading accuracy and velocity were highly correlated with the test total score. Test reliability was calculated as 0.77 by Cronbach`s alpha measure. There was significant difference between two groups mean score (p=0.01.Conclusion: IRT seems to be an appropriate tool for screening reading disorder of first to fifth grade students.

  2. The Use of eReaders in the Classroom and at Home to Help Third-Grade Students Improve Their Reading and English/Language Arts Standardized Test Scores

    Science.gov (United States)

    Union, Craig D.; Union, Lori Walker; Green, Tim D.

    2015-01-01

    This study explored the effects of a portable technology intervention, the Nook Simple Touch eReader, on student performance in Reading and English/Language Arts when included as an integral part of the teaching and learning process in an elementary third-grade classroom. This study used the participating students' end-of-year second-grade scores…

  3. Factors Affecting Result in Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK Level 6: Reading Section and Preparation Strategies

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    Sri Haryanti

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK is an internationally standardized exam which tests and rates Chinese language proficiency. The highest level in this test is level 6. The writing part of the test consists of 3 (three parts, namely, (1 listening, (2 reading, (3 writing. Furthermore, the reading part is made of 4 components. Level 6 of this test implies a high degree of difficulty. This paper specifically looked on how to prepare effectively for participants to be able to work on the reading part in order to achieve best result. This article used the methods of literature review and observational study as well as field research and would also incorporate the author’s personal experience in taking the test into recommending strategies for doing the reading part in a level 6 HSK test. Finally, research suggested several techniques and tips that might assist participants in achieving maximum scores in handling the reading part of level 6 HSK test.

  4. Providing Information about Reading Lists via a Dashboard Interface

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr Jason Cooper

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available As developers of the open source LORLS Resource/Reading List Management System we have developed a dashboard to better support academic staffs’ understanding of how their students use reading lists. This dashboard provides both graphical and tabulated information drawn from LORLS and the Aleph Integrated Library System. Development of the dashboard required changes to back-end functionality of LORLS such as logging views of reading lists and caching of loan data. Changes to the front end included the use of HTML5 canvas elements to generate pie charts and line graphs. Recently launched to academic staff at Loughborough University, the dashboard has already garnered much praise. It is hoped that further development of the dashboard will provide even more support for academics in the compilation of their reading lists.

  5. Reading comprehension assessment through retelling: differences between dyslexic and language-based learning disable students

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    Adriana Souza Batista Kida

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available AbstractPurpose: To study reading comprehension performance profiles of children with dyslexia as well as language-based learning disability by means of retelling tasks. Method: 105 children from second to fifth grades of elementary school were gathered into six groups: Dyslexia group (D; n=19, Language-based learning disability group (LBLD; n=16; their respective control groups paired according to different variables - age, gender, grade and school system (public or private (D-control and LBLD-control; and other control groups paired according to different reading accuracy (D-accuracy; LBLD-accuracy. All of the children read an expository text and orally retold the story as they understood it. The analysis quantified propositions (main ideas and details and retold links. A retelling reference standard (3-0 was also established from the best to the worst performance. We compared both clinical groups (D and LBLD with their respective control groups by means of Mann-Whitney tests.Results: D showed the same total of propositions, links and reference standards as D-control, but performed better than D-accuracy in macro structural (total of links and super structural (retelling reference standard measures. Results suggest that dyslexic children are able to use their linguistic competence and their own background knowledge to minimize the effects of their decoding deficit, especially at the highest text processing levels. LBLD performed worse than LBLD-control in all of the retelling measures and LBLD showed worse performance than LBLD-accuracy in the total retold links and retelling reference standard. Those results suggest that both decoding and linguistic difficulties affect reading comprehension. Moreover, the linguistic deficits presented by LBLD students do not allow these pupils to perform as competently in terms of text comprehension as the children with dyslexia do. Thus, failure in the macro and super-structural information processing of the

  6. Reading Incentives that Work: No-Cost Strategies to Motivate Kids to Read and Love It!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Small, Ruth V.

    2009-01-01

    In education, it is possible to find dozens of examples of "forced" reading incentive programs that categorize student reading levels, provide limited reading lists coordinated with those reading levels, assess student reading through computer-based tests, and award tangible prizes when they pass the test. Those who perform best get the most…

  7. The Impact of Reading for Pleasure on Georgian University EFL Students' Reading Comprehension (IBSU Case)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goctu, Ramazan

    2016-01-01

    Reading is one of the most significant skills, particularly for EFL students. Many students today do not have the reading skills needed to do effective work in their courses. This paper explores reading for pleasure, its importance and impact on reading comprehension. Pleasure reading helps students to communicate, listen and, most importantly, to…

  8. E-Readers and the Effects on Students' Reading Motivation, Attitude and Comprehension during Guided Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long, Deanna; Szabo, Susan

    2016-01-01

    This quasi-experimental mixed methods study examined the use of e-readers during guided reading instruction and its impact on 5th grade students' reading motivation, attitude toward reading, and reading comprehension. For 10 weeks, 19 students received guided reading instruction by means of the traditional paper/text format, while 16 students…

  9. The Impact of a Therapy Dog Program on Children's Reading Skills and Attitudes toward Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirnan, Jean; Siminerio, Steven; Wong, Zachary

    2016-01-01

    An existing school program in which therapy dogs are integrated into the reading curriculum was analyzed to determine the effect on student reading. Previous literature suggests an improvement in both reading skills and attitudes towards reading when students read in the presence of a therapy dog. Using a mixed method model, the researchers…

  10. "Passageless" Administration of the Nelson-Denny Reading Comprehension Test: Associations with IQ and Reading Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ready, Rebecca E.; Chaudhry, Maheen F.; Schatz, Kelly C.; Strazzullo, Sarah

    2013-01-01

    There are few tests that assess reading comprehension in adults, but these tests are needed for a comprehensive assessment of reading disorders (RD). "The Nelson-Denny Reading Test" (NDRT) has a long-passage reading comprehension component that can be used with adolescents and adults. A problem with the NDRT is that reading comprehension…

  11. Rcorrector: efficient and accurate error correction for Illumina RNA-seq reads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Li; Florea, Liliana

    2015-01-01

    Next-generation sequencing of cellular RNA (RNA-seq) is rapidly becoming the cornerstone of transcriptomic analysis. However, sequencing errors in the already short RNA-seq reads complicate bioinformatics analyses, in particular alignment and assembly. Error correction methods have been highly effective for whole-genome sequencing (WGS) reads, but are unsuitable for RNA-seq reads, owing to the variation in gene expression levels and alternative splicing. We developed a k-mer based method, Rcorrector, to correct random sequencing errors in Illumina RNA-seq reads. Rcorrector uses a De Bruijn graph to compactly represent all trusted k-mers in the input reads. Unlike WGS read correctors, which use a global threshold to determine trusted k-mers, Rcorrector computes a local threshold at every position in a read. Rcorrector has an accuracy higher than or comparable to existing methods, including the only other method (SEECER) designed for RNA-seq reads, and is more time and memory efficient. With a 5 GB memory footprint for 100 million reads, it can be run on virtually any desktop or server. The software is available free of charge under the GNU General Public License from https://github.com/mourisl/Rcorrector/.

  12. Understanding Children's Reading Activities: Reading Motivation, Skill and Child Characteristics as Predictors

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGeown, Sarah P.; Osborne, Cara; Warhurst, Amy; Norgate, Roger; Duncan, Lynne G.

    2016-01-01

    This study examined the extent to which a range of child characteristics (sex, age, socioeconomic status, reading skill and intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation) predicted engagement (i.e., time spent) in different reading activities (fiction books, factual books, school textbooks, comics, magazines and digital texts). In total, 791 children…

  13. The Relationship between Reading Proficiency and Reading Strategy Use: A Study of Adult ESL Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Jiuhan; Nisbet, Deanna

    2014-01-01

    This article explores the relationship between reading strategy use and reading proficiency among 121 adult ESL learners. Reading strategy use was measured by the SORS, and reading proficiency was determined by the CASAS Reading Test and BEST Literacy Test. Findings of the study reveal that (a) adult ESL learners are active strategies users; (b)…

  14. It Takes Two to Read: Interactive Reading with Young Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dirks, Evelien; Wauters, Loes

    2018-04-04

    Interactive storybook reading is an important activity to enhance the emergent literacy skills of young deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Parents have a crucial role to play in promoting their children's literacy development. However, parents often do not read in an interactive way; therefore guidance is recommended in applying these interactive reading strategies. In the present study we examined how parent reading behavior was affected by implementing an interactive reading training program for parents of young DHH children. Parents of 18 DHH toddlers in the Netherlands participated in a series of group training sessions and their interactive reading behavior was compared to that of 10 parents who did not participate. The results showed that parents' interactive reading behavior tended to increase after they participated in the interactive reading program. After the program, they applied the interactive reading strategies more often than parents who had not participated in the program. The findings suggest that interactive reading programs should be incorporated into early intervention programs for DHH children.

  15. Reading and Vocabulary Recommendations for Spanish for Native Speakers Materials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spencer, Laura Gutierrez

    1995-01-01

    Focuses on the need for appropriate materials to address the needs of native speakers of Spanish who study Spanish in American universities and high schools. The most important factors influencing the selection of readings should include the practical nature of themes for reading and vocabulary development, level of difficulty, and variety in…

  16. Fostering Fifth Graders’ Reading Comprehension through the use of Intensive Reading in Physical Science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alethia Paola Bogoya González

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Reading comprehension in a content area needs to be seen from both the content and language perspectives. This paper examines the use of intensive reading, a strategy taken from the language teaching field, to help students improve their reading comprehension ability and develop understanding of science concepts. The study was carried out in a fifth grade class at a private bilingual institution of Bogotá. Reading was analyzed using a mixed-method approach that utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methods. The first method was done through students’ interviews, artefacts, and a teacher’s journal, and the second by means of two reading tests, Cloze and CARI, Content Area Reading Inventory Test. The statistical analysis shows that students improved their reading comprehension ability as their scores for the post-test were higher than those of the pre-test; this increment is statistically significant as p ≤ .05 when applying a t-test. The qualitative analysis shows that structured reading practices lead to the development of students’ cognitive processes. Overall, the results indicate that reading in sciences hould be seen as dynamic process that incorporates learners’ strategies in order to develop conceptual understanding.

  17. Reading in a Digital Age: Issues and Future of Reading on the Web among Young People

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shan-Ju Lin Chang

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available “Reading on the Internet” or digital reading has been a controversial issue in recent years as more and more young adults spent more time on Internet, and engaged in reading activities which may differ from the traditional conception of reading. More importantly, some observe that digital reading seems to have negative impacts on students’ reading capabilities at the individual level and citizens’ literacy at the national level. How can we understand the phenomenon of reading in a digital age? Online activities are facilitating or hindering the development of reading capabilities of young adults? What do we mean when we evaluate the reading capabilities in a digital age? This paper explores the pros and cons of reading on the Internet or digital reading, the technological, social and economic forces that influence those viewpoints, and discusses the findings of some empirical studies. The implications from this study for educational policy makers and educators conclude this paper. [Article content in Chinese; Extended abstract in English

  18. A Meta-Analysis of Self-Monitoring on Reading Performance of K-12 Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guzman, Guadalupe; Goldberg, Taryn S.; Swanson, H. Lee

    2018-01-01

    The published single-case design (SCD) research (N = 19 articles) on self-monitoring and reading performance was synthesized. The following inclusion criteria were used: (a) the study must have been peer-reviewed, (b) implemented an intervention targeting student self-monitoring of reading skills, (c) included data on at least 1 reading outcome,…

  19. Examining the Effectiveness of Pre-Reading Strategies on Saudi EFL College Students' Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al Rasheed, Hana S. S.

    2014-01-01

    Reading comprehension is a key issue in learning English as a foreign language, and it is critical that teachers utilize pre-reading strategies in reading classes in order to help students enhance their comprehension. The present study investigates the effectiveness of two pre-reading strategies on EFL students' performance in reading…

  20. READING COMPREHENSION. NOTION OF READING AND USE OF MACRORREGLAS

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    Ana María Montes-Salas

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available In the NMS has been relevant to investigate the notion of reading and how reading comprehension skills are developed as they are the basis of learning. According to Frida Diaz Barriga and Hernandez (2002 critical and reflective understanding of the composition of texts written are nodal activities in the construction of meanings. We now know that the skills of reading and typesetting apprentices develop in subjects strategically and self-regulated, thanks to this research. Promote the development of communication skills contributes to the foundation of the curriculum consists of educating for students to acquire skills that allow them to face problems collaboratively and competently.

  1. Assessing the Promise of a Supplemental Reading Intervention for At-Risk First Grade Students in a Public School Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mokhtari, Kouider; Neel, Joanna L.; Kaiser, Forrest; Le, Hong-Hai

    2015-01-01

    In this exploratory quasi-experimental case study, we assessed the promise of a yearlong supplemental reading intervention with a small pilot group of at-risk first grade readers in an elementary school setting. Using standardized measures of reading proficiency, we found that after 47 hours of one-on-one tutoring instruction, students read…

  2. Reading the Web: Internet Guided Reading with Young Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salyer, David

    2015-01-01

    Online reading requires traditional and new comprehension skills and strategies, and these skills and strategies will have to be taught and supported, especially for young beginning readers. But how do elementary teachers go about doing this? Much of the research regarding teaching and supporting online reading comprehension has focused on older…

  3. The Relation between Reading Skills and Eye Movement Patterns in Adolescent Readers: Evidence from a Regular Orthography.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magdalena Krieber

    Full Text Available Over the past decades, the relation between reading skills and eye movement behavior has been well documented in English-speaking cohorts. As English and German differ substantially with regard to orthographic complexity (i.e. grapheme-phoneme correspondence, we aimed to delineate specific characteristics of how reading speed and reading comprehension interact with eye movements in typically developing German-speaking (Austrian adolescents. Eye movements of 22 participants (14 females; mean age = 13;6 years;months were tracked while they were performing three tasks, namely silently reading words, texts, and pseudowords. Their reading skills were determined by means of a standardized German reading speed and reading comprehension assessment (Lesegeschwindigkeits- und -verständnistest für Klassen 6-12. We found that (a reading skills were associated with various eye movement parameters in each of the three reading tasks; (b better reading skills were associated with an increased efficiency of eye movements, but were primarily linked to spatial reading parameters, such as the number of fixations per word, the total number of saccades and saccadic amplitudes; (c reading speed was a more reliable predictor for eye movement parameters than reading comprehension; (d eye movements were highly correlated across reading tasks, which indicates consistent reading performances. Contrary to findings in English-speaking cohorts, the reading skills neither consistently correlated with temporal eye movement parameters nor with the number or percentage of regressions made while performing any of the three reading tasks. These results indicate that, although reading skills are associated with eye movement patterns irrespective of language, the temporal and spatial characteristics of this association may vary with orthographic consistency.

  4. Reading for Writing: A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Reading Interventions on Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graham, Steve; Liu, Xinghua; Bartlett, Brendan; Ng, Clarence; Harris, Karen R.; Aitken, Angelique; Barkel, Ashley; Kavanaugh, Colin; Talukdar, Joy

    2018-01-01

    This meta-analysis examined if students' writing performance is improved by reading interventions in studies (k = 54 experiments; 5,018 students) where students were taught how to read and studies (k = 36 investigations; 3,060 students) where students' interaction with words or text was increased through reading or observing others read. Studies…

  5. [Developmental changes in reading ability of Japanese elementary school children--analysis of 4 kana reading tasks].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kobayashi, Tomoka; Inagaki, Masumi; Gunji, Atsuko; Yatabe, Kiyomi; Kaga, Makiko; Goto, Takaaki; Koike, Toshihide; Wakamiya, Eiji; Koeda, Tatsuya

    2010-01-01

    Five hundred and twenty-eight Japanese elementary school children aged from 6 (Grade 1) to 12 (Grade 6) were tested for their abilities to read Hiragana characters, words, and short sentences. They were typically developing children whom the classroom teachers judged to have no problems with reading and writing in Japanese. Each child was asked to read four tasks which were written in Hiragana script: single mora reading task, four syllable non-word reading task, four syllable word reading task, and short sentence reading task. The total articulation time for reading and performance in terms of accuracy were measured for each task. Developmental changes in these variables were evaluated. The articulation time was significantly longer for the first graders, and it gradually shortened as they moved through to the upper grades in all tasks. The articulation time reached a plateau in the 4th grade for the four syllable word and short sentence reading tasks, while it did so for the single mora and four syllable non-word reading tasks in the 5th grade. The articulation times for the four syllable word and short sentence reading tasks correlated strongly. There were very few clear errors for all tasks, and the number of such errors significantly changed between the school grades only for the single mora and four syllable word reading tasks. It was noted that more than half of the children read the beginning portion of the word or phrase twice or more, in order to read it accurately, and developmental changes were also seen in this pattern of reading. This study revealed that the combination of these reading tasks may function as a screening test for reading disorders such as developmental dyslexia in children below the age of ten or eleven years old.

  6. The impact of reading on language development in the preschool children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ljubica Marjanovič Umek

    2002-02-01

    Full Text Available The importance of the role played by children's literature in the child's mental, social and linguistic development and in the development of his or her basic academic skills, such as reading andwriting, has been confirmed by numerous studies. A central issue in developmental psychology is what activities related to children's books exert an influence on the child's development and in what ways. Thisinterest in children's books and in child language development places our research into two scientific disciplines, viz. psychology and linguistics. The study explores the impact of systematic and regular readingof selected children's books in preschool institutions on the development of language competences in children aged four to six years, boys and girls. Other contributing factors whose relevance for languagedevelopment has been either postulated by theories or highlighted by empirical studies, are also observed - e.g. parents' education, number of books in the family, quality of education in the family (frequencyof conversations, visits to cultural events, reading books together, etc.. The children included in the study all attend a preschool institution with an educational program which is based on the national curriculumand which targets also the language area. The children in the experimental group are submitted to additional reading of selected children's literature. The development of children's linguistic competences isfollowed using two methods: analysis of answers on The Vane evaluation of language scale (The Vane-L and analysis of transcripts of story retelling after the child has been read H. Ch. Andersen's fairy taleThe Princess and the Pea. The results show, that the children who were systematically read selected children's books in their preschool groups, achieved significantly higher scores on the standardized Vanelanguage development scale and on the unstandardized test of retelling a story. Correlations between some of the

  7. Interpreting Mobile and Handheld Air Sensor Readings in Relation to Air Quality Standards and Health Effect Reference Values: Tackling the Challenges

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    George M. Woodall

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA and other federal agencies face a number of challenges in interpreting and reconciling short-duration (seconds to minutes readings from mobile and handheld air sensors with the longer duration averages (hours to days associated with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS for the criteria pollutants-particulate matter (PM, ozone, carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides. Similar issues are equally relevant to the hazardous air pollutants (HAPs where chemical-specific health effect reference values are the best indicators of exposure limits; values which are often based on a lifetime of continuous exposure. A multi-agency, staff-level Air Sensors Health Group (ASHG was convened in 2013. ASHG represents a multi-institutional collaboration of Federal agencies devoted to discovery and discussion of sensor technologies, interpretation of sensor data, defining the state of sensor-related science across each institution, and provides consultation on how sensors might effectively be used to meet a wide range of research and decision support needs. ASHG focuses on several fronts: improving the understanding of what hand-held sensor technologies may be able to deliver; communicating what hand-held sensor readings can provide to a number of audiences; the challenges of how to integrate data generated by multiple entities using new and unproven technologies; and defining best practices in communicating health-related messages to various audiences. This review summarizes the challenges, successes, and promising tools of those initial ASHG efforts and Federal agency progress on crafting similar products for use with other NAAQS pollutants and the HAPs. NOTE: The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessary represent the opinions of their Federal Agencies or the US Government. Mention of product names does not constitute endorsement.

  8. The relationship between children's reading motivation and reading competence

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    白晴雪

    2016-01-01

    It has been found that motivation is very important to children's reading competence. This paper intended to study intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and find their relationship with children's reading competence. In order to do so, previous investigations about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were critically reviewed, and their results were discussed in this paper.

  9. Reading up on sex: Learning to read. Why sex matters, and whether physical fitness and activity are relevant in reading acquisition

    OpenAIRE

    Tunstad, Hege Jørgensen

    2013-01-01

    When you read this thesis, you rely on a skill you acquired as a child. Most children start at the age of 5-6 years to learn single letters, write their name, and gradually develop the functional skill of decoding strings of letters; in other words, reading. By the age of 10 they are expected to read texts with concentration, endurance, fluency and coherence. The success rate varies, and Norwegian children score slightly above average when reading skills are measured globally, and are better ...

  10. Adolescent reading skill and engagement with digital and traditional literacies as predictors of reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duncan, Lynne G; McGeown, Sarah P; Griffiths, Yvonne M; Stothard, Susan E; Dobai, Anna

    2016-05-01

    This study investigates the concurrent predictors of adolescent reading comprehension (literal, inferential) for fiction and non-fiction texts. Predictors were examined from the cognitive (word identification, reading fluency), psychological (gender), and ecological (print exposure) domains. Print exposure to traditional and digital texts was surveyed using a diary method of reading habits. A cross-sectional sample of 312 students in early (11-13 years) or middle adolescence (14-15 years) participated from a range of SES backgrounds. Word identification emerged as a strong predictor of reading comprehension across adolescence and text genres. Gender effects favouring female students were evident for reading frequency but not for reading skill itself. Reading habits also differed, and comprehension advantages were observed among females for fiction and males for non-fiction. Age effects emerged for reading frequency, which was lower in middle adolescence. Although more time was spent on digital than on traditional texts, traditional extended text reading was the only reading habit to predict inference-making in comprehension and to distinguish skilled from less skilled comprehenders. The theoretical and educational implications of these results are discussed. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

  11. Brain-based individual difference measures of reading skill in deaf and hearing adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehravari, Alison S; Emmorey, Karen; Prat, Chantel S; Klarman, Lindsay; Osterhout, Lee

    2017-07-01

    Most deaf children and adults struggle to read, but some deaf individuals do become highly proficient readers. There is disagreement about the specific causes of reading difficulty in the deaf population, and consequently, disagreement about the effectiveness of different strategies for teaching reading to deaf children. Much of the disagreement surrounds the question of whether deaf children read in similar or different ways as hearing children. In this study, we begin to answer this question by using real-time measures of neural language processing to assess if deaf and hearing adults read proficiently in similar or different ways. Hearing and deaf adults read English sentences with semantic, grammatical, and simultaneous semantic/grammatical errors while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The magnitude of individuals' ERP responses was compared to their standardized reading comprehension test scores, and potentially confounding variables like years of education, speechreading skill, and language background of deaf participants were controlled for. The best deaf readers had the largest N400 responses to semantic errors in sentences, while the best hearing readers had the largest P600 responses to grammatical errors in sentences. These results indicate that equally proficient hearing and deaf adults process written language in different ways, suggesting there is little reason to assume that literacy education should necessarily be the same for hearing and deaf children. The results also show that the most successful deaf readers focus on semantic information while reading, which suggests aspects of education that may promote improved literacy in the deaf population. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Improve your reading

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    Fry, Ron

    2012-01-01

    Help your students discover the practical solution to their reading frustrations, with Improve Your Reading. Written by bestselling author and education advocate Ron Fry, this book avoids gimmicks and tricks in favor of proven strategies that will help your students better retain and comprehend what they've read in any textbook, in any course, at any academic level. Endlessly adaptable to each student's individual learning needs, the text focuses on fundamental skills students can carry beyond the classroom.

  13. Promoting reading skills or wasting time? Students’ perceived benefits of reading in an intermediary programme at the Vaal University of Technology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linda Scott

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Notwithstanding the substantial transformation of education in South Africa in the last 20 years, specifically to redress the past inequalities, the challenges are ongoing. These challenges include tertiary institutions having to accommodate a culturally and linguistically diverse group of students, often second-language (L2 English speakers, in an English lingua franca classroom. This study investigated the reading attitudes and habits of students in an intermediary programme of a tertiary institution and any perceived changes to these attitudes or habits, as well as their perceptions of the promotion of reading by the programme. On successful completion of the intermediary programme, students register for the compulsory first-year English distance learning course and are required to complete a placement test. Results for students who attended the intermediary programme were compared with those of students who did not attend the intermediary programme but registered directly for mainstream. The teaching of reading appeared invaluable at the tertiary level with the indication that students’ attitudes and behaviour changed and that they inter alia realised the academic value thereof, made decisions to take up reading as a hobby and discovered new genres. Keywords: Reading; Linguistically diverse

  14. Follow-up study on reading comprehension in Down's syndrome: the role of reading skills and listening comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roch, Maja; Florit, Elena; Levorato, Chiara

    2011-01-01

    According to the 'Simple View of Reading', reading comprehension requires some abilities such as reading skill and listening comprehension. Individuals with Down's syndrome show relative strengths in reading skills, mainly in word recognition, where they attain a reading age of about 7-8 years. Compared with word recognition, their reading comprehension is usually delayed by at least 6 months. Poor reading comprehension is paralleled by weak listening comprehension. It is claimed that poor listening comprehension might constrain the development of reading comprehension and, therefore, be a cause for the asynchrony between reading skills and reading comprehension. A follow-up study was carried out in order to analyse the improvements in reading skills, listening and reading text comprehension, and to support the hypothesis of a causal relationship between listening and reading comprehension. Ten children and adolescents with Down's syndrome, aged between 11 years 3 months and 19 years 10 months, were assessed twice over a one-year period as to their reading skills, listening and reading text comprehension. Three main findings emerged: (1) reading skills, on the one hand, and comprehension (both listening and reading), on the other hand, are independent; (2) reading comprehension development is determined mainly by listening comprehension, which in the present study proved to be very poor; and (3) an improvement after a one-year period, even though limited, occurred for all examined abilities except for listening comprehension. The results are discussed in the light of the theoretical framework of the 'Simple View of Reading' and of their relevance for practical and educational issues. © 2011 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

  15. The Role of RAN and Reading Rate in Predicting Reading Self-Concept

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasperski, Ronen; Shany, Michal; Katzir, Tami

    2016-01-01

    Social identity theory states that a person's self-concept is created from comparison with others (Walsh & Gordon, 2008). In the case of reading, oral reading is a salient feature young children have to compare themselves on to their classroom peer group. The current study was set to explore the ability of oral reading tasks such as rapid…

  16. Overlapping genetic and child-specific nonshared environmental influences on listening comprehension, reading motivation, and reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schenker, Victoria J; Petrill, Stephen A

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated the genetic and environmental influences on observed associations between listening comprehension, reading motivation, and reading comprehension. Univariate and multivariate quantitative genetic models were conducted in a sample of 284 pairs of twins at a mean age of 9.81 years. Genetic and nonshared environmental factors accounted for statistically significant variance in listening and reading comprehension, and nonshared environmental factors accounted for variance in reading motivation. Furthermore, listening comprehension demonstrated unique genetic and nonshared environmental influences but also had overlapping genetic influences with reading comprehension. Reading motivation and reading comprehension each had unique and overlapping nonshared environmental contributions. Therefore, listening comprehension appears to be related to reading primarily due to genetic factors whereas motivation appears to affect reading via child-specific, nonshared environmental effects. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Overlapping Genetic and Child-Specific Nonshared Environmental Influences on Listening Comprehension, Reading Motivation, and Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schenker, Victoria J.; Petrill, Stephen A.

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated the genetic and environmental influences on observed associations between listening comprehension, reading motivation, and reading comprehension. Univariate and multivariate quantitative genetic models were conducted in a sample of 284 pairs of twins at a mean age of 9.81 years. Genetic and nonshared environmental factors accounted for statistically significant variance in listening and reading comprehension, and nonshared environmental factors accounted for variance in reading motivation. Furthermore, listening comprehension demonstrated unique genetic and nonshared environmental influences but also had overlapping genetic influences with reading comprehension. Reading motivation and reading comprehension each had unique and overlapping nonshared environmental contributions. Therefore, listening comprehension appears to be related to reading primarily due to genetic factors whereas motivation appears to affect reading via child-specific, nonshared environmental effects. PMID:26321677

  18. Morpheme frequency effects in Dutch complex word reading: A developmental perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verhoeven, L.T.W.; Schreuder, R.

    2011-01-01

    This study examined to what extent advanced and beginning readers, including dyslexic readers of Dutch, make use of morphological access units in the reading of polymorphemic words. Therefore, experiments were carried out in which the role of singular root form frequency in reading plural word forms

  19. Effects of Spectral Overlays on Reading Performance of Brazilian Elementary School Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia, Ana Carla Oliveira; Momensohn-Santos, Teresa Maria; Vilhena, Douglas de Araújo

    2018-03-20

    To investigate the effects of spectral overlays on reading performance of Brazilian elementary school children. Sixty-eight children (aged 9-12 years) enrolled in the 5th and 6th grade were included in the study. The Rate of Reading Test (RRT - Brazilian Portuguese version) was used to evaluate reading speed and the Irlen Reading Perceptual Scale was used to allocate the sample according to reading difficulty/discomfort symptoms and to define the optimal spectral overlays. A total of 13% of the children presented an improvement of at least 15% in reading speed with the use of spectral overlays. Pupils with severe reading difficulties tended to have more improvement in RRT with spectral overlays. Children with severe reading discomfort obtained the highest gains in RRT, with an average of 9.6% improvement with intervention, compared to a decrease of -8.2% in the control group. Participants with severe discomfort had an odds ratio of 3.36 to improve reading speed with intervention compared to the control group. The use of spectral overlays can improve reading performance, particularly in those children with severe visual discomfort. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  20. Long-read sequencing data analysis for yeasts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yue, Jia-Xing; Liti, Gianni

    2018-06-01

    Long-read sequencing technologies have become increasingly popular due to their strengths in resolving complex genomic regions. As a leading model organism with small genome size and great biotechnological importance, the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has many isolates currently being sequenced with long reads. However, analyzing long-read sequencing data to produce high-quality genome assembly and annotation remains challenging. Here, we present a modular computational framework named long-read sequencing data analysis for yeasts (LRSDAY), the first one-stop solution that streamlines this process. Starting from the raw sequencing reads, LRSDAY can produce chromosome-level genome assembly and comprehensive genome annotation in a highly automated manner with minimal manual intervention, which is not possible using any alternative tool available to date. The annotated genomic features include centromeres, protein-coding genes, tRNAs, transposable elements (TEs), and telomere-associated elements. Although tailored for S. cerevisiae, we designed LRSDAY to be highly modular and customizable, making it adaptable to virtually any eukaryotic organism. When applying LRSDAY to an S. cerevisiae strain, it takes ∼41 h to generate a complete and well-annotated genome from ∼100× Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) running the basic workflow with four threads. Basic experience working within the Linux command-line environment is recommended for carrying out the analysis using LRSDAY.