Sunday, August 5, 2007

Article Analysis

I. Title-Balanced Literacy in an Urban School District

II. Author-Bruce B. Frey, Steve W. Lee, Lisa Pass, Donita Massengill

III. Author's Purpose for Writing- To share the effects of a mixed-method research study on the effects of a district Balanced Literacy Initiative in an urban school district.IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?
-Few topics spark as much debate as reading research
-The term balanced literacy originated in 1996 in California
-Balanced literacy programs include community, home, and library involvement as well as structured classroom plans and use of activities such as read alouds, guided reading, shared reading, and independent reading and writing (Fountas and Pinnell).
-The focus of new curriculum was the systematic and explicit teaching of phonics as a foundation for comprehension, as well as presenting literature-based experiences (Asselin, 1999).
-The Austin Independent school district (2001) inititiated a literacy support plan for students who needed extra intervention. The Austin district’s literacy support model, built on a balanced literacy framework, has served over 3,000 students;96% of these students made gains. The average gain in Grades 1 through 4 was 8.7 on reading text levels and was accomplished within a school year.

V. Author's Inquiry Question/s—What is the effect of a balanced literacy initiative in an urban school district?

VI. Author's Methodology- Mixed method

A. Who is being studied? Data was collected from students in K-5 in 32 elementary schools in a high-poverty, urban metropolitan area. Most students were on free or reduced lunches.

B. Over what length of time? A year

C.What data is being collected-Classroom observations, classroom physical environment checklists of literacy components,physical building environment checklists of literacy components, teacher surverys and student group surverys.

D. How is it being analyzed- A triangulation strategy was used to evaluate and analyze data from three different sources.

E. Any other interesting or pertinent data- Independent activities had the highest level of frequency.

VII. How the author collected information- Over a year’s time while the balanced literacy initiative was implemented.

VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications- A successful balanced literacy program combines teacher-directed instruction of skills, strategies and processes, as well as student-centered activities that focus on authenticity, choice, and meaning. Also, changing teachers’ instructional practices takes time.


I. Title-Facilitating Emergent Literacy Skills: A literature-Based, Multiple Intelligence Approach

II. Author-Susan Trostle Brand

III. Author's Purpose for Writing- To prove a hypothesis that included as to whether or not a multiple-intelligence emergent literacy program would help students make gains in there comprehension.

IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?
-Children who are at risk for reading failure manifest many common early characteristics or warning signs.
-Recent research studies indicate that phonemic awareness and letter knowledge are highly correlated with later reading accuracy and fluency (Admas, 1990; Chall, 1967, 1983).
-Most children who enter school at risk for difficulties in both more specific phonological and print-related domain, as well as in the broader oral language knowledge domain (Torgesen, 2004).
-The mutiple intelligence/storytelling approach is recommended for children at risk for learning difficulties because of its multisensory nature and its ability to pique the interest and incorporate the active participation of all children.

V. Author's Inquiry Question/s—How will the theory of multiple intelligence intermixed with a emergent, holistic and literature rich thirteen week program effect students?VI. Author's Methodology- Quantitative Study

A. Who is being studied? - Thirteen children from an inner-city charter school. Within these thirteen students was six girls and seven boys. This included children of Hispanic, black, Asian, and white ethnic backgrounds.

B. Over what length of time? Ten weeks

C.What data is being collected- Results from DIBELS, progress monitoring, students interests and strengths, family and ethnic backgrounds, and emergent literacy level, and an abbreviated version of the Multiple Intelligence Survey (Brand and Donato, 2001b).

D. How is it being analyzed- All of the information was tested against the null hypothesis. Then it was decided whether or not the gains made by the students in the study would be comparitive or not to the students not treated in the study. Results from DIBELS Pretest and Posttest scores was analyzed and presented with median and standard deviation variants.

E. Any other interesting or pertinent data- The author stated that because of the variety of ways in which children may participate in storytelling and extension activities, a literature-based approach has the potential to utilize many combinations of students’ multiple intelligences.

VII. How the author collected information- Over ten weeks time while the students were being instructed in this approach.

VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications- The author stated that the main finding of the present study is that students who were exposed to a multiple intelligence- based emergent literacy program during kindergarten exhibited significant gains in skills that are critical for their later success as readers. One limitation was that this was only done with one set of kindergartners. But regardless, it’s a start.


Title- Becoming a fluent and automatic reader in the early elementary school years

II. Author- Paula J. Schwanenflugel, Elizabeth B. Meseisinger, Joseph M. Wisenbaker, Melanie R. Kuhn, Gregory P. Strauss, Robin D. Morris

III. Author's Purpose for Writing- share the development of an empirically based model of fluent and automatic reading during the early elementary years and to determine whether fluent text-reading skills provided fluent word decoding.

IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?
-Although there is no single definition of reading fluency, there is general agreement that fluent reading incorporates the ability to read quickly, accurately, and when oral reading is considered, with expression (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2000).
-In most children, fluent reading emerges in most children between first and third grade, when decoding skills are confirmed through practice (Kuhn & Stahl, 2004).

V. Author's Inquiry Question/s— To determine whether fluent text-reading skills provided fluent word decoding.

VI. Author's Methodology- Quantitative Study

A. Who is being studied? – Ninety –nine first graders, 79 second graders, and 71 third graders. They attended four public schools located in communities in urban northeast Georigia or surburban New Jersey, USA. Approximately 41% were African american, 27% were Anglo, 23% Hipanic, and 5% were Asian, 4% were other. 53% were female and 47% were male.

B. Over what length of time? Spring term of school year

C.What data is being collected ?-Test of Word Reading Efficiancy, (TOWRE) Sight Word Efficiency and Phonemic Decoding Efficiency subtests form A (1999), Weshler Inidividual Achievement Test (WIAT;1992) Reading Comprehension subtest, Gray Oral Reading Test-Third Edition (GORT-3, 1992), Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing Rapid Object Naming subtest (CTOPP-RON; 1999).

D. How is it being analyzed- They began carrying out the variance of the standardized test data. They used Grade as a between-subjects factor, focusing on raw scores for the tests. They then took the means and standard deviations of the tests and put them on a table for comparative analysis. After that they used structural equation modeling of the relationships among the tasks.

E. Any other interesting or pertinent data- First graders read text slower than second graders, and second graders read text slower than third graders.

VII. How the author collected information- Children were given a mixture of standardized and experimenter-constructed reading measures. From there data was collected from the results of the tests and analyzed as previously stated.

VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications- They found support for the common observation that, as children become older and their texts become more difficult, we need to look beyond reading fluency to other skills and knowledge (Kuhn, Strauss, Morris, 2006).


I. Title- Exploring Written Narrative in Children with Poor Reading Comprehension

II. Author- Lucy Craig and Kate Nelson

III. Author's Purpose for Writing- To talk about written language production in 10-year old children with impaired reading comprehension.

IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?

-To become fully literate, however, children need to move beyond single words and learn how to deal with text.
-While recognizing that there are factores such as spelling and handwriting that are unique to the writing process, Roth (2000) argued that narrative writing, is a complex process that has its basis in oral narration skill.

An investigation by Bishop and Clarkson (2003) concludes that written language is a particularly sensitive index of underlying language problems.


V.Author's Inquiry Question/s— For 10- year old students who struggle with reading comprehension, how is their written language?

VI. Author's Methodology- Quantitative Study

A. Who is being studied? – They picked seventy three students from Primary Year 5 (aged 9-10 years) and ninety-two children from Primary which served a predominately white middle class neighborhood. All were native of British English.

B. Over what length of time?

C.What data is being collected ? Spelling Assessment, measures of narrative, written narrative, spoken recall, story comprehension, analysis of narrative measures, story length, syntactic complexity, story content, and global structure.

D. How is it being analyzed? All information was put into a table highlighting the mean and standard deviation of each variant.

E. Any other interesting or pertinent data-

VII. How the author collected information- By giving the students the various assessments as listed above, the author was able to give an accurate count of student understanding through comprehension and written language.

VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications- Students who struggled with reading comprehension seemed to also struggle with written language.




I. Title- Reading Representations of themselves: Urban youth use culture and African American textual features to develop literary understandings.

II. Author- Wanda Brooks

Author's Purpose for Writing- In her words, " How do African American students interpret literature containing ‘authentic’ depictions of their own ethnic group?

What are the points made in the review of the literature?

-Several of the studies she discussed previously in her review included in-depth analyses of the -African American literature itself that would illustrate readers’ use of culturally influenced textual features (Brooks 2006).
-The results of some studies show the need to theorize about African American readers and their interpretive processes across different dimensions of identity and contextualization.
-To become fully literate, however, children need to move beyond single words and learn how to deal with text.
-While recognizing that there are factores such as spelling and handwriting that are unique to the writing process, Roth (2000) argued that narrative writing, is a complex process that has its basis in oral narration skill.
-An investigation by Bishop and Clarkson (2003) concludes that written language is a particularly sensitive index of underlying language problems.


V. Author's Inquiry Question/s—
What African American textual features are identifiable in three culturally conscious African American children’s novels?
In discussions with their teacher and through written artifacts, how do study participants respond to the African American textual features identified in the novels?

VI. Author's Methodology- Qualitative Study

A. Who is being studied? Twelve students, 10 African American, Three White

B. Over what length of time? Four days

C. What data is being collected ? Video-taped small-group lesson for primary

D. How is it being analyzed? Analyzed student responses and teacher prompts

E. Any other interesting or pertinent data- There were limitations the authors admitted to that include the fact that the teacher wore a microphone during the research and all interaction recorded happened within a foot of her.

VII. How the author collected information- By viewing and analyzing the videotapes.

VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications- According to the authors, the study confirmed that classroom environment, teacher-student interactions and collaborative work to name a few, benefit students and support other studies as well.


Title-Dialogic Narratives of literacy, teaching, and schooling: Preparing literacy teachers for diverse settings

II. Author-Theresa Rogers, Elizabeth Marshall, Cynthia A. Tyson

III. Author's Purpose for Writing- To convey the their study of dialogic narratives of selected teachers with an innovative teacher education program.

IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?
-Bakhtin argued that identities are authored in the context of dialogue—a perspective that allows us to view preservice teachers as being in the process of constructing professional identities within particular contexts and discourses (Bahktin 1981,1986) (Rogers, Marshall, Tyson 2006).
-Bakhtin (1986) described the dialogic as an ongoing struggle within and among people, and his notion of discourses is that they are made up of utterances that constitute a social event originating in and functioning as part of an intertextual social dialogue (Rogers, Marshall, Tyson 2006).

V. Author's Inquiry Question/s— What did their (teachers) study of dialogic narratives of selected teachers within the innovative teacher education program show?

VI. Author's Methodology- Qualitative

A. Who is being studied? 10 students in the Master’s of Education teacher preparation program.

B. Over what length of time? A school year

C. What data is being collected- Interviews, observations and transcripts (students volunteered).

D. How is it being analyzed- Primarily by looking at seminar meetings, students were later interviewed and asked to share their stories. They then analyzed the content of the five dialogic narrative chains using Bakhtin’s (1981, 1986) notion of "authoring"—the process of assimilating the voices of others to adopt a social position in the context of dialogue (Marshall, Rogers, Tyson 2006).

E. Any other interesting or pertinent data- The researchers seemed to take great care in ensuring the trustworthiness of the study on behalf of the teachers involved.

VII. How the author collected information- Interviews, observations and transcripts (students volunteered).

VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications- During the study, the researchers didn’t fully realize how much impact the narratives had for enriching student-centered curriculum


I.Title- Johnny won’t read, and Susie won’t either: Reading instruction and student resistance.

II. Author-Rebecca Powell, Ellen McIntyre, Elizabeth Rightmyer

III. Author's Purpose for Writing- To convey the their study of dialogic narratives of selected teachers with an innovative teacher education program.

IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?

-The authors stated that research showed there was a positive relationship between ‘engaged time’ –or time where students are actively attending to the learning task—and student achievement (Cotton 2001).
-The best readers of reading and writing are those who are capable of engaging students in literacy learning for sustained periods of time (Pressley et al., 1998).
-Engaged readers perform better on measures of text comprehension and reading achievement (Guthrie et al., 2001).

V. Author's Inquiry Question/s— Why are children off task? What is going on in classrooms where a majority children are off task? (Powell, McIntyre, Rightmyer 2006).

VI. Author's Methodology

A. Who is being studied? A larger study included teachers in 13 schools and 46 classrooms.

B. Over what length of time?

C. What data is being collected- Observations and interviews

D. How is it being analyzed- They basically looked for patterns across instructional sites (Miles and Huberman, 1994).

E. Any other interesting or pertinent data- They included the scripted programs, Corrective Reading and Open Court

VII. How the author collected information- Interviews and observation instrument while visiting the teacher four times between 60 and 180 minutes,

VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications- What they found was an erosion of the student-teacher relationship in the classrooms they observed. The authors stated the students resisted, the teachers reacted and a cycle of negativity continued. The authors also argued that scripted programs are problematic due to not only off task behavior but the due to the erosion of the teacher-student relationship they can cause.



I. Title- Accountability for reading and readers: What the numbers don’t tell

II. Authors—Pat Wilson, Prisca Martens, Poonam Arya

III. Author's Purpose for Writing- To share what they learned by assessing primary students using various reading programs.

IV.What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?

-National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2000) recommended strategy instruction as an effective means of increasing children’s comprehension, children’s actual use of strategies to comprehend text isn’t analyzed in mnay of the tests used for accountability (Arya, Martens, Wilson, 2005).
-Authors also stated that numbers do not usually provide a complete picture of what children know and can do.

V. Author's Inquiry Question/s— What is the impact of these reading programs on second graders comprehension, strategy use, and understanding of the process of reading (Arya, Martens, Wilson, 2005).

VI. Author's Methodology

A. Who is being studied- Second Graders in a major metropolitan area

B. Over what length of time? Spring

C. What data is being collected- Miscue Analysis, Word Analysis subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery (norm reference) and retelling to assess comprehension.

D. How is it being analyzed- Looked at the data from the sources to see patterns of improvement or regression over time.

E. Any other interesting or pertinent data- In retelling the story, based on their chart, GR was ahead in terms of the students retelling but was average when it came to program means (ex. Meaning construction, grammatical relationship, phonics,etc.)

VII. How the author collected information-By observing classrooms and data on students.

VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications- One of the main points the authors came to was that in the end, the students at the Guided Reading school did just as well as the reading program schools. However, the students in the reading program schools relied heavily graphophonics cues in their reading at the expense of the students.

I. Title- Supporting Beginning Reading in Kindergarten with Independent Writing.

II. Authors—Marlene Waiser and Jan Whiteley

III. Author's Purpose for Writing- To share their goal and findings of raising reading achievement among senior kindergarten students.

IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?

-A child does have to gradually accumulate a reading vocabulary of known words which he can recognize rapidly and does not have to work out. Only as this happens is the reader’s attention freed to work on new words and solve new text problems. (Clay, 1991).

V. Author's Inquiry Question/s— The authors stated whether they could increase the word knowledge and reading levels of Senior kindergarten children through the regular use of guided writing journals in conjunctions with the development of a word wall? Can the reading levels be maintained over the summer from Kindergarten to Grade one? (Waiser and Whiteley, 2001)

A. Who is being studied- Senior Kindergartners

B. Over what length of time? One school year

C. What data is being collected- Clay’s Observation Survey, running records and teacher observations, Writing Vocabulary Test

D. How is it being analyzed- Comparing data to see how the students were able to retain what they learned through guided writing.

E. Any other interesting or pertinent data- Just the fact that they were not only interested in facts pertinent to that school year, but they came back in the fall of the kindergartener’s first grade year to see how their learning transferred and stayed with them through the summer.

VII. How the author collected information- Over a year’s time with a mixed-methods approach.

VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications- The author’s stated significant improvement on the Clay Word Test for reading. The results of the Writing Vocabulary test were slightly lower in June of 2001 than June of 2000. That number showed improvement by September 2001. The authors did emphasize that changes in practice were benefiting the students.






I. Title- The Effect of Mobility on Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Test Scores: A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of William Howard Taft University

II. Authors—Ray Alvarez

III. Author's Purpose for Writing- To determine whether or not mobility affect the performance of students on Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), the current standardized test in Texas?

IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?
-Educators must have more research regarding the validity of the tests used to assess the achievement of the economically disadvanaged (Alvarez 2006).
-The Holman (1995) studies showed that socioeconomic status affected scores on TEAMS while gender did not. This research examines mobility of students affects of their scores on the TAKS (Alvarez 2006).

V. Author's Inquiry Question/s— The author states : Does the mobility affect the performance of students on Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), the current standardized test in Texas?

A. Who is being studied- Fifth graders

B. Over what length of time? Two years

C. What data is being collected- Student’s mobility rate

D. How is it being analyzed- Mobility rate to test scores

VII. How the author collected information- By monitoring mobility rate and comparing to TAKS scores

VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications- Alvarez’s null hypothesis was proven false. There is an effect on TAKS scores due to student mobility.

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