Abigail Palmer

SPED 637
June 13, 2017

Annotated Bibliography

Characterisitcs of Dyslexia and Other Reading Disabilities

Reference:

Thomson, M. E. (2009). The Psychology of Dyslexia: A Handbook for Teachers.

Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Description:

The Psychology of Dyslexia: A Handbook for Teachers, discusses the nature of

Dyslexia, assessment of children with Dyslexia, common misconceptions and

discrepancies, the neuropsychology and models of reading, spelling, memory and

phonological deficits. Thompson uses case studies to give teachers concrete evidence and

real life examples and includes educational psychologist reports looking at students with

Dyslexia. He also includes information about Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyspraxia,

in order to help the reader understand how the different disabilities are closely related.

The purpose of the text is to present the materials to teachers who are learning about

Dyslexia and provide resources to identify and ensure academic success for students with

Dyslexia. Furthermore, the text includes difficulties that students with Dyslexia face at
school and at home. This provides the reader with certain characteristics to look for when

trying to identify a struggling student.

Reference:

Van den Broeck, W., & Geudens, A. (2012). Old and New Ways to Study

Characteristics of Reading Disability: The Case of the Nonword-Reading Deficit.

Cognitive Psychology, 65(3), 414-456.

Description:

This article addresses the different characteristics of Dyslexia and other reading

disabilities. One of the main focuses is the nonword reading deficit, a common problem

among students with reading disabilities, focusing on their inability to read nonwords or

nonsense words. This deficit was tested in a study with disabled and non disabled readers,

and results showed that the students with reading disabilities had a deficit in the ability to

read nonwords.The capability to utilize orthographic knowledge is related to

representation of a word and aspects of the writing as a system. Students with learning

disabilities need a higher exposure to orthographic language than the average reader. The

authors suggest that orthographic recoding, the method of orthographic units responding

to phonological counterparts could help struggling students bridge the gap between

orthography and phonology.

Area 1: Written expression

Reference:
 Kaldenberg, E. R., Ganzeveld, P., Hosp, J. L. and Rodgers, D. B. (2016),

Common Characteristics of Writing Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities:

A Synthesis of the Literature. Psychol. Schs., 53: 938–953. doi:10.1002/pits.21958

Description:

This article focuses on different intervention studies including the benefits of the

self-regulated strategy development (SRSD). Twenty-three studies targeted the goal of

improving writing skills paired with multiple different writing strategies. The article

addressed the three main issues that students with reading disabilities may struggle with:

the planning stages of writing, translating ideas onto paper and editing/reviewing their

work. This can also impact the mechanics of writing and grammar. The SRSD writing

strategy has proven to be successful numerous times. The simple six step approach to

writing is a clear model which includes ideas for how to teach writing, steps for

brainstorming and planning, editing and revising written work and reading

comprehension techniques. The instructional interventions that were successful shared

the following features: sequencing, drill-repetition-practice, chunking teaching

instruction in segments, direct question and responses, task difficulty control, the use of

technology and strategy cues. As long as the teacher is providing explicit instruction,

along with the intervention features, the article suggests that there are no statistical

differences between the SRSD approach and non-SRSD approach.

Reference:
 Viel-Ruma, K., Houchins, D., & Fredrick, L. (2007). Error Self-Correction and

Spelling: Improving the Spelling Accuracy of Secondary Students with Disabilities in

Written Expression. Journal Of Behavioral Education, 16(3), 291-301.

Description:

The authors of the article determined that spelling is one of the main skills needed

to be successful in writing. Because the two have a close relationship regarding written

expression, the ability to spell correctly has a direct impact on the quality of writing that

is being produced. Deficits in spelling prohibits the writer from being able to

brainstorm/plan, organize and write meaningful content. Students with learning

disabilities experience a harder time with spelling and developing word choice. The

authors focused on one strategy called the error self-correction procedure, which allows

students to see their misspelled word next to a correctly spelled word and make the

proper changes. By doing this students are practicing multiple strategies including

checking their own work and comparing it to words spelled appropriately, marking

correct spellings, and correcting their errors and spelling the correct word next to the

word that was misspelled. The participants were high school students with deficits in

written expression and the intervention was conducted over a six week period. Two

different ways to utilize this method were tested and results showed that students who

were allowed to immediately see feedback and correct their own work performed higher

than those who waited and received delayed error self-correction. The results indicated

that the error self-correction method improved spelling with a variety of different aged
high school participants and it was more successful than a standard method of reviewing

spelling errors.

Area 2: Vocabulary

Reference:

Wright, T. S., & Cervetti, G. N. (2017). A Systematic Review of the Research on

Vocabulary Instruction That Impacts Text Comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly,

52(2), 203-226.

Description:

The focus on this article was to target vocabulary interventions that directly

impact reading comprehension. Thirty-six different studies were analyzed and centered

around two main issues- type of comprehension measure and type of intevention. The

participants in the studies ranged from kindergarten to 12th grade. By looking for

commonalities between the characteristics of vocabulary instruction, the authors

identified the following themes: the direct instruction of teaching word meanings that

support text comprehension, kinesthetic instruction of vocabuluary was more meaningful

than textbook or dictionary definitions, the direct teaching of word meanings did not

improve general comprehension and there was no evidence that the instruction of

multiple strategies would impact overall comprehension. Evidence showed that

instruction that teaches students how to understand vocabulary and manipulate it to solve

for the meaning of a word was a more effective strategy. By only teaching the dictionary
definition of a word, it prevents students from understanding the different prefixes,

suffixes and roots of a word. If students are taught how to break down a word in order to

understand the different meanings, they are able to build upon that knowledge to create a

stronger vocabulary instead of just one dictionary definition. This will help students in

comprehension when reading a text, because it will provide them with a strategy to

decode a word to identify the meaning within a text. By using explicit instruction to teach

students strategies to understand the meaning of unknown words, it will help improve

their overall vocabulary and ability to comprehend a variety of texts.

Reference:

Snell, E. K., Hindman, A. H., & Wasik, B. A. (2015). How Can Book Reading

Close the Word Gap? Five Key Practices from Research. Reading Teacher, 68(7), 560-

571.

Description:

The authors of this article examined evidence based strategies to improve

vocabulary development in reading books to young children. The specific focus was on

the ages three to six years old, because a strong foundation for vocabulary is very

important at this developmental stage. When students are learning to read at young age,

they begin to decode unfamiliar words to identify their meaning. However, if they have a

strong vocabulary and already are able to recognize the word, decoding and

comprehension of the word are less of a struggle and the ability to understand and

comprehend puts the student at an advantage. Children who are able to participate in
conversations frequently with adults have the ability to learn new words and add them to

their list of vocabulary. Children need visual and verbal examples of how to use the word

and where it is appropriate to use in a sentence. In this study, forty-two families were

evaluated to gauge the amount of words young children heard in the household each day.

The results showed the students from low income families heard around 616 words per

day. Those from middle to upper income households were exposed to two to three times

the amount of words than the students from the lower income families. The authors

discussed how many different forms of curriculum did not address how to explicitly teach

vocabulary or go over strategies to help students. The authors identified that book reading

has a variety of advantages including how high quality books can expose children to new

vocabulary in an engaging way and how picture books can introduce students on how to

make inferences and predictions based on the illustrations. By using book reading,

vocabulary can be taught using five different strategies- defining new words, having a

discussion and asking students open ended questions regarding the text and the new

words, retelling books multiple times, having students summarize and retell stories from

the books in their own words, and integrating those new vocabulary words throughout the

classroom and within engaging activities.

Reference:

Goodwin, A. P., & Perkins, J. (2015). Word Detectives: Morphological

Instruction That Supports Academic Language. Reading Teacher, 68(7), 510-523.

Description:
 This article discusses how morphological instruction helps support students in

identifying and understanding the meaning of unknown words. Morphological instruction

helps students identify the root words that make up the entire word. They focus on

breaking the word apart and deciphering the parts of the word that are known. By doing

this, students are able to recognize the meaning of the word and comprehend the way it is

used within the text. The article targets different interventions for classroom teachers to

apply to their own classrooms and examples of how to use them. The authors discuss the

relationship between morphology and academic language and learning new words. By

focusing on strategies that build knowledge of the root words, prefixes and suffixes, it

aids in problem solving and helps build a bigger vocabulary for students. The meanings

of words can be identified by breaking the word apart and studying the different units

(prefixes, suffixes and roots). The authors identified six main components to improve

vocabulary, fluency, comprehension and morphological awareness. The six main

components are identified as: teaching students about comprehension strategies, word

solving occurrences, having students read and code use of strategies, sharing main clues

on dry erase boards, reinforcing learning through games and finally, closure that

reinforces key takeaways from the lesson. The article includes hands-on games and

templates to use in the classroom to help teachers integrate morphology and reading

comprehension to build word knowledge.

Area 3: Reading Comprehension skills and strategies

Reference:
 Meyer, B. F., & Ray, M. N. (2011). Structure Strategy Interventions: Increasing

Reading Comprehension of Expository Text. International Electronic Journal Of

Elementary Education, 4(1), 127-152.

Description:

In this article, the authors identify strategies that educate on how the structure

strategy intervention increases the reading comprehension of expository texts. By

exposing students to new information and allowing them to use their prior knowledge to

connect with the content, research shows that students are able to understand concepts

and texts more vividly. The structure of the text is set up in six different categories:

comparison (comparing and contrasting), problem and solution, causation (cause and

effect) , sequencing, collection and description. The following are inventions discussed

that teach students how to use different text structures. They focus on modeling,

practicing techniques and providing instructional feedback to students to ensure success.

The reason why the structure strategy is important for students is because it helps assist in

text comprehension by organizing different concepts and relationships between them as

determined by the text. It gives the student a clear representation of what the text is trying

to say. The authors decided to compare and contrast different interventions within

multiple elementary schools to determine what was successful and what was not. After

assessing the data collected, the researchers identified that the interventions that were

most successful focused on modeling, scaffolding instruction, explict and direct

instruction, feedback that correlated with how to improve comprehension of expositiory

texts and adapting instruction to fit the invididual needs of each student.
Reference:

Green, S. (2016). Two for One: Using QAR to Increase Reading Comprehension

and Improve Test Scores. Reading Teacher, 70(1), 103-109.

Description:

A third-grade teacher, Susan Green, re-evaluated her classroom after receiving state

testing scores back and noticed that the students were struggling to understand the

questions being asked, not the difficulty of reading the different passages. In order to

ensure success for the following year, she realized that instructional strategies were

needed for navigating and understanding questions on standardized tests. Green decided

to use the Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) strategy, which helps students who are

reading, locate and identify information that will help them answer the comprehension

questions. This strategy improves reading comprehension by categorizing questions

according to the reading material and previous background knowledge. By using this

method, students are able to better understand types of questions and how to find the

information to answer the question. QAR questions have four different types of

relationships including: Right There (answer is found in one part of the text), Think and

Search (the answer is in multiple places within the text), Author and You (the answer is

not in the text, the student must use the information provided in the text in order to

determine the answer in their head) and On My Own (the answer cannot be discovered in

the text but the student must come to the conclusion based on their own previous

background knowledge). By using this technique, teachers can raise their test scores,
increase student reading comprehension and develop higher level thinking in their

classrooms. Green used the following phases to introduce the concept of QAR. Phase one

introduced the topic of QAR in the form of a mini lesson. Phase two consisted of Green

modeling QAR with subcategories and the completion of an anchor chart as a visual for

students. In phase three, students practiced using the QAR skill on their own. Phase four

of the QAR intervention consisted of modeling the classification of questions similar to

those on a standardized test. After using this intervention for six weeks, the results

indicated that over 80% of the students passed the test.

Reference:

Sencibaugh, J. M. (2007). Meta-Analysis of Reading Comprehension

Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities: Strategies and Implications.

Reading Improvement, 44(1), 6-22.

Description:

The focus of this article was the meta-analysis of reading comprehension

interventions and strategies specifically used for students with learning disabilities.

Reading comprehension was the main focus, particularly because of the struggle to

understand the meaning of the text and its context. The authors explained that students

with learning disabilities struggle with reading comprehension, semantics (association of

word meanings), making predictions and inferences, recalling textual information, and

drawing conclusions. Fifteen studies were conducted and data was collected in order to

identify the main instructional strategies that are successful in improving reading
comprehension. The first strategy identified was self-regulated strategy development

(SRSD), focusing on instructing students how to comprehend different texts strategically.

Targeting specific materials, practicing with students and gradually adding more

challenging texts were additional intervention techniques. The authors also discussed the

importance of individualizing instruction by figuring out which strategies will benefit a

group of students and the relevancy and progress monitoring by giving specific feedback.

By using the academic search engines EBSCOHOST and ERIC for research, the authors

used the following guidelines when conducting the fifteen studies: Students must be

kindergarten through 12th grade, students must have a learning or reading disability, each

study must include interventions for reading comprehension, studies must include an

experimental design and be able to calculate the size of the effect. A variety of different

strategies were used including the use of illustrations, pre-reading and post-reading, and

questions regarding the material covered. The most successful outcomes involved

restating sections of the text, questioning techniques, and text structure strategies. The

auditory and language strategies had a higher impact on the struggling students. Results

showed that students with learning disabilities who struggle with reading comprehension

need explicit and direct instruction in order to gain academic achievement.