Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ed.D. in Education

Department

Teacher Education

First Advisor

Angela S. Rutherford

Second Advisor

John Holleman

Third Advisor

Michael Mott

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

Despite the existing research regarding effective word-study interventions for struggling adolescent readers, various researchers propose a need for additional research on effective reading interventions to confirm and extend existing knowledge. The current study specifically investigates the impact of the overt/covert and outside-in word-study instructional intervention strategies on struggling adolescent readers’ fluency and comprehension measures. Paired samples t-tests revealed a significant difference in the pretest and posttest fluency scores of participants receiving either overt/covert or outside-in word-study strategy instruction. However, no significant difference occurred between participants’ pretest and posttest comprehension scores. Additionally, ANCOVA statistical analyses revealed no significant differences between the fluency and comprehension scores of participants receiving either overt/covert or outside-in word-study instructional interventions. Because participants’ fluency increased significantly after receiving nine weeks of either overt/covert or outside-in word-study instructional interventions, this study concludes that word-study strategy instruction has the potential to help build the fluency bridge that connects decoding and comprehension. With possibly more time and intervention, participants’ comprehension could also improve.

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