Edna Greene Brabham

Effects of teachers' reading-aloud styles on vocabulary acquisition and comprehension of students in the early elementary grades.

Effects of just reading, performance reading, and interactional reading-aloud styles on learning were assessed for 117 1st graders and 129 3rd graders. Preservice teachers, trained and guided by scripted procedures, read 2 informational storybooks to students using 1 of the styles. Multivariate analyses of variance and univariate tests showed that reading-aloud styles produced statistically significant effects on vocabulary acquisition and comprehension and similar results at each grade level. Differences in comprehension means for reading style treatments were statistically significant for 1 book only. Vocabulary acquisition was facilitated more by interactional reading than performance reading. Both verbally mediated styles resulted in greater vocabulary learning than just reading. Results extend previous findings on reading-aloud styles and are congruent with sociolinguistic and transactional theories.

Reading Alphabet Books in Kindergarten: Effects of Instructional Emphasis and Media Practice

Abstract This study compared literacy learning for kindergartners as 12 teachers read 10 popular alphabet books aloud, emphasizing meanings or phonemes, and used centers for independent practice with an alphabet book on audiotape or CD-ROM over a period of four weeks. Researchers taught half the teachers to read the books with an emphasis on phonemes represented by the letters and the other half to focus on meanings of words as the books were read. Within each meaning- or phoneme-emphasis group, teachers had students work with one of the alphabet books, Dr. Seusss ABC, in a computer center with an animated CD-ROM, or in a listening center with an audiotape and print copy. A total of 152 kindergartners completed pre- and posttests measuring knowledge of vocabulary in the alphabet books, letter names, phonetic cue reading, and phoneme identities. Results for phoneme identities indicated a significant interaction between type of instructional emphasis and media practice. An emphasis on phonemes combined with practice reading the alphabet book while listening to the text on audiotape was significantly more effective than other treatment combinations. Statistically significant improvements from pre- to posttests on all measures suggested that alphabet books are useful materials for beginning literacy instruction.

The Effectiveness of DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency for Predicting Reading Comprehension of High- and Low-Income Students

Correlations and sequential analyses between performance on Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills–Oral Reading Fluency (DORF) and reading achievement on the Stanford Achievement Test–Tenth Edition (SAT-10) during 2003–2004 were examined for high- and low-income children. Participants were 215 third graders, 112 above and 103 below proficiency benchmarks for DORF. For below benchmark students, DORF scores strongly predicted SAT-10 comprehension. For above benchmark students (a) DORF scores predicted comprehension for high- but not low-income students; (b) statistically significant differences in reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary existed between high- and low-income students; (c) reading vocabulary equally predicted comprehension for students of differing economic backgrounds; and (d) reading fluency did not predict comprehension for low-income students beyond what was accounted for by vocabulary.

Sorting it out: Elementary students' responses to fact and fiction in informational storybooks as read‐alouds for science and social studies

Abstract This paper describes a descriptive, developmental study of elementary students’ acquisition of vocabulary, comprehension of content area concepts in science and social studies, and ability to distinguish between fact and fiction in informational books read aloud by pre‐service teachers in the classroom. Multiple analyses of variance indicate significant differences across grade levels for comprehension and ability to distinguish between fact and fiction but not for vocabulary acquisition, which shows significant increases that are stable across grade levels. The findings suggest appropriate uses and cautions that should be considered when informational storybooks are used as read‐alouds to facilitate elementary student learning across the curriculum.

Flooding Vocabulary Gaps to Accelerate Word Learning

Students entering school with limited vocabularies are at a disadvantage compared to classmates with robust knowledge of words and meanings. Teaching a few unrelated words at a time is insufficient for catching these students up with peers and preparing them to comprehend texts they will encounter across the grades. This article presents childrens literature and research-supported activities that can accelerate vocabulary acquisition by immersing children in semantic clusters to build knowledge of abstract concepts and individual words representing the concepts. These methods are efficient as well as effective and have the potential to increase breadth and depth of word learning for students with less and more rich vocabularies.