Robert C. Calfee

Learning to Read: Theory, Research, and Practice

A topic of perennial concern and debate is the task of teaching our children to become skilled readers. We need not recapitulate these extensive discussions in detail. The longevity and persistence of the arguments can be traced to several causes. Reading seems so easy and natural to most of us, almost like breathing, that it is hard to understand why anyone should have trouble acquiring this skill. A students failure to become a competent reader is even more difficult to understand when we consider the enor-

Classroom Assessment as Inquiry

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the question as to what should the classroom teacher know and be able to do in assessing student achievement. This handbook chapter promises both context and depth on a topic. It begins with a brief review of assessment practices and policies over the past half-century, as they bear on the classroom teachers role in judging student achievement. Next, it proposes several criteria for gauging the adequacy of classroom assessment practices at the local school site. Then it outlines a framework for the process of classroom assessment as inquiry or applied research. The final section attempts to reconcile an issue raised at the outset—the tension between the demands of external and internal mandates for assessing student achievement. Given the current upheaval in assessment generally and classroom assessment in particular, deciding what to include and what to exclude has been difficult. The chapter offers a conceptual and practical analysis of classroom assessment more than a listing of sources and citations. We have relied for background on several recent works. Finally, the

Paired-associate models and the effects of list length

Abstract A two-process Markov model for paired-associate learning is presented in which stimulus-response associations may pass through an intermediate or short-term memory state before learning is complete. In the short-term state, forgetting may occur, and in the trial-dependent-forgetting (TDF) model, the likelihood that forgetting takes place on any trial is postulated to be a function of the number of S-R pairs remaining to be learned on that trial. To determine the quantitative accuracy of the model, a paired-associate experiment was conducted in which list length was varied. Specific response-sequence frequencies from experimental lists of 9, 15, and 21 items were reasonably well predicted by the TDF model. A much better account of the data was obtained by a revision of the model, in which it was assumed that the probability of learning on a given trial depended on whether an item was still in short-term memory or had been forgotten. Comparative predictions from the linear and all-or-none models, as well as an alternative two-process Markov model, are also presented.

Attention in the Classroom

Trying to observe instruction in an active first-grade classroom can be a humbling experience. So much is going on and the distractions are so many, the wonder is that teacher and student make any sense of the situation. Yet they generally do—instruction and learning go on with a fair degree of success. The critical factor is attention. When the observer’s attention is properly focused, when he has learned what to look for and what to ignore, significant patterns become clear to him. Likewise, teacher and student work together effectively when each attends to the situation in an active, selective fashion.

Kirchhoff's Pen: a pen-based circuit analysis tutor

Kirchhoffs Pen is a pen-based tutoring system that teaches students to apply Kirchhoffs voltage law (KVL) and current law (KCL). To use the system, the student sketches a circuit schematic and annotates it to indicate component labels, mesh currents, and nodal voltages. The student then selects either mesh (KVL) or nodal (KCL) analysis, and writes the appropriate equations. The system interprets the equations, compares them to the correct equations (which are automatically derived from the circuit), and provides tutorial feedback about errors. Unlike traditional tutoring systems that work from input provided with a keyboard and mouse, our system works from ambiguous, hand-drawn input. The goal of our work is to create computational techniques to enable natural, pen-based tutoring systems that scaffold students in solving problems in the same way they would ordinarily solve them with paper and pencil. Kirchhoffs Pen is an important first step toward this goal.

Short-term memory in children as a function of display size

Display size was varied in a card-guessing game with young children by presenting either 3, 4 or 5 animal cards in serial order, and testing for recall on one of the cards. Marked recency effects were observed at all stages of training, and during the early trials, some primacy was noted. Retrieval appeared to be an all-or-none phenomenon, in contrast to previous studies with 8-item displays, which found generalization and above-chance guessing on the second choice.

Understanding and Comprehending.

Schools should be instructing students in formal thought and expression—what we call “comprehending”—rather than in everyday or “home” thought and language—what we call “understanding.” In this essay we suggest general changes in the standard reading and writing curricula. Finally, we examine the language of writing instruction, in college-level individual writing conferences, to take a close look at issues involved in implementing the curricula for higher and lower achieving students.

Beyond decoding: Pictures of expository prose.

Just as success in decoding complex spelling patterns requires strategy and structure, so does the “decoding” of complex expository writing. We discuss the specific sources of difficulty in technical writing and distinguish between content structure and text structure. Next come presentations of the basic building blocks for expository writing and techniques of text design. Patterns from American science and social studies texts are described and contrasted with Japanese materials. We finish with suggestions for promoting the comprehension of expository materials.

Applying cognitive psychology to educational practice: The mind of the reading teacher

Students learn what they are taught. If a student fails to acquire the skills of reading, then one ought first to examine the program of reading instruction. The foundations of literacy in English require analysis of human cognition, of the formal use of language (the rhetoric), and of the peculiarities of the English language. The materials presently available for training reading teachers and for providing them support in reading instruction give little or no attention to these foundations. Such materials are likely to misdirect the teacher, giving him or her little guidance for presenting an effective program of instruction in reading. A syndrome like dyslexia as a consequence becomes obscured by the many youngsters for whom the problem is a lack of clarity and coherence in the instructional program. Progress in dealing with specific learning disabilities will be hampered until these fundamental problems are resolved.

The Mind of the Dyslexic.

Dyslexia—the failure of apparently normal youngsters to become skilled readers after instruction which was apparently effective for their peers—clearly has something to do with the mental activities of these children. This paper reviews the findings from the past quarter-century of research on human information-processing, and proposes some hypoth eses about the mind of the dyslexic. I will begin with a brief comment on the public image of dyslexia, and equally brief remarks summarizing current literature on the nature, causes, and remedies for this syndrome. I will then present the review of cognitive psychology, and reconsider the syndrome of dyslexia from the perspective provided by this review.