Recent research (Connor, Morrison, &Katch, 2004;Foorman, Francis, Fletcher, Schatschneider, &Mehta, 1998;Juel &Minden-Cupp, 2000) has revealed that the effects of certain types of instruction may depend on the specific oral language and early reading skills that children bring to the classroom. The proposed research seeks to examine the causal implications of these child-by-instruction interactions and their effect on children's reading development To this end, we will implement a program of individualized first grade language arts instruction, based, in part, on children's oral language and reading skills, and examine its efficacy using an experimental design in two waves, including a cluster randomized field trial. In each wave, schools are randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Schools (n = 12 per wave) and their first grade teachers (n = approximately 22) and students (n = approximately 540) are from school districts with both rural and urban areas that are economically and culturally diverse. The proposed implementation of individualized instruction will be supported in two ways, first through intensive teacher training and, second, through computer-based networked Assessment-to-instruction and Simulated Classroom Interactive Interface (SCII, Connor, 1998) technology and teacher education software, Knowledge Networks on the Web (KNOW, Fishman, Marx, Best, &Tal, 2003). Broadly implemented, individualized instruction has the potential to maximize all students'reading skill growth, to meet the goal of all children reading at or above grade level by the end of first grade, and to improve pre-service and professional development efforts. The technology will offer researchers more sophisticated methods for modeling the role of children's early language and literacy in school success, including effects on instruction, within complex and dynamic classroom systems. Moreover, this investigation will help to elucidate the causal links between instruction and children's oral language and reading growth.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD048539-05
Application #
7668690
Study Section
Language and Communication Study Section (LCOM)
Program Officer
Miller, Brett
Project Start
2005-09-01
Project End
2011-07-31
Budget Start
2009-08-01
Budget End
2011-07-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$470,280
Indirect Cost
Name
Florida State University
Department
Type
Schools of Education
DUNS #
790877419
City
Tallahassee
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
32306
McLean, Leigh; Connor, Carol McDonald (2018) Relations between third grade teachers' depressive symptoms and their feedback to students, with implications for student mathematics achievement. Sch Psychol Q 33:272-282
Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Petscher, Yaacov; Wanzek, Jeanne et al. (2018) Relations between Reading and Writing: A Longitudinal Examination from Grades 3 to 6. Read Writ 31:1591-1618
Connor, Carol McDonald; Mazzocco, Michèle M M; Kurz, Terri et al. (2018) Using assessment to individualize early mathematics instruction. J Sch Psychol 66:97-113
Sparapani, Nicole; Connor, Carol McDonald; McLean, Leigh et al. (2018) Direct and Reciprocal Effects among Social Skills, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension in First Grade. Contemp Educ Psychol 53:159-167
Dombek, Jennifer; Crowe, Elizabeth C; Spencer, Mercedes et al. (2017) Acquiring Science and Social Studies Knowledge in Kindergarten Through Fourth Grade: Conceptualization, Design, Implementation, and Efficacy Testing of Content-Area Literacy Instruction (CALI). J Educ Psychol 109:301-320
Day, Stephanie L; Connor, Carol M (2017) Examining the relations between self-regulation and achievement in third grade students. Assess Eff Interv 42:97-109
McLean, Leigh; Sparapani, Nicole; Toste, Jessica R et al. (2016) Classroom quality as a predictor of first graders' time in non-instructional activities and literacy achievement. J Sch Psychol 56:45-58
Connor, Carol McDonald (2016) A Lattice Model of the Development of Reading Comprehension. Child Dev Perspect 10:269-274
Otaiba, Stephanie Al; Folsom, Jessica S; Wanzek, Jeannie et al. (2016) Professional development to differentiate kindergarten Tier 1 instruction: Can already effective teachers improve student outcomes by differentiating Tier 1 instruction? Read Writ Q 32:454-476
Terry, Nicole Patton; Connor, Carol McDonald; Johnson, Lakeisha et al. (2016) Dialect variation, dialect-shifting, and reading comprehension in second grade. Read Writ 29:267-295

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