University of Georgia Research Plans for 2007-08. Our material development and research design efforts will be directed towards implementing 4-6 studies beginning September 2007. These studies will follow three themes. We will be conducting some studies on variations of electronic supports as they apply to literacy related to leisure-recreation. We have begun developing materials related to passages from the book “The Chronicles of Naria” and are looking for ways to provide electronics supports to current topics of interest such as entertainment and sports. In addition, we are currently developing electronic supports for text commonly found in relation to independent living skills such as cooking (reading recipes) and shopping (vocabulary in grocery stores).
Research Plans for 2007-08
Our material development and research design efforts will be directed towards implementing 4-6 studies beginning September 2007. These studies will follow three themes. We will be conducting some studies on variations of electronic supports as they apply to literacy related to leisure-recreation. We have begun developing materials related to passages from the book “The Chronicles of Naria” and are looking for ways to provide electronics supports to current topics of interest such as entertainment and sports. In addition, we are currently developing electronic supports for text commonly found in relation to independent living skills such as cooking (reading recipes) and shopping (vocabulary in grocery stores). Finally, our partner schools have expressed an interest in our applying electronic supports to materials they are targeting as part of the new Georgia Alternate Assessment mandate. We are exploring how we might be able to modify and apply the supports to some of the materials they are targeting.
One of the main procedural questions we have yet to answer involves identifying a useable software product that will allow us to pull in text that can be read to students while it allows us to add the additional supports that we are finding important (e.g., video, photos, graphics). To this end, we are currently experimenting with Read Write Gold and Clickit5 as possible vehicles for delivering the future instruction we are preparing.
RESEARCH PROTOCOL
ELECTRONIC TEXT AND LITERACY
Purpose:
The purpose of this study is to begin empirically evaluate the impact of electronic text on 1) comprehension and 2) sight vocabulary acquisition. This particular study is part of a group of studies evaluating different electronic text supports (e.g. video, multimedia glossaries, spoken text).
General procedures:
Students participating in this study will be engaged with the electronic text on a daily basis to the greatest extent possible. They will work through text selection from popular books (e.g. Harry Potter) that have a wide range of media supports available. Normally, students will read one version of a passage on one day or in one session and in the subsequent session, they will read text presented in a slightly different format. These formats will be alternated through the duration of the study.
It is critical to the integrity of the study that students not receive any “help” with the reading, sounding out words or explanation of the plot lines. The only prompting and support that is allowed is to 1)keep the student on task and 2)direct the student to access features of the software related to navigation and the multimedia glossaries
Day 1 Screening:
For all students, the first day is a vocabulary screening day. All target vocabulary will be screened by presenting students the vocabulary words on flashcards. This will be done by project staff.
Materials: Each word will be printed on a 3×5 note card
Presentation: Student is shown the card and asked “What word is this?” Each word will
be presented twice in a random fashion
Latency: Student is allowed 5s to begin an answer
Response feedback: Students will provide an oral response within 5s, 3 possible response
patterns will be scored.
• Correct: Student correctly identifies the word.
o Tell the student “you are right/correct”
o Ask the student what the word means
• Again, 5s to begin a response
• 10s to complete a response once started
• Write down the student’s response verbatim
• 3 possible response
• Correct-accurate response, tell student “you are correct and move to the next trial”
• Incorrect-student response within 5s and complete within 10s but is wrong. Tell the student it was a “good try”. DO NOT PROVIDE THE CORRECT ANSWER. Move to the next trial.
• No Response- student fails to begin a response within 5s, move to the next trial.
• Incorrect: Student attempts a response within 5s and does not provide the correct word.
o Tell the student it was a “good try”
o DO NOT PROVIDE THE CORRECT ANSWER
o Move to the next trial
• No response: Student fails to initiate a response within 5s of presentation
o Say “ok, we will move on”
o DO NOT PROVIDE THE CORRECT ANSWER
o Move to the next trial
Day 2-Day X Electronic Text
Following the schedule provided, each day will mirror the basic procedures outlined below which break out into 3 sections. Differences between the two types texts are outlined at the end.
1. Pre-Test:
a. Student and teacher or researcher go to a quiet area of the room
b. Teacher or researcher tells the student that they are going to take a short “quiz”
c. Teacher logs into the assigned session for the day.
d. Student is presented vocabulary terms on the computer. These are 4 randomly sequenced words that are presented to the student twice. The teacher only has to advance the slides on power point.
2. VOCAB: The teacher will present the word and ask the question “What word” Students will provide an oral response within 5s, 3 possible response patterns will be scored.
• Correct: Student correctly identifies the word.
o Tell the student “you are right/correct”
o Ask the student what the word means
• Again, 5s to begin a response
• 10s to complete a response once started
• Write down the student’s response verbatim
• 3 possible response
• Correct-accurate response, tell student “you are correct and move to the next trial”
• Incorrect-student response within 5s and complete within 10s but is wrong. Tell the student it was a “good try”. DO NOT PROVIDE THE CORRECT ANSWER. Move to the next trial.
• No Response- student fails to begin a response within 5s, move to the next trial.
• Incorrect: Student attempts a response within 5s and does not provide the correct word.
o Tell the student it was a “good try”
o DO NOT PROVIDE THE CORRECT ANSWER
o Move to the next trial
• No response: Student fails to initiate a response within 5s of presentation
o Say “ok, we will move on”
o DO NOT PROVIDE THE CORRECT ANSWER
o Move to the next trial
2. READING: during each session, students will read one of the two types of text listed below:
i. Audio Text + Vocabulary Supports
Following the Pre-Test, students will be presented the text. The text will be displayed on the computer screen and read to them by the computer. Students should wear earphones when completing this part. The text consists of 120-150 words on Power Point Slides. During this section, the “click to advance” feature of PowerPoint is disabled. The student will have to click the icon in the top right of the screen to “turn the page”
1. When the student arrives at a slide, they will click on the speaker icon in the bottom right corner of the slide. This will make PowerPoint read the slide to them. They should follow along on the text.
2. When it is finished, they should be click on each highlighted word on a slide. Not all slides will have highlighted words. This will take them to a glossary. Then they should hit the “back” button to return to the previous slide
3. When the student complete the text, they will come to a section marked “QUIZ” They should stop and get the teacher.
ii. Audio Text +Vocbaulary Supports + Video
This electronic text is identical to the other type except that the text is
preceded by a brief video clip from the movie that “previews” what is going to be read to the student.
1. Go to the first slide and click on the video in the middle of the screen. The student should view the video and then move to the next slide. In some cases there may be video on more than one slide at the beginning of the text. In these cases, the student watches the first video, moves to the next slide, and watches the second video.
2. When the student arrives at a slide, they will click on the speaker icon in the bottom right corner of the slide. This will make PowerPoint read the slide to them. They should follow along on the text.
3. When it is finished, they should be click on each highlighted word on a slide. Not all slides will have highlighted words. This will take them to a glossary. Then they should hit the “back” button to return to the previous slide
4. When the student complete the text, they will come to a section marked “QUIZ” They should stop and get the teacher.
3. POST TEST
The post-test begins just like the Pre-Test but has the addition of a comprehension quiz.
a. VOCAB
i. Teacher or researcher tells the student that they are going to take a short “quiz”
ii. Teacher logs into the assigned session for the day.
iii. Student is presented vocabulary terms on the computer. These are 4 randomly sequenced words that are presented to the student twice. The teacher only has to advance the slides on power point.
iv. The teacher will present the word and ask the question “What word” Students will provide an oral response within 5s, 3 possible response patterns will be scored.
• Correct: Student correctly identifies the word.
o Tell the student “you are right/correct”
o Ask the student what the word means
• Again, 5s to begin a response
• 10s to complete a response once started
• Write down the student’s response verbatim
• 3 possible response
• Correct-accurate response, tell student “you are correct and move to the next trial”
• Incorrect-student response within 5s and complete within 10s but is wrong. Tell the student it was a “good try”. DO NOT PROVIDE THE CORRECT ANSWER. Move to the next trial.
• No Response- student fails to begin a response within 5s, move to the next trial.
• Incorrect: Student attempts a response within 5s and does not provide the correct word.
o Tell the student it was a “good try”
o DO NOT PROVIDE THE CORRECT ANSWER
o Move to the next trial
• No response: Student fails to initiate a response within 5s of presentation
o Say “ok, we will move on”
o DO NOT PROVIDE THE CORRECT ANSWER
o Move to the next trial
b. COMPREHENSION QUIZ-The comprehension quiz consists of 5 questions about the story.
i. The teacher reads the question aloud to the student along with the 3 possible response “A. The cat; B. Harry, or C. Dumbledore”. The answers or questions can be repeated for the student. The questions are on the screen, so advance through each question. Do not point out words or point to answers. Notice the longer allowable latency (10s) which allows the student to ask for questions or response options to be repeated. 3 response are possible.