Critical Task Resources - EDF 3115 - Child Development for Inclusive Settings

Suggested search terms: race, ethnicity, language, poverty, culture, special needs, student learning, academic achievement, academic success, socioeconomic status, reading instruction, elementary education, early childhood, reading comprehension

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Are Reading Interventions Effective for At-Risk Readers with ADHD? A Meta-Analysis Objective from the abstract: "Utilizing a multi-level meta-analytic approach, this review is the first to systematically quantify the efficacy of reading interventions for school-aged children with ADHD and identify potential factors that may increase the success of reading-related interventions for these children."
Feasible Implementation Strategies for Improving Vocabulary Knowledge of High-Risk Preschoolers: Results from a Cluster-Randomized Trial. Purpose from the abstract: "Many children begin school with limited vocabularies, placing them at a high risk of academic difficulties. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of a vocabulary intervention program, Story Friends, designed to improve vocabulary knowledge of at-risk preschool children. "
Gains at Literacy-Focused, Culturally Relevant Summer Camp that Combats Summer Reading Loss. From the abstract: "A substantial amount of evidence suggests that students, particularly those from economically disadvantaged households, experience summer reading loss. Available evidence suggests this is due to a lack of participation in literacy-focused activities and access to books during the summer break from school. The current study investigated whether participation in Children’s Defense Fund’s Freedom Schools, a free, six-week, literacy-focused, culturally relevant summer camp, may help prevent summer reading loss. The sample consisted of 125 students who participated in three sites of the summer camp and completed pre- and post-test reading assessments. The results of this study suggest that the literacy-focused summer camp provides students with an academically enriching opportunity that may help prevent summer reading loss, particularly for students in Grades 3–5, who experienced small gains on average in vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Recommendations are provided regarding how the program can be modified to maximize potential benefits related to participation."
The Long-Term Benefits of Montessori Pre-K for Latinx Children from Low-Income Families. From the abstract: " This study used covariate adjusted regression techniques to compare the third-grade outcomes of low-income Latinx children who attended Montessori pre-K programs (n = 161) with those who graduated from more conventional programs (n = 4975) in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Children who experienced one year of Montessori education demonstrated stronger pre-academic skills at the end of pre-K and, in turn, performed better on standardized assessments of math and reading in third grade than those who did not. No differences emerged in students' identification as gifted and talented nor in third-grade GPA. Taken together, these findings suggest that the benefits of one year of Montessori at age 4 may carry forward over time and to the extent that they do, these benefits are attributed to the fact that Montessori graduates entered kindergarten more ready academically. At the same time, however, the persisting benefits of Montessori were 60-70% smaller four years after program exit and were less robust than the end of pre-K outcomes."
The Relation between Academic Word Use and Reading Comprehension for Students from Diverse Backgrounds. From the Abstract "Purpose: The aims of the current project were twofold: (a) to describe the use of academic words in written language samples by fifth-grade students and (b) to examine the predictive relation between academic word use in academic writing and reading comprehension. Method: Investigators utilized written expository responses of 1,128 students in fifth grade who differed in English proficiency and language ability. The sample included 214 students who were English learners (ELs) and 144 students with identified language learning disabilities (LLD). Group differences in the use of academic words from the Coxhead word list were examined. Results: ELs and students with LLD used academic words less frequently than their peers and demonstrated less variety in their academic word use. There was a significant relation between students' use of academic words and reading comprehension. Academic word use accounted for 16% of the variance in reading comprehension, which was not significantly different for ELs or students with LLD. The relation was moderated by economic advantage, with the strength of the relation being lower for students who were eligible for free/reduced lunch. Conclusions: Findings support the need for additional research on ways to improve academic vocabulary skills to minimize achievement gaps. The relation between academic word use and reading comprehension warrants further consideration."
Shared Book Reading for Spanish-Speaking Emergent Bilinguals: A Review of Experimental Studies Excerpt from the abstract: "It is expected that all students in the United States learn to read English well. This task is more complex for emergent bilinguals (EBs), the majority of whom speak Spanish, who are simultaneously developing their English language proficiency. Although several syntheses have documented the positive effects of shared book reading (SBR) in school settings on students’ language growth, the majority of these have either not included EBs or addressed their participants’ language learner status. In this review, we sought to identify all peer-reviewed experimental study reports examining the effects of SBR on language-related outcomes for Spanish-speaking EBs."
Targeted school‐based interventions for improving reading and mathematics for students with or at risk of academic difficulties in Grades K‐6: A systematic review. From the objective in the abstract: "The main objective was to assess the effectiveness of interventions targeting students with or at risk of academic difficulties in kindergarten to Grade 6."
What does research say about the texts we use in elementary school? From abstract: "Texts on the same topic are likely to share vocabulary, and the familiarity with terms that students have acquired from simpler texts will enable them to read increasingly challenging texts. This includes the texts teachers read aloud (Conradi Smith, Young, & Core Yatzeck, 2022), texts in classroom libraries (Crisp et al., 2016), and texts in curricula."

EDF 3115 - Child Development for Inclusive Settings: Critical Task Resources

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