Looking at Cape Henlopen School District as a whole, most students within the district are proficient in reading. When looking at data for young adults (18-22) with autism and other severe disabilities in the Sussex Consortium Life Skills Program, students were not proficient in reading. They could not read functional words within context. This…

Over the years, teachers have looked for the best way to teach their students to read. There are those who believe that teaching sight words is the best way to teach while others believe that a foundation in phonics instruction is a must. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect that phonics instruction has on the oral reading fluency…

This dissertation study examined how mothers participated and scaffolded while watching an educational television program at home with their 3- to 5-year-old children; whether maternal participation and scaffolding predicted children's learning of vocabulary, sight words, and reading skills presented in the program; and reasons (i.e.,…

A formative design experiment methodology was employed to investigate the acquisition of early reading skills for high school English language learners (ELLs) beginning to read English. A fundamental challenge facing high school ELLs entering schools in the United States for the first time is learning how to read. While there is considerable…

Many English language learners (ELLs) in schools experience reading difficulties, particularly Spanish-speaking students. This is a serious problem given the tendency for struggling readers to fall further behind as they advance in school. This issue becomes more pressing as the number of ELLs enrolled in schools rises and the availability of…