Browsing by Author "Pollard-Durodola, Sharolyn D."
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Item Effectiveness of an English intervention for first-grade English language learners at risk for reading problems(Elementary School Journal, 2006-02) Vaughn, Sharon; Mathes, Patricia G.; Linan-Thompson, Sylvia; Cirino, Paul T.; Carlson, Coleen D.; Pollard-Durodola, Sharolyn D.; Cardenas-Hagan, Elsa; Francis, David J.A first-grade reading and language development intervention for English language learners (Spanish/English) at risk for reading difficulties was examined. The intervention was conducted in the same language as students' core reading instruction (English). Two hundred sixteen first-grade students from 14 classrooms in 4 schools from 2 districts were screened in both English and Spanish. Forty-eight students (22%) did not pass the screening in both languages and were randomly assigned within schools to an intervention or contrast group; after 7 months, 41 students remained in the study. Intervention groups of 3 to 5 students met daily (50 minutes) and were provided systematic and explicit instruction in oral language and reading by trained bilingual reading intervention teachers. Students assigned to the contrast condition received their school's existing intervention for struggling readers. Intervention students significantly outperformed contrast students on multiple measures of English letter naming, phonological awareness and other language skills, and reading and academic achievement. Differences were less significant for Spanish measures of these domains, though the strongest effects favoring the intervention students were in the areas of phonological awareness and related reading skills.Item Teacher characteristics, classroom instruction, and student literacy and language outcomes in bilingual kindergartners(Elementary School Journal, 2007-03) Cirino, Paul T.; Pollard-Durodola, Sharolyn D.; Foorman, Barbara R.; Carlson, Coleen D.; Francis, David J.This study investigated the relation of teacher characteristics, including ratings of teacher quality, to classroom instructional variables and to bilingual students' literacy and oral language outcomes at the end of the kindergarten year. Teacher characteristics included observational measures of oral language proficiency, quality, and classroom activity structure, as well as surveys of knowledge of reading-related skills. Student outcomes in both languages included letter naming, word reading, and phonological awareness and oral language composites. The study involved 141 teachers from a multisite project who were observed up to 3 times at the beginning, middle, and end of the year during their reading/language arts block while teaching English language learners to read in their primary language (Spanish) and/or in English. Teacher quality, but not teacher knowledge, was related positively to student engagement and negatively to time spent in noninstructional activities. Initial student and classroom performance, language of instruction and of outcomes, and teacher oral language proficiency in both Spanish and English predicted outcomes, whereas teacher quality was less related, and teacher content knowledge was consistently not related to student outcomes.