Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Education

Major

Adult & Higher Education

Date of Defense

4-23-2012

Graduate Advisor

Gwendolyn Y. Turner, Ed.D.

Committee

Althof, Wolfgang

Haywood, Kathleen

Burnett, Richard

Abstract

In light of the escalating literacy demands of the 21st Century workplace, and the reality the adolescent literacy rates remain stagnant despite considerable focus on them, there appears to be a need for translation of the role that reading comprehension plays in the growth of literacy of adolescent learners. A framework that recognizes the inherent complexities of reading at the secondary school level and provides a systematic and targeted means for flexible instruction to remediate the reading comprehension deficits of a diverse population of struggling adolescent readers was developed. The Pragmatic Analytical Reading Level Instruction (PARLI) framework integrates the essential constructs from the fields of education, cognitive science, and neuroscience as they relate to reading comprehension among adolescent learners. A mixed methods evaluation multi-case study was conducted to provide a formative evaluation of the Pragmatic Analytical Reading Level Instruction (PARLI) framework. In particular, the ten cases of the quintain were middle school students identified as struggling readers. The PARLI framework was effective with nine of the 10 cases of the quintain when all data are considered. When exclusively considering quantitative data from reading assessments, seven of the ten reached proficiency on two out of three measures. Further development and evaluation of the PARLI framework is recommended.

OCLC Number

793342882

Included in

Education Commons

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