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Developmental research confirms the importance of early parental language input for building children's vocabulary and language skills (Hart & Risley, 1995). While reading with a caregiver is a common way for language input to occur, the approaches parents utilize often fail to capitalize on techniques for improving language and pre-literacy skills (Huebner & Meltzoff, 2005). The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of embedding tips for scaffolding parent reading strategies into a children's book. Thirty-eight parent-child dyads participated in a 2-week intervention. Families were randomly assigned to receive either a book with embedded tips (experimental condition) or a version of the book with tips removed (control condition) and were asked to read each day for 2 weeks. Afterwards, parents and children participated in a laboratory session in which they read their assigned book and a novel book. Survey data indicated that parents held positive attitudes about reading to children prior to participating in this study. Data from laboratory sessions revealed that parents in the experimental condition read for significantly longer on average than those in the control condition. For the familiar book, parents in the experimental condition were marginally more likely to connect the story to their child's life and engage their child in the reading process. These results indicate that incorporating evidence-based information for parents into the common activity of reading to children may hold promise. Approaches such as this one provide an opportunity to share information with caregivers in a way that is sensitive to the current societal pressures they face. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

African American males often struggle with reading motivation and reading achievement. The problem addressed in this research study was that low reading motivation in African American males is associated with low scoring on standardized and summative reading assessments. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the reading motivation of sixth-grade African American males in a rural middle school in the southern part of the United States. The study population consisted of 105 middle school teachers in a rural school district in Arkansas. A purposive sample of five sixth-grade literacy teachers was used in this qualitative case study. Thematic and hermeneutic analyses were used to identify themes that emerged from participants' responses to one-on-one semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion. The research findings indicated that home reading culture, outside reading opportunities, teacher expectations, student self-efficacy, and students' attitudes about reading influence reading motivation. The findings also revealed that reading motivation and reading achievement are interconnected. Additionally, the findings indicated that students' early reading experiences, reading levels, reading skills, culturally relevant resources, and school reading culture have a significant impact on students' reading motivation. One recommendation for practice included the need for teachers to design instruction that considers students' reading interests and students' choices of reading resources. Another recommendation was for teachers to seek out and implement quality culturally relevant reading resources in instruction for the benefit of all students. Three recommendations for future research were: to conduct more research on the variance of self-efficacy among ethnic groups, conduct a longitudinal study of African American males from middle school through high school, and to interview students, parents, and administrators about their role in students' reading achievement. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study explored the multifaceted dynamics affecting the academic performance of high-achieving elementary students on end-of-year reading exams. It examines the influences of gender, age, genre preferences, the frequency of book borrowing, and language modality of instruction, all within the context of the elementary school library. Methodologically, the study employs a quantitative correlational approach. The data source comprises students' demographics, class assignments, end-of-year reading scores, and library patron records. Through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, this research aimed to enrich our understanding of various interconnected systems in students' environments, such as family, school, and community, with each level impacting the individual differently. Additionally, drawing on Jeanne Chall's influential framework of Stages of Reading Development, the study investigates how libraries can effectively address readers' diverse needs and abilities at a specific stage of reading development, promoting a culture of literacy and continuous learning. These findings emphasize the influence of societal expectations and the pivotal role of elementary school libraries in providing access to a wide range of reading materials and resources. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study examined English Language Arts teachers' reading engagement and reading motivation and how these correlated with student achievement scores on the 2023 Georgia Milestones. The researcher used the Adult Motivation to Read Scale (Schutte & Malouff, 2007) to obtain teacher-provided data on questions pertaining to teachers' reading habits. Included in the survey were questions about reading engagement. The study also sought to discover how (if at all) reading motivation and engagement varied by (a) educational level, (b) grade level taught, (c) gender, (d) early childhood literacy experiences, and (e) years of experience. Using quantitative methods, the analyzed data showed no significance between teachers' reading motivation and engagement and their students' ELA and Lexile scores on the standardized test. Overall, the results revealed the participating teachers to be a motivated group, although slightly less engaged than motivated. The teachers also reported making time to read as a regular activity. The implications of this study point to a needed focus on the effective transference of knowledge rather than stopping at teachers being skillful readers themselves. More study is needed to investigate using larger sample sizes. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Student success is closely related to student engagement and literacy instruction, which can positively or negatively impact a student. It has been documented that children motivated to read have a strong sense of reading efficacy and academic competence (Wigfield et al., 2015). This research study addressed the skills needed by literacy specialists to engage students in reading. This study sought to determine the best practices used by literacy specialists identified as highly effective in engaging K-5 students in reading. While issues and challenges of literacy education have made it to the forefront for many educational agencies, there are still gaps between what is identified as successful ways to increase student engagement. Scholars and practitioners agree that student engagement in reading positively impacts their academic success and how they contribute to society. Appreciative Inquiry, best practices, and constructivism were used to inform this research. Each theory was used to contextualize the findings of this study and engage stakeholders. For this study, the phenomenological method guided a structural model. It aided in outlining the best practices needed to engage students in reading according to theory and expert panelists. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The aim of this qualitative study was to examine home literacy environment (HLE) and how this environment affects the way parental responded to their children's oral miscues during shared reading. In addition, parental behavior-specifically corrective feedback as it relates to children's perceptions of reading in terms of their reading attitudes were examined as a part of this study. The participants in this study were five second grade families from Queens, NY attending a private elementary school during the Spring of 2021. The data of this study were collected through semi structured child and parent interviews, demographic information forms, the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) and the Shared Reading Survey. The findings from this study indicated significant factors that affect home literacy environment such as parent beliefs, SES, amount of literacy activities and reading materials that parents provide for their children. In addition, the study provided new insight relating to parental feedback to children oral miscues demonstrating both positive and negative impact on their child's attitude toward shared reading. The implications of this study provide a rich descriptive picture of as well as give further insight of how home literacy environments are structured and can provide successful literacy experiences for both parent and child. Furthermore, the study highlights the need for at home interventions created by educators to promote parental involvement and shared reading at home. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

One in seventy-five college students sustains at least one mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) each academic year. Individuals with TBI, including mTBI, tend to have difficulties with passage comprehension and reading rate, along with reporting reading to be effortful. As reading is fundamental to students' academic success, contributors to reading difficulties should be better understood to support student learning after injury. Limited studies have examined changes in socio-emotional processing toward reading following TBI, despite close relationships between actual reading performance and self-efficacy, motivation, and self-regulation. Therefore, the current mixed-methods study examined reading self-efficacy sources, reading habits, and associations between reading self-efficacy and reading performance in college students with and without mTBI. Based on 1587 eligible responses from neurotypical students and 229 from students with mTBI, there were no differences in daily reading habits between groups, where students were more likely to read emails, texts, and social media on a daily basis, followed by assignments and lecture notes. Despite similar needs for daily reading and reading for school, students with mTBI tended to feel less enjoyment (F(1,1813)=11.56, p<0.001) towards reading. Overall current concussion symptom severity, especially convergence insufficiency symptoms ([beta]=-0.49, p<0.001, R[superscript 2]=0.24), were negatively associated with reading self-efficacy of students with mTBI. Lastly, reading self-efficacy demonstrated strong and positive correlations with general reading ability ([beta]=0.74, p=0.009, R[superscript 2]=0.50), vocabulary ([beta]=0.65, p=0.03, R[superscript 2]=0.35), and text-level reading rate ([beta]=0.67, p=0.02, R[superscript 2]=0.39) among students with mTBI. Results suggest that concussion symptoms, especially oculomotor disruptions, may trigger changes in reading self-efficacy post-mTBI. Decreased reading self-efficacy may further affect reading performance and attitudes towards reading, even in those with a remote history of mTBI. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Motivation and engagement are often barriers to literacy for adolescent readers. Traditionally, the graphic novel has been seen as easy to read and a resource that only has value for students with language difficulties or learning challenges. This qualitative case study investigated how middle school readers' ability to make meaning contributed to their reading motivation and engagement. Additionally, this study explored the semiotic resources or modes that assist readers in meaning making of graphic novels. Data collection tools included surveys, interviews, and graphic narratives. The results from this study indicated that the graphic novel has the potential to motivate and engage middle school readers when combined with visual literacy instruction. Direct instruction of semiotic resources or modes, such as graphic novel conventions and visual elements, positively contributes to adolescents' motivation and engagement. This study finds that after a week of visual literacy instruction, the reading motivation of one class of seventh-grade readers increased as the students learned to see images and make meaning from images. Furthermore, these readers found that meaning making impacted their reading comprehension, increased their self-efficacy as readers, and was enjoyable. In addition, after visual literacy instruction, these middle school students made meaning from modes from each category concurrently--visual elements, narrative structures, and design features. Likewise, these readers used images in addition to various visual elements, narrative structures, and design elements during the meaning making process. Consequently, the findings from this study suggest that middle school students may benefit when both parents and teachers view the graphic novel as a legitimate literary format beneficial for academic purposes and choice reading material. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Wisdom and leadership should go hand in hand. Both are concerned with human flourishing. Leadership is about making the right things happen the right way for the good of the collective. Discerning and doing the right things ultimately requires wisdom. While wisdom is esteemed as the highest intellectual and moral virtue, few studies explore the relationship between wisdom and leadership, especially how leaders understand and acquire wisdom. The three guiding questions for this study were: 1. Would higher education leaders who participate in a wisdom educational intervention experience an increase in their self-reported wisdom scores? 2. Do years of leadership experience moderate leaders' self-reported wisdom scores? and 3. Do faith, gender, years of leadership experience, and specialty/career field affect self-reported wisdom scores? A pretest-posttest control-group design was utilized using Ardelt's abbreviated Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS-12). This study explored the nature of wisdom, whether leaders could accelerate their acquisition of wisdom by reading a synthesis of wisdom, and leaders' reading habits. Leaders in four-year universities across the United States were randomly assigned to two groups. They completed the abbreviated 3D-WS-12 before and after the experimental group read a primer on wisdom. The study did not find statistical significance for its three hypotheses. However, participants' answers to the open-ended questions revealed they found the intervention helpful in acquiring and practicing wisdom; most acknowledged that they did not engage in much outside reading. Results indicate additional research is needed to explore the relationship between wisdom and leadership and how leaders can cultivate wisdom. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study used the portraiture method to explore the reading lives of four college students by examining their reading lives in three eras: the present, the past, and the future. Using long-form, active interviews, this study asked participants to reflect on their daily reading habits, their experiences learning to read, and their aspirations for reading in the future. This study aims to elevate the voices of students whose perspectives are often underexplored in the reading research literature, including students with disability, students of color, and first-generation students. By using identity as an analytical lens to evaluate how participants explained changes in their reading identities over time and by framing the study through a sociocultural view of reading, all participants, regardless of their reading identity, indicated having high reading self-concept despite having differential levels of motivation to read. The portraits revealed a complex narrative of learning to read in school that has a strong impact on present perceptions and reading self-concept. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation is about implicit prosody, the prosodic structure that readers assign during silent reading. The dissertation has several goals: determining which reading tasks are appropriate for studying implicit prosody, establishing how grammatical principles could guide incremental assignment of prosodic structure, and investigating how implicit prosody interacts with other properties such as focus in order to influence syntactic parsing and interpretation. On the methodological side, this dissertation demonstrates that the Maze task is suitable for studying implicit prosody by replicating several major findings on metrical and phrasal prosody in both the Maze task and in self-paced reading. In addition to showing that the Maze is sensitive to implicit prosody, the methodological comparison confirms previously reported advantages of the Maze over self-paced reading, such as more localized and larger effects. On the theoretical side, the dissertation lays the groundwork for developing an incremental model of prosodic parsing. I provide an overview of the major grammatical constraints that govern the syntax-prosody interface, drawing on work from the theoretical phonology literature. I discuss how and when these grammatical constraints, which are typically invoked to model the final phrasing for a complete sentence structure, could be deployed by an incremental parser that assigns a prosodic structure word-by-word. Using a toy model of an incremental parser, I also show how the parser's first pass implicit prosody may differ from the final prosody, arguing that future work in this area should more closely consider these potential differences. The final set of experiments investigates both the timing of implicit prosodic assignment and how prosodic structure and information structure affect attachment decisions. Based on the results of these experiments, I propose the Visibility First Hypothesis, according to which attachment decisions are determined primarily by prosodic visibility, while other factors such as focus only exert an influence when two potential attachment sites are equally visible. I then outline several experiments to test the Visibility First Hypothesis in future work. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This qualitative case study explores the practices and perceptions of key stakeholders (administrators, educators, parents, and students) in the development of the elementary reader within the context of 100 Book Challenge. Studying the most influential stakeholders will provide a holistic understanding of the events and beliefs around developing readers. This study revealed that there are routines and habits around securing time to independently read. However, by measuring that time spent reading, it encourages the incentivization of reading which has the potential to undermine the development of lasting reading habits. Additionally, students had access to a wide variety of books and are encouraged to self-select books. Yet, the leveling of books and what is perceived as appropriate reading materials limit and restricts this access. All participants were selected through stakeholder sampling, a form of purposive sampling (Palys, 2008) to recruit key players in the giving, receiving, and/or administration of 100 Book Challenge. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, a focus group interview, observations, and by collecting documents and artifacts (Hesse-Biber, 2017; Merriam, 1998). Data analysis was completed using the computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, Nvivo in which multi-cycle coding methods were applied. Findings show that stakeholders engage in specific practices and have perceptions around the development of the student reader involving (a) having time to read and accounting for daily reading time and (b) having access to texts and self-selected books while also regulating and restricting reading materials. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Teaching topics on Indigenous people and culture can be challenging for educators in K-12 classrooms for a multitude of reasons. This dissertation examines the epistemological complexities that teaching Indigenous identity, cultural teachings, and futurities are met with in mainstream classrooms. In the early chapters, I spend time describing what I mean by using the phrase Indigenous commonsense. The core of this idea is that teaching and learning only occurs in relation to others, otherwise it has no context, and without context it has no meaning or significance. Learning "in a good way" requires ensuring the health of those relationships (Merculieff & Roderick, 2013; Wilson, 2008). However, even the most well-intentioned educators who do provide Indigenous standpoints in their teaching (authors, invited guest, contemporary perspectives) seldom account for how the processes through which Western epistemology filter and constrain how Indigenous people and teachings can be "known" by learners. In this study I was compelled to provide an analysis' for how challenging teaching Indigenous topics are when attempting to be answerable to the goal of unsettling the influences of colonialism. To do this, I offered stories of classroom experiences shared by Indigenous educators. In chapter IV I looked at what some basic inclusion of Indigenous perspectives would mean in a middle school English Language Arts curriculum. This chapter analyzes the ways in which curriculum can be answerable to interrupting the multiple colonial epistemic maneuvers that attempt to confine Indigenous people's identities and cultural memories. In chapter V I examined the process for how, in many cases, Indigenous epistemologies come to be "known" through Western epistemological reading habits. This research was prompted by an interview with an Indigenous educator who shared the story of their experience of reading Indigenous philosophical texts in a graduate course with majority non-Native students. The primary purpose of this analysis was to invite educators to contemplate, through the acts of remembering or forgetting, who's or what futurity their chosen curriculum and teaching method is manifesting. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The current study's purpose was to validate a revised Story World Absorption Scale (SWAS; Kuijpers et al., 2014) as a measure of habitual adolescent reading engagement. This approach to measuring reading engagement reflects the multidimensionality and theoretical alignment that is currently missing from the reading engagement literature. Furthermore, the revised SWAS assessed students' habitual and recreational reading of narrative texts. This is a novel approach because, despite empirical evidence that the frequency of reading fiction and/or narrative texts has a unique positive relationship with narrative and informational reading comprehension (Duncan et al., 2016; Mar & Rain, 2015), education research studies rarely focus on students' recreational reading of narrative texts. After revising the original SWAS to make it appropriate for an adolescent audience and reorient it as a habitual/trait measure instead of a situated/state measure, I conducted cognitive interviews, an exploratory factor analysis, and correlational analyses to gather validity evidence. Through American Educational Research Association (AERA) et al.'s (2014) validity framework, I evaluated this evidence for validity based on response processes, internal structure, and relations with other variables. The revised SWAS included the same dimensions as the original SWAS, specifically attention, emotional engagement, mental imagery, and transportation. Results showed support for the interpretation of the revised SWAS total score and its subscales' scores as indicators of adolescent reading engagement. This measure can and should be used in future research to investigate and understand adolescents' narrative reading engagement. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This design-based research study examines the pedagogical role of social, digital annotation (SDA) in teaching reading as rhetorical invention, particularly the kind of invention necessary for thoughtful democratic participation in the contemporary discursive era, often described as troubled. In this dissertation study, I deployed a classroom-based intervention meant to challenge how educators in rhetoric and composition/writing studies might directly address the acute and exigent discursive struggle in the first-year composition (FYC) classroom. This study ultimately finds that social, digital annotation invites significant shifts in students' reading habits, in that Hypothes.is-based annotations yielded a far more complex, multifaceted set of reading skills, behaviors, and dispositions than the pre-intervention private annotations. The social annotation experience proved far more performative and, therefore, highly rhetorical and inventive, encouraging an agentic approach to reading that many FYC teacher-scholars crave. In addition to the performative nature of SDA (Hypothes.is, specifically), the social engagement among readers afforded by this relatively new digital tool of reading were the biggest catalysts for change. As a result, SDA may have that capacity as a technology to arrange meaning-making interactions in ways that are visible to the students themselves, shifting their perspectives on agency within reading. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

For decades, educational researchers have reported joint book reading with caregivers promotes children's emergent literacy development (Bus et al., 1995; Demir-Lira et al., 2019; NELP, 2008; Pelligrini et al., 1990). However, the bulk of this research has been conducted with mothers (Bingham, 2007; Bojczyk, 2016; Roberts et al., 2005). Mothers have been the focus of such research because, historically, the primary responsibility for caring for young children was placed on them (Fagot et al., 2012). Recent societal changes have resulted in fathers taking on more childcare roles (Banchefsky & Park, 2016). Yet, their contributions are rarely noted in literacy research. The few studies that have been conducted on fathers' contributions to the home literacy environment (HLE) in recent years indicate they make distinct and important contributions to their children's emergent literacy behaviors (Fagan et al., 2015; Pillinger & Wood, 2013; Salo et al., 2016). Furthermore, the studies conducted in two-parent homes show fathers' contributions complement those of mothers (Duursma, 2014; Reynolds, 2019). Due to the limited number of studies and their contradictory findings, it is still unclear which emergent literacy behaviors fathers have the most impact on and how their influence compares to mothers' (Baker & Vernon-Feagans, 2015; Sims & Coley, 2016). To address this gap in the research, this study examined how fathers' participation in joint book reading with their young children influenced emergent literacy development. Using a quantitative research design, the study compared the effects of fathers, mothers, or both parents reading with their young children. Families with preschool and kindergarten children were recruited from three rural school districts in the Southeastern United States. The participants were assigned to one of three treatment groups where children read with (a) fathers only, (b) mothers only, or (c) both parents equally for 8 weeks. Children were pre- and post-tested on measures of receptive vocabulary, phonological and alphabet knowledge, and concepts of print. Findings showed fathers had the most impact on vocabulary and phonological and alphabet knowledge, while mothers had the most influence on children's understanding of concepts of print. Contrary to prior research findings (Baker, 2013; Foster et al., 2016), reading with both parents had only a small effect on vocabulary and a negative effect on concepts of print. Qualitative data obtained through questionnaires and weekly reading logs indicate differences between the groups in parental education, household income, access to literacy materials, and frequency of engagement in literacy activities could explain the findings. However, post-testing of all child participants was not completed due to school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, findings must be interpreted with caution. Regardless of the limitations of the findings, parents reported many benefits to the HLE from participating in this study, including increased engagement in literacy activities and fathers taking a more active role in their children's literacy development. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The family is the axis of the initial formation of the individual in the early stage of his life. The attachment and affective ties that are established through the interactions between its members and the experiences that are shared, promote meaningful learning. Through this research, the perception families have about exposing their children to reading in the preschool stage was examined. A qualitative case study was carried out in nine families using data collected through digital questionnaires with open questions, focus groups, observations, and reflection tasks. The research was directed to know what experiences motivate families to read to their children, if they know the benefits of exposing them to this practice in their preschool stage and if they are properly oriented to promote reading practices such as reading aloud and oral narration. The findings of this research showed that families perceive exposure to reading as a necessary component to prepare children for their formal education, are involved in reading activities at the preschool and are largely aware of the benefits of reading to their children in the classroom. preschool stage. They are aware that these practices strengthen the reading habit as a pleasant and enjoyable one, in addition to accompanying them throughout life. Families are the key in the early stages of the individual. Training and supporting them in the search for activities that promote and stimulate the development of their children's maximum potential should be a priority. The school and the state have the responsibility to assist in the formation of the individuals who make up the future society. Preparing them for formal education is a reciprocal task, involving the family and the school. Trying to strengthen individuals in a comprehensive manner, with competencies and skills that allow them to become a citizen of the world, will result in their insertion into the future society. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this convergent parallel mixed method research design was to investigate family literacy activities reported by parents of Head Start children. In addition, the study explored the use of Family Literacy Book Bags by involving parents in shared reading and home-based literacy activities. Parents of Head Start children at a center in North Texas were invited to participate through distribution of a flyer. Fifteen parents signed consent forms and completed the Family Background form and the "Survey of Family Literacy Activities." Participants chose a Family Literacy Book Bag that contained an age appropriate children's book in English and Spanish, instructions and materials for a literacy activity, and a Parent Reflection form. Focus group sessions were scheduled for the following week. Twelve parents discussed their perceptions of the Family Literacy Book Bags in one of three focus group sessions. The quantitative data were collected from the Family Background surveys and the "Surveys of Family Literacy Activities." The qualitative data were collected from the Parent Reflection forms and the focus group sessions. The quantitative data were interpreted using a descriptive research design and the qualitative data were interpreted using a case study research design. Head Start parents reported high levels of participation with children in reading activities, language awareness activities, responses to print, interest in letters, and writing activities. Qualitative results indicated that parents appreciated the books and activities, learned about their children's interests, and promoted literacy strategies at home. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The ability to read and understand texts are important to student's success in school and life. However, many secondary students enter without the skills needed to handle the rigor and amount of reading they will meet as they matriculate high school. Yet, this is not the case for those who struggle to read most. Allington (2013) found that students who struggle the most to read are also those who given the least amount of time to reading and the most to worksheets (p. 526). Therefore, this study hopes to better understand the reading histories of three high school students and determine the conditions needed to foster, develop, and sustain an independent reading life among high school students. Using a narrative inquiry method, the study looked at the independent reading habits of three high school students individual reading histories. Self-Determination and Critical Race Theories are used as the theoretical lens for this study as it relates to the choice and cultural relevancy of students' texts. Study results give insights to researchers, educators, and school leaders that will help them develop appropriate steps to increase independent reading among high school students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

While there exists substantial research on struggling and developmental readers, few research-practitioners have sought to examine the histories and circumstances that result in strong readers. This study drew upon the reading autobiographies of doctoral students in an English Education program at an Ivy League institution, in order to discover what can be learned from first-hand narrative accounts of their reading lives about the early literacy experiences, reading practices, family, community, school and cultural influences of a group of "strong" adult readers. Also examined for comparative and contrasting data are the reading lives of remedial and honors first-year college composition students at a 2-year community college. An understanding of how the environments, people, institutions, circumstances, and texts encountered in the literacy lives of the three different groups studied here can assist literacy educators in bridging theory with practice for the teaching of reading in early grades and for the teaching of college-level reading in first-year college writing classes. A central term and concept to help explain the trajectory of the reading lives of the populations studied here was Deborah Brandt's (1998) theory of "sponsors of literacy." Brandt's terminology and the notion of sponsorship along with a sociocultural theoretical framework are used to interpret the reading autobiographies in this study. Methods employed were based on Connelly and Clandinin's narrative inquiry approach, a methodology steeped in the richness of the storied lives of the participants. The three patterns that emerged in the strong readers' memories were: (a) being read to in the home prior to school age; (b) dichotomous attitudes toward in-school and out-of-school reading, especially around the middle school years; and (c) evidence of firm productive habits of mind toward complex reading that extends into the higher education years. The early literacy sponsorship and productive habits of mind were less evidenced in the remedial population. The findings of certain common characteristics and practices in the backgrounds of strong readers, many of which were not present at the same level in the remedial readers, can help literacy educators and caregivers re-examine their role as literacy sponsors and offer approaches for how we might sponsor literacy differently to create strong readers at any stage of their education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Readers read for different purposes and the texts they read vary in topic and difficulty. These situational factors influence standards of coherence--how much understanding a reader aims to have for a given text. Three studies examined whether individual differences in reader-based standards of coherence influenced off-line and on-line comprehension. Study 1 designed and evaluated a self-report measure of reader-based standards of coherence. For an adult community sample, an exploratory factor analysis found that the reader-based standards of coherence measure had four factors: 1) intrinsic reading goals, 2) extrinsic reading goals and learning strategies, 3) desire to understand and reading regulation strategies, and 4) desired reading difficulty. The measure predicted readers' reading habits. Study 2 positioned reader-based standards of coherence within a structural equation model of reading comprehension and the findings supported predictions from the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) and the Reading Systems Framework (Perfetti, 1999; Perfetti & Stafura, 2014). College students' listening comprehension and vocabulary knowledge directly affected reading comprehension and decoding ability and reading experience indirectly affected reading comprehension via vocabulary knowledge. Crucially, the structural equation model showed that students with higher reader-based standards of coherence sought out more reading experiences, indirectly affecting vocabulary knowledge. Study 3 tested effects of reader-based standards of coherence, comprehension goal (answering open-ended questions vs. phrase matching), and interest on on-line reading and listening comprehension. Participants with the goal to answer open-ended questions read more slowly than those who completed a phrase matching task, indicating that comprehension goals influenced reading regulation strategies. Additionally, participants with more reading experience and more interest read passages more quickly. Participants across both comprehension goal conditions showed evidence of activating bridging inferences during reading and listening comprehension tasks; however, only participants with high interest showed evidence of activating predictive inferences during reading. Finally, reader-based standards of coherence predicted participants' interest in the passages they comprehended only in more difficult comprehension situations. Overall, the studies demonstrate that reader-based standards of coherence, interest in text material, and reading-related skills help explain sources of comprehension failures in adult readers. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The academic achievement gap is the educational separation on standardized tests between students in low socioeconomic and high socioeconomic areas. The purpose of this study was to research academic variables that could impact the achievement gap for African American students by studying third grade literacy practices of Caucasian American and African American students from varying socioeconomic environments. This study examined four elementary schools; two were from a high socioeconomic area and two from a low socioeconomic area. Two research questions guided this study: 1. Is there an association between the amount of time African American students in low socioeconomic status spend reading independently and standardized test scores? 2. Is there an association between socioeconomic status and the amount of time students read independently? The data were gathered using student surveys, shelved student data, and archived public information. The data were analyzed using a Pearson r correlation coefficient, a Linear Regression test, a coefficient of determination test, and a Chi-Square Test of Independence. The study showed that for the first research question, the null hypothesis failed to be rejected; there was not enough evidence to support a statistical association between the amount of time students spend reading independently and standardized test scores. The study also showed that for the second research question, the null hypothesis failed to be rejected; there was no statistical association between socioeconomic status and the amount of time students spend reading independently. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Research into the effects of extensive reading (ER) in second language acquisition has surged over the past few decades. Many studies report several benefits that come from engaging in ER, including reading rate gains. However, these studies almost exclusively focus on English language learners and tend to be limited by their lack of control over how the ER treatment is conducted. Furthermore, experimental and quantitative studies that investigate the possible effects of ER on the reading skills of learners of Japanese have yet to be fully explored. The goal of this study was to investigate the possible effects of ER on the reading rate development of learners of Japanese as a foreign language. This study also aimed to examine the level of comprehension learners were able to maintain as their reading rates increased as well as the feasibility of a 12,000 character (7,200 standard word) per week reading goal. Finally, this study also surveyed learner perceptions of ER. Using a quantitative single-case experiment design, eight intermediate-level learners of Japanese were monitored engaging in ER following strict adherence to ER principles over two and a half to four months. Longitudinal reading rate data as well as reading comprehension, ER, and survey data were collected over the course of the study. Results showed that participants' reading rates increased significantly following the ER treatment. Furthermore, participants' comprehension abilities were not hampered by an increase in their reading rates. Results also indicate that a weekly reading goal of 12,000 characters is likely feasible for intermediate-level learners. Finally, it was found that participants had overwhelmingly positive attitudes towards ER. This study provides evidence that ER has the potential to provide a highly enjoyable activity while substantially increasing learner reading rates without hindering comprehension. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In order to succeed in college, students need to be able to read closely, critically, and independently. Unfortunately, large scale studies of graduating high school students in the United States have indicated that many are underprepared for college and career reading. When these students enter college, they often find themselves in a space that is heavily dependent on reading and yet provides little support for the new content, context, and forms of reading they will encounter. These students bring with them a lifetime of literacy experience though, which can help faculty and learning designers to understand how they read. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study looked at the personal reading lives of first-year college students. For the purpose of the study, an individual's reading life was separated into four dimensions including belief and confidence in their skills, habits during reading, preferences, and motivation. In the fall of 2018, participants completed a survey which asked about their reading lives as well as their preferences for instruction. The survey was followed by focus groups held in the spring of 2019. Overall, the study participants had a positive view of reading and their reading skills, however, the focus group discussions indicated that students became aware of the need to improve their reading skills as the year progressed. This study found that students valued their college faculty and expected them to act as content experts, teachers, and learning support, and valued reading-based activities that were social in nature and connected them to content, faculty, and peers. Students had strong preferences about the types of materials used in classes as well as classroom practices. The study results yielded several suggestions for improving teaching and building reading-centered learning experiences and the professional learning needed for faculty. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This research presents a case study examination of the experiences of teacher candidates and their instructor as they participated in whole-group picturebook read-aloud discussions over the course of three months. More specifically, it is an examination of the ways that they co-created meanings as they engaged in read-aloud discussions designed to create efferent and aesthetic transactions (Rosenblatt, 1978) and those that were guided by critical multicultural frameworks (Botelho & Rudman, 2009; Hade, 1997). Read-alouds have long been seen as important means of creating pleasurable reading experiences in group settings and modeling fluent reading practices to enhance the acquisition of literacy skills, most often with younger learners. In this study, however, the focus is neither on the participants' pleasure nor the acquisition of skills, but instead on the very nature of their discussions and the implications that such might have for future classroom teachers. The findings of this study indicate that teacher candidates and their instructor actively participated to deconstruct and reconstruct the reading process in a group setting while working to co-create meanings of texts. Additionally, as readers built upon and challenged each other's interpretations and preferences and biases, and as they shared personal information from their lived experiences, teacher candidates engaged deeply with picturebooks in ways that could significantly impact their future instruction as classroom teachers. Furthermore, as they engaged in read-alouds guided by critical multicultural frameworks, certain tensions arose within the discussions. Students and their instructor took up more dominant leadership roles, they exhibited both a desire and a certain reticence to discuss topics of a critical nature (e.g., race, class, gender, distributions of power), they focused on texts' possible subliminal messages, and they demonstrated a significant amount of discomfort and confusion throughout. This study, then, sheds light both on how teacher candidates responded to picturebooks in a read-aloud setting and how such experiences presented significant challenges. For teacher educators and others, the read-aloud experiences herein described may help them to reconsider and reimagine the possibilities and potentials of conducting picturebook read-alouds, especially those of a critical nature, with a wider range of audiences and age groups. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study sought to determine whether a book provision intervention delivered to low-income mothers participating in the Nurse-Family Partnership had an effect on family shared book reading patterns and family attitudes toward shared book reading. The 25 participants in this study were low-income, first-time mothers, aged 18-25 with infants, newborn to 12 months of age at recruitment (13 male, 12 female, M = 6.7 months of age) currently participating in one of three Nurse-Family partnerships in Washington State. A pretest-posttest experimental design with random assignment was conducted. A mixed factorial analysis of variance found that the book provision intervention had no significant effect on shared book reading patterns as measured by StimQ2 Infant READ pretest/posttest composite scores. A binary logistic regression, however, found that the presence of the book provision did make a unique statistically significant contribution to the model, recording an odds ratio of 7.4, suggesting the odds of a person reporting a positive Child Centered Literacy Orientation was 7.4 times higher for someone who received the book provision intervention than for someone who did not receive the intervention, with all other factors being equal. The finding that the presence of a book provision intervention did have an effect on family attitudes toward shared book reading with this population is hopeful. Interventions that involve book provision have increased family literacy and shared book reading behavior in high-risk populations and have led to increases in children's oral language development. The provision of literacy interventions to low-income groups is a positive step toward closing the literacy achievement gap. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Adolescents spend a significant portion of the day on digital devices, yet we know very little about their out-of-school reading practices. While screen recording technology allows researchers to record and view videos of digital reading, the majority of studies exploring digital reading limit participants' reading to researcher-selected texts and tasks. The present study used screen recordings of digital reading and stimulated-recall interviews to explore adolescents' digital reading practices. Participants (N = 8) from a large, suburban high school recorded themselves reading outside of school for their own purposes, participated in interviews, and took a revised Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI). Data were analyzed both inductively for emergent themes, and deductively, through Turner and Hicks' (2015) connected reading model. Findings revealed that teens engaged in all of the practices of connected reading, though some of their practices were more developed than others. Video clips of participants' connected reading practices can be accessed in a digital compendium at http://www.laurenzucker.org/research. The emergent theme of self-regulated learning indicated that teens frequently regulated their learning across personal, behavioral, and environmental processes. Results are discussed with respect to implications for both teaching and research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Through qualitative coding and analysis of 121 literacy narratives, this study examines first-year college students' references to former reading sponsors, defined as the people, institutions, and entities that played a role in their reading development. The study was designed to locate the sponsors present in the narratives, to determine patterns that emerged in their experiences, and to examine factors that were formative to the participants' reading identities. The study reveals the highly social nature of reading development, providing evidence that the participants' perceptions of themselves as readers are shaped by the individuals, institutions, and entities who sponsor them including parents, grandparents, teachers, tutors, school systems, authors, and books/genres. Participants' earliest memories of reading development reveal the uneven nature of early reading sponsorship, particularly for ESL or slower readers. Participants also share accounts of a dramatic reduction in reading involvement during high-school which is linked through the participants' narratives to lack of choice with regard to book selection, teacher-driven topics, excessive quizzing, and standardized testing. The researcher discovered three meta-themes in the data providing evidence that many participants are engaged readers both in and out of school, but that a large percentage lose or gain interest in reading, report that they hate or hated reading, and desire more choice in reading and topic selection. The researcher suggests that there is a correlation between reading proficiency and reading engagement, calling for more studies and curriculum re-design. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

As a literacy instructor at a university, I regularly administered a questionnaire on reading habits and attitudes as part of the teacher education program. The findings from the surveys aligned with the results of extant literature on the prevalence of aliteracy among pre-service teachers (Applegate & Applegate, 2004; Applegate et al., 2014; Nathanson, Pruslow, & Levitt, 2008; Warmack, 2007). This dissertation uses an exploratory multiple case study approach to examine the experiences of two aliterate pre-service teacher candidates including their identity as a reader, their experiences with reading at home and their reading experiences at all educational levels. Using in-depth, semi-structured interviews, candidates recalled their experiences with reading and how they described themselves as readers. Findings indicate that both individuals had low self-efficacy with reading, likely as the result of struggles with comprehension. Both individuals also developed a preference for watching movies and looking up condensed summaries of assigned reading to gain information. An interpretation of the findings concluded there was a chronic use of some form of round robin reading throughout both participants' educational levels. Teachers must work to provide rich opportunities to engage students in reading and be mindful of how they help students develop a regular reading habit. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this mixed-methods, action research study, with a convergent design, is to improve student literacy achievement within a Mississippi school district, through the exploration of reading volume, motivation, and family connections. This study uses qualitative and quantitative data to provide an in-depth look into the phenomenon of reading volume influences through the use of observations, interviews, and surveys, while providing statistical correlations related to reading volume and literacy achievement with the utilization of a linear regression, a Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and descriptive statistics. A linear regression reveals student reading volume statistically explains 17.4 percent of the variability in STAR Reading scores within the District 1 first through fourth grade population resulting in a moderate, positive correlation (r = 0.417, N = 1419). A linear regression posits reading volume statistically explains 6.4 percent of the variability in student reading achievement the district's third grade population, determining a small, positive correlation (r = 0.253, N = 333). Fourth grade results similarly reveal a moderate positive correlation, explaining 22.1 percent of the variability in student reading achievement within this population, according to linear regression results (r = 0.471, N = 331). Additional increases in STAR Reading and MAP ELA scores are reported in all four school settings. A Pearson Product Moment Correlation reveals a 0.914 correlation between STAR Reading and the MAP ELA assessment within this population. Qualitative data supports the statistical findings by revealing common themes of motivational factors, increased access to print, teacher insights, and attempts to increase parental involvement. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Reading mastery is essential for academic success. As an emphasis is placed on more rigor in education, some boys are being left behind in the area of reading. School districts are adopting new rigorous standards and transitioning to produce students who are career and college ready upon graduation. Girls are responding positively and thriving academically; yet, boys continue to underperform girls at the district, state, national, and global levels. The gap between girls and boys in reading is three times greater than the gap in reading between Whites and Blacks, reported by the National Center for Education Statistics (2013b). This dissertation explored the achievement gap in reading between elementary school boys and girls from the perspectives of elementary school teachers' lived experiences derived from a temporality of their past, present, and future lifeworld existentials. Seven teachers were interviewed and provided their lived experiences on the reading gender gap. The findings indicated that boys need to read more to increase stamina and fluency when reading. Society has embraced the boy code and it is deemed acceptable that boys are not reading as much as girls. Teachers in this study recognize that reading comprehension is a life skill and the gap has to be closed in the elementary grades. If not, boys run the risk of widening the gap to a point in which they may lose all interest in catching up. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Reading has been found to not only build student motivation but to increase community involvement in education (Hudson & Williams, 2015). Children who grow into lifelong readers were less likely to be incarcerated, became more successful members of society, and created greater futures for themselves and their families (Obama, 2013). With exposure to early childhood education opportunities, children found a greater propensity to attain foundational reading skills; therefore, positive habits for education lead to thriving outcomes in the future (DeHaan & Leuven, 2016). This study analyzed variations in preschool programs in order to detect curricular, facility, and instructor distinctions (DeHaan & Leuven, 2016). Educators, parents, and community members were predominantly favorable of financing and supporting early childhood education (DeHaan & Leuven, 2016). Globally, early childhood education is continually trying to maintain a more prevalent stature in society (DeHaan & Leuven, 2016). Early childhood education can seemingly take an indirect step backwards in school districts due to other educational necessities (DeHaan & Leuven, 2016). In this study, the researcher analyzed early childhood education opportunities and the impact on students' reading comprehension in third grade. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The home environment, which includes the level of organization and stability in the home, plays a crucial role in the development of executive function and oral language skills. For children who live in a low-SES environment, executive function and oral language acquisition are inferior compared to that of students living at other economic levels. Executive function, which assists with attentional and inhibitory control, is underdeveloped in children who live in poverty. Stressors in the home environment influence joint attention during infancy, and receptive and expressive language skills are further thwarted during early childhood. Working memory, another component of executive function, assists a child with narration. For children who live in poverty, an underdeveloped working memory influences their success with retelling a story and hinders comprehension. Conversations in the home are more directive and are fewer than those that occur between a parent and child in a middle or upper middle-class family. Conversations and book reading provide a child with opportunities to practice language and expand vocabulary. In a low-SES environment, where parents work hard to get through daily tasks, book reading and playtime are not a priority. This study explored how executive function and oral language influence the development of vocabulary and early reading skills for preschoolers who live in poverty. The case study of three families included observations, interviews, and document collection. The findings support previous research that suggests that poverty influences a preschooler's vocabulary development and early reading skills. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this phenomenological case study is to explore the reading attitudes and decision-making skills of college freshmen enrolled in remedial language arts courses. The theoretical framework guiding this study is qualitative phenomenology explained by Baxter and Jack (2008). This specific type of research "provides tools for researchers to study complex phenomena within their contexts" and the findings help researchers evaluate program, design, and intervention methods, which is pertinent to the discovery of prevailing reading attitudes among struggling students and allows researchers to prevent, adjust, and improve these attitudes in future students (Baxter and Jack, 2008; Yin, 2003). This phenomenological case study utilizes questionnaire, direct observation, and interviews to collect data about eleven college freshmen enrolled in developmental language arts courses in northeast Georgia; the information collected using multiple data sources is subjected to open-coding and two-tiered coding and is then free imaginative variation is used to interpret the information found in field notes, questionnaires, and interviews. The analysis of data showed that lack of parental involvement, poor K-12 learning experiences, misconception of the term "good reader", a sense of loss or lack of direction, disinterest in reading, and reading as punishment were themes common across multiple cases. By examining the reading attitudes and experiences of these participants, parents and educators can better assess the best way to address reading motivation and decision-making problems and help future students become better readers and thereby, better learners. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Learning by example is nothing new to the education landscape. Research into think-aloud protocols, though often used as a form of assessment rather than instruction, provided practical, content-specific literacy strategies for crafting the instructional intervention in this study. Additionally, research into worked examples--from the earliest pen-and-paper studies of algebra and statistics, to more recent multimedia studies of legal reasoning and writing--shaped the conceptual framework for the present study by detailing a series of design principles for effective multimedia worked examples. This study aimed to reimagine the face-to-face, teacher-facilitated think-aloud as a multimedia worked example, which could be leveraged for differentiated, blended instruction to support adolescent readers. The purpose of this study was to investigate how multimedia worked examples that explicitly model the reading habits of successful readers through teacher think-alouds could facilitate effective differentiated analytical reading instruction for high school English language arts students who have access to 1:1 technology. The study tested the worked examples principle on the ill-defined problem of analytical reading comprehension in the naturalistic setting of a high school English language arts classroom using the practitioner model of the think-aloud as guidance. The study considered the effect of multimedia think-aloud worked examples on analytical reading comprehension and mental effort, as well as on the student experience of studying complex passages from literary texts. In this experiment, an explanatory sequential mixed-methodology study, 34 sophomore English students were randomly assigned to either the worked examples treatment condition or the traditional instruction comparison condition. Using a classic treatment-comparison repeat measures pretest-posttest design, students' analytical reading comprehension and perceived mental effort was assessed. Later, in the qualitative phase of the study, the participant experience was described through interviews and annotations in order to more deeply understand the quantitative data collected. Quantitative data were analyzed using a series of t tests between treatment and comparison groups for each phase of the study, as well as for gain scores from the baseline assessment to each of the intervention phases and to the posttest. Statistically significant differences were found between the treatment and comparison conditions for the analytical reading comprehension dependent variable at the first phase of the intervention and at the delayed posttest. No statistically significant results were found for the mental effort dependent variable. Qualitative data were coded and analyzed for emerging themes and patterns. These data revealed that students in the treatment group included higher quantity and quality annotations on their passages than did students in the comparison condition. Moreover, interviews revealed that students perceived the think-aloud process as distinct from their own analytical reading process, and they expressed that the think-aloud worked example videos increased their attention to detail, depth of analysis, ease of study, level of focus, and willingness to persist in a challenging task. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the influences of family literacy workshops on family involvement, families' self-efficacy, and their perception of their children's reading performance. The participants were families of students receiving Title 1 reading service in grade 2, 3 and 4. The research questions for this study were: Do family literacy workshops influence the way families engage with their children's reading at home? Does families' participation in family literacy workshops influence their perception of their children's reading performance? Does families' participation in family literacy workshops influence their perception of their children's reading performance? This mixed-methods study gathered data using both quantitative and qualitative methods to enhance the interpretation of the data. The pre- and post- workshop surveys and workshop exit surveys were collected. A series of four workshops that focused on fluency and comprehension strategies was presented as a part of this study. Observations from the workshops and case study interviews were collected. The researcher used semi-structured interview questions to determine the influence of family literacy workshops on family engagement in their children's reading at home, their self-efficacy in ability to help their children's reading, and their perception of their children's reading performance. The integrated analysis of quantitative and qualitative data revealed three major findings: 1) participants expressed the need to partner with teachers to support successful learning experiences for their children; 2) participants described improved involvement with their children in reading support when using resources and strategies from the literacy workshops; and 3) participants perceived improved reading skills in their children after using resources and strategies from the literacy workshops. The results of this study demonstrate that a targeted, parent-focused literacy program can be effective in promoting parents' sense of confidence and competency in support of their children's reading at home. Further research is necessary to understand the connection between parents' participation in family literacy programs and children's reading skills and academic achievement. We also must strive to understand how these programs intersect with existing cultural practices, the home learning environment, and the larger community. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This qualitative dominant mixed-methods study explored reading motivation among high school English learners whose first language was Spanish. Latina/o English learners (N = 87) from four southeastern, suburban high schools took part. The study utilized survey data to test for significant differences across demographic sectors and to group participants into More Motivated and Less Motivated subgroups for interview selection. Among other findings, participants who had been in the U.S. 2 years or less were found to value reading significantly more than students who had been in the country longer. Analysis of reading habits showed strong bilingual preferences for reading and viewing media but a general absence of reading engagement overall and in familial contexts specifically. Comparisons of higher means and significantly higher means across all demographic sectors revealed that older students (ages 17-19), students in the upper secondary grades (grades 11-12), females, and students with advanced English skills (levels 5-6) were more motivated to read. Responses from 12 interviewees demonstrated that more-motivated interviewees reported being enthusiastic readers with reading interests spanning multiple genres and subject areas. Conversely, less-motivated readers faced numerous obstacles toward becoming proficient readers, and students in both subgroups identified similar obstacles to reading acquisition, specifically reading texts saturated with academic language. Overall, a series of complex factors were shown to either promote or inhibit reading motivation. Implications and practical recommendations for educators are discussed along with limitations and future research considerations. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Kindergarten classrooms of today look much different than those from a few decades ago; more time is spent focused on reading and writing, so ensuring children have early literacy opportunities in their environment during early childhood is essential. The purpose of this regression analysis was to evaluate relationships between children's literacy scores and the number of minutes children read with a primary caregiver. This study determined relationships between children's literacy scores and caregivers' level of education, the number of books in the home, and socioeconomic status (SES). Literacy scores of the 92 children who participated in this study were measured using the Get Ready to Read! Revised literacy assessment. This study also included the children's primary caregivers and the children and caregivers were participants in a parent-child program in Eastern Iowa. Caregivers of the children kept track of the number of minutes they read with the children for one month and identified their SES, level of education, and counted the number of books in the home. By using a regression analysis, the findings indicated caregivers' level of education was the largest predictor of children's literacy scores (beta = 0.355). Data analysis also included a stepwise regression; the stepwise regression suggested caregivers' level of education was the most significant variable related to children's literacy scores. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify effective parental involvement strategies used in the home by Spanish speaking parents of English Language Learner students in grades 3-5 who scored Early Advanced or Advanced on the California English Language Development Test. Methodology: This was a collective case study that interviewed Spanish speaking parents, guardians, or caregivers who were responsible for English Language Learners in grades 3-5. The study examined only those cases where students were reclassified out of English Language Development. The process was a face-to-face interview using tested semi-structured questions to answer the research questions. Findings: The data identified five common parental home-based involvement strategies. While the study uncovered a variety of parental involvement strategies in the home, it was the unique family situation that dictated the strategy to implement. Five common themes emerged as having an impact on the child being reclassified out of English Language Development in grades 3-5. These were: 1) Attended parent conferences or workshops; 2) Ensured the student read every night; 3) Engaged the student in Spanish dialogue; 4) Gave the student a schedule at home after school; and 5) Checked or assisted the student with homework daily. Conclusions: Family structures vary from home to home. Any type of parental involvement in the home will assist students in their academic journey. Parents who do not speak English can contribute to student educational success by ensuring they are showing interest in the student's schooling. Recommendations: While the study brought to the surface several findings which support existing literature, there were also areas in need of further research. One recommendation would be to expand on how speaking Spanish in the home contributed to the listening and speaking portion of the CELDT. A second recommendation would be to replicate this case study in a larger geographical area. A third recommendation would be to conduct a quantitative type study, using the same sample criteria. A fourth recommendation would be to interview Spanish speaking parents, guardians, or caregivers of ELLs who were not reclassified out of ELD in grades 3-5. A fifth recommendation would be to conduct this study using ELL's that were reclassified out of ELD in their middle school years. Finally, the sixth recommendation would be to replicate this study with primary language groups, other than Spanish. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Despite the importance of encouraging the development of recreational reading habits in secondary students, there is considerable evidence that many secondary schools implement instructional practices that negatively shape literary experiences. This study examined the recreational reading habits of secondary education majors, their knowledge of contemporary young adult literature, and their anticipated instructional practices. A researcher-developed survey instrument was used to collect data from 64 secondary education majors in a Midwestern state. Data reflecting the respondents' levels of reading enjoyment, recreational reading activities in regard to materials and frequency, the anticipated likelihood of implementing instructional practices that promote the development of reading habits were collected. An open-ended question that asked students to list titles or authors of contemporary young adult literature was also included to ascertain knowledge levels of young adult literature. A moderate positive correlation was found between recreational reading frequency in secondary education majors and the likelihood of incorporating instructional practices that promote the development of reading habits (p < 0.01) with frequency of pleasure reading behaviors explaining 11% of the variance in the likelihood of incorporating instructional practices that promote reading. Further, a one-way between subjects ANOVA indicated that expected instruction was statistically different for the different content areas p < 0.001. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

As Western schooling continues to expand and reach remote communities, it is imperative to understand rural parents' beliefs about formal education and the ways in which they can support their children's schooling. Sociodemographic changes in rural communities have been connected to shifts in parents' cultural values and practices (Greenfield, 2009), and parental participation in the institution of Western schooling has been identified as an important influence in these changes (Chavajay, 2006; LeVine et al, 2003; 2012, Rogoff & Chavajay, 2002; Rogoff et al., 1993). This dissertation contributes to this knowledge base by exploring both schooled and unschooled parents' beliefs and commitments towards formal education and their participation in a book-sharing interaction in four rural Mayan communities. In the first study, I used grounded-theory methods to characterize and compare schooled and unschooled parents' beliefs on the benefits of formal education for their children's futures and the commitments that they make to support their children's schooling, paying particular attention to interactions around written language. In the second study, I used cluster analysis to characterize Mayan parents' book-sharing styles on the basis of the degree to which parents engaged their children as interlocutors in the interaction and of the type of content they emphasized, and to examine differences between schooled and unschooled parents' book-sharing styles. Both studies were conducted with 30 parents from four Mayan communities in which Western schooling was introduced over the last decades but where there is still wide variation in parents' schooling levels--making them ideal sites to study the influence of schooling on parental beliefs and practices. Taken together, the two studies provide evidence on cultural change and continuity, and identify parents' participation in Western school as an important influence on parent-child interactions while also calling attention to the role of other parental experiences in shaping their beliefs and practices. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

"Contexts of Digital Reading: How Genres Affect Reading Practices" is a study of the different ways university students use digital devices to read. Many mainstream representations of digital reading fail to distinguish between different contexts or genres of reading, making digital reading appear transparent rather than mediated by device or purpose. Furthermore, research on student reading deficiencies often locates reading problems in the textual medium (linking digital technologies to greater reading problems than print) rather than in the situations where reading takes place. Contrary to that line of thinking, my dissertation demonstrates that reading is a complex process shaped by material conditions and by shifting variables. Readers' practices are constantly changing depending on the different situations where they read; the available technologies; and emotional and environmental factors like energy, mood, their physical location, and time of day. This project seeks to further explore the different ways students use their digital technologies depending on these variables and complicate existing pictures of digital readers. Drawing on new media, genre, and reading studies scholarship, "Contexts of Digital Reading" uses surveys and interviews to examine how students' reading practices change with different devices and situations. The participants reveal that they rely heavily on laptops and smartphones in their daily communications; that their practices change along with different contexts; and that reading instruction is performed in varying ways. To account for the inconsistencies with reading instruction, I offer instructors assignments that can help students become aware of the practices they perform in different situations and provide opportunities for using digital annotation technologies. Within composition and rhetoric, the ability to read well (and accompanying practices like mindfulness and purposeful engagement with texts) can help students to produce more effective writing. My study reinvigorates reading as a necessary, yet often taken for granted, part of the composing process by calling attention to the materiality of reading. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This mixed methods study examines 126 community college students enrolled in developmental reading courses at a mid-sized Southwestern community college. These students participated in a survey-based study regarding their reading experiences and practices, social influence upon those practices, reading sponsorship, and reading self-efficacy. The survey featured 33 structured response prompts and six free response prompts, allowing for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The study's results reflected the diverse reading interests and practices of developmental college students, revealing four main themes: (1) the diversity and complexity of their reading practices; (2) the diversity in reading genre preferences; (3) the strong influence of family members and teachers as reading sponsors in the past with that influence shifting to friends and college professors in the present; and, (4) the possible connection between self-efficacy and social engagement with reading. Findings from this study suggest these college students, often depicted as "underprepared" or "developmental" readers, are engaging in diverse and sophisticated reading practices and perceive reading as a means to achieve their success-oriented goals and to learn about the "real world." This study adds to the limited field of community college literacy research, provides a more nuanced view of what it means to be an underprepared college reader, and points to ways community college educators can better support their students by acknowledging and building upon their socio-culturally influenced literacy practices. At the same time, educators can advantage students academically in terms of building their cultural capital with overt inculcation into disciplinary literacies and related repertoires of practice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this study was to uncover pre-service teacher's reading habits and attitudes and to examine if participants' attitudes changed after taking a course in children's literature. In this case study, data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively will be used. The reading habits of pre-service and in-service teachers have been linked with not only using best practices in their classroom, but with being the most effective literacy instructors (Morrison, Jacobs & Swinyard, 1999; Dreher, 2002; McKool & Gespass, 2009). However, studies of pre-service and in-service teachers show a lack of enthusiasm for reading is prevalent in college students and teachers (Applegate & Applegate, 2004; Nathanson, Pruslow & Levitt 2008; McKool & Gespass, 2009). Through the use of the Children's Literature Student Survey, Checkpoint Survey, and focus groups, this study examined the reading habits and attitudes of students who are enrolled in the teacher education program at a university in Pennsylvania. This study confirmed the findings of similar studies that found that most pre-service teachers are not engaging in pleasure reading. Results indicated that participants were not enthusiastic readers despite reporting overall positive feelings about their early elementary reading experiences. Participants cited lack of time as a roadblock for reading outside of class. Participants expressed a dislike of textbook reading and writing assignments attached to any reading assignment. Participants were more likely to read and enjoy reading if they were able to choose what they wanted to read. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Over the last four years, East Coast High (a pseudonym), a midsized high school on the East Coast, has failed to meet adequate yearly progress targets in reading as set forth by the Department of Education (DOE) in response to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Each year, many students at East Coast High entered the library and chose a book they were not interested in reading because the book was either above their reading level or irrelevant to their daily life. Other students failed to comprehend what they read, yet did not ask for help or use a dictionary, fearing negative comments from their peers. The overarching goal of this study was to improve the reading experiences of students by exploring the use of eReaders in the ninth-grade English language arts curriculum. Two objectives guided the study. The first objective was to identify strategies for integrating eReaders into the ninth-grade English curriculum in ways that enhance teaching and learning. The second objective was to investigate the impact of those strategies on students' reading experiences and motivation to read. Data was collected from teacher and student interviews, student surveys, and core development team meeting information, to determine whether the implementation of eReaders in the classroom is beneficial to students, especially those who are struggling readers. Findings indicated that teachers and students utilized the eReaders in conjunction with existing reading strategies. The use of eReaders improved student enjoyment and motivation to read. Based on the findings, the implementation of eReaders is recommended in order to increase student engagement and motivation. Additional recommendations are made for administrators and teachers. Finally, limitations to the findings of this study are discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study examined the impact of a parent education program on the frequency of shared storybook reading and dialogic reading techniques. Additionally, the contextual factors that influenced the outcomes of the program were explored. Seventeen parents completed a nine-week face-to-face parent education program and fifteen parents completed a nine-week online program. This study was designed as a multiple case study (Yin, 1993) and utilized multimethods for data collection and analysis. Qualitative data sources included interviews, observations, responses to prompts following the sessions, and comments on a time diary. Analysis of these data sources was completed using an inductive approach (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Quantitative data sources included a time diary of minutes read per day and pre- and post-intervention video recordings of each parent-child dyad sharing a storybook. The time diaries were analyzed by determining the mean number of minutes read per family. The pre- and post- intervention video recordings were analyzed using the Adult Child Interactive Reading Inventory (DeBruin-Parecki, 2006) and were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (Elliott & Woodward, 2007). Parents receiving both delivery methods increased their use of dialogic reading techniques while sharing storybooks. There were no significant differences between the online and face-to-face groups on the use of dialogic reading techniques for adults or children. The contextual factors that influenced the online group were online access and design and delivery of content. The contextual factors that influenced the face-to-face group were engagement, time, and group dynamics. Implications for the design of parent education are discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

As college and workplace success becomes increasingly dependent on reading, parents and educators have become more interested in how to engage students in reading. Teachers at a rural Georgia high school have reported that students are reluctant to engage in academic reading. Guided by previous research on the factors that promote or discourage adolescent reading motivation, as well as Bandura's social learning theory and Guthrie's engagement theory, this collective case study assessed what factors affected reading motivation among students at a rural Georgia high school. Eight students from Grades 9, 11, and 12 comprised the sample. Data sources included the Adolescent Motivation to Read Profile (AMRP) Reading Survey, the AMRP Conversational Interview, and a focus group. Data analysis included line-by-line coding based on 5 major themes: relevance, parent attitudes, social aspect, identity/self-efficacy, and experiences. The analyses revealed that many of the students possessed rich, personal reading lives separate from their academic lives. Findings also indicated that students' experiences with academic reading in the school often decreased their motivation to engage. The resulting project was a Professional Learning Community with a focus on improving teacher practices with academic reading through an action inquiry cycle, thus increasing student reading motivation. This study may help students to develop the critical reading skills for collegiate and noncollegiate careers through increased engagement in effective academic reading experiences. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

For many high school students, being "not a reader" means lack of engagement in school-based literacy activities, including reading and writing, and a subsequent lack of academic success. Most importantly, the "not a reader" identity often comes with a particular understanding of reading, one that is limited to information extraction from texts and creates an artificial divide between the activity of reading in classrooms and the activity of lived experience in the world. Using hermeneutic phenomenology as a frame of inquiry, this dissertation attempts to understand reading as "not a reader," through the lived experience of three African-American high-school age leavers in a community literacy program and the teacher/researcher. It explores the gap between what the students thought "doing narrative" meant, the way reading and writing were talked about in schools, and the way they actually "did narrative," their use of language both as writers/speakers and listeners/readers. As part of this exploration, this study questions the boundaries of reading as defined by common classroom activities and curriculum documents, including the Common Core State Standards, and the way these boundaries work to form the "not a reader" identity. Using the idea that dialogue is a fundamental human activity underlying our identity formation and our interactions with one another, this work explores possibilities for engaging "not a reader" students in reading as dialogue that bridge the divide between classroom reading and the students' lived experience. Drawing on Reader Response Theory, it offers an understanding of the activity of reading that suggests students must read texts in the world in order to engage in dialogue with them; that is, the texts themselves and the conversations around those texts must be rooted in the lived experience of the reader. Finally, this work seeks to offer insight into the type of curriculum that could allow for agency in reading, a curriculum that allows space for students to "talk back" to texts and produce meaning through dialogue with texts. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Adult Hispanic ESL students in rural San Luis, Arizona, face a challenging situation. Since San Luis lies on the southwestern tip of Arizona and borders with Mexico, Spanish is the predominant language. English, on the other hand, is mostly heard in classrooms. This can be a predicament for adult Hispanics who need to be proficient in English in order to excel at college or university. What can be done to assist these students? The literature states that one becomes a better reader by reading extensively (Krashen, 1999; Grabe, 2009). How does one get ESL students to read extensively if they are stymied by their limited vocabulary? A solution is graded readers. These are books written specifically for second/foreign language learners and consist of seven to eight levels. According to the literature, as individuals read through the different levels, their vocabulary and reading comprehension will increase (Nation and Wang, 1999; The Extensive Reading Foundation, 2011). Eventually, they will be able to comprehend text written specifically for native English speakers (Waring, 1997). A mixed-methods study was conducted to assess the effect that graded readers vis-a-vis Scaffolded Silent Reading (ScSR) had on adult Hispanic ESL students at a community college on the U.S.-Mexico border. The areas examined were vocabulary growth, reading comprehension, and reading attitude. The findings were promising and showed some growth in vocabulary and reading comprehension for both the treatment and control groups. Furthermore, participants of the treatment group had a positive attitude towards reading graded readers through Scaffolded Silent Reading. There is the need for further studies of a longer duration with adult Hispanic ESL students who live on or near the U.S.-Mexico border. The findings could build on this preliminary study. Furthermore, they contribute to the literature on extensive reading in general and graded readers through Scaffolded Silent Reading, specifically. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Electronic books have rapidly moved through the entertainment community and are rapidly making their way into the academic environment. Public and private schools, libraries and training organizations use eBooks for research and instruction. This study sought to enhance the learning habits of students taking self-paced correspondence courses delivered in the eBook format. Course distributors produce courses formatted for personal computers, tablets, and a host of electronic devices. This study limited its focus to eBook courses taken on personal computers in military work center environments. Research techniques use the mix method (quantitative/qualitative) approach to data collection and analysis. The sample audience for this study was 44 persons filling supervisor (S = 22) and trainee (T = 22) duty positions at four military installations. The trainee participants used the eBook courses configured with text markup features to complete skill advancement training; supervisors directed volume completion and managed the training programs. The intervention taught participants how to study eBooks by introducing an active reading process and text markup techniques to enhance their existing learning habits. Learning habits were assessed using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire prior to and after the application of techniques presented in the researcher designed active reading and eBook text markup guide. The study revealed differences in learning habits of participants in supervisory roles as compared to participants in trainee positions. The study also revealed how learning techniques used to study printed material could be transferred to material delivered in eBook formats as long as the eBooks had a text markup configuration. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]