Repeated Reading Research Articles

‘Without you, I am nothing’: on the counterfactual imagination in Emma

ABSTRACTPositioning Austen's Emma in relation to a number of other nineteenth-century novels, this essay proposes that the novel's strategic restraint of its readers’ counterfactual imagining, enacted through repeat reading, affords a minor countermeasure to the contingencies of readership. By staging the counterfactual imagination as the impossible, that is, Austen's narrative strategies in Emma attempt to rein in the reader's imagination of the counterfactual, acknowledging at the same time the uncertainties of the narrative's future once committed to print and as a book in the hands of unpredictable readers. While critics have observed the geographical and social claustrophobia of the novel, and traced that sense of closing in as well in the extensive use of free indirect discourse, this essay extends our understanding of the novel's tight setting of limits to its handling of narrative contingency and of the counterfactual imagination, enacted especially in the experience of repeat reading.

PENGARUH TEKNIK REPEATED READING TERHADAP KEMAMPUAN READING FLUENCY PADA SISWA KELAS III SEKOLAH DASAR

This research was conducted with students of grade III elementary school who are not fluent in reading with the goal to improve their reading fluency. Having quasi-experimental approach with single subject randomized time series design. researcher give repeated reading technique for 12 days. Every measurement session has data in WPCM score (word correct per minute). Comparison between pre-test and post-test show the increasing score of WPCM for 15.79. Error frequency and self-correction are getting decreased while reading expression is getting improved as the treatment session have. Repeated reading technique can improve reading influency.

A Comparison of Comprehension Accuracy and Rate: Repeated Readings and Listening While Reading in Second-Grade Students

Researchers have evaluated the effects of repeated reading and listening-while-reading interventions on oral reading fluency and comprehension, and have compared the effects of these two interventions on indirect measures of comprehension. The current study was designed to extend this research by evaluating and comparing the effects of these two interventions using direct measures of reading comprehension and reading comprehension rates, or the amount of passage comprehended per time spent reading. To determine if an interaction exists between passage difficulty and intervention condition, students read two passages for each condition, one easier and one harder passage. Results revealed main effects on comprehension rate, but not on comprehension accuracy. These findings suggest that neither intervention enhanced comprehension, but listening while reading enhanced comprehension rates on both easier and harder passages, indicating that it may be a significantly more efficient procedure for enhancing comprehension. Implications for measurement, academic accommodations, class-wide instruction, and future research are discussed.

Annual Conference10–11 November 2017,Norwich UK

ObjectivesTo compare the outcome measures of using the disability of the arm, shoulder, and hand (DASH) to those of the Canadian Outcome Performance Measures (COPM) in determining patient-rated outcomes before and after a course of hand therapy group rehabilitation.MethodsThe DASH and the COPM were used during a six-month period for ten patients starting hand rehabilitation group sessions. Both outcome measures were used prior to commencement and again at the completion of their block of sessions. Two patients submitted two sets of measurements.ResultsThe changes in score of the two outcome measures were compared to test the sensitivity to change in this cohort. Five of these patients showed significant change in their performance score with COPM, four of who also demonstrated significant progress in the DASH. Seven of these patients showed significant change in the satisfaction scores with COPM. In total, five patients showed significant change in the DASH. Due to repeat readings, 58% of patients showed a significant change in their COPM satisfaction scores, and 41% showed a significant change in both their COPM performance and DASH scores. The Pearson correlation coefficient between individual average performance scores and the individual DASH scores was −0.59 with a p value of 0.004. This shows a moderate negative correlation between COPM performance and the DASH. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the individual average satisfaction score and the individual DASH scores was −0.51 with a p value of 0.015. Again, this shows a moderate negative correlation between the COPM satisfaction and the DASH.ConclusionsResults suggest that the COPM can be used successfully as a patient rated outcome in hand therapy. There appears to be a moderate negative correlation between COPM and DASH scores. In terms of sensitivity to change within a varied, complex client group, the COPM appears to have as much sensitivity as the DASH.

Examining the maintenance and generalization effects of repeated practice: A comparison of three interventions

Repeated reading (RR) procedures are consistent with the procedures recommended by Haring and Eaton's (1978) Instructional Hierarchy (IH) for promoting students' fluent responding to newly learned stimuli. It is therefore not surprising that an extensive body of literature exists, which supports RR as an effective practice for promoting students' reading fluency of practiced passages. Less clear, however, is the extent to which RR helps students read the words practiced in an intervention passage when those same words are presented in a new passage. The current study employed randomized control design procedures to examine the maintenance and generalization effects of three interventions that were designed based upon Haring and Eaton's (1978) IH. Across four days, students either practiced reading (a) the same passage seven times (RR+RR), (b) one passage four times and three passages each once (RR+Guided Wide Reading [GWR]), or (c) seven passages each once (GWR+GWR). Students participated in the study across 2weeks, with intervention being provided on a different passage set each week. All passages practiced within a week, regardless of condition, contained four target low frequency and four high frequency words. Across the 130 students for whom data were analyzed, results indicated that increased opportunities to practice words led to greater maintenance effects when passages were read seven days later but revealed minimal differences across conditions in students' reading of target words presented within a generalization passage.

Developing Reading Automaticity and Fluency: Revisiting What Reading Teachers Know, Putting Confirmed Research into Current Practice

This article revisits research on reading automaticity and fluency with the goal of helping beginning reading teachers put confirmed research findings into current classroom practice. The article examines the concepts of automaticity and fluency, how both impact the development of skillful reading. The article reviews research on: a) reading strategies children use, and b) repeat reading teaching strategies to develop fluency. Case scenarios illustrate key findings. Based on the research and case scenarios, four conclusions are drawn: 1) The terms automaticity and fluency are often interchanged; the concepts are not the same; 2) Understanding the differences between automaticity and fluency can impact repeat reading teaching strategies; 3) There is an assumption that rapid word recognition is the same cognitive process as automatic word decoding; and 4) There are two pathways to fluent reading, rapid word recognition, and automatic decoding ability. The article presents a theoretical model which aligns with childhood learning theories, offering teachers a variation in repeat reading teaching strategies. Rather than repeating reading the same text, opportunities to read slightly different, decodable text improves decoding, builds fluency, and thus strengthens children’s reading comprehension of complex text.

What Happens After

What Happens After Rusty Barnes (bio) A Woman Walked Into the Bar Linda H. Heuring All Nations Press www.allnationsbooks.com/books 196 Pages; Print, $22.00 In the wide-ranging subject matter of this collection, Heuring's characters, most of them women of a certain age, struggle with the decisions they've made along the ways of their lives. In a story typical of the book, the strong opener "On Cursed Ground," Tina is a middle-aged photographer in the throes of depression, who lives on the edge of a swamp and on the edge of loss following the death of her husband Jason, a few weeks before the story begins. Tina is idly, if that's an accurate word, contemplating her own suicide. In the midst of this, her friend Mary Jo shows up instinctively to try to knock Tina out of the doldrums, but she meets some resistance. Tina asks, "How do you do it, Mary Jo? There's no CCTV out here. Swamp cam? I know, swami cam?" Mary Jo brushes off the question and tries to nail Tina down regarding her recent emotional response. "So tell me, Tina, that I don't have to worry about dragging the swamp with a grappling hook?" After Mary Jo leaves, Tina downplays her suicidal ideation and walks out to her garden expecting to find rot and weeds and all manner of mess since her husband's death, she instead finds that one of her photography subjects, a family who lives in the swamp, has tended her garden in the absence of her and her husband's care. Their presence and the care they've given her husband's garden gives her a measure of hope in the midst of her loss, and by story's end she's buoyed and ready to rejoin normal society. Heuring also shows her chops in a story that rewards repeat readings, "Victim of Circumstance." Blocked writer Henry Elms' physician wife Hillary has been missing for two days, and authorities want badly for him to be the culprit in the disappearance. They interrogate him again and again about their life together while they carry out a search on and around the island of St. Maarten, where the couple traveled for a brief working vacation. They go as far as to question his motives for writing, his relationships with Hillary's parents, and even his investment portfolio. They also suggest Hillary was having an affair with another doctor for which Henry, in their narrative of the crime, has murdered her for her money. Heuring ratchets the tension in these scenes. The crawl. That's what they called that annoying business running across the bottom of the screen, distracting you from whatever the one with perfect teeth mouthed with such breathless enthusiasm. "Chicago surgeon missing from Caribbean island resort" would be wedged in between this celebrity's weight loss and that one's gain, moving so slowly across the screen a preschooler could sound out the words. Eventually the story would move from the crawl to the feature box with Hillary's passport photo, and Hillary would blame him. Even though the police are absolutely convinced of Henry's guilt, he sticks to his story through the rigors of formal interviewing and informal questioning. In a skillful bit of plotting, the narrative the authorities follow is not at all the one which ends up resolving the story satisfactorily, and Heuring's writing never ceases to thoroughly convince. In the end, blocked writer Henry finds a new narrative. The title story, in what reads like a prompt-based story—woman walks into a bar, then what?—a self-described "college shit" student and bartender must deal with a drunken and violent woman named Nettie, the last member of the formerly illustrious Cartwrights, a family whose name adorns the college's art center. In a long dark night of the soul, the narrator must deal again and again with the consequences of Nettie's life, helped along by her regular customer, Richie. He tells part of the real Cartwright story, which does not involve the arts center but instead involves his childhood memories...

Effects of Applying Repeated Readings Method on Reading Fluency and Passage Comprehension of Slow Learners

Effects of Applying Repeated Readings Method on Reading Fluency and Passage Comprehension of Slow Learners

A study of Chinese repetitive adverbs “hai (還)” and “zai (再)” from a cross-linguistic perspective

Abstract Comparisons of Chinese adverbs hai and zai is a long-standing topic in Chinese linguistics. Previous studies tend to mix up different uses of hai and zai, often leading to unnecessary confusion. This study focuses on the repetition use of these two adverbs, and demonstrates that in two syntactic environments – sentences with and without quantitative phrases – the nuances between hai and zai can both be captured by the hypothesis that “[+increasing]” is more essential for zai to deliver the repetition reading while “[+similar]” is more essential for hai to deliver the same reading. Based on conceptual correlations shared cross-linguistically, it is argued that the “[+similar]” feature facilitates the shift from the notion “inverted-sequence” to the notion “repetition” whereas the “[+increasing]” feature serves as an indispensable link between the notion “increment” and the notion “repetition”. Therefore, for the notion “repetition”, it is widely seen that a variety of languages use two devices to code it, one emphasizing the “[+similar]” feature and the other emphasizing the “[+increasing]” feature, and Chinese hai and zai is just one of such cases. In this way, the cross-linguistic perspective is proved to offer insights to explorations on language-specific issues as it provides accounts that are deep-rooted in the conceptual level.

Nilai Pendidikan Karakter Anak dalam Antologi Cerita Remaja Tarian Salju Karaban

This study describes the value of character education of children in the anthology of adolescent story Tarian Salju Karaban . This paper will discuss some of short stories from 15 short stories in the anthology, namely the Snow Dance Keraba (TSK) by Aulal Muna, Tembang Canting Kinanti (TCK) by Khalisha Hamida, Laila (L) by Rahma Istiqomah, Immaah ... Immaaaahh (II) by Andi Indra Jaya, Air Mata Mayang from Ranah Betung (AMMdRB) by Mimi Artati, Aulia Azizah Boundary (TB), and Wayang for Nilam (WuN) by Dea Nada Fauzziah. Based on descriptive studies with repetitive reading techniques, it found some information about the value of children's character education related to intelligent, honest, caring, and resilient. The value of character education is in the groove and united in the narrative of the story. The theme of the seventh story is caring, persistence, and friendship. The story delivered by simple, straight forward, dialogue-style, and narrative.

Experiences of Children Day Care Centre Specialists Developing Children’s Social Skills

It is highly important to start developing children’s social skills since early childhood, when children are most susceptible to all experiences. Support rendered by CDCC specialists seeking to develop social skills is undoubtedly significant for children that grow in families at social risk, as their parents lack social skills themselves. The focus of the research is experiences of CDCC specialists in developing children’s social skills. The purpose of the study is to reveal, as well as theoretically and empirically validate experiences of social workers and social pedagogues to develop social skills in CDCC. The study question: How successful are CDCC specialists in developing social skills of children attending day care centres? Qualitative research type was chosen for the study. In the study, the method of a semi structured interview, which enables to come close to the understanding of human experiences, designation of meanings, the definition of meanings and the construction (explanation) of reality, was used. The obtained data were analyzed by the content analysis method. Qualitative content analysis was carried out in accordance with the inductive, study data based and categories composed logic. According to J. W. Creswell (2009), content analysis is a technique which, having examined the specificities of the text, allows, objectively and systematically, draw reliable conclusions. The qualitative content analysis was performed regarding the following sequence (Creswell, 2009): repeated reading of the content of transcript interview texts, distinction of meaning elements in the text analysed, grouping of the distinguished meaning elements into categories and sub-categories, integration of the categories/sub-categories into the context of the phenomenon analysed and description of their analysis. Criteria-based sample was used in the study. The informants were chosen according to the following criteria: 1) a social worker or social pedagogue with higher education, 2) working experience of not less than 2 years. The study was conducted in October-December 2016. The place and time of the interview were arranged in advanced with the research participants. The informants’ agreement was obtained regarding the participation in the study and recording of the interview. Having taken the interviews, their transcripts were made. 9 informants participated in the research (5 social pedagogues and 4 social workers). The research was based on non-random criterion-based sampling. The principle of ethics were observed: the informants were introduced with the research aim and methods of data collection. The informants expressed their free will to participate in the research; the anonymity and confidentiality were assured.
 The analysis of qualitative research results revealed that the diversity and significance of CDCC organised activities in developing children’s social skills served the purpose especially for the ones that came from social risk families, in which the children often experienced social psychological crisis, solved different problems on their own, whereas their parents often lacked social skills themselves. The research results highlighted that the activities selected for children’s free time aimed at accomplishing the selected duties, purposefully modeling their behaviour and completing creative tasks created favourable consitions for the development of children’s social skills. The research participants noted the following important social skills of children that they had acquired in CDCC activities: an ability to communicate and cooperate, creativity, leadership, decision making, attaining their goals, positive attitude and support to others, empathy, team work, problem solving, an ability to ask for help, personal hygiene, recognition of own and others’ needs, an ability to distinguish own and others’ strengths and weaknesses, an ability to listen to others, critical thinking, self-confidence, responsibility, willpower, development and observance of rules, an ability to distinguish feelings from actions, distinction of duties and rights, positive and creative thinking, as well as stress and anger management. The research demonstrated that the activities of smart education purposefully selected by CDCC specialists proved efficient in developing children’s social skills, as well as CDCC activity was organised in the positive direction to strengthen children’s social skills. The diversity of the developed social skills and selected activities showed that the strengthening of children’s social skills largely depended on the specialists’ attitude, competence to select activities, as well as an ability to employ different life situations seeking to promote the development of various social skills. A skill should not only be developed, but it should be regularly applied in everyday life. Unfortunately, the families whose children attend CDCC are not always capable to help their children consolidate the acquired social skills; hence, it is relevant to search for the ways of rendering support to both children and parents.

Hollow-Structured Graphene-Silicone-Composite-Based Piezoresistive Sensors: Decoupled Property Tuning and Bending Reliability.

A versatile flexible piezoresistive sensor should maintain high sensitivity in a wide linear range, and provide a stable and repeatable pressure reading under bending. These properties are often difficult to achieve simultaneously with conventional filler-matrix composite active materials, as tuning of one material component often results in change of multiple sensor properties. Here, a material strategy is developed to realize a 3D graphene-poly(dimethylsiloxane) hollow structure, where the electrical conductivity and mechanical elasticity of the composite can be tuned separately by varying the graphene layer number and the poly(dimethylsiloxane) composition ratio, respectively. As a result, the sensor sensitivity and linear range can be easily improved through a decoupled tuning process, reaching a sensitivity of 15.9 kPa-1 in a 60 kPa linear region, and the sensor also exhibits fast response (1.2 ms rising time) and high stability. Furthermore, by optimizing the density of the graphene percolation network and thickness of the composite, the stability and repeatability of the sensor output under bending are improved, achieving a measurement error below 6% under bending radius variations from -25 to +25 mm. Finally, the potential applications of these sensors in wearable medical devices and robotic vision are explored.

Is testing a more effective learning strategy than note-taking?

The testing effect is both robust and generalizable. However, most of the underlying studies compare testing to a rather ineffective control condition: massed repeated reading. This article therefore compares testing with note-taking, which has been shown to be more effective than repeated reading. Experiment 1 is based on a 3 × 3 between-participants design with the factors learning condition (repeated reading vs. repeated testing vs. repeated note-taking) and final test delay (5 min vs. 1 week vs. 2 weeks). It shows that in the immediate condition, learning performance is best after note-taking. After 1 week, both the note-taking and the testing groups outperform the rereading group, and after 2 weeks, testing is superior to both note-taking and rereading. Since repeated notetaking may not be the most effective (and common) operationalization of note-taking, Experiment 2 contrasts repeated testing with 2 other note-taking conditions: note-taking plus note-reading and note-taking plus testing (with only a 2-week final test delay). Both conditions that include a testing phase result in better long-term learning than note-taking plus note-reading. In summary, our findings indicate that-in the long run-testing is a powerful learning tool both in isolation and in combination with note-taking. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Significance of Psalm 121 in an African Context

The interpretation of Psalms has gone through diverse and seemingly strange stages over time. This article deals with a review of the interpretation of Psalms from the beginning to the present in Africa. After a brief review of the history of Psalm study, it critically examines the history and significance of Psalm 121 in an African context. The Euro-American interpretation follows different types of criticism, such as source, form, and rhetorical criticism, amongst others. However, Africentric scholars mainly follow what we may call an “African biblical hermeneutics” type of interpretation. In this case, Psalm 121 in an African context is regarded as a psalm of protection, healing, and success to meet the existential need of African people. The repetitive reading, the chanting, and the writing of this Psalm on door-posts, motor vehicles, parchments, and clothes is seen as taking up the identity of ancient Israel, the first readers, with the expectation that God will repeat the same ancient miracles, of protection, healing, success. Reading and chanting or writing Psalm 121 Africentrically means a re-enactment of events in the life of ancient Israel for the purpose of transformation in readers’ lives. It is considered a reaffirmation of singers’ and chanters’ faith in the God of Israel to protect, heal, and bring success.

Does education play a role in language reorganization after surgery in drug refractory temporal lobe epilepsy: An fMRI based study?

ObjectivesPatients with drug refractory epilepsy (DRE) and a high level of education may differ in their language recovery after surgery. Our aim was to determine whether there were differences in the extent of improvement and pattern of reorganization of language functions on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) after surgery to treat refractory temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) between patients with more than 12 years of formal education versus those with a shorter period of regular schooling. MethodsAfter approval by an institutional ethics committee, 60 right-handed, adult patients of left TLE and 20 right-handed, healthy controls were recruited to the study. Multiple aspects of language (Repetition, Naming, Word fluency, Visual word and Comprehension reading) were tested using the Indian Aphasia Battery (IAB) in the Hindi language; fMRI was performed using a standardized Hindi language paradigm (lexical, semantic, syntactic and comprehension components) in both cases and controls, before and after an anterior temporal lobectomy (in cases) with a 1.5T MR Scanner. An array of performance tests of intelligence and the verbal adult intelligence scale (VAIS) were used to measure the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) in Left TLE (LTLE) patients before and after surgery. Language laterality was estimated using the laterality index (LI-toolbox-spm8). Cohen’s d test was performed to determine the effect sizes of the differences in the IAB scores, and Pearson’s correlation was applied between regional (IFG and STG) activation in controls and TLE patients with more than 12 years of schooling [higher educational status (HES subgroup)] and those with less than 12 years of schooling [lower educational status (LES subgroup)]. ResultsAt the baseline, clinical testing with IAB showed better scores in controls than in cases. Better scores were observed in subjects with higher levels of education than in those with lower levels of education. An improvement was observed in IQ scores in both the HES and LES groups after ATLR; significant worsening in the abstract ability subtest was noted in the LES group, whereas in the HES group there was an improvement. Blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) activation during language tasks was observed in both cerebral hemispheres in the TLE cases, while it was observed in the traditional left hemispheric language areas in controls. Postoperatively, greater BOLD activation was observed in the left inferior frontal gyri (IFG, r=0.65*; p<0.05), middle frontal gyrus (MFG, r=0.77**; p<0.01) superior temporal gyri (STG, r=0.88* p<0.02) and angular gyrus (AG, r=0.73*; p<0.04) in HES compared to LES subjects. Similarly, LI showed left lateralization of the frontal (LIw=0.77 & 0.71) and temporal (LIw=0.74 & 0.5) regions in controls and the TLE group (post-surgery) compared to the pre-surgery group during language tasks. ConclusionsGreater improvement in language skills and BOLD activation in the left hemisphere in TLE-patients (after epilepsy surgery) with a high level of education was similar to that of healthy controls, implying that education has an effect on the functional reorganization/recovery of language areas.

Minor Immediate Effects of a Dog on Children's Reading Performance and Physiology.

Literacy is a key factor in occupational success and social integration. However, an increasing number of children lack appropriate reading skills. There is growing evidence that dogs have positive effects on reading performance. We investigated the short-term effects of dogs on reading performance in 36 third-graders and monitored physiological parameters [heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and salivary cortisol] as well as behavioral variables. Each child took part in two test sessions at the presence of a tutor, in one of which a dog and its handler were present. To assess reading performance two reading tests were used: two subtests of the standardized “Ein Leseverständnistest für Erst- bis Sechstklässler”, where the children have to carry out time-limited reading tasks, to assess sentence and text comprehension, and repeated reading (RR), where the children have to read the same text twice, to assess reading speed and short-term improvement. Although the dog had no effect on reading performance scores, within the first test session the children improved from the first to the second run of RR when a dog was present but not without dog. The behavior of the children indicated a calming effect of the dog in the first test session with less nervous movements and the children being less talkative. We found no impact of the dog on HR and HRV. However, the excitement about the dog in combination with the unknown situation in the first test session was reflected in a higher difference in the mean HR difference between the two test sessions for the children, who in the first test session had a dog present, compared to the children, who had the dog in the second test session. In the second test session, the children were more aroused with a dog present than with no dog present, as indicated by the area under the curve increase (AUCi) of salivary cortisol values. We conclude that the presence of a dog had a minor short-term positive effect on the children’s motivation and reading performance. More substantial effects could probably be achieved with repeated sessions.

Gamma response characterizations of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) affects personal dosimetry

Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) is the current technique of personal dosimetry changed by Nuclear Technology Service Center instead of Thermoluminescence dosimetry (TLD) because OSL has more advantages, such as repeat reading and elimination of heating process. In this study, OSL was used to test the gamma response characterizations. Detailed OSL investigation on personal dosimetry was carried out in the dose range of 0.2 – 3.0 mSv. The batch homogeneity was 7.66%. R2 value of the linear regression was 0.9997. The difference ratio of angular dependence at ± 60° was 8.7%. Fading of the reading was about 3%.

The Experiences of Social Workers while Preparing Children for Independent Living in the Community Foster Care Homes

The order of the Minister Social Security and Labour of December 18, 2013 adopted The Action Plan for the Transition from Institutional Care to the Family and Community Based Services to the Children with Disabilities and the Children who Have Lost Parental Care for 2014–2020. The purpose of the transition of residential institutions for children from institutional care to family and community-based provision of the services to the children, who have lost parental care, is to ensure a harmonious environment and conditions to the children, who have lost parental care, to grow in the family or household of guardians or adoptive parents and receive assistance in the community. It is important for a child to grow in a family environment which stimulates children’s independence, full and complete participation in the community and social inclusion. When restructuring children’s care homes, it is foreseen to create new and expand the existing community services which are alternative to institutional care: communal children’s care homes of up to 8 children when they are given residence in flats, houses. One of the priorities of the restructuring of children care is to prepare a child for an independent life. While the process of restructuring is underway' no studies', which analyze the improvement of the preparation of children, who reside in the community foster care homes, have been conducted. Therefore, it is relevant to conduct studies on the improvement of the development of independent life skills of children in the context of the restructuring of care homes.&#x0D; The purpose of the study is to reveal the experiences of social workers while educating children for independent living in the community foster care homes.&#x0D; The study questions: 1) What independent living skills children lack while living in the community foster care homes? 2) What difficulties are encountered by social workers while developing the independence of the children of the community foster care homes? 3) How social workers overcome arising difficulties?&#x0D; Qualitative research type was chosen for the study. In the study, the method of a semi-structured interview, which enables to come close to the understanding of human experiences, designation of meanings, the definition of meanings and the construction (explanation) of reality, was used. The obtained data were analyzed by the content analysis method. Qualitative content analysis was carried out in accordance with the inductive, study data based and categories composed logic. According to J. W. Creswell (2009), content analysis is a technique which, having examined the specificities of the text, allows, objectively and systematically, draw reliable conclusions. The qualitative content analysis was performed regarding the following sequence (Creswell, 2009): repeated reading of the content of transcript interview texts, distinction of meaning elements in the text analysed, grouping of the distinguished meaning elements into categories and sub-categories, integration of the categories/sub-categories into the context of the phenomenon analysed and description of their analysis.&#x0D; Criteria-based sample was used in the study. The informants were chosen according to the following criteria: 1) social workers who have a degree in social work, 2) social workers who work in the community foster care homes for children.&#x0D; The study was conducted in the September-October of 2016 in the community foster care homes for children. 10 social workers participated in the study.&#x0D; The study revealed that while preparing the children of the community foster care homes for independent living social workers experience the difficulties in (self-) developing domestic skills (food cooking, shopping, paying bills), social skills (communication and cooperation, organizational) and personal skills (the lack of adequate self-evaluation, self-control skills and self-confidence skills). Social workers, who work in the community foster care homes for children, develop independence skills in children by using verbal methods (individual and group conversations), assigning individual and group practical tasks, drawing on the team of the community foster care homes for children and cooperating with the specialists of other institutions. Social workers hope that the restructuring of institutional care and the changes related to it like creation of domestic environment and the possibilities for household management create better prerequisites for the preparation of children for independent living.

The Effects of Choral Repeated Reading on Foreign Language Reading Fluency of Words in Connected and Disconnected Text

Repeated reading has been successfully used to enhance reading fluency in L1, but little is known about how (and to what extent) this strategy impacts reading in foreign language classrooms. Our paper reports the results of a 5-week intervention program aimed to improve reading fluency of middle school students during their English as a foreign language classes. Four classes of sixth-graders divided in two groups received two reading treatments for the last 15 minutes of the class: choral repeated reading (CRR) and reading comprehension/vocabulary development (RC/VD). Results indicated that a short term intervention program of repeated reading can lead to significant improvements of fluency only at lexical level (words in disconnected text) but not at syntactic level (words in connected text). Pedagogical implications and further research directions are addressed.

The effects of oral repeated reading with and without corrective feedback on middle school struggling readers

This study examines the effects of oral repeated reading, with and without corrective feedback, on the fluency and comprehension skills of 60 struggling readers in 7th Grade. Comparisons were made by group on narrative and expository reading ability and by comprehension question type. Students were randomly assigned to one of two reading groups (oral repeated reading with corrective feedback and oral repeated reading without corrective feedback). Participants in each group were required to repeatedly read a narrative and an expository passage. Statistical analyses (namely, repeated measures ANOVA and ANCOVA) were used to determine the overall effects on fluency and comprehension and differential effects demonstrated by groups on text type and comprehension question type. Results indicated that both forms of intervention improved fluency and comprehension. Limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.