Spencer grant to improve assessment of students’ writing skills
October 20, 2017
Josh Wilson’s Spencer Grant will allow him to expand his research to develop a new computerized formative assessment model that identifies student language skills at the word, sentence, and discourse level through automated evaluations of the essay’s word choice, syntax, and cohesion. He will examine results across multiple genres of student …
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Improving ELA instruction in DE classrooms
August 30, 2017
Literacy professors Josh Wilson and Charles MacArthur received an IES grant to study the effect PEG Writing software has on nearly 3,000 students from Red Clay School District in grades 3-5. The grant partners them with Gaysha Beard, supervisor of Red Clay’s English language arts (ELA).
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Bookworms improves literacy outcomes in Cecil County
April 7, 2017
Bookworms curriculum introduced into Cecil County Public Schools UD professor Sharon Walpole and her colleague, Michael McKenna* developed Bookworms in response to the increased reading and writing expectations in the Common Core State Standards. Bookworms is a free, online, open-source database of reading lesson plans and resources for elementary school teachers …
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Assessing effectiveness of PEG Writing software
March 7, 2017
Imagine an elementary classroom where students could write an essay on their computer and receive instant feedback on its organization, word choice and accuracy. They would then be able to correct errors, make revisions and resubmit their essays, allowing their teacher to focus on developing their critical thinking and higher-level writing skills. …
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QUILS language screener for young children
December 8, 2016
Researchers in education, psychology and speech pathology have collaborated to develop a computerized language screener to help early childhood educators and specialists identify areas where young children are experiencing difficulties mastering language. Too many children with language issues are not identified until they reach five years of age. Through funding from the …
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Writing instruction intervention for community colleges
August 10, 2016
UD researchers have created an instructional intervention that provides community college students the tools to significantly improve their writing skills.
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Bookworms curriculum improves reading skills
March 30, 2016
Sharon Walpole, University of Delaware, and Mike McKenna, University of Virginia, developed “Bookworms,” a free, open-access, elementary ELA curriculum to increase students’ reading comprehension and vocabulary. Schools in Delaware and Georgia have successfully implemented this program.
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Creating improved observational protocol for writing instruction
January 12, 2016
With the attention that the Common Core State Standards give to writing, and the writing requirements in the new Smarter Balanced Assessments, many teachers and administrators are concerned about their approach to writing instruction. “As an elementary principal, and later, as Director of Curriculum and Instruction, I frequently observed primary …
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Building vocabulary of low-income children
October 30, 2015
Roberta Golinkoff and collaborator Kathy Hirsh-Pasek designed an intervention study to test a new approach for fostering vocabulary development among preschool children from low-income homes.
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Improving reading comprehension through text structure instruction
October 2, 2015
Sharon Walpole, SOE, is partnering with Kasualai Wijekumar on a grant designed to enhance classroom-based text structure instruction for 4th and 5th graders in high poverty schools in TX and PA.
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Diagnose Language Processing in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants
September 12, 2015
In 2015, Giovanna Morini, a postdoctoral student in UD’s School of Education was awarded a two-year postdoctoral fellowship to study, Using the Tools of Developmental Science to Diagnose Language Processing in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants. This two-year $184,000 grant is funded by the National Science Foundation. Together with Roberta Golinkoff, SOE and Thierry …
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Self-Regulated strategy instruction in college developmental writing
September 12, 2015
Large numbers of students enter postsecondary programs with a high school diploma but underprepared for college in reading, writing, or math achievement. The most recent National Assessments of Educational Progress (NAEP) in writing in 2011 (NCES; National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012) found that only 27% of students in the final …
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