04/05/2022
By Lizzie Casanave

The School of Education invites you to attend an Ed.D. Dissertation Defense by Laura Miceli on “Graphic Organizers that Support Comprehension Among Students Assigned to Grade 7 Intervention and English Courses.”

Date: April 15, 2022
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: This will be a virtual dissertation defense via Zoom. Those interested in attending should contact Stacy_Szczesiul@uml.edu to request access to the Zoom link.

Dissertation Chair: Stacy Szczesiul Ed.D., Associate Dean of Online Education, Accreditation & Licensing, Associate Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Dissertation Committee:

  • Robai Werunga, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Katherine Bernklow, Ph.D. Scholar in Practice, School of Education, Director of Student Services, Medway Public Schools

Abstract:

Comprehending texts can be challenging for adolescent readers learning to develop reading strategies because of their lack of proficiency in applying the strategies. Adolescent readers who receive comprehension instruction during intervention classes and who are expected to independently apply the taught strategies in other contexts, specifically in English instruction classes, often struggle to do so. This study examines teachers’ use of shared graphic organizers to support student textual comprehension in academic intervention classes and in corresponding English classes. The teachers in the intervention and English classes applied the same graphic organizers and a shared language to teach students how to use them. Student agency is important to this study, to determine if the commonly used graphic organizers and shared language among teachers supported the transfer of knowledge across different learning environments. The students completed exit slips to monitor their comprehension level and to provide feedback to teachers regarding the effectiveness of each strategy, each graphic organizer, and their levels of reading comprehension. This study was designed to engage teachers in dialogue through data meetings in order to assess student progress.