Same-Language-Subtitling and Karaoke:
The Use of Subtitled Music as a Reading Activity
In a High School Special Education Classroom
W.Greg McCall
2005
Results: Growth in Reading
This study examined whether the addition of video based Same-Language-Subtitled (SLS) music lyrics as a supplementary reading activity could positively impact the problem of low reading growth in a high school special education English classroom. The goals of the study included: increasing overall time per class that students participated in a reading activity, increasing student engagement in reading activities, and improving reading growth rate.
Assessment data was gathered and analyzed for all CHS SPED students taking English classes over a twelve month period from September 2004 to September 2005. Data was also gathered and tracked for the other three SPED English classrooms and for five mainstreamed English classrooms to provide comparative data. This data is interesting for discussion purposes and setting the study within the school community. The data reflects 163 Special Education Students, of which 149 were actually part of data group. There were 65 students in the four classes that participated in the SLS activities, 51 of which had passed reliability screening for data group. The remaining fourteen students were not part of the original 149 students whose STAR pre-testing data corresponded to the yearly SDRT assessments. The research group predicted that including these students would artificially inflate growth scores, as there was a high probability that their pretest scores were lower than their actual abilities. These students participated in the intervention classroom and in other class groups but their data were not included in group mean.
This study predicted that the inclusion of SLS activities in a Special Education English classroom would result in improved reading growth as reflected by the STAR and SDRT reading assessments and would demonstrate at least an 18 week improvement over the 12 week intervention. This goal was met as for the Intervention group the mean reading scores improved from GE 6.7 to 7.4, or 25 weeks growth over the 12 week school period. The following chart (Figure 9) illustrates the mean growth in reading levels for the Intervention Group over a 36 week period as assessed both by STAR and the SDRT.
During the previous assessment period the intervention group demonstrated
a Scaled Score (SS) mean growth of 24 points or GE 0.2 which is equivalent
to a 7.6 weeks mean growth over a 12 week period. In comparison, during
the intervention time period this group made a gain of SS 66 points,
or GE 0.7 which is equivalent to 25 weeks growth. The following 12 weeks
reflects the group’s end-of-year performance on the SDRT (week 14 0n intervention) and the reading
loss over the summer intercession. While there was a SS 17 point loss
over the summer break, these students began the new school year with
the gains they had made during the intervention period.
Figure 12 compares the mean Scaled Score (SS) growth between the four data groups: the intervention group (Study Group -51), additional 14 students participating in the intervention activities, the combined remaining students in SPED English classrooms, and the mainstreamed SPED English students.
Figure 12 illustrates first that SPED students in the SLS intervention classroom had markedly higher reading growth than their counterparts in other placements. Second, that if this study had included the additional (14) testing data, as predicted growth data might have been inflated. Data for this additional set of students is included
only to visually demonstrate that separating their data from main study
group did not benefit the performance scores of the study group. Third, it should be noted that while SPED students in Mainstreamed group fared worse than "Other 3 SPED English classes", the Mainstreamed students also had a higher starting grade equivalence (Figure 14) hence less room for improvement.
The following chart (Figure 14) illustrates both grade equivalence in reading and mean reading growth over a 36 week period for the three data groups (the intervention group, other SPED English classrooms and mainstreamed SPED students) as evaluated by both STAR and the SDRT. In comparison to both themselves and to other SPED students the SLS intervention group showed marked improvement in reading.
The intervention period ended two weeks before the end of the school year. Significantly, the intervention group tested GE 0.3 higher just before the summer break began (at week 14), and only lost GE 0.2 over the summer intercession. In comparison, the other SPED students lost a good deal of previous year's gain over the summer break.
This project addressed two major goals: raising reading levels and determining Same-Language-Subtitling’s impact on reading activities and reading growth. The basic goal of raising reading levels was met. In addition there is strong evidence that as part of classroom activities SLS can support reading growth. Significantly, most research on struggling readers indicates that the amount of time a student spends in reading related activities is the major factor in predicting subsequent reading growth. Sheer reading volume, how much a child will read in and out of school has a major impact on reading rate, fluency, and academic growth. In addition, studies have shown that people with even just a mild reading impairment do not read for fun, and that attitude to reading activities can also have a major impact (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998a; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998b). Same-Language-Subtitling has the potential to address these concerns. SLS as a reading and presentation format can have significant impact on student focus and attitude.
Results: Increasing Reading Time
Overview
( Ongoing samples -seperate web site)
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