Deep Letter Knowledge for Emerging Literacy Using iPads

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的长期目标是提高美国的阅读水平，目前只有25%的四年级学生可以达到“熟练”的阅读水平，只有8%的四年级学生可以被称为“高级”。一个国家的经济福祉、健康和民主运作都依赖于有文化、有见识的公民。尽管有大量证据表明，基于语音的教学对熟练阅读至关重要，但教师的指导者和教师普遍缺乏对这一证据的认识，或者否认这一证据。深刻的字母知识要求孩子们理解他们所说的单词是由不同的声音组成的，这些声音可以用被称为字母的形状来表示，这些字母，按顺序排列在一起，可以把他们所说的单词变成他们可以看到的单词。通过提供基于语音的阅读方法的指导，提高教师在早期年级水平的发展是至关重要的。事实证明，对大批教员和教师进行再教育是一项非常缓慢的任务。与此同时，孩子们也受到教育不足的困扰。这个SBIR项目试图通过一个简单但根本的阅读教学转变来挑战当前的做法：（从演讲到印刷，而不是从印刷到演讲），通过为ipad提供一个低成本、设计良好、从演讲到印刷的课程，Talking Shapes，用于家庭或学校的早期识字教学。具体目标：Talking Fingers， Inc.将开发和

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project's long-term objective is to improve reading in America, where at present only 25% of fourth graders can read at a "proficient" level and a mere 8% can be called "advanced." The economic well-being, the health, and democratic functioning of the nation all depend on a literate and informed citizenry. Despite overwhelming evidence that phonologically-based instruction is essential for skilled reading, there is widespread lack of knowledge, or denial, of this evidence among instructors of teachers, and teachers. Deep letter knowledge requires that children understand that the words they say are made of different sounds, that those sounds can be represented by drawn shapes called letters, and that these letters, sequenced together, can turn the words they say into words they can see. It is vital to improve teacher development at the early grade levels by providing instruction in phonologically-based approaches to reading. Re-educating vast numbers of instructors and teachers has proved to be a very slow task. Meanwhile children suffer from inadequate instruction. This SBIR project seeks to challenge current practices with a simple, but fundamental, shift in reading instruction: (speech-to-print rather than print-to-speech), by providing a low-cost, well designed, speech-to-print curriculum for iPads, Talking Shapes, for teaching early literacy at home or at school. Specific Aims: Talking Fingers, Inc. will develop and test three iPad stories with 15 games which will become, in Phase 2, a complete curriculum of 7 stories & 35 games. The seven stories are about two sisters who invented the alphabet. Their letters are embedded in pictures that uniquely call to mind both the sound and the shape of the letter--Talking Shapes. The seven stories will cover the 40 sounds of English and the letters that represent those phonemes. Research: Research with 42 four-year-olds (to evaluate feasibility and promise) will be carried out at the Florida State University Schools, and will utilize a randomized delayed treatment control with a pre-mid-posttest design, with students randomly assigned within classrooms to Group 1 (first 6 weeks) or Group 2 (second six weeks). Questions include the following: (1) Do children in Group 1 learn more target letter/sound associations and target words (read and spell) at mid-test compared to the delayed Group 2; (2) How many letters do the G1 students maintain at post-testing; (3) do G1 and G2 students learn similar letters and words? and (4) Does vocabulary moderate the number of letter/sounds and words learned? We will examine pre to mid-test gains, mid-test to post-test and pre to posttest gains on the assessments of Letter- Sounds and Words using general linear modeling ANCOVA. This speech-to-print approach involves integrating letter knowledge, phoneme awareness and phonics into one process: sounding-out (segmenting) and constructing meaningful words. This proposed curriculum is unique and, with positive research results, could inform both teachers and parents about the process and value of systematic phonologically-based learning, could inspire further research, and could serve a pivotal role in improving reading nationwide.