Journal Article Critique 4293 - Assignment Example

Journal Article Critique Journal Article Critique Research Questions Is a Tier 2 evidence-based intensive reading instructions more effective than business-as-usual instructions for sixth graders with and without learning disabilities who were far below or below basic levels of literacy. 2. How can a response-to-intervention model in middle school be developed? Experimental Design This research was a quasi-experimental design which sought to compare the effects of Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction in two groups.

One was the control group consisting of students ranked as “below” basic levels while the second one was the intervention group comprising of students ranked as “far below” the literacy level. Summary of MethodsParticipants: The participants identified for this study comprised of 3 teachers, 2 researchers and 60 students. However, at the end of the 10 weeks of the study, the two groups had a total of 51 students after 9 of them dropped from the study after moving to other regions. Setting:The study took place in an inner city middle school whereby 90% of the students were viewed as English learners at a certain phase in their learning history.

Procedure:As highlighted, there was a control group and a treatment group, each consisting of 30 students. Both the control group and the treatment group participated in Tier 1 learning instructions, but only the treatment group underwent the special Tier 2 learning instructions. These types of instructions were given for a period of 10 weeks and different measures of their improvement in literacy were used to compare their performance after the 10 week period. The data from such scores was analyzed and interpreted to compare the effect of Tier 2 learning instructions, which was a response-to-intervention model.

ResultsFrom the findings, in the scores of the different groups, it emerged that students in the treatment grouped performed better in all the measures compared to those in the control group. Notably, the control group exhibited improvement because of the Tier 1 learning instructions. Limitations The study utilized a limited sample size, which was 51 at the end of the 10 weeks, a factor that necessitates an additional study with a larger sample size. The measurement instruments used in the study had limited capacity in assessing some measures identified for the study.

The third limitation was that, the study only considered reading level ranges from early first to the level of middle third grade, which has the capacity of introducing a level of variance. Commentary This study is a salient example of the effects of adopting an intervention model of learning instructions in a bid to help students with learning disabilities to improve their literacy levels. The authors of this article are impressed by the positive findings that adopting a Tier 2 instruction model can register a difference in the learning ability and literacy levels of students with learning disabilities (Graves et al, 2011).

It is important for other studies of this nature to be carried out to provide more evidence of the effects of the intervention models in helping struggling readers. ReferenceGraves, A. W., Brandon, R., Duesbery, L., McIntosh, A., & Pyle, N. B. (2011). The effects of tier 2 literacy instruction in sixth grade: toward the development of a response-to-intervention model in middle school. Learning Disability Quarterly, 34 (1), 73-86.