Masters Thesis

iPad: a reading comprehention intervention vehicle

The purpose of this action research study was to determine the effects, if any, of the use of the iPad as an instructional tool to facilitate reading comprehension. Specifically, the intent was to see if students with learning disabilities in the 8th grade could gain a gestalt understanding of a paragraph written at the 8th grade level when supported with the use of the iPad. In addition, an effort was made to determine if the use of an explicit, systematic reading comprehension strategy in conjunction with the touch features of the iPad could support student comprehension when reading at grade level rather than the student's instructional level. In other words, could the iPad be used both as an intervention tool and as a compensatory strategy? A total of ten middle school students participated in the study. Using two treatment designs and a control design, the instructor read a paragraph to students while they followed along. Students were asked to select one of the four possible main idea answer choices provided by the teacher after each treatment or control intervention was used. The results of the data collection illustrated that the use of the iPad in conjunction with systematic and explicit reading comprehension instruction supported stronger gestalt than either of the other two conditions.

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