Live Webcam Coaching to Help Elementary Classroom Teachers Provide Effective Literacy Instruction for Struggling Readers

• In Event: Technology Use in Special Education

Abstract

The purpose of this randomized control trial was to evaluate the effectiveness of a tier II intervention to help classroom teachers promote rapid reading growth for their struggling readers in early elementary school through cost effective live webcam technology. Fifteen rural schools were randomly assigned to treatment or control. Teachers implemented diagnostic teaching strategies in one-on-one sessions 15 minutes a day with one struggling reader until that struggler made rapid reading progress. Then teachers worked with another struggler. Literacy coaches watched teachers implement the TRI biweekly through live webcam technology and gave feedback. Three level HLM models suggested that experimental struggling readers gained significantly compared to the control strugglers, with effect sizes of .3 to .6 on individualized reading tests.

Authors

• Lynne Vernon-Feagans, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Kirsten Lynne Kainz, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Amy Hedrick, Lenoir-Rhyne University

• Marnie Ginsberg, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Steven J. Amendum, North Carolina State University