The concept of blending MEville to WEville's additional lessons with Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters began as a cooperative research initiative supported by a U.S. Department of Education Steppingstones of Technology Innovation grant. This study was one of the largest literacy studies ever conducted with students with significant disabilities. The project was managed under the direction of Dr. Karen Erickson, from the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The outcomes are truly remarkable.
More than 100 students between the ages 8 to 21, all with moderate to severe/profound intellectual impairments, participated in the research of MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program study, including 22 students with autism and 15 students with multiple disabilities. Dr. Erickson's research showed that integrating MEville to Weville with the extended lessons and Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters had a significant positive impact of the literacy outcomes of the students. And most importantly, the test results showed that students were able to generalize their skills!
Complete results of the MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program study
The research phase of MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program occurred during the spring of 2007 and employed a researcher-designed pretest/posttest (r = .83-.87) administered individually to each participant by members of the research team. In addition, classroom observations and teacher interviews occurred before, during, and after the intervention. The study included 109 students ages 8-21 years from 20 classrooms in two self-contained special education schools. All student participants had moderate to profound intellectual impairments, including 22 participants with the label of autism and 15 students with multiple disabilities. Teachers were assigned to one of three intervention groups and given a sequence of 40 lessons to implement with accompanying materials. The three groups were:
Group 1 – MEville to WEville (n=21)
Group 2 – Extending Lessons with Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters (n=68)
Group 3 – Combination of MEville to Weville, the Extending Lessons, and Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters (n=16).
Analysis of the pre- and post-tests administered to the students revealed that each of the three groups made significant gains following the intervention. Cohen's d was calculated to determine effect sizes for each of the three interventions with the following results: (a) Group 1, d=.23; (b) Group 2, d=.22; and (c) Group 3, d=.44.
Below is a chart that outlines the MEville to WEville Literacy Curriculum and how it works with the enhanced skill development offered in Extending MEville to WEville with Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters.
| Literacy Curriculum/Technology |
Grade Levels |
Skills Addressed |
MEville to WEville Curriculum:
Unit 1: All About ME
Unit 2: My Family
Unit 3: My School |
K-5 |
Word identification
Phonemic awareness
Comprehension
Fluency
Building Background Knowledge
Writing
Receptive/Expressive Language |
| Extending MEville to WEville Unit 1 |
4-5 |
Increased engagement in reading, writing, and communicating |
| Extending MEville to WEville Unit 2 |
4-5 |
Increased engagement in reading, writing, and communicating |
| Extending MEville to WEville Unit 3 |
4-5 |
Increased engagement in reading and writing |
|