Method for improving sentence comprehension, vocabulary skills and reading for meaning using cloze tasks on a computing device
Methodologies for improving a student's phonemic awareness, decoding, spelling, oral and written comprehension are described herein. The method is embodied in a suite of twelve exercises operable on a computing device. The exercises are geared towards training of 1st and 2nd grade students but are not limited to that. The methods present an entertaining screen environment, with target stimulus, and foil or distracter stimulus presented visually, textually, and aurally. The student is required to identify the target stimulus from the distracter stimulus within the context of each exercise. Progress from easier trials to more difficult trials is made as the student successfully completes particular difficulty levels.
1 . A computer-implemented method for improving sentence comprehension, vocabulary skills, and reading for meaning, the method comprising:
providing a stimulus sentence set comprising a plurality of stimulus sentences;
presenting a stimulus sentence from the stimulus sentence set to the person via a computing device, wherein a sentence element of the stimulus sentence is missing;
presenting a plurality of sentence elements to the person via the computing device, wherein one of the sentence elements provides the missing sentence element to correctly complete the stimulus sentence;
requiring the person to select a sentence element from the plurality of sentence elements to provide the missing sentence element to complete the stimulus sentence;
determining if the person selected the sentence element correctly; and
repeating said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining for each stimulus sentence in the stimulus sentence set;
wherein said repeating improves sentence comprehension, vocabulary skills, and reading for meaning, in a person.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said presenting the stimulus sentence comprises:
aurally presenting the stimulus sentence; and/or
textually presenting the stimulus sentence.
3 . The method of claim 2 ,
wherein each stimulus sentence comprises a stimulus type, comprising one of:
aural and text; and
text; and
wherein said presenting the stimulus sentence comprises:
aurally and textually presenting the stimulus sentence; or textually presenting the stimulus sentence.
4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein said aurally presenting the stimulus sentence comprises:
playing a specified sound in place of the missing sentence element.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said presenting the plurality of sentence elements comprises one or more of:
presenting a picture illustrating each sentence element; and
textually presenting each sentence element.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sentence elements is from a set of sentence elements comprising a plurality of categories of sentence elements.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of categories of sentence elements comprises two or more of:
vocabulary;
punctuation; and
capitalization.
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the vocabulary comprises words for one or more of:
foods;
animals;
clothing;
classroom items; and
modes of transportation.
9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the punctuation comprises end of sentence punctuation.
10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the capitalization comprises capitalization of one or more of:
initial words;
names; and
pronoun “I”.
11 . The method of claim 6 ,
wherein each of the sentence elements in the set of sentence elements comprises
a response type, comprising one of:
picture;
text; and
punctuation and capitalization.
12 . The method of claim 1 1 , wherein the set of sentence elements comprises two or more of:
pictures;
words;
upper case letters;
lower case letters; and
punctuation marks.
13 . The method of claim 11 ,
wherein said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining composes performing a trial for a stimulus sentence;
where a level comprises a specified set of trials; and
wherein said repeating said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining for each stimulus sentence in the stimulus sentence set comprises:
performing trials in each level of a plurality of levels in a specified order, wherein successive levels increase in difficulty.
14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein a level is based on one or more of:
stimulus type;
response type;
text type; and
sentence length; and
wherein an open level comprises a level that has not been passed.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein said repeating said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining for each stimulus sentence in the stimulus sentence set comprises:
performing trials for each of the plurality of open levels;
wherein a level is completed when all trials in that level have been performed; and
wherein passing a level comprises successfully performing a specified percentage of trials in the level.
16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
if the person fails a level, repeating the level until:
the person passes the level; or
the person fails the level a specified number of times.
17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein said performing trials for each of the plurality of open levels comprises:
setting a current level to a first level of the plurality of levels; and
performing trials for each stimulus sentence at the current level.
18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein said performing trials for each of the plurality of open levels comprises:
if the person fails the current level a specified number of times, leaving the current level open for later presentation to the person; and
if there are further open levels, incrementing the current level to a next open level and performing trials in the current level.
19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein said performing trials for each of the plurality of open levels further comprises:
if the person passes the current level and there are more open levels, closing the current level;
incrementing the current level to the next open level; and
performing trials in the current level.
20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein said performing trials for each of the plurality of open levels comprises:
if all levels have been completed, and there are further open levels, for each level in the further open levels:
setting the current level to a next level of the further open levels; and
performing a trial for each stimulus sentence set in the current level;
if the person fails the current level a specified number of times,
keeping the current level open for later presentation to the person.
21 . The method of claim 15 ,
wherein a unit comprises a smallest group of trials to be evaluated for advancement, comprising all trials in a category at a given level.
22 . The method of claim 15 , wherein said performing trials for each of the plurality of open levels is performed over a plurality of sessions, and wherein each successive session begins approximately where a previous session ends.
23 . The method of claim 22 , wherein the sessions occur a specified number times each day, for a specified number of days.
24 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the stimulus sentence set comprises respective sequences of stimulus sentences, each composing a respective story.
25 . The method of claim 24 , wherein each sequence of stimulus sentences is presented in a respective block of sequential trials.
26 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing a training trial, comprising:
demonstrating said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining to the person.
27 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining are performed via a graphical user interface (GUI) displayed on a display of the computing device.
28 . The method of claim 27 , wherein the GUI displays two or more of:
a student indicator;
a time indicator;
an initiation button, whereby the person invokes presenting stimulus sentences;
a score indicator; and
a passage length indicator.
29 . The method of claim 28 , wherein the GUI further displays a main character, wherein the main character performs said presenting the stimulus sentence.
30 . The method of claim 29 , wherein the main character is animated.
31 . The method of claim 29 , wherein the main character performs said presenting the stimulus sentence aurally, textually, and/or graphically.
32 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to said determining, playing a sound indicating the correctness or incorrectness of the selection.
33 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to said determining, graphically indicating the correctness or incorrectness of the selection.
34 . The method of claim 33 , wherein said graphically indicating the correctness or incorrectness of the selection comprises:
if the person selected the sentence element correctly, displaying the selected sentence element in the stimulus sentence.
35 . The method of claim 34 , wherein said displaying the selected sentence element in the stimulus sentence comprises:
highlighting the selected sentence element in the stimulus sentence.
36 . The method of claim 34 , wherein said graphically indicating the correctness or incorrectness of the selection comprises:
if the person selected the sentence element incorrectly, displaying a correct sentence element from the plurality of sentence elements in the stimulus sentence.
37 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
awarding points based on the correctness of the selected sentence element.
38 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said requiring the person to select a sentence element from the plurality of sentence elements comprises requiring the person to perform one or more of:
selecting the sentence element with a pointing device;
selecting a button indicating the sentence element in the GUI with the pointing device; and
pressing one or more keys on a keyboard coupled to the computing device to indicate selection of the sentence element.
39 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said presenting the stimulus sentence comprises:
aurally presenting the stimulus sentence via headphones attached to the computing device.
40 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing said repeating a plurality of times to improve sentence comprehension, vocabulary skills, and reading for meaning in the person.
41 . A computer accessible memory medium that stores program instructions for sentence comprehension, vocabulary skills, and reading for meaning, in a person, wherein the program instructions are executable by a processor to perform:
providing a stimulus sentence set comprising a plurality of stimulus sentences;
presenting a stimulus sentence from the stimulus sentence set to the person via a computing device, wherein a sentence element of the stimulus sentence is missing;
presenting a plurality of sentence elements to the person via the computing device, wherein one of the sentence elements provides the missing sentence element to correctly complete the stimulus sentence;
requiring the person to select a sentence element from the plurality of sentence elements to provide the missing sentence element to complete the stimulus sentence;
determining if the person selected the sentence element correctly; and
repeating said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining for each stimulus sentence in the stimulus sentence set;
wherein said repeating improves sentence comprehension, vocabulary skills, and reading for meaning in the person.
42 . The memory medium of claim 41 ,
wherein each stimulus sentence comprises a stimulus type, comprising one of:
aural and text; and
text; and
wherein said presenting the stimulus sentence comprises:
aurally and textually presenting the stimulus sentence; or
textually presenting the stimulus sentence.
43 . The memory medium of claim 41 , wherein said aurally presenting the stimulus sentence comprises:
playing a specified sound in place of the missing sentence element.
44 . The memory medium of claim 41 , wherein said presenting the plurality of sentence elements comprises one or more of:
presenting a picture illustrating each sentence element; and
textually presenting each sentence element.
45 . The memory medium of claim 41 , wherein the plurality of sentence elements is from a set of sentence elements comprising a plurality of categories of sentence elements, wherein the plurality of categories of sentence elements comprises two or more of:
vocabulary;
punctuation; and
capitalization.
46 . The memory medium of claim 45 , wherein the set of sentence elements comprises two or more of:
pictures;
words;
upper case letters;
lower case letters; and
punctuation marks.
47 . The memory medium of claim 41 ,
wherein said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining composes performing a trial for a stimulus sentence;
where a level comprises a specified set of trials; and
wherein said repeating said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining for each stimulus sentence in the stimulus sentence set comprises:
performing trials in each level of a plurality of levels in a specified order, wherein successive levels increase in difficulty.
48 . The memory medium of claim 47 , wherein a level is based on one or more of:
stimulus type;
response type;
text type; and
sentence length; and
wherein an open level comprises a level that has not been passed.
49 . The memory medium of claim 48 , wherein said repeating said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining for each stimulus sentence in the stimulus sentence set comprises:
performing trials for each of the plurality of open levels;
wherein a level is completed when all trials in that level have been performed; and
wherein passing a level comprises successfully performing a specified percentage of trials in the level.
50 . The memory medium of claim 49 , wherein the program instructions are further executable to perform:
if the person fails a level, repeating the level until:
the person passes the level; or
the person fails the level a specified number of times.
51 . The memory medium of claim 49 , wherein said performing trials for each of the plurality of open levels is performed over a plurality of sessions, wherein each successive session begins approximately where a previous session ends, and wherein the sessions occur a specified number times each day, for a specified number of days.
52 . The memory medium of claim 41 , wherein at least a portion of the stimulus sentence set comprises respective sequences of stimulus sentences, each composing a respective story.
53 . The memory medium of claim 41 , wherein said presenting the stimulus sentence, said presenting the plurality of sentence elements, said requiring, and said determining are performed via a graphical user interface (GUI) displayed on a display of the computing device.
54 . The memory medium of claim 53 , wherein the GUI displays a main character, wherein the main character performs said presenting the stimulus sentence.
55 . The memory medium of claim 41 , wherein the program instructions are further executable to perform:
in response to said determining, performing one or more of:
playing a sound indicating the correctness or incorrectness of the selection;
graphically indicating the correctness or incorrectness of the selection; and
awarding points based on the correctness of the selection.
56 . The memory medium of claim 55 , wherein said graphically indicating the correctness or incorrectness of the selection comprises:
if the person selected the sentence element correctly, displaying the selected sentence element in the stimulus sentence; and
if the person selected the sentence element incorrectly, displaying a correct sentence element from the plurality of sentence elements in the stimulus sentence.
57 . The memory medium of claim 41 , wherein the program instructions are further executable to perform:
performing said repeating a plurality of times to improve sentence comprehension, vocabulary skills, and reading for meaning in the person.