The Effects of Cover, Copy, and Compare on Spelling Accuracy with a Middle School Student with Learning Disabilities:

A Case Report

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BASIC AND APPLIED SCIENCE

Insan Akademika Publications

P-ISSN: 2301-4458 E-ISSN: 2301-8038 Vol. 01, No. 02 Oct 2012

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The Effects of Cover, Copy, and Compare on Spelling Accuracy with a Middle School Student with Learning Disabilities: A Case Report
Susan Poindexter 1, T. F. McLaughlin 2, K. Mark Derby 3, Gary Johnson 4
1

Spokane Public Schools, North 200 Bernard, Spokane, WA 99201 SusanP@spokaneschools.org

2

Gonzaga University, AD Box 25, Spokane, WA 99258-0025 Gonzaga University mclaughlin@gonzaga.edu Gonzaga University, AD Box 25, Spokane, WA 99258-0025 Gonzaga University derby@gonzaga.edu

Spokane Public Schools, North 200 Bernard, Spokane, WA 99202

Key words
Cover, Copy, Compare, Learning disabilities, Middle school, Single case design, Spelling

Abstract
The purpose of this research project was to examine the effects of employing the copy, cover and compare (CCC) method in spelling. The participant was a seventh grade male with learning disabilities. Data were gathered on his correct and error rate across various lessons in the students resource room classroom. An ABAB single case design was employed to evaluate the effects of CCC for both corrects and errors in spelling. The overall outcomes indicated a gradual increase in corrects and also gradual decreases in errors. This replicates much of the previous research with CCC. In the present case report, we were able to further replicate our work and those of Skinner and his colleagues. The CCC procedures were straight-forward to implement and data collection fit into the daily classroom routine. The benefits of CCC are discussed.
2012 Insan Akademika All Rights Reserved

Introduction

Research continues to focus upon the sources of low academic achievement for children with disabilities. The relationship between spelling and overall school success has lead to a large number of research studies examining spelling interventions or instructional techniques. A literature review of 38 spelling studies was completed by Fulk and Stormont-Spurgin (1995). Their findings found that nearly all of the systematic instructional techniques can be used to improve the spelling of disabled students (p.509). The interventions that were recommended included a variety of instructional techniques, computer-assisted instruction, student study techniques, and sensory/ modality training. Despite the varying instructional modes employed, 35 of the 38 studies resulted in heightened spelling performance, positive attitudes toward spelling, and/ or

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improvements in on-task behavior (Fulk & Stormont-Spurgin, 1995). An analysis of evidence-based spelling interventions (McLaughlin, Weber, & Barretto, 2004) found that CCC procedures are successful across a wide range of disability designations and with words from various subject-matter areas. McLaughlin, Weber, and McLaughlin (in press) reviewed the literature on spelling for the past 10 years involving students with learning disabilities. They reported that such methods as cover, copy, compare or add-a-word remained highly effective for improving the spelling performance of students with learning disabilities. A meta-analysis of CCC (Joseph, Konrad, Cates, Vajcner, Eveligh, & Fishley, 2012) indicated that spelling was the most common dependent variable employed with this classroom intervention. The most common student population studied has been elementary school students in general as well as special education. Finally, CCC has been implemented by undergraduate students during their preservice training (Carter, McLaughlin, Derby, Schuler, & Everman 2011; Membrey, McLaughlin, Derby, & Antcliff, 2011; Poff, McLaughlin, Derby, & King, 2012; Skarr, McLaughlin, Derby, Meade, & Williams, 2012), and as part of our graduate student research and training (Cieslar, McLaughlin, & Derby, 2007; Murphy, Hern, Williams, & McLaughlin, 1990; Schermerhorn & McLaughlin, 1997), and in the home by parents or family friends (Stading, Williams, & McLaughlin, 1996; Stone, McLaughlin, & Weber, 2002). The CCC instructional method has also generated a great deal of research verification and has been employed across a wide variety of curricular areas and disability designations (Ivicek-Cordes, McLaughlin, Derby, & Higgins, 2012; Joseph et al., 2012; McLaughlin & Skinner, 1996; Skinner, McLaughlin, & Logan, 1997). This self-managed academic intervention, the cover, copy, and compare procedure is student-paced and participant evaluated. McLaughlin and Skinner (1996) note that copy, cover, compare should be employed for skills involving recognition, memorization, or automatic responding. Children with and without disabilities can experience increases in accuracy, fluency, and comprehension in the areas of spelling, math, and geography when utilizing the cover, copy, and compare (Skinner, Bamberg, Smith, & Powell, 1993; Skinner, Ford, & Yunker, 1992; Skinner, Belfiore, & Pierce, 1991). Benefits of this pedagogy include brief instructional intervals, daily testing, immediate reinforcement/ feedback, and an increase being correct (Guza & McLaughlin, 1992; Kearney & Drabman, 1992; McLaughlin & Skinner, 1996; McLaughlin et al., 2004; Schermerhorn & McLaughlin, 1997; Skinner et al., 1997; Stading, Williams, & McLaughlin, 1996). The inability to independently record information through writing hinders academic achievement and selfexpression. This incapacity to manipulate ones environment through writing can affect student participation and future success in school and as an adult (Hansen, 1978; Howard, McLaughlin, & Vacha, 1996; Shapiro, 2011). As children move to adolescence and early adulthood, the necessity for accuracy and fluency in writing increases. Severe deficits in written communication, especially in early adolescence, can pose a socially significant school problem for such youth. This outcome mandates additional classroom research providing evidence-based interventions for these youth. The purpose of the present case report was to compare the effectiveness of a traditional spelling approach to that of CCC technique. Data were gathered in students resource room. The second purpose was to extend and replicate previous research using CCC with a middle school student. A final purpose was to determine if a student teacher was able to implement and evaluate CCC during her student teaching internship in a pubic middle school special education classroom.

2
2.1

Method
Participant and Setting

The participant of this study was a 12-year-old seventh grade middle school student. The student was assigned to a regular education classroom in the Pacific Northwest. However, the participant daily received 204 minutes of instruction for spelling, written language, reading, and math in his resource room. The student was selected for this study because his written language scores on previous testing were at a second

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grade level and showed deficiencies in decoding and word recognition. Data from the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery (Woodcock & Johnson, 1977), administered in April 1998 indicated that the student was reading at the grade equivalent of first grade first month (1.1). Our participant also met the state and federal guidelines for the designation of being labeled learning disabled in written language, reading, and arithmetic. The study took place four to five times per week in the participants resource room. The persons who were present in the resource room during the study were the first author, certificated teacher, and from 10 to 15 other students. The study took place over a seven-week time period and it concluded with the completion of the first authors student teaching under the direction of the fourth author.

2.2

Dependent Variables and Measurement Procedures

The dependent variable was the number of corrects and errors made while taking spelling tests from a list of the 1000 most commonly used words in the English language. These words were placed in 15 word lists. During each 25-minute session the student would first read the words from a list of 15 spelling words provided in the beginning of each lesson. The first author (Susan Poindexter) would first say the word and the student would repeat the word. After the researcher and the student went over the word list together, the student would write the word, cover the word, write the word from memory, compare the word for accuracy and make any necessary corrections. After completion of the CCC method for practicing the spelling words the student would be given a test over the list of 15 words.

2.3

Experimental Design and Conditions

An ABAB single case research design (Kazdin, 2011) was used to evaluate the effects of the copy, cover and compare method on the number of corrects and errors from the students weekly spelling list of 15 words.

2.3.1 Baseline1 and 2 Baseline consisted of three daily spelling tests administered by the first author. During this time we measured and recorded the number of corrects and errors made after completion of each daily test. The second baseline phase was a replication of the first baseline, but lasted for four sessions.

2.3.2 CCC 1 and 2 The student was given a spelling list of 15 of the most commonly used words in the English language. The student read each word with first author, then copied each word and checked for accuracy. Next, the student covered the spelling words and wrote each word from memory. The student then compared each word to the original list and checked for accuracy. Upon completion of the copy, cover and compare session the student was given a spelling test. The first author and the student recorded the number of words spelled correctly and incorrectly on the test. When the student misspelled a word, the first author would show the student the correct spelling of the word. The first author and the student set a goal for the number of words spelled correctly on each test at 14. If the student reached this goal, he earned with 10 minutes of free time.

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2.4

Reliability of Measurement for the Dependent and Implementation of the Independent Variables

The first author and the student both recorded the number of corrects and errors the student made on each spelling test. If both scored the word in the same manner, an agreement was noted. Any differences were scored as a disagreement. The inter-grader agreement between the first author and the student was 100%. The completion of a research verification form for classroom research is required by the first authors training program (McLaughlin, Williams, Williams, Peck, Derby, Weber, & Bjordahl 1999). This form was completed by the first and third author and indicated that the intervention had taken place. In addition, the last author visited the first author during data collection and found that CCC was being implemented.

Results

The overall results revealed a gradual increase in the number of words spelled correctly and a gradual decrease in the number of errors (See Figure 1). During the first baseline condition, the participant averaged 7.0 words correct with a mean of 8.0 errors. The number words spelled correctly during baseline 1 ranged from 6 to 8 words while errors ranged from7 to 9 words. During the first CCC condition, the participants performance on spelling words improved. The student spelled a mean of 9.0 words spelled correctly (range 8 to 10 words). He averaged 6.0 errors per test in spelling (range 5 to 7 errors). A return to baseline resulted in a decline in both corrects (M = 4.0 words) errors (M = 11 errors). When CCC was reintroduction of CCC-2, the student spelled improved his performance (M = 10.0 words). Number of corrects ranged from 6 to 14. His errors declined to an average of 5.0 words (range 1 to 9 errors). Statistical analysis comparing the various conditions for both corrects and errors were carried out. A repeated analysis of variance found a significant difference for treatments (F = 13; df = 7; p = .008). Fishers PLSD follow-up tests were carried out for corrects and errors by condition. Significant differences were found for corrects between CCC-1 and CCC-2; CCC-2 and baseline 2. For errors, significant differences were found between CCC 1 and baseline 2, CCC-2 and baseline 2, CCC-1 and CCC 2, CCC-1 and baseline 2, and baseline 2 and CCC-1.

Discussion

The results of this study indicated the effectiveness of the CCC intervention for increasing the number of words spelled correctly and decreasing the number of errors for our participant with his daily spelling tests. The replicates much of our research (Gryiec et al., 2004; Hollingsworth et al., 2012; Hubbert, Weber, & McLaughlin, 2000; McLaughlin et al., 1991; Murphy et al., 1990; Pratt-Struthers et al., 1983, 1989; Schermerhorn & McLaughlin, 1997; Skarr et al., 2012) and that of others using CCC or like procedures to improve student performance in spelling (Kearney, & Drabman,1992). There were also some limitations in the present case report. First, the student didnt make large gains in the number of words spelled correctly on his daily spelling tests, but the gains that the student did make were consistent. Second, the students substantial delay between his age and level of academic performance appeared to hinder the amount of progress that the student was able to achieve during the study. Finally, given an increase in the length of the study, the students progress would have increased tremendously. An examination of our data also indicated that the effectiveness of CCC increased over time. CCC had more prounced effects for corrects during Copy, Cover, Compare 2 that found the first CCC condition (Copy, Cover, Compare 1). This outcome warrants additional investigation.

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The procedures were easy to employ and could be managed by the typical classroom personnel. The class size, as well as the number of adults in the classroom, matched that found in resource settings at the middle school level. The first author was able to carry out the project during of her full-time student teaching. Also, there was no additional expense required to manage the intervention. Additional research should examine the effects of CCC over a long period of time and with measures of generalization to the general education classroom spelling program would have been important to carry out. Also, comparing the short term as well as long terms effects of employing CCC would be of import to educators. Finally, a measure of generalization to their creative writing warrants some new attention. In the past when we have examined such a question, we have found generalization (Pratt-Struthers et al., 1983, 1989).

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Baseline 1 Copy, Cover, and Compare 1 Baseline 2 Copy, Cover, and Compare 2

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FREQUENCY
5 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

SESSIONS
Fig.1: The frequency for corrects (closed circles) and errors (xs) during the various experimental conditions. Solid horizontal lines indicate condition means.

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Conclusion

The conclusion of this study indicated the effectiveness of the CCC intervention for increasing the number of words spelled correctly and decreasing the number of errors for our participant with his daily spelling tests.

Acknowledgement
Preparation of this manuscript was in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an Endorsement in Special Education from Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA, and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Washington. Susan Poindexter is now teaching in Spokane Public Schools at the Community School, North 200 Bernard, Spokane, WA 99201. Gary Johnson is now retired form the public schools and currently teaches in the Learning Laboratory at St. Aloysius Catholic School in Spokane, WA.

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