Determining the academic and affective outcomes of dyad reading among third graders

Abstract

Dyad reading involves a lower level reader paired with a higher level reading partner who models proficient oral reading while providing access to challenging texts. Previous research has reported increased reading fluency and comprehension for participants of dyad reading; however, to date no research has investigated how dyad reading may influence student attitudes toward reading. Using mixed effects linear modeling, this quasi-experimental study of third graders investigated the academic and attitudinal outcomes for students who read in dyads for 15?minutes daily for 90 school days. Results indicated that dyad readers experienced mixed outcomes in improving reading proficiency and a pattern of decline in reading attitudes compared to students in the control group. While lower level dyad readers demonstrated significant gains on a measure of comprehension, there were no differences between groups on several other measures of reading. Recommendations target how to maximize the use of dyad reading to support students’ reading development without eroding their perceptions of themselves as readers.     

Integrating reciprocal teaching in an online environment with an annotation feature to enhance low-achieving students’ English reading comprehension

Reciprocal teaching (RT) has been used to improve English as Foreign Language (EFL) students’ reading comprehension in face-to-face instruction. However, little was known about how they use the RT to comprehend English texts in an online environment. This study explored how the implementation of RT strategies with the use of an annotation tool to improve low-achieving students’ English reading comprehension in an online environment. A total of 22 low-achieving EFL students participated in this study. The pre- and post- reading comprehension tests showed that the students’ English reading comprehension improved after practicing RT strategies with annotation tools. Questioning and predicating strategies were ranked as the two most useful strategies, as both promoted successful collaborative reading among students. Summarizing and clarifying were less useful than questioning and predicting strategies because the low-achieving EFL students faced language difficulties when summarizing and clarifying. The annotations supported RT strategies by (1) establishing a collaborative environment for students to discuss RT strategies any time, (2) organizing and indexing reading content in multimodal forms, and (3) helping students review and revise their comprehension.     

Behavioral Attention: A Longitudinal Study of Whether and How It Influences the Development of Word Reading and Reading Comprehension Among At-Risk Readers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which teacher ratings of behavioral attention predicted responsiveness to word reading instruction in first-grade and third-grade reading comprehension performance. Participants were 110 first-grade students identified as at risk for reading difficulties who received 20 weeks of intensive reading intervention in combination with classroom reading instruction. Path analysis indicated that teacher ratings of student attention significantly predicted students’ word reading growth in first grade even when they were competed against other relevant predictors (phonological awareness, nonword reading, sight word efficiency, vocabulary, listening comprehension, hyperactivity, nonverbal reasoning, and short-term memory). Also, student attention demonstrated a significant indirect effect on third-grade reading comprehension via word reading but not via listening comprehension. Results suggest that student attention (indexed by teacher ratings) is an important predictor of at-risk readers’ responsiveness to reading instruction in first grade and that first-grade reading growth mediates the relationship between students’ attention and their future level of reading comprehension. The importance of considering ways to manage and improve behavioral attention when implementing reading instruction is discussed.     

Predictors of Chinese reading and literacy skills among Chinese school children: a 3-year longitudinal study

Abstract

This study aims to identify the predictors of Chinese reading and literacy skills among Chinese school children in Taiwan. Participants recruited in the study were 182 Grade 1 elementary school students. First, data were collected on these students’ literacy skills, which comprised morphological awareness, orthography processing, visual perception skills, phonological awareness, and rapid automatised naming. In Grade 2, data were collected from these students on their word decoding skills, which comprised character recognition and reading fluency. Finally, in Grade 3, data were collected on the Chinese comprehension skills of the same students. A structural equation model examined the direct and indirect effects of students’ literacy skills at Grade 1 on their reading comprehension at Grade 3, with students’ word decoding at Grade 2 acting as a mediator. Results showed that reading comprehension of students at Grade 3 was predicted by their literacy skills at Grade 1.     

Reading comprehension difficulty is often distinct from difficulty in reading fluency and accompanied with problems in motivation and school well-being

Abstract

This paper examined if difficulty in reading comprehension (PISA) is distinct from difficulty in reading fluency and if the distinct types of reading difficulties are differently associated with learning motivation, school burnout, and school enjoyment. The participants were 1324 Finnish ninth graders. Findings suggested that difficulties in reading comprehension are often distinct from difficulties in reading fluency. Three reading difficulty groups were identified: (1) poor readers with both fluency and reading comprehension difficulties (n?=?46, 3.5%), (2) slow readers with only fluency difficulties (n?=?70, 5.3%), and (3) poor comprehenders with only reading comprehension difficulties (n?=?88, 6.5%). The slow readers had low scores only in reading-related motivation. Poor comprehenders and poor readers reported low motivation also in math and science, as well as higher level of burnout and lower school enjoyment than typical readers. The findings were similar for boys and girls.     

Difficult Words and the Beginner

ABSTRACT

The authors investigated the effects of a 5-week note-taking skills instructional program on note-taking and reading comprehension performance of elementary students. The participants included 349 fourth-grade students from 2 elementary schools in Taiwan. The Note-Taking Instruction group received approximately 40 min of note-taking skills instruction per week for 5 weeks in contrast to the free note-taking group and the free-recall writing group who did not receive any instruction. A note-taking evaluation task and a comprehension test were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction on students’ performance in note taking and reading comprehension, respectively. The study yielded 2 findings: first, teaching students a note-taking strategy significantly improved their performance in note taking and reading comprehension, and second, poor readers showed the greatest gains in note-taking skills with instruction.     

Effect of Difficulty Levels on Second-Grade Delayed Readers Using Dyad Reading

Abstract

The authors investigated how far above a poor reader's instructional level dyad reading should be used to promote the greatest growth in reading level, word recognition, comprehension, and rate. Fifty-one poor readers were identified and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental groups: (a) dyad reading at their instructional reading level, (b) dyad reading 2 grades above their instructional reading level; and (c) dyad reading 4 grades above their instructional reading level. For 95 days/sessions, all groups read 15 min daily during their classroom recreational reading time. They all improved with dyad reading regardless of the difficulty levels of materials. Results suggest that the difficulty level of materials used for dyad reading may make a difference in student progress.     

The Impact of Vocabulary Instruction on Passage-Level Comprehension of School-Age Children: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

A meta-analysis of vocabulary interventions in grades pre-K to 12 was conducted with 37 studies to better understand the impact of vocabulary on comprehension. Vocabulary instruction was found to be effective at increasing students' ability to comprehend text with custom measures (d = 0.50), but was less effective for standardized measures (d = 0.10). When considering only custom measures, and controlling for method variables, students with reading difficulties (d = 1.23) benefited more than three times as much as students without reading problems (d = 0.39) on comprehension measures. Gains on vocabulary measures, however, were comparable across reading ability. In addition, the correlation of vocabulary and comprehension effects from studies reporting both outcomes was modest (r = .43).     

Who benefits from which reading intervention in the primary years? Match the intervention with the reading profile

Abstract

Reading difficulties may have multiple causes. Effective approaches to reading intervention need to target the specific causes for individual readers. The Early Reading Intervention Knowledge program comprises three intervention pathways: a phonological-phonemic pathway, a phonic-orthographic pathway, and an oral language pathway. This study examines the effectiveness of each pathway for 902 underachieving students in their second to fifth years of primary education. The students differed in their reading profiles. The interventions were implemented in a regular school context. Intervention in the three pathways improved reading accuracy and comprehension for both the younger (Years 2 and 3) and older (Years 4 and 5) age groups. The pattern in accuracy gains across the three pathways was similar for each group, with the older students making smaller gains. Reading profiles influenced the rate or amount of gain. For comprehension, the phonological and oral language pathways yielded higher gains for both age groups than the orthographic pathway. The most at-risk students showed the highest gains. The implications for intervention are discussed.     

The Possibilities of Historical Research

ABSTRACT

The authors outline results of 3 studies conducted to examine the structure of disciplinary knowledge from reading measured through proximity data. In Study 1, 168 third-grade students were asked to read a science text and rate the relationships of keywords from the passage. From these ratings, comprehension scores were calculated that related well to a free-recall measure of science reading comprehension and differentiated poor and proficient readers. In Study 2, 176 third-grade students were given the proximity data measure on science text along with measures of prior knowledge, questioning, and text searching. In Study 3, 160 ninth-grade students were given the proximity data measure after reading a social studies text that varied on the presence of text signals and familiarity. The findings of this study extend the literature on the cognitive processing that contributes to higher order comprehension of information text among elementary and secondary students.     

Impact of rapid reading skills training on reading rate and reading achievement among primary school students in China

Abstract

The current study examined the effects of a silent rapid reading skills training intervention on the reading rate and reading achievement of primary school students in China in order to determine the efficacy of the intervention and explore potential gender differences. A total of 108 Chinese primary school students were randomly assigned by the classroom to either an experimental (n = 54) or control (n = 54) condition. Students in the experimental group completed 12 sessions of rapid reading skills training designed to increase their ability to rapidly read Chinese text in silence. Students in the control group engaged in regular Chinese language curriculum for the same time period. After the three-week intervention period, students in the experimental group displayed significantly greater silent reading speed of Chinese characters (M?=?1331.26 characters per minute) compared to students in the control group (M?=?617.48 characters per minute; p?<?.001). Children in the intervention group also displayed a significantly greater effective reading rate (F = 87.11, p?<?.001, partial η²?=?0.46) at post-test compared to the control. Male students displayed greater increases in reading speed than female students. Neither intervention effect nor gender difference was evident for reading comprehension. Implications for educational interventions designed to increase silent reading speed among Chinese students are discussed.     

Key skills for science learning: the importance of text cohesion and reading ability

To explore the importance of text cohesion, we conducted two experiments. We measured online (reading times) and offline (comprehension accuracy) processes for texts that were high and low cohesion. In study one (n?=?60), we manipulated referential cohesion using noun repetition (high cohesion) and synonymy (low cohesion). Students showed enhanced comprehension accuracy and faster comprehension responses for text that were high in referential cohesion. In study two (n?=?52), we examined connective text designs (‘because’, ‘and’ and ‘no connective’). Students demonstrated enhanced reading times for text using a ‘because’ connective. Additionally, we examined the individual differences (reading ability, science self-concept and self-esteem) as predictors of achievement with science comprehension tasks. Across both experiments reading ability predicted comprehension with both high (noun-repetition text and ‘and’ text) and low cohesion text (synonym text and ‘no connective’ text). These findings highlight the importance of good reading abilities and text cohesion for promoting science comprehension and learning.     

Improving reading comprehension with readers theater

Abstract

Although readers theater has traditionally been recommended as a method for improving reading fluency, this 18-week quasi-experimental study examined the effects of a readers theater instructional protocol that updates and expands on traditional approaches by adding specific tasks that engage students in various reading comprehension and vocabulary activities. Because the students were not randomly assigned to either condition, propensity score matching was used to minimize potential bias between the groups. After the matching procedure, the overall total of second-grade students decreased from 145?to 76. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted for all three measures. The results revealed statistically significant time effects on all three measures of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, including decoding, word knowledge, and reading comprehension. Only the reading comprehension measure was qualified by an interaction effect, and the results favored the readers theater treatment group. Implications for instruction and future research are discussed.     

Promise for Enhancing Children's Reading Attitudes Through Peer Reading: A Mixed Method Approach

ABSTRACT

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) was implemented for supplementary reading classes in a Korean elementary school. The treatment group children were exposed to PALS during 20 min sessions, 4 times a week, for 8 weeks. The impacts of PALS were investigated in 3 aspects using a mixed-methods approach: improvement in reading attitudes, reading skills, and student perceptions of the intervention. Data collection includes reading attitude measures, standardized reading comprehension test scores, student satisfaction survey, student interviews, and student journals. The PALS group students showed significantly enhanced reading attitudes and reading skills. Consistently, qualitative data analysis also revealed affirmative influence of PALS on students’ attitudes toward reading. Finally, the findings also suggested social benefits of PALS including developing cooperative skills and friendships.     

Examining Peer Collaboration in Online Inquiry

Abstract

This study examines peer collaboration among four pairs of seventh graders who read online to determine what caused the downfall of the Mayan civilization. More and less productive collaborative interactions are presented through snippets of dialogue in which pairs negotiated complex texts. Few examples of how teachers can skillfully facilitate collaborative interactions currently exist, despite the call for these skills in the Common Core State Standards. Teaching ideas that support collaborative online reading are featured.

[Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of The Educational Forum for the following free supplemental materials: set of printable graphic organizers to support collaborative online reading and cross-curricular web resources to support critical evaluation of online content].     

Context-based learning and metacognitive prompts for enhancing scientific text comprehension

ABSTRACT

Context-based learning (CBL), promoting students' scientific text comprehension, and fostering metacognitive skills, plays an important role in science education. Our study involves CBL through comprehension and analysis of adapted scientific articles. We developed a module which integrates metacognitive prompts for guiding students to monitor their understanding and improve their scientific text comprehension. We investigated the effect of these metacognitive prompts on scientific text comprehension as part of CBL in chemistry. About 670 high school chemistry students were randomly divided into three groups exposed to high- and low-intensity CBL. One of the high-intensity groups was also exposed to metacognitive prompts. Research tools included pre- and post-questionnaires aimed at measuring students' conceptual chemistry understanding and metacognitive knowledge in the context of reading strategies, before and after exposure to the CBL. Chemistry understanding was reflected by students' ability to identify the main subject of the adapted article and by explaining concepts both textually and visually. We found that high-intensity CBL combined with metacognitive prompts improved students' chemistry understanding of the adapted scientific articles and the ability to regulate their learning. Our study establishes that reading context-based adapted scientific articles advances students' conceptual chemistry understanding. These gains are strongly amplified by domain-specific metacognitive prompts.     

Cognitive Difficulties in Struggling Comprehenders and Their Relation to Reading Comprehension: A Comparison of Group Selection and Regression-Based Models

ABSTRACT

Difficulties suppressing previously encountered but currently irrelevant information from working memory characterize less skilled comprehenders in studies in which they are matched to skilled comprehenders on word decoding and nonverbal IQ. These “extreme” group designs are associated with several methodological issues. When sample size permits, regression approaches permit a more accurate estimation of effects. Using data for students in Grades 6 through 12 (n = 766), regression techniques assessed the significance and size of the relation of suppression to reading comprehension across the distribution of comprehension skill. After accounting for decoding efficiency and nonverbal IQ, suppression, measured by performance on a verbal proactive interference task, accounted for a small amount of significant unique variance in comprehension (less than 1%). A comparison of suppression in less skilled comprehenders matched to more skilled comprehenders (48 per group) on age, word reading efficiency, and nonverbal IQ did not show significant group differences in suppression. The implications of the findings for theories of reading comprehension and for informing comprehension assessment and intervention are discussed.     

Comparison of reading comprehension levels of literate learners with different methods

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between two teaching methods used to teach reading and writing and reading comprehension skills and successes of fifth-grade students. The main difference between the two methods in our research; teaching of the first literacy in the sentence method, determined and sentences with various features, in the voice based sentence method, the sound of the letters in the alphabet is determined by the instruction of the determined group order. The mixed method research design is the process in which both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in collecting, analyzing and mixing the data in a study. The application of the study lasted for two years. The achievement test developed by the researcher was first applied to 1000 fifth-grade students who learned reading and writing by the sentence method, and, then, to 1000 fifth-grade students who learned reading and writing by the sound-based sentence method in the following year. The results showed that there was a significant difference between reading comprehension levels of the fifth-grade students who learned reading and writing by the sentence method versus by the sound-based sentence method. The difference was in favour of the students who learned reading and writing by the sentence method.     

Deutsches Museum,München‐‐Science,Technology and History as an Educational Challenge

Difficulties in reading comprehension of physics texts by college students were investigated. A strategy was developed to improve students’ reading comprehension. Students were taught the skill of formulating clear questions on textual material. The strategy stimulated students’ awareness of their difficulties in reading comprehension and could be used by students as a self‐monitoring technique to improve their reading comprehension.     

Long-Term Effects of Strategic Reading Instruction in the Intermediate Elementary Grades

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of a program that offered sustained strategic reading instruction on reading abilities of third and fourth graders. The study was conducted among 1,469 children from 40 schools in the Netherlands. Schools were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. Multilevel analyses showed positive effects on knowledge of reading strategies after one year of intervention at the end of Grade 3. At the end of Grade 4, there were also positive intervention effects on reading comprehension. No significant interaction effects were determined for age, gender, SES, or ethnic/linguistic background. The intervention effects were also not dependent on the level of the student's nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary, or decoding skills.