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Research Design

Description of Specific Interventions

Fiction

During one small group lesson, the focus of instruction was on fictional texts using chapter books and other texts related to the social studies curriculum. During the initial 2 weeks, story grammar was taught.

The components of story grammar were explicitly stated and reviewed including: character, setting, problem, feeling, plan, action, solution and the relationship between them.
A story map was provided along with a description about its purpose and use (declarative knowledge).
While parts of the story were reviewed, discussions were introduced about why and how the story map would help to understand what was read. Conditional (when and why to use a story map) and procedural (how to use a story map) information about the use of the story map was explicitly stated and modeled during and after the lesson for each session.
After 2 weeks, the components of a story continued to be reviewed using the story map during the retelling procedure at the end of the session.

Before the students read the text, each session began with discussing, modeling, and practicing good reading strategies.

The purpose of the lesson was explicitly stated, accompanied by an explanation about why it was important to know what we were doing and why. The purpose, for fictional texts, was to learn about the different components of a narrative, to read for pleasure, and to learn about stories that were written about the colonization of America and the American Revolution.
Identification of genre type as fiction or nonfiction.
Prior knowledge was activated by providing a brief introduction of the information presented in the chapter or story and any personal relationships that could be made to the text. Questions were posed to the students that accessed prior knowledge. For example, “Can you think of a time when?” “Have you ever?” These procedures were explicitly stated, modeled, and explained.
Preview of the book by skimming and scanning titles, subtitles (if applicable), and pictures of the chapter.
After previewing the text, students were asked to make predictions about the chapter or section of text.
Story maps were provided.

After the second week of intervention, the following strategy was introduced: comprehension monitoring. Before that time, students were asked to summarize information as they read. The strategy was taught using two lessons: tracking thoughts and fix-up strategies. During reading, students learned how to apply comprehension monitoring strategies.

The first lesson focused on tracking thoughts while reading and was practiced for 3 weeks. The students learned to track their comments, reactions, questions, and predictions based on what they read. Students learned that tracking thoughts while reading helped them to think about the story as they read, which would enhance understanding. Use of visual aids were incorporated during this activity to enhance understanding and use of this strategy.
The following 3 weeks incorporated fix-up strategies. The students learned to identify when an error or misunderstanding in reading occurred and to respond by stopping, rereading, looking back, and/or reading on in the text to improve reading comprehension. Students were given sheets taken from The Comprehension Tool Kit by Harvey and Goudvis (2005) that contained two columns: Why meaning breaks-down and Fix-up Strategies to Repair Understanding. Students were taught how to identify when and why they did not understand a portion of text that they had read and what they could do to enhance understanding through explicit modeling and practice.

The students selected for this study expressed a strong desire to read. Therefore, explicitly modeling of strategies was provided while reading the first few paragraphs. After modeling a few paragraphs, the students practiced using the strategy by thinking aloud given corrective feedback in the form of questioning, paraphrasing and summarizing known information, and reflecting upon students’ responses.

After the guided reading procedure, the students were asked to provide an oral summary using the story map as a support. The retelling required use of the following story grammar components: character, setting, problem, feeling, plan, action, and solution. Students were taught that summarizing information after reading enhanced comprehension because it allowed them to think about what they have read and organize the critical elements of the story.

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Nonfiction

Two small group sessions focused on social studies texts. During the first 2 weeks, students participated in the following activities:

Students identified the different types of expository text including description, list, sequence, compare and contrast, problem-solution, cause and effect, and persuasive.
Students were given different texts in the form of newspaper clippings, advertisements, and chapter books and asked to identify the text structure based on the title, subtitle, and information provided in the text.

Students created cards with the text type, definition, and key words associated with the text type to facilitate retrieval and to assist in identifying expository text types in future lessons.

Before the students read the text, each session began with discussing, modeling, and practicing good reading strategies such as:

The purpose of the lesson.
The identification of genre as fiction or nonfiction.
Preview of the text using skimming and scanning was modeled as it had been done during the fiction procedure; however, attention was directed, if appropriate, to pictures in the form of charts and diagrams and written information such as captions, titles, subtitles, and text information.
Selection of an appropriate graphic organizer to successfully complete the lesson. For example, a previous lesson was designed to have students take notes on three different types of weather and create a visual that listed all three types of weather. A modified graphic organizer was created for this purpose since the students needed to list the features of each type of weather for comparison in parallel form.
Explanations related to when and why the strategies should be used were provided along with modeling of how to use the tools.
Prior knowledge activation using the K-W-L procedure. The students were asked to discuss what they knew and what they wanted to learn from the information in the text.

During reading, the same comprehension strategy modeled and practiced during narrative texts was used for the expository text reading after the initial 2 weeks.

After reading a paragraph and modeling use of the target strategy: tracking thoughts or fix-up strategies, the students practiced the strategy given support and feedback.
Information was recorded onto a graphic organizer.
Students had the opportunity to identify the topic, main idea, and supporting details, with support through the use of questions and explanations. It was hoped that the students would begin to apply the during reading strategies and retrieve information related to the topic, main idea, and supporting details with less adult assistance.
The L-part of the K-W-L procedure was completed.

After a section had been read, students summarized what they had learned from the passage using the topic, main idea, and supporting details format.