Bringing Together Reading and Writing: An Experimental Study of Writing Intensive Reading Comprehension in Low‐Performing Urban Elementary Schools

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThis study examined the hypothesis that assisted writing during reading improves reading comprehension. The hypothesis was derived from sociocognitive and constructivist theory and research and implemented in the form of a curricular intervention called Writing Intensive Reading Comprehension after its main feature of bringing together reading comprehension and writing. The study used instruction with interactive thinksheets to provide sustained, focused, and assisted writing experiences to help students in low-performing urban schools construct understandings of their reading. The study used a cluster randomized trial design. Results support the hypothesis that bringing together reading and writing through instruction using thinksheets produces levels of reading comprehension superior to traditional instruction. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses of pretest and posttest data from 1,062 fourth-and fifth-grade students in 50 classrooms and 10 schools (four 2-year experimental, three 1-year experimental, and three control schools) also revealed greater effects for special education and low-income students in the experimental group. The study also revealed uneven improvement among experimental classrooms with regard to students' grade level, length of exposure to the intervention, and teachers' fidelity of implementation. The results imply that the upper grade students with the longer treatment and higher fidelity of implementation benefited more from the intervention. The study extends theory and research on reading-writing connections and suggests additional research and practical applications using assisted writing to improve reading comprehension.T his study resulted from a three-year program of research called Writing Intensive Reading Comprehension (WIRC) that tested the hypothesis that bringing reading and writing together within a sociocognitive-constructivist theoretical and instructional framework can help students use writing to make sense of their reading. The intervention consisted of an instructional intervention using interactive thinksheets to assist students in writing about their reading. The study asked whether assisted writing about reading would help fourth-and fifth-grade students in lowperforming urban schools improve their reading comprehension.

Improving reading comprehension, science domain knowledge, and reading engagement through a first-grade content literacy intervention.

“…Taken together, all three scores reflect students’ science domain knowledge and argument structure knowledge. Relatively high interrater agreement (Cohen’s κ = .74 for a total writing scores and Cohen’s κ = .90 for agreement within one score point) was at a level consistent with intervention studies involving ratings of student writing in the elementary grades (Coker et al, 2016; Collins, Lee, Fox, & Madigan, 2017).…”

The Science of Reading: Making Sense of Research

“…Accomplishing equivalent comparison can be difficult. In a study of writing to improve reading comprehension (Collins, Lee, Fox, & Madigan, 2017), there were 1,062 students and 49 teachers/classrooms. The researchers wanted to randomly assign teachers to the two groups: business-as-usual reading comprehension instruction and the writing about texts innovation.…”

Supporting the Argumentative Writing of Students in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms: An Action Research Study

“…Collins, Lee, Fox, and Madigan (2017) examined the effects of integrated reading and writing instruction on the reading comprehension of 1,062 fourth-and fifth-grade students in low-performing schools. Results indicated that integrated reading and writing facilitated by thinksheets (graphic organizers) improved reading comprehension better than traditional instruction.…”