Comprehension Strategies Instruction: Does It Make a Difference?

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to determine whether students who were taught specific research-based strategies using a transactional strategies instruction (TSI) approach (Pressley, El-Dinary, Gaskins, Schuder, Bergman, Almasi, & Brown, 1992) would (a) improve in comprehension achievement, and (b) be more engaged during reading groups.Thirty-two fourth graders participated in an 8-week experiment. The treatment group was taught four comprehension strategies-predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing-following the TSI approach. The comparison group was conducted as a traditional reading group. Qualitative and quantitative data collected include: pre/post interviews, videotaped reading sessions, response journals, and scores on the comprehension section of the California Achievement Test, pretest/Form E, and posttest/Form F. The findings favor the strategies treatment and include observations of greater focus and engagement during reading groups, improved knowledge and use of strategies, and improved achievement in comprehension. Relevant BackgroundIt appears that not much progress has been made since Durkin first raised our level of consciousness regarding the status

Constructivist pedagogy in strategic reading instruction: exploring pathways to learner development in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom

“…Research along this line indicates that the process at the metacognitive level plays a crucial role in the development of intelligence and helps learners to take active control of their learning (Dole et al 1996;Pressley and Afflerbach 1995). As extensions of the studies on the differences between good and poor readers, follow-up studies on the effects of reciprocal strategy instruction have also been reported to have positive effects on learners' reading improvement (Brown and Palincsar 1982;Loranger 1997;Palincsar and Brown 1984;Pearson and Fielding 1991), and lend support to the benefit of strategy instruction. In all these studies, learners have demonstrated improvement in performance by virtue of the strategy instruction program they have gone through.…”

“…Anderson 1999;Carrell 1998;Zhang 2001). In the literature on teaching reading strategies to such learners, results show that teacher instruction can bring about learner development in both first language (Alexander 1995;Brown and Palincsar 1982;Loranger 1997) and second language situations (Carrell et al 1989;Janzen and Stoller 1998).…”

How do general knowledge and reading strategies ability relate to reading comprehension of high school students at different educational levels?

“…Use of these activities permits the students to regulate their reading so as to improve comprehension (Brown and Day, 1983;Collins and Smith, 1982;Loranger, 1997). Willson and Rupley (1997) present a model of reading comprehension development, and evaluate the relationships among variables, such as phonemic knowledge, background knowledge and strategy knowledge.…”

Making Sense of Situations and Language Choices in Mathematical Word Problem Solving: A Case of Grade 9 Second Language Learners

“…In South African multilingual primary school classrooms, learners' achievement in reading comprehension strategies becomes a necessity when learners interpret word problems, and the efficacy of instruction in reading comprehension strategies is widely documented (De La Paz & Graham, 1997;Loranger, 1997). Padron (1985) taught English second language reading comprehension strategies, and this improved learners' reading comprehension.…”