Let’s Know! Proximal Impacts on Prekindergarten through Grade 3 Students’ Comprehension-Related Skills

Abstract

Let's Know! is a language-focused curriculum supplement developed through the Institute of Education Sciences' Reading for Understanding initiative aimed at supporting prekindergarten through grade 3 students' listening and reading comprehension. The current study reports results concerning the impacts of 2 instantiations of Let's Know! on students' comprehension-related skills (comprehension monitoring; understanding narrative and expository text, as supported by inference making and knowledge of text structure; and vocabulary) as proximal measures of efficacy. Results from the first cohort of a large, field-based, randomized controlled trial (N p 766 students across grades) indicate large, consistent, and statistically significant effects on curriculumaligned comprehension monitoring and vocabulary probes relative to control, minimal effects on understanding narrative and expository text probes relative to control, and few differences across the two instantiations. Findings are interpreted with respect to the promise of Let's Know! for achieving intended comprehension impacts, and limitations and future directions are discussed.

Impacts of the let’s know! Curriculum on the language and comprehension-related skills of prekindergarten and kindergarten children.

“…However, we did not have a priori directional hypotheses regarding comparisons between the two Let’s Know! instantiations given equivocal results for impacts on comprehension-related skills in preliminary work with the grade levels included in the present study (LARRC et al, 2017).…”

“…Deep, or business-as-usual control. Random assignment was blocked by university site and grade (see LARRC et al, 2017). Children in all classrooms completed pretest and posttest assessments administered by research staff at the beginning and end of the academic year, as well as CAMs administered by their classroom teachers at multiple time points during the year.…”

“…In LARRC et al (2017), we reported initial findings concerning impacts of Let’s Know! on the comprehension-related skills of 766 children in PK through Grade 3.…”

English Learners’ Acquisition of Academic Vocabulary: Instruction Matters, but So Do Word Characteristics

“…The development of the intervention presented in this study was informed by findings from prior studies focused on developing English vocabulary in both English‐proficient learners (Beck et al, 2002; Graves, 2016; Language and Reading Research Consortium, Jiang, & Davis, 2017) and ELs (August, Artzi, Barr, & Francis, 2018; Crevecoeur, Coyne, & McCoach, 2014; Lesaux, Kieffer, Kelley, & Harris, 2014; Proctor et al, 2011; Proctor, Silverman, Harring, Jones, & Hartranft, 2020; Stahl & Nagy, 2006; Vadasy, Sanders, & Nelson, 2015). As a result of these intervention studies, the field has learned much about how to support word learning through pedagogy (Graves, 2015; NASEM, 2017).…”

Narrative Intervention: Principles to Practice

“…Additionally, the following manualized intervention programs promote Stein and Glenn's story grammar structure for U.S. children: Let's Know! (Language and Reading Research Consortium et al, 2017), Story Champs, , Story Grammar Marker (Moreau & Fidrych, 1994), and Supporting Knowledge in Language and Literacy (SKILL; S. L. . Although it is common in the United States to teach the story grammar framework, doing so does not imply that such an approach to narration should be considered a replacement for the student's own culturally unique storytelling approach.…”