Literature Review

HOME PAGE	INTRODUCTION	PRINCIPLES OF LITERACY	LITERATURE REVIEW	ABSTRACT
RESEARCH DESIGN	DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS	ANALYSIS, CONCLUSIONS, & IMPLICATIONS	AUTHOR'S PROFILE	REFERENCES & OTHER RESOURCES

Literature Review:

"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives."

(Robert Maynard Hutchins)

Instruction in specific strategies can help enhance students' reading comprehension. Since reading is a strategic process, struggling readers need to learn how to read strategically. In order to do this, they need to be taught meaning making cognitive strategies. During this process, it is important that students take ownership for learning and applying the strategies. It is when students internalize the strategies that they will be more likely to utilize them in other literacy activities. It is the role of the teacher to provide instruction and support (Flood & Lapp, 1990). Some strategies that help struggling readers improve their comprehension include reciprocal teaching, think-aloud, understanding and using knowledge of text structure, questioning practices, retellings, vocabulary development activities, and peer-facilitated activities.

Reciprocal Teaching

Think-Aloud Process

Knowledge of Text Structure

Questioning Practices

Retellings

Vocabulary Development

Peer-Facilitated Activities

Conclusion

Reciprocal Teaching:

Reciprocal teaching has been used to improve the comprehension of students who are able to decode, but display difficulties with the comprehension of text (Klingner & Vaughn, 1996). In reciprocal teaching, students learn specific strategies they can apply when they read new text that enhance comprehension. The instruction of these strategies occurs during student-teacher dialogues. During the reciprocal teaching process, students learn and practice four comprehension strategies through the reading of expository text. These strategies include question generation, summarization, clarification, and prediction. Though the teacher takes the more active role modeling the strategy in the beginning, students take on more responsibility as they learn and practice each of the four strategies. Eventually, the teacher's role diminishes, as the students become more competent (Rosenshine & Meister, 1994).

Reciprocal teaching has been found to be an effective strategy to enhance comprehension in both students with learning disabilities and students who use English as a second language. In a study by Klingner and Vaughn (1996), the effects of reciprocal teaching on leaning disabled ESL students were examined. During the study, students were taught the four reciprocal teaching strategies through teacher modeling and think aloud. Then students had the opportunity to model and practice each of the strategies in small groups, as a whole class, then apply them in independent activities. Students also applied the strategies in either cooperative learning groups or cross-age tutoring experiences.

Results from this study indicated significant growth on the Woodcock-Johnson in the overall reading comprehension of the participants. Greater growth was seen in those students whose decoding or comprehension skills were at a minimum of a fourth grade level, or whose comprehension scores were at least one year higher than decoding scores. The most significant growth was seen in students with adequate decoding skills and low comprehension.

Through all the research in reciprocal teaching, two forms of the practice have been developed. They are reciprocal teaching only (RTO) and explicit teaching before reciprocal teaching (ET-RT) (Rosenshine & Meister, 1994). In RTO, the four strategies of reciprocal teaching are taught during student-teacher dialogues. It is during these dialogues that students receive prompts, models, and cues from the teacher about the strategies. In contrast, students are given direct instruction in each of the four strategies before student-teacher dialogues during ET-RT. The teacher using worksheet activities presents the lessons to a whole class. Both have shown to be successful.

Think-Aloud:

In reciprocal teaching, teachers model question-generation, summarization, clarification, and prediction using think-aloud practices. During this process, teachers verbalize their thoughts while they read and put into practice various strategies (Davey, 1983). When performing think-aloud, teachers verbally model to students five techniques they should employ themselves when they read text. Techniques include developing predictions and hypotheses, describing imagery, linking prior knowledge to new information in text, comprehension monitoring practices, and modeling strategies to correct errors in comprehension.

Once teachers model how to think-aloud, students must be encouraged to utilize the techniques of the strategy as they read various texts. Think-aloud makes students aware of how they develop meaning from text, as well as of when the comprehension strategies they are utilizing are ineffective. Thus, it gives the students the responsibility to monitor their own comprehension and adjust their strategies as needed. Students may find that their thoughts need to be revised as new information is learned. It is an effective instructional tool to enhance comprehension performance. During think-aloud, students are actively engaged in a metacognitive awareness of their own individual reading strengths and weaknesses (Oster, 2001). In addition, because students take ownership of their own learning during think-aloud, they are more likely to transfer this cognitive strategy to other experiences.

Teachers can also utilize think-aloud to evaluate students' understanding of literature in place of the students answering comprehension questions. Since readers should be thinking while they read, one way teachers could use think-aloud is to instruct students to write down any thoughts they may have while they read various pieces of literature. Those thoughts may include information they feel is important, facts about the story and its characters, predictions, questions about words, phrases, characters, or events, or personal reactions to events in the story. When teachers read these think-aloud comments, they may come to realize any vocabulary deficits, difficulties with relating prior information to new information, difficulties with inference making, any misunderstandings of events in the text, as well as individual student strengths. Once strengths and weaknesses are analyzed, teachers can then plan appropriate instruction to assist with an improved understanding of the text. Thus, think-aloud can be used for both an instructional and assessment tool (Oster, 2001).

Knowledge of Text Structures:

Narrative Text:

Knowledge in the structure of narrative text can influence a student's understanding of the text. When reading narrative text, students are able to recall more relevant information about the story when they are familiar with story grammar elements. Since students with learning disabilities have difficulty developing knowledge of story grammar elements, interventions that develop structural knowledge of stories as well as instructing students in how to apply that knowledge to analyze stories is beneficial (Gersten, Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001). Instruction in story grammar elements can improve the comprehension performance of less-proficient readers. It involves teaching students to identify the following information from a story: the main character, setting, what the main character did, resolution, and how did the main character feel. Story maps are often constructed during reading that requires the reader to write in the setting, problem, goal, action, and outcome information (Pressley, Johnson, Symons, McGoldrick, & Kurita, 1989)

In a study conducted by Dole, Brown, and Trathen (1996), the effects of story content instruction and strategy instruction on the comprehension of at-risk readers were compared. Students who participated in story content instruction received prepared story maps prior to reading that included story grammar elements such as plot, main characters, and central problem. Though the outline contained the majority of the story's plot, the students needed to figure out the resolution themselves. In contrast, the students in the strategy instruction group were taught how to use their knowledge of narrative text structure to analyze the story themselves. Students were taught how to identify story elements such as the main character, the story's central problem, and resolution. Students were also taught how to make predictions about the selection. Students were also taught how to construct their own story maps.

Results of the study indicated that those students who participated in the strategy instruction group made significant gains in comprehension as compared to those students in the story content group. A reason for these results may be that those students in the strategy instruction group were taught to independently utilize their knowledge of narrative text structure, thus taking ownership of their learning.

The Dole, Brown, and Trathen (1996) study also examined which students would be most motivated to apply the strategy to other experiences. Upon examining questionnaires from students, as well as conducting student interviews, it was noted that those students who typically benefited from strategy instruction began the study with a low self-efficacy for learning. They initially struggled with the instruction, but greatly improved within a short period of time. Due to their success, the students realized the value in utilizing the strategy. The results from this study indicate that instruction in text structure can help improve the comprehension of at-risk readers.

Expository Text:

Just as knowledge of narrative text structure is advantageous for comprehension, so is knowledge of expository text structure. Students familiar with text structure actively organize text as they read. Expository text can be organized into six different categories that can aid in comprehension. They are: (1) description of characteristics, traits, properties, or functions, (2) sequencing of events, (3) explanations, (4) definitions and examples, (5) compare/contrast, and (5) problem/solution/effect. Students with learning disabilities typically demonstrate difficulties with understanding expository text due to their inability to organize information on their own (Gersten, Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001). Instruction in expository text structure can help improve recall of information provided in these texts and develop comprehension (Flood & Lapp, 1990). It is crucial that students obtain strategies for organizing information from expository text if they are to understand content area text.

Paraphrasing is one strategy that can be used to help comprehend expository text. It has shown to greatly enhance the comprehension of both proficient and less-proficient readers (Katims & Harris, 1997). In a study by Katims and Harris (1997), the effectiveness of the paraphrasing strategy on the comprehension of middle school students with and without disabilities was examined. While students in the control group continued to receive the district's mandated reading program; the experimental group received 20 minutes of extra instruction in the paraphrasing strategy in addition to the district's reading program they were already receiving. RAP was the paraphrasing strategy utilized. RAP consists of students reading an expository text selection, asking questions about the main idea and details, and putting the main idea and details into their own words in complete sentences. Initially, students received direct instruction in the strategy through teacher modeling and think aloud. Then students received much rehearsal and practice time in utilizing the strategy. Results from the study indicated that all students participating in paraphrasing instruction improved their reading scores.

Questioning Practices:

Proficient readers regularly self-question as they read by asking themselves what kinds of questions the teacher might ask about a given reading selection. Then they go about trying to answer those questions. Struggling readers do not engage in self-questioning techniques. They don't anticipate where teachers' questions may come from and lack strategies to formulate appropriate responses to questions (Helfeldt & Henk, 1990). Thus, at-risk readers need to be taught how to generate and answer questions that will develop comprehension and independent processing of text.

Metacognitive theory is applied to self-questioning strategies. It consists of teaching students to focus on the important parts of a text by asking questions about the main idea and how to summarize what the selection is about. It also instructs students in how to monitor their own comprehension by identifying parts of the text they don't understand through questioning. Self-questioning practices can also instruct students in how to activate relevant prior knowledge. This is done through appropriate self-questioning to assist with the understanding of a text (Wong, 1985).

QAR:

Question and answer relationships (QAR's) are one self-questioning practice. There are three types of QAR's. They are characterized as text explicit (TE), text implicit (TI), and script implicit (SI). Answers to TE questions are stated right in the text. TI questions require the reader to synthesize a variety of information from the text in order to arrive at the answer. Answers to SI questions must come from the reader's prior knowledge (Raphael, 1984). There are five steps to QAR activities. They include assigning the text, generating the questions, providing the answers, identifying the QAR, and providing a justification for the QAR. As students go through the steps, they learn how to classify types of questions. Once questions are classified, students are taught how to go about answering them.

Initially, the teacher accepts control over the entire QAR activity, modeling to students how to effectively utilize the strategy. Eventually, the teacher relinquishes control once the student has participated in guided practice. Students trained in QAR demonstrate enhanced performance in reading comprehension activities. However, it is noted that average and low average students generally perform better on text questions. Since struggling readers have a lower knowledge base, they do not possess the background knowledge required to answer script implicit questions (Raphael, 1984).

ReQuest:

Another method of self-questioning is reciprocal questioning (ReQuest). During ReQuest, the teacher and students take turns asking each other questions about a given text. In this method of practice, teachers' questions and answers serve as models for the students. This type of format allows teachers to provide students with feedback about their questions, as well as the strategies required to answer formulated questions. This allows students to learn how to construct effective questions for independent reading. The fact that students learn to develop their own questions about a given reading selection is advantageous toward enhancing reading comprehension (Helfeldt & Henk, 1990).

Retelling Practices:

An important part to the reading process is understanding and recalling information from text. Retelling is one technique used that prompts the reader to relate information from the text to prior experiences in order to develop a verbal explanation of the read text. During the retelling, readers reflect on and try to decipher the meaning of the text. It is a good tool to assess how well the reader interacted with the text (Gambrell & Koskinen, 1991).

In a study by Gambrell and Koskinen (1991), it was evaluated whether practice in retelling would affect the comprehension performance of proficient and less proficient readers. The participants, who consisted of proficient and less proficient fourth graders, read narrative texts and developed tape-recorded verbal retellings of the stories over the course of four sessions. In addition, students answered comprehension questions about the stories read after the first and fourth sessions.

Results from the study indicated that comprehension performance of both the proficient and less proficient students improved after only four sessions in both their retellings of the story and in their responses to the comprehension questions. When examining the tape-recorded retellings, researchers found that students improved in both the quantity and quality of what they recalled from the text. Students also improved in their ability to identify story structure elements, especially in the areas of theme and plot episodes. Students were also able to make elaborations about the story that were not in the text but were directly related to the story line. Thus, retelling is a useful instructional tool for both average and struggling readers.

Vocabulary Development Activities:

Comprehension occurs through an interaction between a reader's prior knowledge and the text (Carr, 1985). Since vocabulary acquisition is connected to comprehension, meaning making is increased when vocabulary is related to personal experiences. In order for this to occur, vocabulary development must be an interactive process. Eight techniques used to assist with this include finding synonyms, use of brief descriptions, use of examples and nonexamples, rephrasing, repetition, associations, and the use of a unique expression (Rosenbaum, 2001). These techniques can be applied in the construction of word maps.

In constructing a word map, the student is to write the new word in the center of the map along with the sentence that word was found in to provide context. The student uses the dictionary to write the definition of the word that supports the context of the sentence the word was found in. Other information students should provide in the word map include a synonym and an antonym. Students then write another form of the word. This is done so that when they come across other words with similar roots, they have the prior knowledge necessary to understand the word. The final parts of the word map include an example or expression that will help the student remember the definition, as well as an original sentence. These last two parts of the map help the student take ownership of the word; therefore, they are more apt to know what the word means if they are to encounter it again (Rosenbaum, 2001).

Peer-Facilitated Activities:

There has been much research on the favorable effects of peer-mediated activities. Both teachers and students have reported satisfactory experiences with peer-mediated instruction. In peer-mediated activities, students work in small groups or in pairs on specific reading strategies. With the support of the teacher, students model for each other correct responses, provide ongoing feedback, and monitor each other's progress. Not only does this type of activity increase the academic time students are actively engaged, but it also improves students' interactions with learning. This type of learning has been most beneficial for struggling students, as well as English as a second language students since these students have difficulty learning in whole-class situations where they are often reluctant to orally participate (Klingner & Vaughn, 1999; Vaughn, Klingner, & Bryant, 2001).

CSR:

Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) was developed to meet the needs of a diverse population of students, provide instruction that improves comprehension of text, and provide a situation where students can become engaged in peer-facilitated activities. Initially, the teacher to a whole-class models the strategic reading process of CSR. The students' involvement increases, as they become more competent in applying the strategies through practice. Eventually the students are applying the strategies in small groups or in pairs (Klingner & Vaughn, 1999; Vaughn, Klingner, & Bryant, 2001).

There are four strategies to CSR. The preview strategy assists students in activating prior knowledge and form predictions about the text to be read. This is done through scanning the material searching for clues that may help them form hypotheses. The click and clunk strategy is used during the reading process. Students are to identify those ideas in the reading they are familiar with or "click" with, as well as clunk those ideas they don't understand. Once this is done, students are taught strategies to help them with the clunk ideas they have identified. In get the gist, students identify the main ideas in their own words. Students must identify the main point in 10 or fewer words. During wrap-up, students engage in question generation about the text that they have just read (Klingner & Vaughn, 1999; Vaughn, Klingner, & Bryant, 2001).

In a study by Klingner and Vaughn (1999), sixth grade middle school teachers implemented CSR in their classrooms to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy. Classrooms involved consisted of average achieving, low achieving, and learning disabled students. Overall findings indicate that CSR helped to enhance reading comprehension.

PALS:

Another type of peer-facilitated learning is Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS). In PALS, a higher-achieving student is paired with a lower-achieving student in a tutoring situation. A PALS session consists of partner reading, paragraph summarization, and prediction making. During partner reading, the higher-achieving student orally reads first. The lower-achieving student rereads the same text with the support of their higher-achieving partner. After a paragraph is read, the higher-achieving student assists his/her partner in summarizing the main idea of the paragraph and making a prediction (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Kazden, 1999).

In a study by Fuchs, Fuchs, and Kazden (1999) PALS was implemented in a high school remedial reading. Results on the Comprehensive Reading Assessment Battery (CRAB) showed overall improvement in reading comprehension at the conclusion of the sixteen week study. Students also reported that they had enjoyed working in partners and felt that they had worked hard to improve their reading. However, despite these results there are some limitations. The first limitation was a difficulty in finding a variety of high interest, low vocabulary text for these struggling readers. Another limitation was the lack of proficient readers to serve as models since all participants were members of a remedial reading class. It would be advantageous to see the effects of this strategy when implemented into a heterogeneous setting.

Cross-Age Tutoring:

In cross-age tutoring, struggling readers can practice and apply strategic reading strategies as they serve as tutors to younger students (Jacobson, Thrope, Fisher, Lapp, Frey, & Flood, 2001). Prior to applying the strategies in a tutoring experience, the tutors are taught specific reading strategies. Every week, the teacher introduces the lesson the tutors are to conduct with their tutees. Strategies used to teach the lesson include read aloud, modeling, think aloud, and the use of story content maps. Once the students view the lesson, they practice implementing the lesson in small groups or with partners. Then the students conduct the lesson with several individual tutees. There is also time allotted for students to discuss with the teacher any successes or problems that arose from the experience. A new book and lesson is introduced the following week and the students follow the same routine as the week before.

In a study by Jacobson, Thrope, Fisher, Douglas, Lapp, Frey, & Flood (2001), less proficient seventh grade students participated as tutors for third grade students. Results of the study indicated that there were benefits for both tutors and tutees. After the cross-age tutoring experience, tutors demonstrated a significant growth in overall literacy. They began to demonstrate behaviors typical of proficient readers, thus fluency, spelling, writing, and comprehension improved. Also improved were the reading attitudes of these students. Reading attitudes of the tutees also improved as they reported that they enjoyed working with the tutors in one to one setting.

Though the tutors' improvement may not be due to cross-age tutoring alone, there were several factors that may have contributed to the students' success. Participation in the strategic reading class to learn the strategies necessary to carry out the tutoring was vital to the students' success. The cross-age tutoring experience just provided an authentic experience for the students to apply the learned strategies. The tutoring experience also made it acceptable for the seventh graders to reread text and interact with text appropriate for their individual reading levels. Both are beneficial to the success of struggling readers (Jacobson, Thrope, Fisher, Lapp, Fey, & Flood, 2001; Bristow, 1985).

Conclusion:

In conclusion, struggling middle school readers need to be actively engaged in daily literacy activities if they are to be successful with reading. Direct instruction in reading comprehension strategies that involve active reading is one way to enable them to become active meaning makers. Not only do at-risk readers require direct instruction through teacher modeling and think aloud, but they also need opportunities to practice and apply the cognitive strategies in authentic literacy experiences. It is through these authentic learning experiences that they learn to take responsibility in monitoring their own comprehension, as well as actively apply "fix-up" strategies when they encounter parts of text they have difficulty understanding (Bristow, 1985).

Participating in activities such as reciprocal teaching, think aloud, and question generation, as well as vocabulary development activities are beneficial to struggling readers in that these strategies emphasize that students take ownership of and monitor their own comprehension. Students are successful with these activities because they help students activate and develop the prior knowledge necessary for understanding text. Without the appropriate background knowledge, students are not able to make meaning from text; therefore, they become passive instead of active readers (Bristow, 1985).

Reluctant readers also require opportunities to share reading experiences (Ivey, 1999). Peer-facilitated activities such as PALS, CSR, and cross-age tutoring allow students to share their reading experiences through authentic reading activities. Cross-age tutoring also gives students a real purpose for developing their comprehension skills. In addition, cross-age tutoring makes it acceptable for students to reread text appropriate for their reading level.

Finally, motivating reluctant and struggling middle school readers is a great task. Helping them become active meaning makers through metacognitive strategy instruction is only one part to helping them replace their passivity for active interaction with text. In addition to receiving appropriate instruction, students must be exposed to a variety of appropriate materials. Students need to have the opportunity to interact with high interest materials written at their instructional levels. They also need to experience the enjoyment of having the teacher read aloud to them. Struggling middle school readers want to become good readers. It is only when they are exposed to an environment that fosters enjoyment and improvement in reading will they overcome their learned helplessness (Ivey, 1999; Johns, 1978).