Research Design:

The research design section is divided into the following categories:  

**click on these links to view individual sections, or scroll down to view the entire Research Design section. 

Population

The population is comprised of Regular Education Kindergarten students in a suburban school district. The majority of students have had at least 1 year of pre-school experience prior to entering Kindergarten. The Kindergarten entry age is 5 years old on or before August 31^st.  The kindergarten program is half day and runs for 2 ¾ hours. Fourteen students attend the morning session and sixteen students attend the afternoon session.

Sample

     Subjects of varying ability levels were selected from my 2002-2003 Kindergarten class. Subjects were selected based on the following considerations: their incoming Pre-Literacy Screening Scores (PLSS) and their willingness to participate in the first September whole group retelling lesson. Additionally, only students whose parents signed the internet release will be considered for this study. *Students on IEP's for Speech and Language will be omitted from this study due to the individual services they receive that may compromise the validity of this study.

      The September PLSS scores ranged from 15-58. Two students were randomly selected from each third of the class within the following range of scores: 0-19, 20-39, and 41-58. Those children were observed closely during the initial whole group retelling for active participation. Out of the six children randomly selected from the range of scores, 4 raised their hand and were eager to participate in the retelling activity and were subsequently selected for participation. 

** This study began with 4 subjects, however due to an extended absence one subject had to be removed.  

Materials 

     Fiction books with a high predictability level were selected for use in this study. Texts included: Goldilocks and The Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Gingerbread Man, Is This A House For Hermit Crab?, The Mitten, The Great Big Enormous Turnip, and The Wind Blew.  Big Books were utilized for shared reading and teacher modeling and standard size books were available for peer retelling. Additional materials included stick puppets for Goldilocks and The Three Bears and The Three Billy Goats Gruff, sequence cards for The Gingerbread Man and The Great Big Enormous Turnip, and character cut-outs for The Mitten and The Wind Blew.  

Design

     The research design incorporated independent and dependent variables. The independent variable will be the incorporation of peer retelling prior to assessment.  Students worked in pairs and took turns retelling the familiar story to one another. Students received a standard-size copy of the story and used the pictures as cues to assist in retelling. Students were encouraged to help their friends if necessary with their retelling.  The intervention phase was added on the fourth day, adding a day to the established procedure. The dependent variable was the retelling ability of the Kindergartner determined by their score on a Story Retelling Assessment based on Morrow's Story Retelling Checklist and Irwin and Mitchell's 5 Point Retelling Scale. 

      An alternating treatment with no initial baseline was used.  An important characteristic of this design is the alternating of two or more treatments (independent variables- peer-retelling intervention vs. no peer-retelling) while observing the results on a particular behavior (dependent variable-retelling ability). 

 Procedure

After introducing the first story, the subjects were assessed after the established procedure (described below) had been followed. The second story was assessed after the peer-retelling intervention component had been added. This process will continue until a clear pattern emerges as to the usefulness of the peer-retelling intervention.  

Schedule for counterbalancing the treatments across time while introducing the interventions in an alternating fashion.  

·        Day 1 Shared Reading: teacher read the story orally to the children. Children participated in a follow-up activity related to the story (make stick puppets or sequence cards).

·        Day 2 Shared Reading: teacher played an audiotape of the story. Children order sequence cards, or act out the story with the puppets along with the teacher.

·        Day 3 Shared Reading: Teacher covered the words in the story and models story retelling to the children while encouraging whole group participation.

·        Day 4: No intervention. Teacher called students up individually to retell the story using the pictures in the story as cues to recall events.

·        Day 4: Intervention phase:  children work in pairs and take turns retelling the familiar story to one another. 

·        Day 5+: Teacher calls students up individually to retell the story using the story itself. *Student retellings were videotaped and later reviewed.  

Assessments: 

     A triangulated approach to assessment was utilized for this study. A Story Retelling Assessment I devised based on Morrow's Retelling Checklist and Irwin and Mitchell's 5 Point Retelling Scale was the primary method of assessment. This was used in conjunction with student observations during whole group retelling along with student reflections.

*All assessments can be viewed by clicking on the links below. 

     The assessments were valid measures of the intervention because they were used for both stages of the research- as a measure of story retelling with and without the peer-intervention.  The three assessments together provided a more comprehensive evaluation of the retelling experience. The elements borrowed from Irwin and Mitchell's scale allowed for more open ended responses to be analyzed and included in the assessment score, while those from Morrow's fully assessed the use of story structure elements.   

     Although well developed and appropriate for student retelling, Morrow's Retelling Checklist and Irwin and Mitchell's 5 Point Retelling Scale were too comprehensive for use in the Kindergarten. Combining the most appropriate elements for kindergarten use into one assessment was the more logical choice for the purpose of this study. 

      Scores from the Story Retelling Assessment are represented graphically in a table and on a line graph. Additionally, appropriate portions of student responses from the open ended questions, whole group contributions, and comments gathered from the attitude survey were incorporated into the findings section of this research project.  

**click on the links below to view individual assessment sheets, or scroll down to view them all.

Irwin and Mitchell's 5-Point Retelling Scale: 

5-Student includes all main ideas and supporting details; sequences properly; infers beyond the text; relates text to own life; understands text organization; summarizes; gives opinion and justifies it; MAY ask additional questions; very cohesive and complete retelling. 

4-Student includes most main ideas and supporting details; sequences properly; relates text to own life; understands text organization; summarizes; gives opinion and justifies it; cohesive and complete retelling. 

3-Student includes some main ideas and details; sequences most material; understands text organization; gives opinion; fairly complete retelling.  

2- Student includes a few main ideas and details; some difficulty sequencing; may give irrelevant information; gives opinion; incomplete retelling. 

1-Student gives details only; poor sequencing; irrelevant information; very incomplete retelling.

Morrow's 10-point retelling scale.

Name_____________________     Date_______

Title of Story 

General Directions: Credit “gist” as well as obvious recall, counting boy girl or dog for instance as well as Nicholas, Mei Sue or Shags.  Credit plurals (friends, for instance) as two. 

Setting:

a.      Begins story with an introduction

b.     Names main character

c.      Number of other characters named

d.      Actual number of other characters

e.      Score for “other characters (c/d)

f.      Includes statement about time or place

Theme:

a.      refers to main characters primary goal or problem to be solved

 Plot Episodes:

a.      Number of episodes recalled

b.     Number of episodes in story

c.      Score for “plot episodes”

Sequence:

Retells story in structural order: setting, theme, plot, episodes, resolution. (Score 2 for proper, 1 for partial, 0 for no sequence evident. 

Highest score possible 10         Child's score___ 

*Checks can be used instead of numbers to get a general sense of elements children include and progress over time.  A quantitative analysis as shown above is optional.  Retellings can be evaluated for interpretive and critical comments.     

Story Retelling Checklist (T.Palingo, 2003)

Name_________________________________________Date____________ 

Title of Story ______________________________________ 

• Title __________________________________  all     most    some   none

• Began story…words used__________________  all     most    some      none    

• Setting…words used______________________ all     most    some      none

• named characters              all correct    most correct      some correct    none

• accurately retold based on pictures           all      most     some     none

• clarity of expression                                     all      most     some     none

• used dialog from the story                          all        most    some      none

• correctly ended the story                           all     most    some      none

words used________________________________ 

What was your favorite part of the story? ____________________________________

Did the story remind you of another story you have read/heard or something you have done?

______________________________________________________________________

*All 3 points, most 2 points, some 1 point, none 0 points.

Total score out of a possible 30 points _____

Student Reflections:  (T. Palingo 2003)

Name_____________________________________________

 Date_________________  

Do you like to read?

What is your favorite book? 

How did we read stories in a different way today? 

Did you like to retell the story this way? Why/why not?

Do you want to retell more stories at school? At home?  

Do you think you do a good job retelling stories? Why?

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