Thesis (EdD.)--Open University.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2004. / Thesis directed by Darcia Narvaez for the Department of Psychology. "April 2004." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-108).

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The Simple View of Reading (SVR; Gough & Tunmer, 1986) provides a conceptual framework for describing the processes involved when readers comprehend text and strong evidence for the SVR comes from factor analytic studies showing dissociation between decoding and comprehension skills. The aim of the present study was to investigate if pre-decoding and comprehension components exist in Canadian English-speaking pre-readers (n = 36) with the use of Principal Components Analysis and to create a parent literacy questionnaire that contains parent literacy practices that may predict children's pre-decoding and comprehension skills. All children were administered a battery of pre-reading measures and parents completed a literacy survey. Principal Components Analysis demonstrated that listening comprehension and pre-decoding measures loaded as distinct components. The findings provide support for the SVR framework. No clear patterns were identified between parent literacy practices and children's pre-reading skills. Further work is needed with a larger and more representative sample.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test materials for training prospective teachers in appropriate questioning strategy in teaching reading. The intent wasto enhance teacher skill in phrasing comprehension questions that promote children's critical reading behaviors. ProceduresInstructional and evaluative materials and a question classification system were developed based upon a review of literature relative to reading comprehension and instructional questioning. The classification system, titled ASK:Q Comprehension Categories, contained six categories. Vocabulary-Experiential, Literal, and Transformational constituted the Non-Critical categories. The Critical Reading categories included the Inferential, Evaluative, and Creative categories.The instructional material, titled TASK:QS, consisted of a series of four lesson booklets. The acronym was derived from: Teaching for Acquisition of Skill and Knowledge in Questioning Strategy. The booklets were designed to be used by groups of four or five college students in a reading methods class. Each lesson was intended to be self- or group-instructional and required the major portion of a class period. The evaluative material, ASK:Q, consisted of preand post-test forms, each containing three reading selections for which comprehension questions were to be written. The acronym was derived from Assessing Skill and Knowledge in Questioning. ASK:Q was subjected to analysis for validity and rater-reliability.Early in the quarter ASK:Q-1 (pre-test) was administered to students in two sections of a reading methods course at Ball State University to assess the question-phrasing status of the participants. Both sections were taught by the same instructor. Students in one section (control group) experienced the conventional course content. Students in the other section (experimental group) experienced the same course content. In addition, the experimental group used one TASK:QS lesson each week during the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth weeks of the quarter. ASK:Q-2 (post-test) was administered to students in both sections at the conclusion of the study to record any changes in question-phrasing ability.Questions written in response to ASK:Q-1 and ASK:Q-2 were scored in terms of assignment to the ASK:Q Comprehension Categories. Analysis of covariance was applied to pre-test and post-test scores. The corresponding F-values were used to determine the significance of changes in questioning strategy. Analysis focused upon changes in total number of Critical Reading questions and changes in the number of questions written in each comprehension category.ConclusionsWhile both groups evidenced gains, the experimental group wrote significantly more Critical Reading questions. Because of the small number of questions, the VocabularyExperiential category was not subjected to analysis. Changes reached statistical significance for only the Literal and Creative categories, the experimental group evidenced improved questioning strategy with respect to increased or decreased use of each of the categories analyzed. Based on statistical evidence it may be concluded that exposure to the instructional materials had only a limited effect upon enhancing the use of questions in specific comprehension categories. Results tend to indicate that questioning strategy may be influenced more effectively with respect to the total Critical Reading category rather than in terms of specific comprehension categories. It would appear that TASK:QS materials provide an effective means for enhancing teachers' skill in phrasing appropriate reading comprehension questions.The present study provided evidence that improvements can be effected in pre-service teachers' reading comprehension questioning. Results of the study also indicated that questioning strategy may be enhanced within the format of a reading methods course. It would appear appropriate to provide experiences similar to TASK:QS for prospective teachers.

This study compared the effects of ReQuest, a reciprocal questioning procedure, and the Directed Reading Activity (DRA) on the reading comprehension of average reading achievers in the fourth grade. Fifty-seven subjects from two schools were assigned randomly to two treatments, a ReQuest group and a DRA group. Each treatment group was subdivided into four instructional groups containing seven or eight subjects. Each instructional group received one-half hour of reading instruction outside the regular classroom for twenty-three days.Each of two trained teachers instructed two ReQuest groups and two DRA groups using scripts based on the reading textbook employed in both schools. In the preparation-forreading segment of the lesson the subjects in'-the ReQuest group asked the teacher questions about the first sentence of the story and the teacher reciprocated with additional questions. This procedure was repeated for each sentence until the subjects were able to predict the content of the story or the first two paragraphs had been covered. In contrast, the DRA group followed the procedure indicated in the teacher's manual of the reading textbook. Silent reading time was controlled and the preparation-for-reading and postreading discussion times were measured.The Comprehension subtest of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests served as the pretest-posttest measures. Gain scores were utilized in a 2 x 2 analysis of covariance in which the factors were the teachers and treatments with preparation-for-reading and postreading-discussion time as the covariate. In addition, the proportion of correct answers given by the students to questions posed by the teachers after silent reading were summed for each week to serve as six repeated measures in a 2 x 2 x 6 analysis of covariance. The treatments and schools were the other factors with the covariate being preparation-for-reading time. In both of these analyses there were no significant differences between the schools or between the ReQuest and DU groups in reading comprehension performance. A post hoc analysis of proportions resulted in no significant difference between treatment groups with regard to their ability to answer factual or inferential questions.

The present study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of four encoding strategies upon the retrieval of text material as measured by both immediate and delayed recognition and a recall test given in random order. Subjects included 140 college freshmen enrolled in reading and in study skills classes assigned to either a hierarchal organizing, notetaking, underlining, or repetitive reading encoding strategy. Training was given in each strategy and mastery at a criterion level of 80 percent or better was achieved. Reading comprehension scores as measured by the Nelson - Denny Reading Test, Form C were used as a covariate. An experimental passage of 1,656 words with a 12th grade reading level was administered. Findings were that there were no significant differences between treatments for immediate or delayed essay and multiple choice test scores. Reading scores correlated significantly with the dependent measures. Further, all four encoding strategies resulted in maintained test performance scores on both delayed essay and multiple choice tests. There were significant differences between immediate and delayed essay test scores for classes in favor of the reading classes. Test order did not influence test scores.

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