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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/181804 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Weddle, Alice Joy |
| Contributors | Cooper, J. David |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | v, 322 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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