CONVERSATIONS ABOUT READING: THE VOICES OF
STUDENTS IN THEIR K-12 JOURNEY
Jennifer Clinton, Ed D
University of Pittsburgh, 2004
The initial objective of this study was to gain insight from students about their K-12 reading experience. In fifth, eighth, and eleventh grade the data were collected while conversing with students in focus groups. Conversations were centered around the Focus Group Checklist which was divided into three parts:
1) Teacher-Assigned Reading; 2) Read and Interact with Text; and 3) Content Areas.
The second objective was to outline a process for documentation of student opinions about K-12 education programs.
The results of this study indicated that (1) background building prior to reading assignments acted as a motivational component that enabled the fifth grade students to
make personal connections with text; (2) In both middle and high school, there was a
diminishing in the practice of activating students prior knowledge; (3) Vocabulary
instruction consisted of relearning words that fifth grade students were already familiar
with or knew well and; (4) limited opportunity for the application of new words;
(5) Requirement for the learning of new words decreased as students moved through
high school; (6) Instruction for question and answer relationships consisted of
directing fifth grade students to reread or even pointing out where answers were found
in the text; (7) Instruction that included modeling, utilization of samples, and specific
criteria for question and answer responses were provided only for the advanced
students in eighth grade; (8) Reinforcement of literal responses from text were provided for
eleventh graders instead of instruction for a critical response based on multiple sources and;
(9) the advanced classes were often provided with explicit criteria and detail about how to
answer questions.
Recommendations and implications for policy based on the voices of the students were presented.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-11242004-101641 |
| Date | 13 December 2004 |
| Creators | Clinton, Jennifer Mary |
| Contributors | Shirley Biggs, PhD, Associate Professor, Dissertation Director, Charles Gorman, Ed D, Associative Professor, Theodore Peshkopia, Ed D, Principal, Susan Goodwin, PhD, Clinical Professor |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-11242004-101641/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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