THE EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTION IN THE USE OF A METACOGNITIVE COMPREHENSION MONITORING STRATEGY UPON FOURTH GRADERS' READING COMPREHENSION AND RECALL PERFORMANCE

PATRICIA JOAN BABBS, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate a program designed to develop fourth graders' knowledge about the reading process and to teach the use of a comprehension monitoring strategy. It was hypothesized that this instruction in metacognitive aspects of reading would result in improved reading comprehension and recall performance. Each of the 47 subjects of high average to low reading ability participated in fifteen, 22 minute small group sessions conducted by the researcher. The control subjects read in their science and social studies textbooks for the purpose of answering end-of-section questions. The experimental subjects learned to plan a reading task by doing the following: remind themselves that reading is a thinking process, determine a goal, evaluate the difficulty of the text, and determine strategies for reaching the goal and checking on goal attainment. These subjects then learned to use individual sets of comprehension monitoring cards. The cards prompted the students to evaluate their comprehension at the sentence, paragraph, and page levels and to implement remedial strategies when a comprehension failure was noted. During the final two sessions the use of the cards was phased out. Oral recalls, reading times, and interview questions were used to evaluate the instruction. When prompted by the cards to use the monitoring strategy, the experimental subjects voluntarily took more time to read/study the recall passage (11.5 min. vs. 5.3 min. for controls), recalled a significantly greater number of idea units (12 ideas vs. 5.5 ideas for the controls), and reported the usage of a greater number of reading strategies. However, when not in possession of the cards, the experimental subjects failed to independently use the monitoring strategy; their performance during a second recall procedure was not different from the controls'. Interview responses indicate that these students, particularly the control subjects, possess a low level of knowledge about effective reading strategies and show an even lower level of unprompted strategy usage. The use of tangible prompts, such as the monitoring cards, appears to be an effective way to induce students to be strategic readers.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Literacy|Reading instruction

COinS