The Effects of Three Instructional Methods on the Reading Comprehension and Content Acquisition of Novice Readers

This study explores the effects of 3 instructional methods: Picture Walks (Clay, 1991; Fountas Pinnell, 1996), KWL (Ogle, 1986), and the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (Stauffer, 1969) on the reading comprehension and science content acquisition of novice readers. The participants were 31 second-graders with an instructional reading level that was approaching grade level. A replicated Latin Square, within-subjects repeated measures design was employed that examined 4 treatments: 3 intervention groups (PW, KWL, DRTA) and a control group. The primary analysis evaluated treatment effects by conducting one-way repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA) on all measures, using the group as the unit of analysis. Results indicated that the picture walk and DRTA yielded statistically significant effects on reading growth as measured by a timed maze task. Analysis of Cued Recall indicated that the DRTA yielded statistically significant effects in reading comprehension and science content acquisition. KWL did not yield significant effects on measures of comprehension or content acquisition. Student interviews provided evidence that the participants possessed declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge of the strategic processes that are the foundation for the 3 interventions, activation of prior knowledge, and prediction. However, the likelihood of the participants putting that knowledge to effective use seemed to be dependent upon the amount of teacher scaffolding provided by the instructional procedure.