Guided Reading Strategies for Reading Comprehension

When students struggle with reading comprehension they are at a severe disadvantage. They do not retain what has been read and eventually become dissuaded by reading altogether. The purpose of this action research was to discover which guided reading strategies should be implemented to help develop comprehension skills. comprehension. Educational professionals and theorists have determined that focused intensive instruction of reading strategies will improve reading The methods used in this study included pre-reading strategies, during reading strategies, and post-reading strategies specifically modified to improve comprehension. Over the course of eleven weeks multiple lessons and activities were tailored and implemented to fit the needs of a struggling reader, pre-reading strategies were found to have the greatest impact on comprehension. Document Type Thesis Degree Name MS in Literacy Education Department Education First Supervisor Joellen Maples Subject Categories Education This thesis is available at Fisher Digital Publications: https://fisherpub.sjfc. edu/education_ETD_masters/19 Guided Reading Strategies for Reading Comprehension By Nicole Richardson Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree M.S. Literacy Education Supervised by Dr. Joellen Maples School of Arts and Sciences St. John Fisher College Fall 2010 GUIDED READING AND COMPREHENSION 2 Abstract When students struggle with reading comprehension they are at a severe disadvantage. They do not retain what has been read and eventually become dissuaded by reading altogether. The purpose of this action research was to discover which guided reading strategies should be implemented to help develop comprehension skills. Educational professionals and theorists have determined that focused intensive instruction of reading strategies will improve reading comprehension. The methods used in this study included pre-reading strategies, during reading strategies, and post-reading strategies specifically modified to improve comprehension. Over the course of eleven weeks multiple lessons and activities were tailored and implemented to fit the needs of a struggling reader, pre-reading strategies were found to have the greatest impact on comprehension.When students struggle with reading comprehension they are at a severe disadvantage. They do not retain what has been read and eventually become dissuaded by reading altogether. The purpose of this action research was to discover which guided reading strategies should be implemented to help develop comprehension skills. Educational professionals and theorists have determined that focused intensive instruction of reading strategies will improve reading comprehension. The methods used in this study included pre-reading strategies, during reading strategies, and post-reading strategies specifically modified to improve comprehension. Over the course of eleven weeks multiple lessons and activities were tailored and implemented to fit the needs of a struggling reader, pre-reading strategies were found to have the greatest impact on comprehension. GUIDED READING AND COMPREHENSION 3 Guided Reading Strategies for Reading Comprehension It is frustrating for students when they do not understand what they are reading. Furthermore, when a student struggles with comprehension they often lose their desire to continue to read, which is why educators should always be checking for comprehension throughout their student’s assigned readings. Reading comprehension is essential to ensuring student literacy in many subject areas. It is imperative that a student understands as well as retains the information he/she is reading. When a teacher realizes one or more of their students are struggling with comprehension it is crucial that they develop and implement strategies to help alleviate these frustrations. Comprehension is an integral part of learning; it is also a multifaceted process with many levels of understanding. Ideally students will gain a comprehensive understanding of what was read, but that is not always the case. It is imperative for educators to understand how a student interacts with text so that he/she can figure out which strategy instruction will be most beneficial. Effectively modeling and implementing strategy instruction is the best way for students struggling with reading comprehension to see how the process works. Guided reading strategies are often used to help students who struggle with reading comprehension. Pre-reading, during-reading and post-reading strategies are combined to facilitate learning and enhance literacy. Through the implementation of guided reading strategies, students become aware of how print works (Kasten, Kristo, & McClure, 2005), and students struggling with reading comprehension are better able to create meaning. “In guided reading, teachers show students the “tricks of the trade,” then provide focused support to help them become independent readers and writers,” (Kasten, Kristo, & McClure, 2005, p. 286). Teaching guided reading strategies to students provides them with the tools to enhance reading GUIDED READING AND COMPREHENSION 4 comprehension. By also focusing on Freebody & Luke’s (1990) four reader roles, which exemplify pre, during and post-reading strategies, educators can help students with reading comprehension. When a student struggles with unfamiliar vocabulary during reading, the need to focus on those unfamiliar words can hinder comprehension. By establishing familiarity with the vocabulary from the reading prior to delving into the text, students will not spend as much time focusing on unfamiliar words and more time will be spent on reading for understanding. It has been found that through the implementation of guided reading strategies, such as a pre-reading Word Splash that introduces more difficult vocabulary from an upcoming piece of reading, students struggling with unfamiliar vocabulary are then better able to create meaning. Using a Vocabulary Bookmark during reading will also allow students to identify and mark down any unfamiliar or unknown vocabulary words so that the teacher may work on those words with the student. Without implementation of various guided reading strategies, students who struggle with comprehension are at a disadvantage. This action research is going to examine multiple guided reading strategies with an attempt to discover which guided reading strategies are most beneficial to a seventh grade student’s reading comprehension. By studying the work done by researchers in the field of education as well as through strategies performed with the student, specific strategies will be implemented with the student. Theoretical Framework Larson & Marsh (2005) provide several theories such as New Literacy Studies and Sociocultural theory, which stress the fact that every student learns differently based on his/her background. One examining literacy through Sociocultural-Historical Theory would GUIDED READING AND COMPREHENSION 5 present, “a culturally focused analysis of participation in everyday life” (p.101), where “learning occurs, therefore, through participation in social, cultural and historical contexts that are mediated by interaction,” (p. 105). Literacy is found in every aspect of life and the need for appropriate and effective implementation of reading strategies to build literacy skills varies based on each student. In an attempt to understand and make meaning of the world we live in, people engage in literacy activities for numerous reasons. Literacy is not just limited to oral and/or written language, it is all-encompassing. Learning is becoming more authentic and student-centered, and literacy is now seen as multifaceted. It is practiced daily through reading, writing, speaking, listening, and even when we use technology. Every day people participate in literacy events throughout even the most mundane of activities. Freebody and Luke’s (1990) definition of literacy is a “multifaceted set of social practices with a material technology, entailing code breaking, participation with the knowledge of the text, social uses of text, and analysis/critique of the text” (p. 15). To understand literacy acquisition one must first understand the developmental aspects of language and the sociocultural variations that influence this development. Language development must be looked at objectively from many different cultural perspectives in order to understand how one begins to learn and acquire literacy. Furthermore, a combination of cultural and linguistic variations must be meticulously dissected to fully understand the relationship of literacy acquisition to language development. Literacy is evolving, as are the approaches to teaching and the theories that support these approaches. Sociocultural theory describes that learners are “active agents in taking responsibility for their learning and constructing goals and purposes for learning literacy” (Larson & Marsh, 2005, p. 132). Teachers need to communicate to students that beyond reading for entertainment GUIDED READING AND COMPREHENSION 6 purposes, comprehension is the ultimate goal in reading. Reading for comprehension occurs throughout every facet of life. Reading occurs daily, even in the most mundane or usual activities, and New Literacy Studies, “helps us to understand that literacy learning does not simply occur in formal or informal settings, or in or out of school, but also occurs in-between in everyday interaction as tools for building and maintaining social relations,” (Larson & Marsh, 2005, p. 18). Freebody and Luke’s (1990) four reader roles, which maintain traits found in guided reading strategies, encompass the major components of reading while providing an opportunity for teachers to learn whether or not students need additional instruction and in which areas help should be considered. They explain that, “a successful reader in our society needs to develop and sustain the reso