Do Different Text Structures Lend Themselves to Different Instructional Strategies for At-Risk Second-Grade Students?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Consideration of Text Structure and Ability in Literacy Competencies

Abstract

This project evaluates a year-long reading comprehension intervention embedded into social studies instruction. Each of five modules included instruction on an expository text structure (sequence, compare/contrast, cause/effect, description, and problem/solution) and a historical community (Native Americans, colonists, pioneers, immigrants, and modern urban residents). An experimental study compared the intervention, a social studies content-only (no text structure instruction) program, and a no-treatment control. The intervention group outperformed the other two groups on the strategy and comprehension outcome measures, and scored similarly to the content-only group on the content outcome measures. Differences among the modules may suggest the value of different emphases in instruction. Implications of the findings for explicit reading comprehension instruction are discussed.

Authors

• James Grant Atkins, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Joanna P. Williams, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Rong Cheng, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Jenny C. Kao, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Jill Ordynans, Scholastic Inc.

• Lisa S. Pao