The Role of Teacher Talk in Predicting Middle-Grade Students' Reading Comprehension

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 3
  In Poster Session: Innovations in Literacy Research, Theory, and Practice: Poster Session 1

Abstract

Though talk is a ubiquitous feature of any classroom, only some forms of talk are conducive to students’ learning. In this study, teacher talk moves during whole-classroom discussions from 34 classrooms in grades four through seven were captured using the Low-Inference Discourse Observation tool (LIDO; O’Connor & LaRusso, 2014). Talk moves hypothesized to be more monologic and those hypothesized to be more dialogic were analyzed for their predictive relationships to students’ post-discussion reading comprehension (n=289), as measured by the Global Integrated Scenario-based Assessment (GISA; O’Reilly & Sabatini, 2013). Multilevel models that account for students’ prior reading comprehension scores, participation rate, and demographic information show a statistically significant negative relationship between teacher talk moves indicative of monologic talk and reading comprehension.

Author

• Shireen Al-Adeimi, Michigan State University