The Effect of Culturally Relevant Texts on Comprehension in Fourth Graders (Poster 28)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Culturally Affirming Teacher Research (San Diego)

Abstract

This study investigated if the cultural relevance of texts as rated by students had an effect on their comprehension scores of those same texts. After each read aloud of a picture book, three students were assessed on their perception of the cultural relevance of the book and their comprehension. The comprehension of the text was assessed using written retellings and the cultural relevance was measured with a Likert scale. Each fourth grader’s responses resulted in different correlations between the cultural relevance and comprehension scores for all the stories. This is based on the predictability power of certain questions within the culturally relevant survey. Cultural relevance did show a correlation for students who were historically underrepresented in children’s literature.

Authors

• Sabine Wills, University of Mary Washington

• Courtney M. Clayton, Florence Unified School District No. 1