Using Screenplays in Reading Comprehension: Engaging Middle School Students With Disabilities and Striving Readers

• In Event: Reading and Writing: Literacy Instruction and Impacts

Abstract

Students with disabilities and striving readers require explicit instruction in reading comprehension to successfully navigate middle school. Based on the facets of transactional theory and dual coding theory, mixed methods embedded within a multiple case design was used to explore learning elements of a screenplay to promote visualization in order to increase reading comprehension, in students with disabilities and striving readers. In a three-week intervention, seven middle school students learned to identify elements of a screenplay in various movies and in literature of increasing complexity using plot diagrams. While analysis is on-going, findings suggest students were able to identify and describe elements within the text structure. Responses indicate reading comprehension scores increased pre-post. Implications for reading comprehension are discussed.

Author

• Lori Ann C. Dunn, Boston College