Dixie Lee Spiegel

Enhancing Children's Reading Comprehension through Instruction in Narrative Structure

Twenty average and below average fourth grade readers identified as lacking a keen sense of narrative structure were randomly assigned to one of two treatments: special instruction designed to develop knowledge of story structure or instruction in dictionary usage and word study. There were two phases of instruction, a short-term intensive phase and a long-term intermittent phase. The instruction in narrative structure did enhance story structure knowledge and had a strong positive effect on reading comprehension when compared to the dictionary usage and word study group. The effects were realized by the end of phase one; they were maintained during phase two, but the group differences did not increase over time.

Teacher Responses to Miscues during Oral Reading by Second - Grade Students

AbstractSecond-grade teachers were observed working with basal reader groups in order to determine teacher responses to student miscues during oral reading. Examination of 181 responses resulted in a classification system of eight categories: tell, visual, visual context, sound, spell, meaning, structural analysis, and reference to prior use. In 50.2% of the responses the teachers told the child the correct word. An additional 29.7% of the responses were perceptually oriented (visual, visual context, or spell). Only 5% of the responses involved using meaning cues. The investigators concluded that the teachers seemed to consider the purpose of oral reading to be accurate word identification rather than identification of meaning and that these teachers did not view the oral reading portion of the lesson as an opportunity to guide children in application of word identification strategies they had been taught.