James F. Baumann

Vocabulary Tricks: Effects of Instruction in Morphology and Context on Fifth-Grade Students’Ability to Derive and Infer Word Meanings

This quasi-experimental study compared the effects of morphemic and contextual analysis instruction (MC) with the effects of textbook vocabulary instruction (TV) that was integrated into social studies textbook lessons. The participants were 157 students in eight fifth-grade classrooms. The results indicated that (a) TV students were more successful at learning textbook vocabulary; (b) MC students were more successful at inferring the meanings of novel affixed words; (c) MC students were more successful at inferring the meanings of morphologically and contextually decipherable words on a delayed test but not on an immediate test; and (d) the groups did not differ on a comprehension measure or a social studies learning measure. The results were interpreted as support for teaching specific vocabulary and morphemic analysis, with some evidence for the efficacy of teaching contextual analysis.

Teaching Third-Grade Students to Comprehend Anaphoric Relationships: The Application of a Direct Instruction Model.

THIS STUDY investigated the effectiveness of a direct instruction model for teaching children to comprehend anaphoric relationships. Fifty-nine third-grade children were assigned randomly to one of three treatments: a strategy group, in which subjects received intensive, systematic instruction in anaphora resolution according to a direct instruction model; a basal group, in which subjects were administered a series of lessons on word referents from a current basal reader program; and a control group, in which subjects received no added instruction on anaphora and simply participated in normal classroom language arts instruction. Several immediate and delayed posttests revealed that students in the strategy group consistently outperformed students in both the basal group and the control group in ability (a) to find the antecedent for the anaphoric term in short, contrived passages, (b) to find the antecedent for the anaphoric term in longer, more ecologically valid narrative and expository passages selected from basal readers, and (c) to answer anaphora-specific wh questions about narrative and expository selections in basal readers. These results were interpreted as further support for the efficacy of a direct instructional model for teaching children reading comprehension skills.

A Generic Comprehension Instructional Strategy.

Abstract Over the last decade much has been learned about the underlying cognitive and psychological processes involved in reading comprehension. But until only recently, however, have researchers focused their efforts on the task of applying this accumulating body of research to the problem of how to better teach children to comprehend what they read. An increasing number of reading instructional studies and a large body of research on teacher effectiveness suggest that certain characteristics are associated with effective reading comprehension instruction. This article presents a reading comprehension instructional strategy which is based upon these established characteristics of effective reading comprehension instruction and which is generalizable to instruction in a wide range of reading comprehension skills. Specifically, the procedure consists of five steps: (a) Introduction, (b) Example, (c) Direct Instruction, (d) Teacher‐Directed Application, and (e) Independent Practice. The article contains a ...

The Frequency and Placement of Main Ideas in Children's Social Studies Textbooks: A Modified Replication of Braddock's Research on Topic Sentences

Braddock (1974) evaluated adult, expository reading materials for the frequency and placement of topic sentences (main ideas). Results indicated that relatively infrequently were main ideas directly stated in expository prose, and that paragraphs opened with a simple topic sentence only 13% of the time. This study was a modified replication of Braddocks research in which second-, fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-grade social studies textbooks were examined for the presence of explicit and implicit main ideas in paragraphs and short passages. Results were generally consistent with Braddocks findings on topic sentences: only 27% of all short passages that were examined in the social studies textbooks contained explicit passage main ideas; only 44% of all paragraphs contained explicit main ideas; and only 27% of all paragraphs opened with a directly-stated main idea. Implications for teachers, publishers, and reading researchers are discussed.

An Investigation of Children’s Ability to Comprehend Character Motives:

This study examined second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children’s abilities to recall and to answer questions concerning character motives after listening to or reading nine fables that were divided equally, according to the explicitness of the character motive, into three categories: textually explicit, textually implicit, and scriptally implicit. Separate 3×2×3 ANOVAs with repeated measures for each of four dependent measures (recall of character motives, recall of important details, questions concerning character motives, and questions concerning important details) revealed no statistically significant difference for mode of input across dependent measures, a statistically significant difference for grade level (6 > 4 > 2) on questions concerning character motives, and a statistically significant difference among text types (TE > TI or SI). A descriptive analysis of students’ overall performance revealed that elementary grade students had considerable difficulty comprehending character motives in fables, suggesting that character motives may not be central to young children’s understanding of stories. A discussion is offered to explain these results within the context of other research and to make suggestions for further research.

Children's Ability to Comprehend Main Ideas in Content Textbooks.

Abstract This article describes an applied educational study which explored third and sixth graders’ ability to comprehend main ideas after reading natural expository reading materials taken directly from elementary social studies textbooks. Results indicated that elementary students have much difficulty comprehending main ideas in textbook prose, and that the manner in which main idea comprehension is measured interacts with this ability. The discussion emphasizes concrete, practical suggestions elementary classroom teachers can employ to (a) develop strategies for teaching main ideas which require students to practice this skill within the medium of content textbooks, and (b) provide students more exposure to expository textbook prose in order to familiarize them with this distinctive genre and hence develop a schema for expository prose.

La eficacia de un modelo de instrucción directa en la enseñanza de la comprensión de ideas principales

RESUMENLa comprension de las ideas principales es una destreza lectora importante, y suele ser lo que discrimina los buenos lectores de los deficientes. El proposito de este estudio es desarrollar un metodo de instruccion directa para ensenar a los ninos la comprension de las ideas principales, y evaluar su eficacia frente al metodo tradicional (instruccion por medio de libros de lectura basicos). El grupo entrenado (grupo estrategia) con instruccion directa rindio mejor en la aptitud para recoger las ideas principales que el grupo basico (que siguio el metodo tradicional) y adquirieron estas destrezas con mayor profundidad y comprension. Pero no hubo diferencias en la aptitud para las ideas principales en el recuerdo.

What Will Classrooms and Schools Look Like in the New Millennium

In this “RRQ Snippet,” four literacy researchers discuss the influences of diversity, changing expectations, technology, and teacher professional development on literacy teaching and learning.

Effect of Ideational Prominence on Children's Reading Comprehension of Expository Prose

The efficacy of the levels hypothesis (the prediction that ideas residing at superordinate positions in a text hierarchy are most memorable) was evaluated as a suitable descriptor of childrens reading comprehension of expository prose. Third-and sixth-grade students read expository passages taken from extant curricular materials and responded to either a paper and pencil comprehension test (an open ended or multiple choice test) or produced an oral free recall. Results revealed that in only one instance (third-graders responding to the multiple choice test) did the children respond in the predicted manner: greater comprehension of main idea, gist information. The findings were interpreted as indicating little support for the levels hypothesis as a singular, accurate predictor of the information children will remember after reading expository prose. Other text-based and reader-based factors were discussed as possible explanations for the results. Implications for future research and educational practice were also discussed.

Metacomprehension during basal reader instruction: Do teachers promote it?

Abstract Much of the research and instructional development on metacomprehension has been based on the premise that students are in need of such instruction because teachers do little to foster students’ metacomprehension ability. However, this assertion has not been tested empirically; therefore, it was the purpose of this study to analyze elementary teachers’ interactions with their students during the guided reading of basal reader selections in order to determine the extent to which they do promote students’ metacomprehension abilities. Results indicated that teachers did very little to foster students’ metacomprehension abilities during the guided reading of basal selections. The procedures related to metacomprehension that were detected revealed that the teachers assumed most of the responsibility for students’ comprehension themselves rather than directing students to engage in metacomprehension strategies or conducting the lessons in a manner that promoted metacomprehension abilities. Instructiona...