Mary Jane White

The Development of Narrative Comprehension and Its Relation to Other Early Reading Skills

The first goal of this study was to examine young childrens developing narrative comprehension abilities using theory-based, authentic measures of comprehension processes. The second goal was to examine the relations among young childrens comprehension abilities and other early reading skills. Children ages 4 and 6 listened to or watched two authentic narratives. We measured their comprehension of these narratives as well as vocabulary and skills associated with word decoding. The results revealed that even the younger children were sensitive to the underlying structure of the narratives and that this sensitivity increased with age. Measures of narrative comprehension were not consistently correlated with skills associated with word decoding, such as phonological awareness. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical models of comprehension and of reading development. Practical implications of the findings are also explored.

Adults’ and children’s monitoring of story events in the service of comprehension

When reading narratives, adults monitor shifts in time, space, characters, goals, and causation. Shifts in any of these dimensions affect both moment-by-moment reading and memory organization. The extant developmental literature suggests that middle school children have relatively sophisticated understandings of each of these dimensions but does not indicate whether they spontaneously monitor these dimensions during reading experiences. In four experiments, we examined the processing of event shifts by adults and children, using both an explicit verb-clustering task and a reading time task. The results indicate that middle school children’s and adults’ post-reading memory is organized using these dimensions but that children do not monitor dimensions during moment-by-moment reading in the same manner as adults. These differences were not a function of differentially difficult texts for children and adults, or between-group differences. The findings have implications for models of adult and child text processing and for understanding children’s developing narrative comprehension.

Effects of Comprehension Skill on Inference Generation during Reading

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences between readers with different levels of comprehension skill when engaging in a causal questioning activity during reading, and the varied effects on inference generation. Fourth-grade readers (n = 74) with different levels of comprehension skill read narrative texts aloud and were asked causal questions at specific points during reading. Responses to questions were examined for the types of inferences the readers made during reading. There was no main effect of comprehension skill in terms of readers’ text-based inferences made in response to the causal questions. However, readers differed in their use of knowledge-based inferences in response to the causal questions, and in particular knowledge-based inferences that connected to related text information. Results are discussed in terms of individual differences that can influence attempts at maintaining coherence during reading.

Evaluating the interpretations and use of curriculum-based measurement in reading and word lists for universal screening in first and second grade

Abstract. Universal screening in elementary schools often includes administering curriculum-based measurement in reading (CBM-R); but in first grade, nonsense word fluency (NWF) and, to a lesser extent, word identification fluency (WIF) are used because of concerns that CBM-R is too difficult for emerging readers. This study used Kanes argument-based approach to validation as a framework to evaluate the interpretations and use of scores resulting from screening 257 first- and second-grade students. First, scores from three word lists (decodable WIF, high-frequency WIF, and whole-word NWF) were examined as indicators of reading achievement. Then, the use of these word list scores was evaluated regarding their ability to classify at-risk readers accurately and as supplements to CBM-R during the winter universal screening period. Participants were also concurrently administered a norm-referenced measure of early reading skills and global reading achievement. Results suggested that the word lists were good indicators of reading achievement and provided support for using CBM-R or a word list in conjunction with CBM-R to discriminate among at-risk readers. Findings have implications for the administration of universal screeners in first and second grade.

Evaluation of schedule frequency and density when monitoring progress with curriculum-based measurement.

School-based professionals often use curriculum-based measurement of reading (CBM-R) to monitor the progress of students with reading difficulties. Much of the extant CBM-R progress monitoring research has focused on its use for making group-level decisions, and less is known about using CBM-R to make decisions at the individual level. To inform the administration and use of CBM-R progress monitoring data, the current study evaluated the utility of 4 progress monitoring schedules that differed in frequency (once or twice weekly) and density (1 or 3 probes). Participants included 79 students (43% female; 51% White, 25% Hispanic or Latino, 11% Black or African American, 1% other, 12% unknown) in Grades 2 (n = 45) and 4 (n = 34) who were monitored across 10 weeks (February to May). Consistent with a focus on individual-level decision making, we used regression and mixed-factorial analysis of variances (ANOVAs) to evaluate the effect of progress monitoring schedule frequency, schedule density, grade level, and their interaction effects on CBM-R intercept, slope, SE of the slope (SEb), and SE of the estimate (SEE). Results revealed that (a) progress monitoring schedule frequency and density influenced the magnitude of SEb, (b) density had a significant but negligible impact on SEE, and (c) grade level had a significant effect on slope and intercept. None of the interaction effects were statistically significant. Findings from this study have implications for practitioners and researchers aiming to monitor students’ progress with CBM-R.