A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Reading Comprehension Interventions on the Reading Comprehension Outcomes of Struggling Readers in Third Through 12th Grades is a new and interesting study by Marissa Filderman and her colleagues.
Unfortunately, it’s behind a paywall, but here the parts I think teachers would find most useful:
Background knowledge and strategy instruction were associated with significantly larger effects….Of all strategies, main idea strategy instruction yielded the strongest effect of g=.72, with the effects of inferencing, retell, and prediction ranging from g=.56 to g=.60….
Interventions that included instructional enhancements (graphic organizers and technology) demonstrated significantly lower effects (g =.45) than those that built background knowledge or focused on comprehension strategies. Metacognitive approaches did not significantly moderate the effects of comprehension intervention (g=.49…
Grade level also did not moderate effects, suggesting that elementary and secondary students both benefit from comprehension instruction. However, the average effect for elementary students (g=.47) was smaller than that observed for secondary students (g=.67).
When it comes to background knowledge, the three most effective strategies I use are:
*K-W-L Charts. You can read about how I use them in the classroom at my Washington Post column, The kind of teaching kids need right now.
* Using accessible English texts to provide needed prior knowledge. You might want to check out The Best Places To Get The “Same” Text Written For Different “Levels”
* Providing texts in a students’ home language prior to leading the lesson in English. See The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Math, Social Studies, & Science.
I’m adding this post to The Best Posts On Reading Strategies & Comprehension – Help Me Find More!
Check out Simbi ( https://simbi.io/) for a good online platform which allow students read and to listen to levelled texts read in their own tongue. So many other good tools on the education platform also.
Loved the blog . Thanks you.
Kate