Research Overview
This research worked to evaluate the impact of chunking and text summarization techniques on the reading comprehension of third graders.
These students received 4 hours of guided instruction a week over the course of 7 weeks. Hours of direct instruction and independent practice totaled to 14 hours.
Findings
Chunking on its own was ineffective due to the following reasons:
No clarity on what to do after segmenting a text
No specific thinking task provided
Students overanalyzed every little detail rather than find key details and explain their significance
Text summarization in conjuction with chunking is effective:
Students comprehension of higher level texts increased after 7 weeks
Students used strategies to support one another
Student had a clear end goal
Guided reading is an effective form of small group instruction to help readers:
Students were at independent levels that exceeded the 1st Benchmark
Students noted a greater appreciation for reading after the 7 weeks
Students cited that the mix of instruction and independent work helped them to practice learned strategies and make it their own
Implications
This research has highlighted the importance of direct instruction when teaching students to grow as readers. Guided reading can be an effective tool when trying to meet the various needs of one's readers. However, one must ensure that all students, regardless of needs and abilities, are receiving direct instruction. It is this aspect of my research that played a critical role in the outcomes.
This research also highlights the importance of implementing research-based strategies in the classroom. Giving students books and telling them to read is not enough to help them grow as readers. Students need to receive tools that they can use throughout their life to help make sense and decode challenging texts.
Lastly, this research shows that reading instruction is critical to educating the whole child. Reading is interdisciplinary and students will need it no matter what they are learning. There is no telling what consistent explicit reading instruction can do for students. However, it is clear that if there is growth in reading and comprehension abilities, there may be growth across subjects.
Limitations
Some limitations of this research include the following:
Length of Study
A longer study could show student growth over a longer period of time and could lead to bigger implications
Furthermore, it would highlight individual student progress in their personal reading habits/strategies as well as in a testing capacity
Sample Size
A larger sample size could show whether the strategies used could benefit all readers as opposed to advanced readers
Furthermore, a greater sample size could imply whether chunking and text summarization works for all grades as opposed to solely older students
Data Availability
Having the opportunity to collect more pieces of data ranging across subjects could help show if growth in reading comprehension was correlated with growth in other areas
Having students complete the same informal F&P test from the beginning of the study would have been helpful in highlighted specific areas of growth as opposed to general scores