Review of Literature: Instructional Approaches That Significantly Increase Reading Comprehension

In Instructional Approaches That Significantly Increase Reading Comprehension, Block, Whitely, Parris, Reed, and Cleveland (2009) studied the effects of adding an additional 20 minutes a school day to six different approaches to improving reading comprehension. The six different approaches were: workbook practice, individualized schema-based learning, situated practice, conceptual learning, transactional learning, and traditional instruction. The study was done to support the increased amount of time spent on each of their methods and its correlation to reading comprehension, from 70 to 90 minutes in a day. The participants were students in 3^rd through 6^th grades, chosen from four different school districts from the southwestern United States in different communities, consisting of a low-socioeconomic status (SES) inner city area, a high SES suburban area, a middle-class rural area, and a low-SES small town.

According to the article, workbook practice provides a clearly outlined set of skills for the student to master, a series of questions that require a response, material that is gradually presented with increasing difficulty, and it allows for a student to work at his or her own pace. This system is ideal for less-skilled readers but does little to provide more than just busy-work or practice for their more skilled peers. This manner of practice does not allow for immediate response to work done but it usually complements more traditional learning.

According to Block et al. (2009), individual schema-based learning operates under the understanding that a student’s schema is “his or her organized knowledge of the world” and that this provides a basis to process read information, have a point of reference with which to infer meaning, summarize information, and be able to remember information read at later dates (p. 263 ). All of these skills are key to developing fluent reading comprehension. In this case, a teacher helps create this schema by providing hints and ideas with which a student can relate to and work from while reading silently.

Block et al. (2009), situated practice is when a teacher provides tools, tricks or tips for a student to practice while he or she is reading. Rather than give an answer right away, a teacher will remind a student of these practice points in order for that student to use these tools more readily until they are second nature. Then, when a student encounters another similar situation, he has the tools in mind to go forth and reading is a smoother, enjoyable pastime.

Conceptual learning utilizes the idea that a student can comprehend a subject better if given multiple resources and texts on that subject, thus providing a broader understanding and building a bridge between reading comprehension and genuine understanding of the subject (Block et al., 2009).

According to Block et al. (2009), transactional learning relies on a student’s ability to internalize the text, to think about the text and relate it to what he or she already knows and cares about. The first stage in transactional learning encourages private thought in order to relate it to past knowledge, while in the second stage the students discuss as a group, getting multiple perspectives on the same text. Open ended discussion rather than teacher-directed questioning allows for individual thought to take place and thus the knowledge becomes more personal and more deeply ingrained.

Finally, traditional instruction requires the use of a basal reader (textbooks designed to help students learn to read) primarily with exercises already included in the book or with a teachers’ edition for support. This is based on the fact that basal-reader instruction has proven to improve a student’s basic literacy abilities. As such, an additional 20 minutes per day would add to that already increased effect on developing further reading comprehension (Block et al., 2009).

Block et al. (2009) chose each of the schools, four elementary schools and one middle school, at random, from school districts that represented a variety of socioeconomic populations. Each classroom and student was assigned a random number and referred to throughout the experiment. They further had principals randomly assign classes to control or experimental groups, making sure that the rooms were alternated. The teachers that participated were all volunteers.

All teachers were of comparable skill level and experience and all students’ entrance requirements were identical. Teachers received a 40 hour training session on how to implement each of the methods described above. They were not allowed to use any material or resources outside those provided by Block et al. (2009). Their lesson plans were created for them and assigned so that each experimental learning environment occurred in at least every grade during every six week period in each school.