CHALLENGING TASK IN APPROPRIATE TEXT - DRUM - University

306 Pages·2005·3.77 MB·English

ABSTRACT
Title of Dissertation: CHALLENGING TASK IN APPROPRIATE TEXT:
DESIGNING DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES TO
INCREASE THE LITERACY GROWTH OF
ADOLESCENT STRUGGLING READERS
Sharon L. Russell, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005
Dissertation Directed by: Dr. Marilyn J. Chambliss
Associate Professor
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
University of Maryland, College Park
This six-month intervention study focusing on ninth-grade struggling readers
had three goals: to determine the overall literacy growth of adolescent struggling readers
when engaged in a task-through-text instructional framework situated within specially
designed discourse communities, to determine the effectiveness of text structure
instruction, and to track intrinsic motivational changes related to reading.
Small discourse communities were designed for the purpose of apprenticing
students into literate high school culture. Within the discourse communities, students
engaged in challenging tasks in appropriate text to increase academic literacy. Most
students began the intervention reading below a second-grade level. Students who were
receiving special education, second language, and no services participated in the study.
Using the task-in-text discourse community framework, students in six small reading
classes received daily intervention given by the researcher. This study also used low-level
expository text with four characteristics: links to interest and prior knowledge, sufficient
density of ideas, clear rhetorical patterns, and clear signaling devices.
When compared with the control group, at post- testing, students receiving
intervention showed a statistically significant difference in overall literacy growth as well
as in their ability to use and transfer knowledge of text structure. A within-groups
counterbalanced design showed that students who received text structure instruction first
scored statistically significantly better on a summarization task even after they were no
longer receiving text structure instruction. Students in the instruction group completed a
self-reported questionnaire about motivation for reading. Statistically significant
increases in reading efficacy and reading challenge were observed indicating that
students increased both their personal beliefs about reading as well as their willingness to
take risks as readers.
Results indicate that adolescents who are reading at very low levels can increase
their literacy abilities rapidly under the right learning conditions and when given
appropriate texts. Further, instruction in text structure assisted students with both
comprehension and content knowledge acquisition. Finally, students in the instruction
group increased their motivation for reading. Outcomes in literacy growth, text structure,
and motivation, all support future research concerning pedagogically sound methods for
providing reading intervention to adolescent struggling readers.
CHALLENGING TASK IN APPROPRIATE TEXT:
DESIGNING DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES TO
INCREASE THE LITERACY GROWTH OF
ADOLESCENT STRUGGLING READERS
By
Sharon L. Russell
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2005
Advisory Committee:
Associate Professor Marilyn J. Chambliss, Chair
Professor Peter P. Afflerbach
Professor Miriam Jean Dreher
Professor John T. Guthrie
Associate Professor Wayne H. Slater
© Copyright by
Sharon Lynn Russell
2005
ii
DEDICATIONS
My passion for this work has been high,close to my heart, and is written for:
My Goddaughter, Mariah,
Who first taught me about personal struggles with literacy
as well as how much it means to overcome them
and
My Nephew, Zach,
It is my hope you never need someone like me,
and my solemn prayer that, if you do, someone will be there.
The success of this work is dedicated to my childhood family for providing an
infrastructure of personal, spiritual, and intellectual support:
My brother, Scott,for “ just getting it”
My brother, Dave,for the intellectual challenges
And, most importantly to my Parents, Rev. Shirley and Jim
My Mother,
whose strength, through the opportunity of living each day, has become my own
My Daddy,
for teaching me always to “root for the underdog”
They won this time.
This dissertation is also completed in loving memory of my grandparents. My
grandmother grew up during the Great Depression, always wanting to be a teacher.My
grandfatherpassed away during the writing of this work, but his legacy of unconditional
love continues to sustain me.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I must thank my students who so graciously agreed to spend
six months participating in a reading class. I have learned so much from them and have
come to appreciate the individual contributions each student made to the discourse
communities we built and to my own personal learning. My relationships with each of
them and their successes remain the true joy of this work. I also need to thank Jim
Greenberg and the members of the K-16 grant committee whose dedication to the project
paved the way for my research, as well as the high school’s administrative staff for their
creative scheduling.
Second, I must acknowledge and thank my advisor, Dr. Marilyn Chambliss. In her
quiet, wise, and understated ways, she has challenged me beyond what I believed
possible of myself. She was also the first to come to my aid and protect my interests
through the ups and downs of the logistics involved in this project. Her dedication and
vested interest in this research allowed me to continue believing in its success. Her gift of
extra time spent on long hours of text analysis have not gone unnoticed. She has been a
wonderful support in helping me to balance my life and work as well as my interests in
both teaching and research. She understands the depth of my passion for both. She has
become a colleague, friend, and confidant. Thank you, Marilyn.
I also need to thank my friends and colleagues who have provided me with
intellectual as well as emotional support: Anita Volker, Ayanna Baccus, Kim Bobola,
Judy Concha, and Lea Ann Christenson. I truly do not know how I would have finished
without your friendship. Anita, especially, has been a true soul-friend through this
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process. I have bent her ear many times. To my great relief, she always seems to
understand. I also need to acknowledge the hours Judy, Ayanna, and Lea Ann freely
gave to help me score this work.
A special note of thanks to my life-long friend, Judy Knauer, who gave up three
days and let me to subject her to the rigors of text analysis. Her expertise in the biological
sciences allowed me to look at my texts through her “expert’s lens” (Chambliss & Calfee,
1998), affording me a different perspective on this work. I am grateful for the
methodological rigor with which she undertook her task. Her friendship and support have
been also been invaluable on a personal level.
I need to thank the members of my committee for their continued support and
assistance. I have had the opportunity to work with each of you and value those
experiences and opportunities. I also want to thank each member of my committee for
challenging my thinking in a different way. Your collective insights allowed this work to
take flight.
Finally, my love and heartfelt thanks to all of my friends, family, and extended
family for their continued support, encouragement, and understanding. My choices meant
making sacrifices that have directly affected them. My time became limited as this
project progressed. I have missed out on and deprived Zach of days that would otherwise
have been given to him. I apologize to my second Goddaughter, Lauren, for missing so
many of her “firsts” as an infant, and to Cathy and Dave for understanding. I promise not
to miss many more.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables.............................................................................................ix
List of Figures............................................................................................xi
Chapter 1: Statement of the Problem...........................................................1
Systemic Issues and the Struggling Reader...........................................4
Confounding Issues..........................................................................5
Proposed Intervention............................................................................8
Defining Discourse Communities....................................................9
Communicative Competence and Discourse Communities...........10
Genre within the Discourse Community..................................15
Purpose of the Discourse Community for
Adolescent Struggling Readers.....................................................19
Task in Text Through Assisted Performance within the
Discourse Community...........................................................21
Framework: Challenging Task in Appropriate Text......................25
Questions Guiding the Study...............................................................28
The Research Approach.......................................................................28
Definitions............................................................................................30
Overview..............................................................................................34
Chapter 2: Challenging Task in Appropriate Text Framework
Within the Discourse Community...........................................36
Research on Instruction to Increase Reading Performance.................38
Research on Rereading..................................................................39
Early Literacy Research on Rereading....................................39
Rereading and Vocabulary Acquisition...................................43
Cognitive Strategy Acquisition......................................................45
Socially Situated Comprehension Instruction..........................46
Text Structure Instruction........................................................52
Word Study Instruction............................................................57
Relationships Between Readers and Text............................................64
A Model of Text Processing..........................................................64
Readers Processing Text...............................................................68
Elements of Supportive Text.........................................................74
Links to Interest and Background Knowledge.........................75
Sufficient Density of Ideas.......................................................76
Clear Rhetorical Patterns.........................................................78
Clear Signaling Devices...........................................................81
Reading Performance in the Discourse Community............................82
The Role of the Expert...................................................................83
The Role of Task............................................................................86
Research Questions and Hypotheses...................................................88
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Research Questions and Hypotheses for
Investigation: Literacy Growth......................................................88
Research Questions and Hypotheses for
Investigation: Text Structure..........................................................88
Research Questions and Hypotheses for
Investigation: Motivation...............................................................90
Context of this Study...........................................................................90
Chapter 3: Methods....................................................................................93
Participants...........................................................................................94
School-Wide Instruction......................................................................96
Within Groups Selection................................................................98
Tasks Within the Discourse Communities.........................................101
Small Group Reading Classes as Individual
Discourse Communities...............................................................101
Challenging Task in Appropriate Text Framework....................103
Description of Tasks within the Framework................................103
Phase IIIa: After Reading/ Taking Apart the Text.................105
Phase IIIb: After Reading/ Personal Response
Journaling and Discussion.....................................................105
Description of Instruction............................................................106
The Task of Rereading in Appropriate Text..........................107
The Task of Acquiring Cognitive Reading Strategies
In Appropriate text.................................................................112
The Task of Using Text Structure to Construct
Meaning from Appropriate Text............................................119
Instructional Strategies Used.......................................................124
Instructional Fidelity....................................................................124
Text Selection....................................................................................127
Text Analysis...............................................................................133
Accuracy of Classroom Text Analysis........................................135
QRI-3 Text Analysis....................................................................136
Measures............................................................................................136
Investigation Literacy Growth.....................................................136
Support for Use of the QRI-3 as a Measure of Reading Ability..137
QRI-3 Development...............................................................140
Composition and Administration of the QRI-3.....................114
Scoring of the QRI-3 Word Lists...........................................147
Scoring of the QRI-3 Oral Reading Passages........................147
Passage Selection...................................................................149
QRI-3 Text Leveling Control.................................................151
Assigning Scores for the QRI-3.............................................151
Investigation: Text Structure........................................................154
Pre-Post Control Design: Qri-3 Retellings............................154
Within Groups Counterbalanced Design:
Classroom Based Comprehension Assessments....................155
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Scoring Rubric for Locating Structure in
Student Summaries and Retellings........................................156
Using the Retelling and Summary Scoring Rubric
To Assign Scores...................................................................159
Interrater Reliability for QRI-3 Retellings.............................163
Interrater Reliability of CBA Summary Scores.....................164
Evaluating the Content of Student Summaries............................165
Content Word Counts............................................................165
Scoring Content Words..........................................................166
Interrater Reliability for Content Words................................169
Assigning Scores: CBA Multiple Choice Questions.............170
Investigation: Motivation.............................................................170
Motivation for Reading Questionnaire..................................170
MRQ Administration.............................................................172
MRQ Scoring.........................................................................173
Conclusion.........................................................................................174
Chapter 4: Results and Discussion...........................................................175
Investigation Literacy Growth Results..............................................176
Qualitative Reading Inventory-3: Pre-Post Control.....................176
Initial Differences in Groups.......................................................176
Results: Investigation Literacy Growth.......................................180
Analysis of Investigation: Literacy Growth...........................185
Examiner Reliability....................................................................188
Summary: Investigation Literacy Growth...................................189
Results: Investigation Text Structure.................................................190
Analysis of Pre-Post Control QRI-3 Retellings...........................191
Analysis of QRI-3 Retellings.......................................................196
Analysis of Mid-Point QRI-3 from the Within Groups
Counterbalanced Design..............................................................199
Initial Differences in the TS1 and TS 2 Groups..........................199
Analysis of Classroom Based Assessments:
Within Groups Counterbalanced Design.....................................202
Analysis of the Multiple Choice Questions...........................203
Analysis of Student Summaries.............................................211
Analysis of Word Counts.......................................................214
Analysis of Differences Across Gender, and
School Services for all CBA Measures........................................219
Summary: Invesitgation: Text Structure......................................220
Results: Investigation Motivation......................................................221
Differences Among Groups.........................................................221
Analysis of the MRQ...................................................................223
Analysis of Motivation by Gender and School Services.......226
Summary: Investigation Motivation............................................226
Conclusion.........................................................................................226