ERIC ED362853: Teachers' First Year of Transactional Strategies Instruction. Reading Research Report No. 5.

32 Pages·1993·0.79 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
CS 011 449
ED 362 853
El-Dinary, Pamela Beard; Schuder, Ted
AUTHOR
Teachers' First Year of Transactional Strategies
TITLE
Instruction. Reading Research Report No. 5.
National Reading Research Center, Athens, GA.;
INSTITUTION
National Reading Research Center, College Park,
MD.
Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED),
SPONS AGENCY
Washington, DC.
PUB DATE
93
117A20007
CONTRACT
NOTE
33p.
Research/Technical (143)
Reports
PUB TYPE
14F01/12CO2 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Elementary Education; Inservice Teacher Education;
DESCRIPTORS
Program Effectiveness; *Reading Instruction; Reading
Research; *Teacher Attitudes; *Teacher Response;
Teaching Methods; Teaching Styles
*Transactional Strategies Instruction
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
Two studies examined seven teachers' acceptance of a
strategies-based approach to reading instruction during their first
observations revealed
year of using the intervention. Interviews and
that the intervention, a long-term transactional strategies
instruction program called SAIL (Students Achieving Independent
Learning), was fully acceptable to only two of the seven teachers.
Issues that influenced acceptability included professional
development support and teacher choice. Recommendations that could
lead to greater acceptance of transactional strategies instruction by
teachers using it for the first time are offered. Briefly, teachers
need: several years of professional development; a safe, supportive
school environment; explanations and modeling of what good strategy
teachers do; and encouragement and support from program developers.
(Two tables of data are included and 14 questionnaire items relevant
to acceptability are appended. Contains 61 references.)
(Author/RS)
***********************************************************************
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
***********************************************************************
Teachers' First Year of
Transactional Strategies Instruction
Pamela Beard El-Dinary
Georgetown University
Ted Winder
Maryland State Department of Education
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
0--
Office ot Educahonal Research and Improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
AThis document has been reprOduced as
receved I rorn the person or orgarfizatmn
ongrnafing .1
f 1 Minor changes have been made to rmprove
reproduction quality
Pougs ol vretv or opinions stated tn thtsdocu.
ment do not necessarily represent official
OE RI posfion or poficy
National
NRRC
Reading Research
Center
READING RESEARCH REPORT NO. 5
Fall 1993
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
2
NRRC
National Reading Research Center
Teachers' First Year of
Transactional Strategies Instruction
Pamela Beard El-Dinary
Georgetown University Language Research Projects
Ted Schuder
Maryland State Department of Education
READING RESEARCH REPORT NO. 5
Fall 1993
Reading
The work reported herein was prepared with partial support from the National
Research Center of the University of Georgia and University of Maryland. It was supported
NO.
under the Educational Research and Development Centers Program (PR/AWARD
U.S.
117A20007) as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement,
necessarily reflect
Department of Education. The findings and opinions expressed here do not
Educational
the position or policies of the National Reading Research Center, the Office of
Research and Improvement, or the U.S. Department of Education.
3
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About the Authors
Ted Schuder works for the Maryland State Dcpartment
Pamela Beard EI-Dinary is Senior Research Analyst at
of Education's Division of Instruction. While serving
Georgetown University Language Research Projects.
Her current research focus is the use of strategies
in the Montgomery County Public Schools' Office of
an integrated
at
the
Skills, he developed
Academic
for
language learning
instruction
foreign
reading/language arts curriculum for grades K-8. For
She also
elementary school through college levels.
the past eight years he has worked on the use of
serves as Adjunct Professor of Educational Psychology
meaning-centered
instruction
at Trinity College, Washington, D.C. She received her
strategies-based
in
curricula, while exploring the application of interactive
B.A. in teacher education from Purdue University and
her M.A.
video to staff development. Previously he worked for
from the
psychology
in
educational
the New York State Department of Education, where he
University of Georgia. She received her doctorate from
theory-based
reading
developed
the University of Maryland in August 1993, under the
designed
and
comprehension assessments. He has more than twenty
advisement of Michael Pressley. Her research efforts
and teaching are directed toward helping students
years' experience in designing instructional programs
become self-regulated learners through strategies use
and criterion referenced assessments.
and modeling.
National steading Research Center
Universities of Georgia and Maryland
Reading Research Report No. 5
Fall 1993
Teachers' First Year of Transactional Strategies Instruction
Pamela Beard El-Dinary
Georgetown University Language Research Projeas
Ted Schuder
Maryland State Department of Education
proach, students and teachers use cognitive
Abstract. In two studies we examined 7 teachers'
acceptance of a strategies-based approach to
strategies to make meaning as they transact
reading instruction during their first year of
with texts (by reading) and with each other (in
using the intervention. Interviews and observa-
Transactional strategies
group discussion).
flow revealed that the intervention, transactional
instruction occurs on-line as the teacher and
as fully acceptable to
strategies instruction,
students transact with authentic texts.
only 2 of 7 teachers. We discuss issues that influ-
The instruction is transactional in at least
enced acceptability, including professional devel-
First, what happens during
three senses.
opment support and teacher choice, and we
reading group is co-determined by the students
make recommendations that could lead to greater
and teacher (Bell, 1968; Bjorklund, 1989, pp.
acceptance of transactional strategies instruction
228-231; Sameroff, 1975). That is, rather than
by teachers using it for the first time.
the teacher pre-determining the direction in
which the lesson will proceed, group members
transact with one another as they read a text.
Transactional strategies instruction is an ap-
Thus transactional strategies instruction takes
proach to teaching reading that has been creat-
advantage of "teachable moments" when dis-
ed in real schools and that is based on cognitive
theory and research (see also Pressley, El-
cussion of strategic processing would be appro-
The primay goal of
Dinary, et al., 1992).
priate.
transactional strategies instruction is to aid
Second, interpretations are co-determined
as students and teachers transact with text
students and teachers in making meaning from
Rosenblatt's reader
In reading lessons based on this ap-
(e.g., Rosenblatt, 1978).
text.
1
9
Pamela Beard El-Dinary ct Ted Schuder
2
ment the Montgomery County (Maryland)
response theory asserts that meaning lies not
Public Schools language arts curriculum. Ted
only in the text, nor only in the reader's mind,
but in the transactions between the reader's
Schuder and his colleagues developed Mont-
background knowledge and the information
gomery County's meaning-centered curriculum
provided by the text.
for reading, writing, speaking, and thinking
Consistent with this
(Schuder, 1986). The Montgomery County
view, students in transactional strategies in-
struction reading groups learn how to use their
thoroughly
constructivist
curriculum
is
(Bransford, Barclay, & Franks, 1972; Spiro,
background experiences and knowledge of the
1980) in both principle and practice. In read-
in conjunction with effective thought
world
ing, for example, the curriculum emphasizes
processes and strategies
when reading a text.
For example, the students learn to relate their
the vital roles of background knowledge (An-
derson, Reynolds, Schallert, & Goetz, 1977;
knowledge and experiences to the content of
Bransford & Johnson, 1972), inference (Col-
the text.
lins, Brown, & Larkin, 1980; Frederiksen,
Third, the meaning created through student-
1975; Hansen & Pearson,
1983; Warren,
teacher-text transactions is different from the
Nicholas, & Trabasso, 1979), text structure
meaning any group member would have creat-
(Mandler & Johnson, 1977; Meyer, 1975), and
ed alone, which is consistent with organization-
al psychology research on group problem-
pragmatic context (Morgan & Green, 1980) in
constructing an interpretation of discourse.
solving (e.g., Hutchins, 1991; Wegner, 1987).
It is expected that students will learn about
The reading component also emphasizes in-
reading through the interpretations and mod-
struction in genuine children's literature rather
than texts created expressly for teaching read-
eled mental processes of other group members.
It is also expected, based on Vygotsky's (1978)
ing.
view that higher psychological functions have
The Montgomery County SAIL Program
social origins (Day, Cordon, & Kerwin, 1989),
that years of transactions involving prediction,
The intervention presented to teachers in this
questioning, clarification, visualization, associ-
ation, and summarization will produce inde- study was a prototype of transactional strate-
gies instruction that Janet L. Bergman and Ted
pendent, successful readers who engage in such
processes on their own (see Bergman &
Schuder created as an instructional supplement
for presenting Montgomery County's regular
Schuder, 1992, and Pressley, El-Dinary, et al.,
reading and language arts curriculum.
This
1992, for details and elaboration).
prototype, called Students Achieving Indepen-
The Montgomery County
dent Learning or SAIL (Bergman & Schuder,
1992), is a long-term strategies instruction
Language Arts Curriculum
program designed to give at-risk students better
access to the curriculum described above.
In this paper, we report on teachers' responses
Schuder and Bergman designed SAIL to be
to an intervention that was developed to supple-
NATIONAL READING RESEARCH CENTER, READING RESEARCH REPORT NO. 5
1 0