Developing Internet Comprehension Strategies Among Poor, Adolescent Students At Risk to Become Dropouts
A Major Reading Comprehension Research Grant Initiative Funded by the U. S. Department of Education, Institute of Educational Science
David Reinking
Eugene T. Moore Professor of Teacher Education
Clemson University
Phone: (864) 656-0565
email:
Donald J. Leu,
John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology
Julie Coiro, Jill Castek, and Laurie Henry
University of Connecticut
The New Literacies Research Team at the University of Connecticut
860-486-0202
AbstractExecutive Summary
The Proposed Intervention.
We seek to prepare poor, low achieving, adolescent youth for the challenges of reading comprehension in an age of online information through research-based instruction. Improving reading comprehension among poor, low-achieving adolescent youth is a critical national issue. We propose towill adapt reciprocal teaching, a widely used instructional comprehension strategy, to Internet texts and the new comprehension strategiesskills they require for reading and comprehending. This adaptation will be carefully developed and studied within an important population for our nation. We will investigate how thisa research-based intervention modelmay be used to promote high levels of reading comprehension and increase, both online and offline, academic performanceachievement , and interest in school. Improving reading comprehension among poor, low-achieving adolescent youth is a critical national issue. Adolescent youth who are challenged by reading comprehension today are likely to be left out of an information age tomorrow. Understanding how best to teach comprehension while reading on the Internet, especially for our target population, is an issue that is central to our future, yet surprisingly undeveloped as an area of research.
The Population From Which the Participants Will be Sampled
. Schools will be selected on the basis of their commitment to the project. The population will include approximately 300,, 7th-grade students in largely minority urban school districts in Connecticut and rural districts in South Carolina and Connecticut. Our target population includes students with lower levels of reading comprehension. Classes will be sampled from among those in schools with the highest percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch.
Classes will be sampled from among those in schools with the lowest levels of reading comprehension, the highest percentage of minority students, and the highest percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch, which are all indicators of students at risk of dropping out of school.
The Proposed Research Methods.
In Year 1: Survey of we will survey Internet use among students in our target population
Closely observe 50 skilled Internet readers to identify central skills and strategies
Pilot test and video tape lessons using Internet Recipropcal Teaching in several classrooms
Year 2: Summer workshop with 7th grade teachers
· Pilot test a survey with 6th and 8th grade students
· Survey Internet use among 7th grade students
· Observe and interview 50 proficient Internet readers to identify central skills and strategies
· Pilot test and video tape lessons using Internet Reciprocal Teaching in several classrooms
· Conduct a sSummer workshop with 7th grade teachers (Summer 2006)
· Use data from Year 1 to select new schools for Years 2-3years two and three
Timeline 2005-2006
Aug./Sept. Permission letters go out to parents
Sept. Permission letters returned and collected
Meetings with school districts and teachers who wish to participate in this project
Oct. 10/1- Pilot online survey, 6th & 8th grade students (at least 75 in each grade from SC schools)
Nov./Dec. Introduce Internet Reciprocal Teaching to teachers
12/12-12/16 Administer online survey to 7th graders (at least 750 in Uupstate SC)
Jan. Answer questions and work with teachers on Internet Reciprocal Teaching
Feb. 2/6-2/10 Pilot student Internet essential skills experiment
Interview students
2/13-2/28 Complete student Internet essential skills experiment
Interview students (maximum 20 students per school)
Focus group with participating students and teachers
June Professional Development 2 day workshop for teachers
Formative experiments to identify the most effective instructional practices with Internet Reciprocal Teaching
Year 3: Summer workshop with 7th grade teachers
Formal experiment with treatment and control conditions (random assignment to treatment conditions)
to identify relatively high-volume and skilled Internet readers. We also will gather and analyze verbal protocols among this subset of readers as they read online in a common activity. This information will clarify the declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge required to locate, critically evaluate, synthesize, and communicate information from texts on the Internet and will provide a knowledge base for developing relevant and effective instructional strategies. Years 2 and 3 will investigate how reciprocal teaching of online reading comprehension strategies may be adapted for use with Internet projects to increase comprehension and engagement with academic texts online. We will also study how, and under what conditions, this increase transfers to offline texts. During Year 2 we will conduct a design experiment to determine factors that enhance and inhibit the intervention’s effectiveness and how it may need to be adapted to address those factors within diverse classrooms and schools. In Year 3 we will conduct a conventional experiment with treatment and control groups and will analyze data using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). This experiment will study the effects of the treatment on comprehension in both online and offline contexts, engagement in reading, level of academic performance, and
interest in school.
Major Objectives and Commitments for Participating participating in the U.S. Department of Education Reading Comprehension Grant during year one:
Year 1 [2005-2006]
Fall
· Parental Permissions
· Conduct online survey with all 7th grade students (40 minutes)
Spring
· Parental Permissions
· Closely observe 50 skilled Internet readers during online reading (2 hours each)
· Teach pilot online reading comprehension lessons to small groups and video record the lessons (approximately 10 - 20 lessons) / · Full support for parental permission process and online student survey
· Access to computers for administering surveys
· Access to a location to work individually with students from Jan-June (e.g., reserved computer lab with Internet access andwith space to work)
· Permission to pilot and videotape select classrooms
· Willingness of classroom teachers to work together with researchers to explore ways of strengthening Internet Reciprocal Teaching model. (This may involve reading about & discussing the instructional models, viewing & discussing short videos, engaging in dialogue, and joint planning to best implement the instructional models with researcher support.
Year 2 [2006-2007]
Summer
· Workshop with 7th grade 7th grade Language Arts teachers (3-5 days)3-5 days
Fall-Spring
· Gather baseline data
· Systematically refine classroom procedures to improve reading comprehension
· Gather post assessment data.
· Video tape lessons / · Full support for parental permission process
· Full participation from 7th grade language arts teachers 7th grade teache7th rs7 and key faculty members for planning meeting in the summer for 3-5 days
· Willingness to have all participating students take standardized test in Fall and Spring of 7th grade
· Access to standardized test scores and other demographic data
· Willingness of classrooms teachers to flexibly work together with researchers during this 8 month exploratory and iterative process of pilot interventions and refinement of instructional models. This may involve reading about & discussing the instructional models, viewing & discussing short videos, engaging in dialogue and joint planning to best implement the instructional models with the support of the researchers.
· Student access to search engines (e.g., Google), interactive websites (technical support to open filter for selected sites with short notice), and opportunities for online communication (e.g., email, weblogs, discussion boards, IM with researchers)
Yearly Grant Activities / School/Administrator/Teacher Commitments
Year 3 [2007-2008]
Summer
· Workshop with 7th grade Language Arts teachers 3-5 daysWorkshop with 7th grade teachers (3-5 days)
Fall-Spring
· Conduct experiment with select classrooms to evaluate the effects of Internet reciprocal teaching designed to increase reading comprehension and knowledge of effective comprehension strategies.
· Gather baseline data
· Randomly assign classrooms to one of three conditions: control group, tele-collaborative projects, and tele-collaborative projects plus Internet reciprocal teaching
· Collect demographic and baseline data on students
· Researchers team with classroom teachers to teach two Internet reciprocal lessons each week. First half of the year focuses on locating and evaluating information; the second half of the year focuses on synthesizing and communicating information.
· Gather post assessment data
· Video tape lessons / · Full support for parental permission process.
· Full participation from 7th grade teachers 7th grade language arts activities and key faculty members for planning meeting in the summer for 3-5 days
· Teacher’s agreement to participate as expected in whatever treatment group the classroom is randomly assigned for the entire study
· Willingness to have all participating students take standardized test in Fall and Spring of 7th grade
· Access to standardized test scores and other demographic data for students
· Willingness of classroom teachers to flexibly work and teach with researchers 2 days/week during this 8-month experiment. This may involve reading about & discussing the instructional models, viewing & discussing short videos, engaging in dialogue and joint planning to best implement the instructional models with the support of the researchers.
· Willingness to teach, with support, in ways that may be unfamiliar or uncomfortable initially (moving from a more teacher centered to a more student centered classroom)
· Student access to search engines (e.g., Google), interactive websites (technical support to open filter for selected sites with short notice), and opportunities for online communication (e.g., email, weblogs, discussion boards, IM with researchers)
· Support for parental permission process and online student survey
· Access to computers for administering surveys
· Class time for completion of surveys (40 minutes)
· Class time to work individually with up to 20 students (1 hour)
· Access to a location to work individually with students from Jan-June (e.g., reserved computer lab with Internet access and space to work)
· Permission to videotape select classrooms
· Willingness of classroom teachers to work together with researchers to explore ways of strengthening Internet Reciprocal Teaching model. (This may involve reading about and discussing the instructional models, viewing & discussing short videos, engaging in dialogue, and joint planning to best implement the instructional models with researcher support.)
Benefits of participating in the U.S. Department of Education Reading Comprehension Grant during year one:
· Positive publicity for school
· Increased interest and motivation regarding reading comprehension
· Increased awareness of Internet use and informed integration into teachingGood publicity
· Shared data on student Internet use that may be useful in instructional planning
· Responds to the requirements of No Child Left Behind- Enhancing Education Through Technology Act of 2001—“to improve student academic achievement through the use of technology in elementary schools and secondary schools.”
· Responds to the principles of Reading Next-The Alliance for Excellent Education Principle 8: “A technology component, which includes technology as a tool for and a topic of literacy Instruction.”
· Goal- Based Evaluation possibilitiess and professional development units for teachers
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