Abstract
There are students who are able to decode adequately but continue to struggle with reading due to their comprehension. These students need to be provided with targeted instruction to improve their reading comprehension in order to become proficient readers. This thesis research created a practical model for comprehension instruction to be used in a classroom setting. The primary research question was: Will the reading comprehension instruction model be effective for improving reading comprehension of informational text, as evidenced by the students’ ability to summarize expository passages, in third grade students who decode at or above grade-level but have difficulty with comprehension? Sources of Data Data was collected from a total of 11 third grade students from a suburban, Sacramento area elementary school. Students were selected using a profile wherein the students exhibited grade level or above decoding skill, on reading assessments administered at the beginning of the year, but exhibited significantly weaker comprehension skills. Six students were placed in the treatment group and five students were placed in the control group. A pre-test from the Basic Reading Inventory (Johns, 2005) was given to all students in order to measure word-level and passage level decoding skill, as well as the student’s performance on comprehension tasks such as retelling and answering comprehension questions. The instructional model was implemented with the treatment group by the researcher in a small group setting. There were ten model lessons approximately 30 minutes in length. At the conclusion of the lesson series, a post-test (BRI) was administered. Additionally, student work was analyzed and student behaviors were observed to gauge the effectiveness of the instructional model. Conclusions Reached The comparison of the pre and post tests from the treatment and control groups indicated that the comprehension model was effective. The students in the treatment group performed much higher than the control group in terms of the number of information statements included from the passage in their retells.