The purpose of the study was to determine if the pre- and postquestioning and discussion portions of the directed reading activity (DRA) could improve comprehension when stories were read to kindergarten children. Questioning and discussion focused on the structure of stories as well as traditional (literal, inferential, and critical) questioning and discussion were investigated. The stories were read to children using the DRA format of pre- and postquestioning and discussion. Story structure treatment groups (N = 73) received structural questions and discussion; traditional treatment groups (N = 64) received traditional comprehension questions and discussion; and the combined treatment groups (N = 57) received a combination of both. The control groups (N = 60) heard stories with no pre- or postquestions or discussion. The results indicated that the use of the DRA when reading stories to children significantly improved comprehension. Traditional and structural treatment groups each significantly improved performance on traditional and structural questions, respectively. Each treatment also had a small positive effect on children's ability to answer the other type of question. The combined treatment group made the greatest gains. When differences occurred between achievement levels within the treatment groups, it was the high and middle achievers whose scores increased. None of the treatments significantly increased performance of the low achievers.
References
1.
AndersonR. C. (1978). Schema directed responses in language comprehension. In LesgoldA.PellegrinaJ.FokkemoS.GlaserR. (Eds.), Cognitive psychology and instruction (pp. 67–82). New York: Plenum Press.
2.
ApplebeeA. N. (1978). A child's concept of story. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
3.
AusubelD. (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
4.
BissettD. (1970). The usefulness of children's books in the reading program. In CattersonJ. (Ed.), Children and literature (pp. 73–80). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
5.
BloomB. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Handbook 1: Cognitive domain. New York: McKay.
6.
BowerG. (1976). Experiments on story understanding and recall. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 28, 511–534.
7.
BowmanM. (1981). The effects of story structure questioning upon reading comprehension. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association's Convention.
8.
BrownA. (1975). Recognition, reconstruction, and recall of narrative sequences of preoperational children. Child Development, 46, 156–166.
9.
CampbellD.CampbellT. (1976). Effects of live and recorded story telling on retelling performance of preschool children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Psychology in the Schools, 13, 201–204.
10.
ChomskyC. (1972). Stages in language development and reading exposure. Harvard Educational Review, 42, 1–33.
11.
CohenD. (1968). The effect of literature on vocabulary and reading achievement. Elementary English, 45, 209–213, 217.
12.
CrowellD.AuK. (1979). Using a scale of questions to improve listening comprehension. Language Arts, 56, 38–43.
13.
DanfordH. (1973). The effect of purposeful reading upon comprehension of and interest in social studies materials. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.
14.
DreherM. J.SingerH. (1980). Story grammar instruction unnecessary for intermediate grade students. The Reading Teacher, 34, 261–268.
15.
DurkinD. (1966). Children who read early: Two longitudinal studies. New York: Teachers College Press.
16.
FelkerD.DapraR. (1975). Effects of question type and question placement on problem solving ability from prose material. Journal of Educational Psychology, 67, 380–384.
17.
GordonC.BraunC. (1982). Story schemata: Metatextual aid to reading and writing. In NilesJ. A.HarrisL. A. (Eds.), New inquiries in reading research and instruction (pp. 261–268). Rochester, NY: National Reading Conference.
18.
GuszakF. (1967). Teacher questioning and reading. The Reading Teacher, 21, 227–234.
19.
HansenJ. (1981). An inferential comprehension strategy for use with primary grade children. The Reading Teacher, 34, 665–669.
20.
HaringM.FryM. (1979). Effect of pictures on children's comprehension of written text. Educational Communication Technology Journal, 27, 185–190.
21.
HerberH. (1978). Teaching reading in the content areas. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
22.
HuckC. S. (1976). Children's literature in the elementary school (3rd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
23.
LammeL. (1981). Learning to love literature: Preschool through grade 3. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
24.
LanierR.DavisA. (1972). Developing comprehension through teacher-made questions. The Reading Teacher, 26, 153–157.
25.
MandlerJ.JohnsonM. (1977). Remembrance of things parsed: Story structure and recall. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 111–151.
26.
MarkleG.CapieW. (1976). The effect of the position of inserted questions on learning from an activity centered science module. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 13, 167–170.
27.
McConaughyS. H. (1980). Using story structure in the classroom. Language Arts, 57, 157–164.
28.
McConaughyS. H. (1982). Developmental changes in story comprehension and levels of questioning. Language Arts, 59, 580–589.
29.
McGrawB.GroteleuschenA. (1972). Direction of the effect of questions in prose materials. Journal of Educational Psychology, 63, 580–588.
30.
MorrowL. (1982). Relationships between literature programs, library corner designs, and children's use of literature. Journal of Educational Research, 75, 339–344.
31.
PearsonP. D.HansenJ.GordonC. (1979). Effects of background knowledge on young children's comprehension of explicit and implicit information. Journal of Reading Behavior, 11, 201–209.
32.
PengC.LevinJ. (1979). Pictures and children's story recall: Some questions of durability. Educational Communication Technology Journal, 27, 39–44.
33.
RichardsJ. (1979). Adjunct postquestions in text: A critical review of methods and processes. Review of Educational Research, 49, 181–196.
34.
RumelhartD. (1975). Notes on a schema for stories. In BobrowD.CollinsA. (Eds.), Representation and understanding: Studies in cognitive science (pp. 211–236). New York: Academic Press, Inc.
35.
SadowM. (1982). The use of story grammar in the design of questions. The Reading Teacher, 35, 518–521.
36.
SchwartzE.SheffA. (1975). Student involvement in questioning for comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 29, 150–154.
37.
SingerH. (1978). Active comprehension: From answering to asking questions. The Reading Teacher, 31, 901–908.
38.
SpiegelD.WhaleyJ. (1980). Elevating comprehension skills by sensitizing students to structural aspects of narratives. Paper presented at the National Reading Conference, San Diego.
39.
SpiroR.BruceB.BrewerW. (Eds.). (1980). Theoretical issues in reading comprehension: Perspectives from cognitive psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and education. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawerence Erlbaum Associates.
40.
StaufferR.CramerR. (1977). Teaching critical reading at the primary level. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
41.
SteinN. (1979). How children understand stories: A developmental analysis. In KatzL. (Ed.), Current topics in early childhood education (Vol. 2, pp. 261–290). Norwood, N J: Ablex.
42.
SteinN.GlennC. (1979). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children. In FreedleR. (Ed.), New directions in discourse processing (Vol. 2, pp. 53–120). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
43.
ThorndykeP. (1977). Cognitive structures in comprehension and memory of narrative discourse. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 77–110.
44.
TuinmanJ. (1980). The schema schemers. Journal of Reading, 23, 414–419.
45.
WetstoneH.FriedlanderB. (1974). Effects of live, t.v., and audio story narration on primary grade children's listening comprehension. The Journal of Educational Research, 68, 32–35.
46.
WhaleyJ. (1981). Readers expectations for story structure. Reading Research Quarterly, 17, 90–114.
47.
WiesendangerK.WollenbergJ. (1978). Prequestioning inhibits third graders' reading comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 31, 892–895.
48.
WinerB. J. (1971). Statistical principals in experimental design. New York: McGraw-Hill.
49.
WolfW.HuckC.KingM. (1967). Critical reading ability of elementary school children. U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Project No. 4.
