The Effects of Story Previews on the Reading Comprehension of Ninth Grade Students

Abstract

This study examined the effects of story previews on fifty ninth grade students from a public high school in Western New York. The students were divided into two groups: Group A and Group B. In Phase I of the study, students in Group A received the preview treatment, while students in Group B received the treatment without the preview. In Phase II of the study, students in Group B received the treatment with the preview, and students in Group A received the treatment without the preview. Materials included two potentially difficult short stories, two teacher-made previews, and two teacher-made multiple choice posttests. In both phases of the study, a t-test of independent means at the .05 level of significance was used to determine the effects of the previews. The results revealed that the story previews significantly increased students' comprehension. These findings, consistent with previous research, support the claim that previews facilitate comprehension of text by activating or building background knowledge/schemata.