An Investigation and Comparison of the Reading Comprehension Strategies of Remedial Readers Designated for a PSEN Program and Readers Not Designated for PSEN

Abstract

The comprehension strategies of ten remedial readers selected for a PSEN program and ten randomly selected non-remedial readers were studied to see if and how comprehension strategies differed for good and poor readers. The subjects were tested individually using the Thinking-Out-Loud (TOL) procedure and instructed to read a story sentence by sentence. Instructions, with minimal guidelines, were given to each subject to read each sentence and discuss thoughts occurring before proceeding to the next sentence. Responses for the two groups were tabulated, analyzed and categorized separately according to the type of response given and then compared and contrasted with each other. Differences between the groups were found in the total number of elaborations for all categories and the total number of each category. Total overall elaborations were higher for the good readers than for the poor readers. Good readers gave a significantly higher number of responses in all categories except three. Good readers generally gave more responses in categories requiring higher level thinking skills. The three categories which ranked higher in response level for the poor readers were categories requiring a lower-level of reading skill. The results indicated that good readers approach the reading task differently than poor readers and are able to use comprehension strategies more effectively. Recommendations for classroom applications and suggestions for future research were given.