Analyzing the Impact of the Interactive White board on Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Reading is both an academic necessity and cross curricular activity. Students who struggle with reading and comprehension experience frustration – not just while in reading group, but also in math trying to decipher their word problems, in language arts when they are reading the shared story, in social studies when they are studying the textbook, and in science when they are reviewing the experiment workbook pages. This thesis project explores the use of an interactive whiteboard to instruct and enhance reading comprehension. A literature review of current best practices, as well as historical modes, of teaching vocabulary, reading, and comprehension, examines specific strategies of instruction, integration within basal reading programs, and the use of multiple strategies to attain the necessary reading comprehension skills. The research studies the implementation and consideration of the use of an interactive whiteboard as a tool to develop creative and engaging educational experiences that foster a desire to read and improve reading comprehension. The project took place in a rural school district in Western New York. The participants in the study consisted of six fifth grade students between the ages of ten and eleven. All six of the students had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and received special education services groups throughout the day for English language arts. The six students were part of two separate inclusion classrooms. The study was conducted during Reading Time every day for an hour over a four week time span. Strategies were taught and applied using both paper-and-pencil tasks and the interactive whiteboard. Data was gathered using student questionnaires and interviews, anecdotal notes, pre-read, during–reading, and post-read assessments, along with comprehension assessments of the books covered during the course of the study. After implementing four reading lessons, data collection and analysis, the conclusions drawn indicate that using the interactive whiteboard did not change students' reading comprehension scores based on the assessments given.