The Influence of Visualization on Fifth Grade Students' Comprehension

Abstract

This quantitative research study was conducted to see what effect teaching fifth grade students techniques on how to visualize before they read would have on their comprehension. Twenty fifth-grade students from a heterogeneous elementary class in a suburb of Western New York were part of the study. Each student was given an individual copy of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in class. During this five-week period, the students independently read the chapters assigned to them. They then received either a standard lesson and cloze test or a visualization lesson and cloze test directly following each chapter. The data gathered from the cloze comprehension tests were analyzed and calculated by the instructor. A t-test was used and determined that the chapters with direct instruction in visualizing did have a statistically significant effect on student comprehension. Implications for further research include the possibility to conduct this same study on another literature piece of a different genre and to interview the students at various stages through the visualizing training process. Another possibility would be to perform this study with middle school and high school students.