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Effects of story mapping upon oral reading fluency of adolescents with learning disabilities
Abstract
In this small-n study, five adolescents identified with learning disabilities participated in a reading instructional program designed to compare the effectiveness of two types of oral reading probes: literature-based probes taken from the novel being read and vocabulary-controlled probes taken from a text with limited vocabulary content, and to analyze the effects of story mapping instruction upon the oral reading fluency of the readers. Three participants received story mapping instruction to assist in comprehension of a novel, while two participants served as controls for the study and received no training in story mapping. Throughout the study, all participants read the novel and demonstrated comprehension of passages read silently through written responses to eight comprehension questions. Participants in the treatment group were taught a self-regulated story mapping strategy to use while reading silently. Upon completion of the reading passage and the story maps, the stories and maps were removed, and the participants independently completed eight written comprehension questions. Participants in the control group were given blank sheets of notepaper to use were reading, then had the notepaper and novel removed while they answered the written questions. Participants in the treatment group were instructed in three phases: (a) Baseline, in which they were given blank story maps to use while reading the day's passage with no instruction regarding the use of the maps; (b) Treatment, in which they were given direct instruction in the use of the self-regulated story mapping strategy; and (c) Maintenance, in which they again received no instruction or guidance in the use of the story maps. Control participants read the novel, but were given no instruction in story mapping. Each session began with the participants completing two oral reading probes individually in a separate room with the researcher. The literature-based probe was taken from the novel being read. The vocabulary-controlled probe was taken from a text designed to be controlled in vocabulary content. Each participant completed 18 literature-based probes and 18 vocabulary-controlled probes throughout the study with the presentation of probe types counter-balanced by session for each participant, and by participant within groups. All participants demonstrated improved performance on the written comprehension questions. Only participants in the experimental group were able to demonstrate improved mean oral reading fluency performance using vocabulary-controlled probes during treatment. Comparison of the two probe types indicated vocabulary-controlled probes may result in more consistent performance by the participants than the literature-based probes, as measured by standard error of estimate of slopes of oral reading fluency. All participants demonstrated improvements in responding to written comprehension questions with no difference between treatment and control groups. It is suggested practice in the use of written comprehension questions may result in gains reading comprehension.
Subject Area
Special education|Literacy|Reading instruction|Secondary education
Recommended Citation
Arthaud, Tamara Jean, "Effects of story mapping upon oral reading fluency of adolescents with learning disabilities" (1998). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9902943.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9902943