Faculty Teaching & Learning Academy Research Project

Friday, May 18, 2012

Research Background
Project: to incorporate Reading Apprenticeship (RA) concepts and techniques in the classroom. Goal: to examine the effectiveness of the RA approach in improving students reading comprehension and metacognitive awareness.

About LAHC Faculty

Hale Savard: English Shazia Khan: Developmental Communications (Dev Com)

Data Collection Tools

Pre-Test: an RA CERA with questions consisting of comprehension questions and metacognitive awareness questions. Post-Test: the same CERA with different a different reading passage and poem.

1. In your own words, write a short (one or two sentences) summary of this reading. 2. What kinds of things were happening in your mind as you read this? 3. What part or parts of the reading were confusing or difficult for you, and why? 4. What did you do to help yourself understand the confusing and difficult parts?

Results
Common responses in the pre and posttest: Rereading over and over (#4) Picturing mentally and placing themselves in the situation (#2)

Dev Com 020

Question #1: 12 out of 21 students (57%) made at least a one point improvement. Question #3: 16 out of 21 (76%) made at least a one point improvement.

Dev Com 020: Focus Students

Roberto: What part or parts of the reading were confusing or difficult for you and why?
What was important in the story or the main ideas. (pretest) The last parts when it talks about the man got thrown out of gear by thirty seconds. (posttest)

 Sarah: What kinds of things were happening in your mind as you read this?
I would have to stop and think about what I was reading to make sure I got it all right, and the words were kinda long. I had to rethink what it was (pretest) To find the topic and main idea of the story. I was looking for key sentences or key words to help me remember what I just read. I couldnt find the two details about the earthquake. (posttest)

 April: What part or parts of the reading were confusing or difficult for you, and why?
How some children at the age of 8 dont get no attention by there parent. (Another baby!): pretest) The last sentence because I didnt know what it met by shrewd contrivances of our own.

English 102
18 total students took the pre and post RA assessment In the pre-assessment only 6 found the reading Easy and 12 found it Not too hard In the post-assessment 12 found the reading easy and 6 found it Not too hard

English 102
Using an RA rubric for comprehension and metacognition the student responses to the four RA questions were assesses on a scale of 1 to 4 Overall, when adding all student scores for each question in the pre assessment, the totals were 49, 44, 51, and 49 for questions 1 through 4, respectively When adding student scores for each question in the post assessment, the totals were 68, 60, 61, and 59, respectivelyscores increased across the board.

Research Reflections & Implications

Hale Savard Shazia Khan