IMPROVING TEXTBOOK READING IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL

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IMPROVING TEXTBOOK READING IN A MIDDLESCHOOL SCIENCE CLASSROOMRICH RADCLIFFE, DAVID CAVERLY, CYNTHIA PETERSONSouthwest Texas State UniversityMATT EMMONSPrairie Lea Independent School DistrictIneffective approaches for teaching with print may prevent textbook reading from being a useful learning resource in middleschool. University faculty mentored a middle school scienceteacher as he implemented a textbook study-reading approach,PLAN (Caverly, Mandeville & Nicholson, 1995), in 2 classes(n 33). PLAN orchestrates 4 strategies through student-createdmapping. After 3 months of strategy use, students gained in aself-report of strategic reading and in comprehension as reflected by maps. Post-assessment interviews revealed that the teacherhad changed his instructional routine, moving through stages ofstrategy awareness, understanding, and adaptation. The teacherchanged his expectation that students would complete textbookreading and that it increased student learning. The studentschanged their expectation that they could read and learn from thetextbook.Although educators have long debatedthe role of the textbook for learning, inmiddle school the science textbook appearsto be an important learning resource.According to the National Assessment ofEducational Progress (2000), 80% ofeighth grade science teachers reportedusing the textbook regularly. It may playa stronger instructional role in the classroom when student prior knowledge or theteacher's relative familiarity with the topicis low (Driscoll, Moallem, Dick, & Kirby,1994).Weaknesses in textbook content andineffective approaches for teaching withprint may prevent textbook reading frombeing effective. The American Association for the Advancement of Science(2002) reported that science textbooks doa poor job of following standards-basedprinciples for concept learning, a reasonscience teachers might avoid assigningtextbook reading. In a case study of a middle school science classroom (Driscoll, etal., 1994), the teacher presented textbookreading as the learning option for "bookpeople," a style claimed by few studentsaccording to the study results. In this classroom other sources of learning, such ashands-on activities, seemed more valued.The textbook was used for definitionallevel learning while hands-on activitieswere used for problem solving. The students' low average score (59%) on a unittest of facts and vocabulary suggested thatusing the textbook as a dictionary was noteffective.To address some of these issues, Haury(2000) recommended that science teachers help students adopt a purposive stanceand a questioning attitude for textbookreading. This stance and attitude can beoperationalized in the classroom as strategies for content area reading.145

146/Reading ImprovementThe Effectiveness of Reading StrategyInstructionA substantial body of research documents the effectiveness of strategic readinginstruction for middle school students ontheir comprehension of text (Trabasso &Bouchard, 2002). Explicit strategiesprompt students to engage their priorknowledge and to monitor their comprehension. Despite evidence of theeffectiveness of these strategies, a numberof studies (reviewed by Pressley, 2002)report that few teachers use them in theirinstruction. To change their instructionalroutines, teachers likely need added support.Teachers looking to follow Haury's(2000) recommendation for the scienceclassroom will find little research to recommend the most popular strategy specificto study-reading with textbooks, SQ3R, asit has not shown advantages over traditional studying or students' existingapproaches (Graham, 1982). A newer strategy for comprehending and studyingtextbooks called PLAN has been demonstrated to be effective with middle schoolstudents (Caverly, Mandeville, & Nicholson, 1995). It orchestrates a repertoire ofstrategies that have been validated withupper elementary and middle school students: relating the text to prior knowledge,questioning, summarizing (Pressley, Johnson, Symons, McGoldrick, & Kurikta,1989), and using imagery and setting apurpose for reading (Brown, 2002). Specifically, PLAN begins with an assessmentof the reading task demand, such as taking a chapter test or writing a paper. Withthe task for reading in mind, students predict (P) the content of the text and constructa tentative map; locate (L) on the map whatis known by placing checkmarks and whatis not known by placing question marks;add (A) notes during the reading of thetextbook to confirm checkmarks and toaddress the question marks, and note (N)a re-formulated understanding by revisingthe map, writing a summary, or performing any other task that might be alignedwith the purposes for reading. In utilizingmapping, PLAN improves upon otherstrategic approaches to textbook reading.The value of student construction of concept maps has been well documented forthe science classroom (Al-Kunified &Wandersee, 1990).The purpose of this research was toexamine the effects of introducing thePLAN study-reading strategy into two middle school science classrooms taught byone of the authors of this study [Caverly],a middle school science teacher subsequently referred to as the teacher. First, weasked how this middle school scienceteacher would change his instruction overa school year as he was mentored in teaching with the PLAN strategy. Second, weasked whether his students were able tolearn using PLAN. Finally, we wanted toknow how students perceived their use ofthe strategy.MethodsThe study followed a single-grouppretest-posttest design that included multiple post assessments. This multiplepost-test approach was used to strengthenthe single-group design and because weexpected a time delay between implementing the strategic reading strategiesand generating benefits.

Improving Textbook Reading./147false, and matching questions. The purParticipants were the science teacher pose of the tests was to assess students'from a small, rural middle school and the comprehension of the textbook chapters.fifteen seventh-grade and eighteen eighthConcept Maps. The students createdgrade students in his two science classes. concept maps based upon the science chapThe teacher held a master's degree in biol- ters that they were reading. These pretestogy and had more than three years of and posttest assessments provided a secondteaching experience. As the only science measure of reading comprehension andteacher for the school, he taught the same revealed information about the students'students for both fall and spring semesters. reading processes. The rubric to score theseStudents' scores on the district's recently maps (see Appendix) was adapted fromadministered STAR test of reading ability one developed by Stoddart, Abrams, Gas(Advantage Learning Systems, 1998) indi- par, and Canaday (2000).Reading Strategy Checklist. We adaptcated mixed ability classes. Four studentseda checklist developed by a colleaguewho scored third grade or below on theSTAR test were eliminated from the data who had used it for many semesters withanalyses, as they lacked basic decoding developmental college readers. Ten trueskills. The 29 students included in the false questions asked students about whichanalyses were categorized in roughly equal strategies they used for reading a textbookgroups by gender and ethnicity (Anglo and chapter and for monitoring comprehensionHispanic, though a few students were Afro- (see Appendix).Field Notes. A notebook documentedAmerican).the conversations with the teacher andobservations held throughout the nineData SourcesThree instruments were administered months of the study.before and after four weeks of PLANTeacher and Student Interviews. Theinstruction by the teacher: (a) reading com- teacher and four of the students were interprehension tests, (b) reading strategy viewed nine months after the teacherchecklists, (c) student-created concept introduced the PLAN strategy into themaps. After nine months of strategy imple- classroom. Using parallel sets of 12 openmentation, semi-structured interviews of ended questions, one of us (who had notthe teacher and students were conducted worked with the teacher during the nineand transcribed.months) conducted an hour-long interviewTextbook Chapter Reading Compre- with the teacher while another of us conhension Tests. The teacher followed his ducted shorter, individual interviews withregular instructional routine for creating the students. The teacher selected thesechapter tests by selecting six questions from students because their performance fell inthe textbook publisher's test bank. The test the middle of the range of student perforfor one chapter served as the pretest and a mance in the classes. These students weretest for a different chapter was the posttest. very willing to be interviewed. QuestionsEach test balanced multiple choice, true- to the teacher focused on his expectationsParticipants

148/Reading Improvementof students and his instructional routines.Questions to the students focused on theirexpectations of the textbook and their perceptions of learning from it. Thetranscriptions of the taped interviews wereanalyzed using a constant comparativemethod for identifying themes.and eighth-grade science classes throughthe following major steps (a) PLAN wasintroduced as a new way for students "toread hard material in the science textbook",(b) the teacher illustrated how to createconcept maps on the board, (c) the studentscreated concept maps in groups and thenindividually, and (d) the students individually completed the four steps in the PLANProceduresThe study proceeded in three phases: strategy based on content in their science(a) a preparation phase during which the textbook. The instruction followed Pearsonteacher gained strategy awareness; (b) an and Gallagher's (1983) steps of explicitimplementation phase during which the instruction, by modeling the strategy forteacher gained contextual strategy knowl- students, providing scaffolding duringedge, and (c) an adaptation phase during guided practice, and structuring time forwhich the teacher gained strategy control. independent strategy use for students toPreparation. The teacher had complet- internalize the processes.ed a summer graduate course taught by oneAdaptation. In the spring semester, theof us (Peterson) that focused on integrat- teacher did not meet with the mentors, buting reading strategies into content area remained in email contact. At this point, theteaching. The course included the model- teacher focused on integrating PLAN intoing of specific comprehension strategies his instructional routine and on promotingfor content learning and practice by class in students the idea of adapating it to be anmembers in small groups. PLAN for study- individual "plan" for strategic textbookreading was modeled during one class reading.session and practiced by students using achapter from the course textbook. AfterFindingsexpressing interest in trying out the PLANstrategy in his classroom, the teacher was Changes in the Teacher's Perception of theinvited to participate in this study.TextbookThe field notes recorded the teacher'sImplementation. During three monthsof the fall semester, the teacher met week- perceptions of textbook readings. Beforely, a total of over 15 hours, with two of us his participation in the study, the teacher(Caverly and Radcliffe) subsequently doubted the effectiveness of textbooks forreferred to as the mentors. During the meet- science learning. His own experience hadings, the mentors and the teacher held not been positive: "When I was in schoolin-depth discussions of the processes of the word textbook was like a four letterstrategic textbook reading and the chal- word" and he did not know how to teachlenges of implementing it in a middle well with the it: "I hadn't realized that Ischool classroom. Concurrently, the teacher had no experience with someone teachingtaught the PLAN strategy in his seventh- me how to read and understand a science

Improving Textbook Reading./149textbook." Compounding these doubtsabout the relative importance of the textbook was his preparation for teachingscience: "Doing experiments is what science is all about." This preparation wassupported by his teaching experience:"Before I taught here, I taught at a projectbased learning school and textbooks werecompletely forbidden."Changes in the Teacher's InstructionThree findings emerged from analysisof the transcript of the interview conducted at the end of the study. In comparing histeaching of a unit the previous spring withthe teaching of the same unit with PLANstrategy, these changes were evident at theadaptation phase.1. The teacher had integrated the PLANstrategy into his instructional routine. "Iwill begin [the unit] with the PLAN strategy. Near half way in the first period.[I'll say] 'This is your assignment is toread the first section. I want you to do theP the L and at least get started on the A.'We kind of got in the routine." In class, heleads a discussion of what students alreadyknow. Students then have about 20 minutesto get started. They take their books hometo complete their PLAN maps and returnwith them the next day for a grade.2. He modified the strategy in threeways. First, he used PLAN as a way for students to build background knowledge fromthe textbook: "The textbook now hasbecome a background knowledge thing."The background knowledge increased student preparation for unit activities: "Theycome to class ready to discuss and learnthings." His second modification was toallow students to choose a mapping format:"Some of the seventh graders like Inspiration (2003), a mapping program with theconcept maps on the computer. So some ofthem have moved on to that while otherslike doing it by hand." His third modification was that in the "N" step he assignedstudents to answer the comprehensionquestions at the end of the section. "Partof the thing I did with the note thing wasto ask yourself, did you get out of the reading what the author wanted you to get?And the way to do that is to look at yourconcept map and look at the question and[ask] do you have the information theauthor is trying to get you to get."3. His expectations of his students hadchanged. "The things that I teach are thesame and I use the same materials but myexpectations are different."Effectiveness of strategy for student learningComprehension tests. Students' scoreson comprehension tests and reading strategy checklists were analyzed using a pairedt-test statistic (two-tailed). Differences inthe students' scores on the 10-point reading comprehension pretest (M - 4.9) andposttest (M 3.9) were not statisticallysignificant, t(22) 1.427, p .167.Although the slight drop in scores was notstatistically significant and too small to bepractically significant, this result was unexpected and inconsistent with other findingsin this study. The small number of testquestions and possible differences in student prior knowledge of the chapter topicsmay have confounded the results.Concept maps. Beginning with the firstPLAN map, students were able to accurately represent the major headings andsubheadings of the chapter. Content accu-

150/Reading Improvementracy remained stable from the first to thefinal PLAN maps, with an average of 98%propositions recorded correctly. What didincrease was the percentage of propositions that reflected paraphrasing of contentand higher order thinking (a growth of 9%to 14%). There was also a decline in thepercentage of propositions that were simply copied from the text (a decline from91% to 86%).Reading checklists. Comparison of thestudents' performance on the 10-item reading strategy checklist revealed a statisticallysignificant difference, t(22) -2.102, p .047, between the pretest (M 5.5) andposttest (M 6.4) scores. This small gainin reading strategy scores was supported bythe teacher's and students' responses ininterviews that investigated the expandeduse of reading strategies.Teacher Interview. Analysis of interview transcripts revealed four findingsfrom the teacher's perspective on the effectiveness of PLAN.1. He saw improvement in his students'learning. "They were coming in with moreunderstanding of the material" He saw that"mean grades of the class increased"because students were better prepared forthe labs. At the same time he came tobelieve that the publisher-provided chapter tests were inadequate measures ofstudent learning: "By talking to them onwhat they learned, I know they havelearned more than what they can write ona test."2. His students moved from needinggroup support with strategic reading tobeing independent in their strategy use andable to do the reading as homework. "First,I was teaching group concepts but by Feb-ruary they could do them individually."3. He believed the benefits to studentsin using PLAN developed over time: "Iuse 12 weeks [in the fall] teaching it. [Afterwinter break] we do a refresher PLANstrategy. That is actually where I really startseeing the benefits of it, after we came backand reviewed it again. They had some timeto absorb it and think about it and to see."4. At the end of the Adaptation phase,he observed that students were more willing to complete the textbook reading. Indiscussing his teaching of the same unitduring the previous academic year he stated: "I assigned but it wasn't getting done."In discussing his teaching this spring hesaid: "We stand outside the classrooms inbetween classes and students will run upto you and ask you if they need their textbooks today. [It's] the way they askquestion, "do we have to have our textbooks today?" versus "do we need ourtextbooks today?" I think that portrays thekind of attitude shift away from it is notyour enemy.[when they get an assignment] instead it's I can do that, I understandthat, I can answer those questions."Student interviews. Analysis of interview transcripts revealed three findingsfrom the students' perspectives on the effectiveness of PLAN.1. The students saw PLAN as part ofthe classroom routine. They said the teacherprompted them to use the PLAN strategywhen the took their science book home toread, and when they created concept maps.All students reported that they took theirbook home to read twice a week. Somedays they were assigned to read a wholechapter at home, other times to read a chapter that was started in class using PLAN.

Improving Textbook Reading./151One student said: "We have our PLANthing [to do]; [we] do the webs". In somecases the concept maps were completed inclass, other times the students preparedthem while reading at home. A studentexplained one of the steps: "I start out looking at the main titles in the chapter, andthen I break it off into sub-titles, and thenI will read each paragraph to put information in [into the concept map]".2. The students emphatically reported anincrease in their reading since implementing the PLAN strategy: " I have read a lotmore this year." Consistently, the interviewed students explained that they hadbecome better readers. "I think I am a lotbetter, better reader." They elaborated, sharing that they understood more of what theyread and that they were using elements ofthe PLAN strategy. One student explained:"I can understand it a lot better becausedoing concept maps helped me." Inresponse to an inquiry about changes inreading, another student shared that sheused to be scared to read textbooks and didnot have any confidence, but now "I liketo read." She reported that in addition toreading more in her science book than ayear ago, she now reads more in socialstudies and other subjects.3. Consistent with the teacher's description, the four interviewed students reportedthat they were doing well in science; twostudents explained that their grades hadimproved during the academic year. Strategic reading appeared to be contributing totheir success. Three students explained thatthey liked to read and that it was helpful:"I like reading the chapt

textbook. Although educators have long debated the role of the textbook for learning, in middle school the science textbook appears to be an important learning resource. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2000), 80% of eighth grade science teachers reported u

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