ERIC ED365965: Fifth Grade Students' Search for Information in a Textbook. Reading Research Report No. 7. PDF
Preview ERIC ED365965: Fifth Grade Students' Search for Information in a Textbook. Reading Research Report No. 7.
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 365 965 CS 011 560 AUTHOR Dreher, Mariam Jean; Sammons, Rebecca Bell Fifth Grade Students' Search for Information in a TITLE Textbook. Reading Research Report No. 7. National Reading Research Center, Athens, GA.; INSTITUTION National Reading Research Center, College Park, MD. Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), SPONS AGENCY Washington, DC. PUB DATE 94 CONTRACT 117A20007 NOTE 20p. PUB TYPE Research/Technical (143) Reports EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. Elementary School Students; Grade 5; *Indexes; DESCRIPTORS Intermediate Grades; Reading Comprehension; Reading Research; *Search Strategies; *Textbooks Questions; *Strategic Reading; Text Factors IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT Fifty-nine fifth-grade students were asked to use an unfamiliar textbook on a familiar topic to locate the answers to three questions, all of which contained terms that could be found in the book's index. As an analysis of covariance indicated, those who were asked guiding questions before and during their search were more successful in locating information than their counterparts who were simply asked to search. Reading comprehension was a statistically significant covariate. An examination of the infor.netion-access structures (e.g., index, table of contents) used by ctudents indicated that those who were unsuccessful relied heavily on the table of contents and/or paging through the text despite the very specific nature of the questions. Most students who were successful in completing a search task used the book's index. The guiding questions appeared to have promoted success by increasing the likelihood that students would think of and actually use the index during their search. Although index use did not guarantee success, very few students who did not use the index were successful in answering questions. (One table of data is included; 18 references and the questions along with an explanation of how the questions were related to the answers in the text are attached.) (Author/RS) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. *********************************************************************** Fifth Grade Students' Search for Information in a Textbook Mariam Jean Dreher Rebecca Bell Sammons University of Maryland College Park U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office or Educanonal Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) IQhis document has been reproduced as eCeured from the person Or organizahon ongonating Cl MInor changes hare been made lo improve reproduchon quahty Points of view Or ObvmOnn stated .n the 00C. ment do not necessardy represent othcml OERI posoloon or pohcy National NRRC Reading Research Center READING RESEARCH REPORT NO. 7 Winter 1994 2 MAIL UST NRRC National Reading Research Center Fifth-Grade Students' Search for Information in a Textbook Mariam Jean Dreher Rebecca Bell Sammons University of Maryland at College Park READING RESEARCH REPORT NO. 7 Winter 1994 The work reported herein was funded in part by the National Reading Research Center of the University of Georgia and University of Maryland. It was supported under the Educational Research and Development Centers Program (PR/AWARD NO. 117A20007) as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Imv:ovement, U.S. Department of Education. The findings and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of the National Reading Research Center, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, or the U.S. Department of Education. 3 NRRC National Reading Research Center National Advisory Board Executive Committee Phyllis W. Aldrich Donna E. Alvermann, Co-Director Saratoga Warren Board of Cooperative Educational University of Georgia Services, Saratoga Springs, New York John T. Guthrie, Co-Director Arthur N. Applebee University of Maryland College Park State University of New York, Albany James F. Baumann, Associate Director Ronald S. Brandt University of Georgia Association for Supervision and Curriculum Patricia S. Koskinen, Associate Director University of Maryland College Park Development Marsha T. DeLain JoBeth Allen Delaware Department of Public Instruction University of Georgia Carl A. Grant John F. O'Flahavan University of Wtsconsin-Madison University of Maryland College Park Walter Kintsch James V. Hoffman University of Colorado at Boulder University of Texas at Austin Robert L. Linn Cynthia R. Hynd University of Colorado at Boulder University of Georgia Luis C. Moll Robert Serpell University of Arizona University of Maryland Baltimore County Carol M. Santa School District No. 5 Publications Editors Kalispell, Montana Research Reports and Perspectives Anne P. Sweet David Reinking, Receiving Editor Office of Educational Research and Improvement, University of Georgia U.S. Department of Education Linda Baker, Tracking Editor Louise Cherry Wilkinson University of Maryland Baltimore County Rutgers University Linda C. DcGroff, Tracking Editor University of Georgia Instructional Resources Technical Writer and Production Editor Lee Galda, University of Georgia Susan L. Yarborough University of Georgia Research Highlights William G. Holliday University of Maryland College Park NRRC - University of Georgia Policy Briefs 318 Aderhold James V. Hoffman University of Georgia University of Texas at Austin Athens, Georgia 30602-7125 Videos Fax: (706) 542-3678 (706) 542-3674 Shawn M. Glynn, University of Georgia INTERNET: [email protected] NRRC Staff Barbara F. Howard, Office Manager NRRC - University of Maryland College Park Melissa M. Erwin, Senior Secretary 2102 J. M. Patterson Building University of Georgia University of Maryland College Park, Maryland 20742 Barbara A. Neitzey, Administrative Assistant Fax: (301) 314-9625 (301) 405-8035 Valerie Tyra, Accountant INTERNET: [email protected] University of Maryland College Park About the National Reading Research Center Dissemination is an important feature of NRRC activi- The National Reading Research Center (NRRC) is ties. Information on NRRC research appears in several funded by the Office of Educational Research and formats. Research Reports communicate the results of Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education to original research or synthesize the findings of several conduct research on reading and reading instruction. lines of inquiry. They are written primarily for re- The NRRC is operated by a consortium of the Universi- searchers studying various areas of reading and reading ty of Georgia and the University of Maryland College instruction. The Perspective Series presents a wide Park in collaboration with researchers at several institu- range of publications, from calls for research and tions nationwide. commentary on research and practice to first-person The NRRC's mission is to discover and document Instructional accounts of experiences schools. in those conditions in homes, schools, and communities Resources include curriculum materials, instructional that encourage children to become skilled, enthusiastic, guides, and materials for professional growth, designed lifelong readers. NRRC researchers are committed to primarily for teachers. advancing the development of instructional programs For more information about the NRRC's research sensitive to the cognitive, sociocultural, and motiva- projects and other activities, or to have your name tional factors that affect children's success in reading. added to the mailing list, please contact: NRRC researchers from a variety of disciplines conduct studies with teachers and students from widely diverse Donna E. Alvermann, Co-Director cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds in prekinder- National Reading Research Center garten through grade 12 classrooms. Research projects 318 Aderhold Hall deal with the influence of family and family-school University of Georgia interactions on the development of literacy; the interac- Athens, GA 30602-7125 tion of sociocultural factors and motivation to read; the (706) 542-3674 impact of literature-based reading programs on reading achievement; the effects of reading strategies instruction John T. Guthrie, Co-Director on comprehension and critical thinking in literature, National Reading Research Center science, and history; the influence of innovative group 2102 J. M. Patterson Building participation structures on motivation and learning; the University of Maryland potential of computer technology to enhance literacy; College Park, MD 20742 and the development of methods and standards for (301) 405-8035 alternative literacy assessments. The NRRC is further committed to the participation of teachers as full partners in its research. A better understanding of how teachers view the development of literacy, how they use knowledge from research, and how they approach change in the classroom is crucial to improving instruction. To further this understanding, the NRRC conducts school-based research in which teachers explore their own philosophical and pedagogi- cal orientations and trace their professional growth. NRRC Editorial Review Board Patricia Adkins Lynne Diaz-Rico Cynthia Hynd University of Georgia California State University-San University of Georgia Bernardino Peter Afflerbach Robert Jimenez University of Maryland College Park Mariam Jean Dreher University of Oregon University of Maryland College Park JoBeth Allen Karen Johnson University of Georgia Pamela Dunston Pennsylvania State University Clemson University Patty Anders James King University of Arizona Jim Flood University of South Florida San Diego State University Tom Anderson University of illinois at Urbana- Sandra Kimbrell Dana Fox Champaign West Hall Middle School University of Arizona Oakwood, Georgia I eene Blum Linda Gambrel! Pine Springs Elementary School Kate Kirby University of Maryland College Park Falls Church, Virginia Gwinnett County Public Schools Lawrenceville, Georgia Valerie Garfield John Borkowski Chattahoochee Elementary School Notre Dame University Cumming, Georgia Sophie Kowzun Cynthia Bowen Prince George's County Schools Sherrie Gbney-Sherman Landover, Maryland Baltimore County Public Schools Athens-Clarke County Schools Towson, Maryland Athens, Georgia Rosary Lalik Martha Carr Virginia Polytechnic Institute Rachel Grant University of Georgia University of Maryland College Park Michael Law Suzanne Clewell University of Georgia Barbara Guzzetti Montgomery County Public Schools Arizona State University Rockville, Maryland Sarah McCarthey University of Texas at Austin Jane Ilaugh Joan Coley Center for Developing Learning Western Maryland College Lisa McFalls Potentials University of Georgia Silver Spring, Maryland Michelle Commeyras University of Georgia Mike McKenna Beth Ann Herrmann Georgia Southern University University of South Carolina Linda Cooper Shaker Heights City Schools Donna Mealey Kathleen Ileubach Shaker Heights, Ohio Louisiael State University University of Georgia Karen Costello Barbara Michalove Susan Hill Connecticut Department of Education Fowler Drive Elementary School University of Maryland College Park Hartford, Connecticut Athens, Georgia Karin Dahl Sally Hudson-Ross Ohio State University University of Georgia Ruby Thompson Michael Pressley Akintunde Morakinyo Clark Atlanta University State University of New York University of Maryland College Park at Albany Louise Tomlinson Lesley Morrow John Readence University of Georgia Rutgers University University of Nevada-Las Vegas Sandy Tumarkin Bruce Murray Strawberry Knolls Elementary School Tom Reeves University of Georgia Gaithersburg, Maryland Universily of Georgia Susan Neuman Sheila Valencia Lenore Ringler Temple University University of Washington New York University Awanna Norton Bruce VanSledright Mary Roe M. E. Lewis Sr. Elementary School University of Maryland College Park University of Delaware Sparta, Georgia Chris Walton Rebecca Sammons Caroline Noyes Northern Territory University University of Maryland College Park University of Georgia Australia Paula Schwanenflugel John O'Flahavan Louise Waynant University of Georgia University of Maryland College Park Prince George's County Schools Upper Marlboro, Maryland Robert Serpell Penny Oldfather University of Maryland Baltimore University of Georgia Priscilla Waynant County Rolling Terrace Elementary School Joan Pagnucco Takoma Park, Maryland Betty Shockley University of Georgia Fowler Drive Elementary School Jkne West Athens, Georgia Barbara Palmer University of Georgia Mount Saint Mary's College Susan Sonnenschein Steve White University of Maryland Baltimore Mike Pickle University of Georgia County Georgia Southern University Allen Wigfield Steve Stahl Jessie Pollack University of Maryland College Park University of Georgia Maryland Department of Education Baltimore, Maryland Dortha Wilson Ann:. Sweet Fort Valley State College Office of Educational Research Sally Porter and Improvement Blair High School Shelley Wong Silver Spring, Maryland University of Maryland College Park Liqing Tao University of Georgia About the Author Rebecca Bell Sammons is a doctoral student at the Mariam Jean Dreher is Professor and Director of the Reading Center in the College of Education at the University of Maryland at College Park. A former University of Maryland, College Park. A former classroom teacher, she has published in the Journal of classroom teacher and reading specialist, she received Reading. She received her B.A. from Tufts University her Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside and her M.Ed. from the University of Maryland. where she was awarded California Reading the Association's Constance McCullough Research Award She is a principal for Outstanding Dissertation. investigator in the National Reading Research Center where she conducts research on text search and reading to locate specific information. She has published in such journals as Contemporary &.ucational Psychology, The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly, and the Journal of Educational Psychology. National Reading Research Center Universities of Georgia and Maryland Reading Research Report No. 7 Winter 1994 Fifth-Grade Students' Search for Information in a Textbook Mariam Jean Dreher Rebecca Bell Sammons University of Maryland at College Park Fifty-nine fIfth-grade students reading that A search task is a type of straws Abstract. occurs when readers seek specific, goal-related were asked to ase an unfamiliar textbook on a familiar topic to locate the answers to information. In this type of reading, the goal is not to read a book from cover to cover or to three questions, all of which contained terms learn the contents of a chapter for a test. that could be found in the book's index. As Instead, readers engaged in search tasks might an analysis of covariance indicated, those look up a fact in a reference book, consult a who were asked guiding questions before manual for instructions on fixing a leaky fau- and during their search were more success- cet, or locate phone numbers of catering ser- ful in locating information than their coun- In other words, vices in the Yellow Pages. terparts who were simply asked to search. readers engaged in search tasks would want to Reading comprehension was a statistically avoid irrelevant information while targeting significant covariate. An examination of the critical portions. To do this, they might use information-access structures (e.g., index, one or more information-access features, such table of contents) used by students indicated that those who were unsuccessful relied as an index or table of contents, to go directly to a needed bit of information, disregarding the heavily on the table of contents and/or pag- rest. ing through the text despite the very specific Search tasks are common school and work- nature of the questions. Most students who In the work- place demands (Dreher, 1993). were successful in completing a search task used the book's index. The guiding ques- place, adults spend more time reading to locate information than reading for any other purpose tions appear to hav promoted success by (e.g., Guthrie, Seifert, & Kirsch, 1986; Kirsch increasing the likelihood that students would And in & Guthrie, 1984; Mikulecky, 1982). think of and actually use the index during school, students are also expected to engage in Although index use did not their search. search tasks (e.g., Armbruster & Armstrong, guarantee success, very few students who did 1993; Armbruster & Gudbrandsen,1986; Smith not use the index were successful in answer- Starting in elementary & Feathers, 1981). ing questions. 1 Mariam Jean Dreher & Rebecca Bell Sammons 2 school, students use entire books tion in books, Kobaiigawa (1983) including concluded that most fourth-graders and many eighth- textbooks, trade books, and reference manuals graders did not use their existing general to locate information for report writing and knowledge to define search areas in a book similar tasks. A growing body of research on adults indicates that search performance is unless they were guided to do so. In that considerably less than optimal once tasks move study, students were asked what they would do beyond something simple such as looking up given a research topic and a copy of a book's table of contents, but they did not actually the definition of an indexed term (e.g., Dreher, Dreher & 1992; Dreher & Guthrie, engage in locating information. Nevertheless, 1987; 1990; Guthrie & Dreher, Guthrie, Kobasigawa's work suggests that schoolchil- 1990; dren's search performance may be facilitated Kirsch & Jungeblut, 1986; Symons & Pressley, 1993). However, the little information avail- by guiding questions that, in effect, remind children of available information-access fea- able on children's search performance typically concerns only their skimming of short passages tures and search-appropriate behavior. or their ability to answer questions about search-related skills on standardized tests, both METHOD of which have limited applicability for the search tasks students usually encounter. Subjects The study reported here examined the performance of fifth-grade students as they Fifty-nine children drawn from the fifth-grade attempted to locate information in a social classes of two schools in a large, ethnically studies textbook. Specifically, the study exam- diverse mid-Atlantic school system participated ined whether one sample of fifth-graders pre- in this study. The sample consisted of 31 girls viewed a textbook strategically, whether they and 28 boys, including 2 Asian Americans, 18 knew about a textbook's information-access African Americans, 14 Hispanic Americans, features, and how successful they were on and 25 European Americans. Pilot work textbook search tasks. indicated that the text search tasks were quite difficult, time consuming, and/or frustrating This study also investigated whether asking for many fifth-graders. Consequently, we students guiding questions before and during a included only those students who were either search would affect their success in completing rated by their teachers as reading at least at the search task. In work with older subjects, Dreher and Guthrie (1990) found that less grade level or whose scale score on a school system criterion-referenced reading test (CRT) successful searchers were unsystematic in thei' But Dreher and Brown (1993) approach. was at least 500. This CRT, with a reliability found that college students were more likely to coefficient of .85 (calculated with Kuder-Rich- ardson formula 20), uses a multiple-choice be successful if they were asked to plan before they engaged in a search task. format to assess students' comprehension of In research related to children's skill at locating informa- short passages of narrative and expository text. NATIONAL READING RESEARCH CENTER, READING RESEARCH REPORT NO. 7
The list of books you might like
