Fig 1: Year 7 Reading Comprehension Results (Beginning of the Year)
Similarly, figure 2 shows that many Year 8 students are also working below the national norm.
Fig 2: Year 8 Reading Comprehension Results (Beginning of the Year)
Overall it is apparent that only 13% of our students are working at the national norm (Figure 3).
Fig. 3 Combined Year 7 & Year 8 Reading Results
Our results were confirmed by the Woolf Fisher Research Centre (University of Auckland) where it is clear when looking at figure 4, that poor Reading results are not confined to our school but is a problem experienced by most schools within our community of learning.
Fig 4: Woolf Fisher Research Centre (WFRC)
There are many contributing factors that can affect students’ reading comprehension abilities. These factors according to Linde, S (n.d.) includes but is not restricted to, “poor word recognition, limited phonics skills, phonological awareness skills, and the ability to read for extended periods of time.” Factors such as the ability to concentrate, background knowledge about topics, and text features, characteristics of the reading material can also impact a student's comprehension. Some text may be organised in a way that students can easily make sense of, using features such as headings, bullet points, or bold words, while others are not. The less organised the text, the more students struggle to understand. Reading can be challenging particularly when the material is unfamiliar, technical, or complex. Moreover, for some readers, comprehension is always challenging (Linde, n.d.) Therefore, I am aiming at improving my students’ vocabulary knowledge through explicit teaching of vocabulary with the intention that this will enhance my students’ reading comprehension ability.
I believe that students’ vocabulary knowledge is one of the major factors that limit their comprehension of texts. Hendrick & Cunningham (2002) suggest that “the majority of children need more than considerably increased reading practice to increase their vocabulary.” Now that I have identified my inquiry topic, I will also be looking into the different aspects of reading and trying to identify which aspect/s my students need assistance with.
There are five aspects to the process of reading: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, reading comprehension and fluency (K12 Reader, 2008-2018). Looking at the vocabulary aspect, the K12 Reader (2008-2018) website proclaims that “as children become stronger, more advanced readers they not only learn to connect their oral vocabularies (the words we know when they are spoken) to their reading vocabularies (the words we know when they are used in print) they also strengthen each of these areas by adding new words to their repertoires. Vocabulary development is an ongoing process that continues throughout one’s ‘reading life’."
According to Van Hees “providing multiple encounters is by far the most important condition” in order to learn vocabulary (Van Hees & Nation, 2017). This can be achieved by providing opportunities to re-encounter words, supplementing texts with large amounts of engaging texts that are rich in vocabulary and concepts and learners need to do large quantities of reading in order to get multiple encounters of words to increase their vocabulary size.
One of the ideas that I have discussed with my senior teacher to improve reading comprehension was Literature Circles. Literature Circles are very similar to reciprocal reading. I was thinking of using literature circles, together with the students' knowledge of chunking and deep-diving to help with reading comprehension. During Literature Circles students will work in small groups, reading the same text and each student is given a specific role (connector, summariser, word wizard, discussion director and passage picker) to do when reading.
This approach allows students to use and practice 21 st century skills. The 21 st century skills that are exhibited during Literature Circles include:
Critical Thinking - Finding solutions to problems
Creativity - Thinking outside the box
Collaboration - Working with others
Communication - Conveying ideas
Using these skills also reinforces the New Zealand Curriculum key competencies of thinking, relating to others, understanding language, symbols and texts, participating and contributing and managing self.
REFERENCES
Hendrick, W. B., & Cunningham, J. W. (2002). Investigating the Effects of Wide Reading on Listening Comprehension of Written Language. Reading Psychology, 23(2), 107. https://doi.org/10.1080/027027102760351025
K12 Reader. (2008-2018). The Five Essential Components of Reading. Retrieved from https://www.k12reader.com/the-five-essential-components-of-reading/
Linde, S (n.d.) Factors affecting reading comprehension in elementary students. [Video] Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/factors-affecting-reading-comprehension-in-elementary-students.html
Van Hees, J., & Nation, P. (2017). What Every Primary School Teacher Should Know about Vocabulary. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. PO Box 3237, Wellington 6140 New Zealand.
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