Reading literacy acquisition and cultural diversity
2.4 Educational programmes in reading comprehension
There are a few intervention programmes in reading comprehension, which have showed relative good results in specific groups. Further investigation is needed to confirm results in more representative samples. These interesting proposals are (a) Reciprocal Teaching (RT) (Palincsar & Brown, 1984), (b)Reciprocal Teaching (RT) (Palincsar & Brown, 1984), (b) Transactional Strategies Instruction (TSI) (Pressley, El-Dinary, Gaskins, Schuder, Bergman, Almasi, & Brown, 1992), and (c) Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) (Guthrie, van Meter, McCann, Wigfield, Bennett, Poundstone, Rice, �aibisch, Hunt, & Mitchell, 1996). All of these will be shortly discussed.
Reciprocal Teaching (RT)
A multiple-strategies instructional package was developed by Palincsar and Brown in 1984 (Brown, Pressley, van Meter, & Schuder, 1996). Students should apply four strategies as they read: generate predictions, ask questions, seek clarification, and summarize content. Students use these strategies while reading in groups, with the teacher releasing control of the process as much as possible to the group. These principles, which are consistent with Vygotsky’s theory of socially mediated learning, argued that group work would enhance internalization of these processes by group members. RT has shown improvements in the use of the focal strategies and modest improvement on a standardized reading test.
Transactional Strategies Instruction (TSI)
Pressley, Goodchild, �leet, Zajchowski, and Evans (1989) (as cited in Brown, Pressley, van Meter, & Schuder, 1996) investigated several programmes which enhance reading comprehension and stated that successful strategy instruction in the classrooms involved more than the controlled procedures of experiments. �urthermore, Brown, Pressley, van Meter, and Schuder (1996), argued that effective elementary-level comprehension was “transactional” in three senses (defined by Pressley, El-Dinary, Gaskins, Schuder, Bergman, Almasi, and Brown in 1992): (a) students are encourage to construct meaning by using strategies that enable the linking of text context to prior knowledge; (b) much of the instruction occurs in reading groups. Group members construct meaning together. This meaning differs from the personalized interpretations individuals would have generated on their own; (c) the performances of all members are determined in part by those of others of the group. Group members co-determine each other’s thinking about text.
The main goal of TSI is the joint construction of reasonable interpretations by group members and in the long-term to internalize the use of strategies when encountering demanding text. Students are guided to construct meaning by emulating expert readers. Teacher and students model use of strategies for one another, thinking aloud as they read. Strategies are used as a vehicle to motivate dialogue about the text content. When and where to apply strategies has been abundantly discussed.
The study of Brown, Pressley, van Meter, and Schuder (1996) in which low- achieving second graders participated for one year, TSI showed good results. Students constructed a richer meaning of the stories than their comparison mates. �urthermore, TSI students exhibited greater awareness of strategies and more frequent use. They also performed superior on the standardized test of reading comprehension. It is noteworthy, as researches supported, that forming self-regulated students is a goal that might be the product of years of literacy experiences, and TSI might be a good start.
Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI)
The Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) was developed by Guthrie, van Meter, McCann, Wigfield, Bennett, Poundstone, Rice, Faibisch, Hunt, and Mitchell (1996). The basic principles are the following (Guthrie & Alao, 1997):
Conceptual theme. Instruction is organized around an interdisciplinary
theme, a concept, in which content areas such as language arts and science are taught simultaneously. In this line, for the purpose of understanding the concept a substantial number of the activities are directed and cognitive strategies are taught. The conceptual theme gives the student a good purpose for reading and supports a mastery goal orientation. Moreover, these conceptual goals increase enjoyment, and willingness to process text deeply. Furthermore, development of conceptual goals increases self-efficacy.
Social collaboration. Social interactions are enhanced to improve
conceptual learning. Activities of several social structures are designed: whole-class, small teams, partnerships, and also individual. Students learn to coordinate their efforts, share information, help others, build on each other’s thinking, and communicate to others what they have learned. Collaborative settings are motivating if they are open, safe, and competency affirming.
Real world interactions. Student’s interactions with concrete objects or
events are a good media to reveal the concept. �irst, children are immediately exciting, which increases their interest. �urthermore, it contributes easily to a deeper conceptual understanding and enhances the formulation of better quality research questions.
Transfer of knowledge. Instruction includes teaching transfer by providing
multiple examples. As Anderson, Reder, and Simon (cited in Guthrie & Alao, 1997) argued, learning is bound to the context in which it occurs; therefore, explicit instruction for transfer is needed. The real-world experiences are connected to informational resources accessible to students. Additionally, they read, write, and debate about the events. This way knowledge and the strategies become transferable to new topics and disciplines.
Self-direction. Teachers encourage autonomy of students, who assume
decisions and personally identify with the learning goals of the classroom. Students must perceive that they have options if their intrinsic motivation for reading is to increase. Options given to students should be significant, rather than trivial or neither hypothetical. Students learn to select the topic, the texts, and media for learning.
Self-expression. Students are encouraged to articulate their understanding
of the conceptual theme. This way, they experience themselves as creators of knowledge, and value strategies for knowing (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986, as cited in Guthrie & Alao, 1997).
Interesting texts. A variety of interesting informational resources is
provided by teachers. Interesting materials matches the topical interest and the cognitive competency of the reader.
Cognitive strategies. Instruction includes support for strategy learning,
using modeling, explaining, coaching, peer discussions, guided practice, and student reflection. First, teachers appraise students� current level. Then, they provide strategies to the degree needed by students to answer their questions. Strategy mastery enables students to feel competent in their application of strategies to new text and new situations. Strategies more frequently investigated are planning, predicting, inferring, using background knowledge, organizing, synthesizing (e.g., Collins-Blok, 1992, as cited in Guthrie & Alao, 1997), use of analogies, conceptual elaboration, cause-effect thinking in text, self-explanations in reading, and goal setting.
Coherence. Integration is forged across the conceptual theme. Instruction
links activities, strategies for learning, materials, social collaborations, expectations, and displays of understanding around conceptual themes. The goal is to make learning interesting and meaningful at the same time. As Beane (1995, as cited in Guthrie & Alao, 1997) argued, when curriculum offers unity and pertinence, students are more likely to integrate their learning into schemes of meaning, which in turn deepens their knowledge.
Results of CORI programmes. Quasi-experimental research where CORI
programmes in 10 classrooms of Grade 3 and Grade 4 using control group were performed, reported that students in CORI classrooms scored higher in reading motivation than students in comparison classrooms. Students who increased in intrinsic motivation were more likely than were other students
to increase in their amount and breadth of reading. �urthermore, they also increased in volitional strategies, namely, finding books, reducing distractions as they read, and finding friends with whom to share books. Students generalize their motivational goals to their school and home life. �inally, experimental students exceeded comparison students on a statewide test of reading, writing, language use, science, and social studies.
2.5 Conclusions
The present overview makes clear that reading literacy can be seen as a multi-faceted process and that multiple factors guide the process of reading literacy acquisition. It can be concluded that, given a socio-political context, literacy processes are directly influenced by cultural background variables, on the one hand, and educational variables, on the other hand. In order to shed light on the process of reading literacy acquisition in Lima (Peru), a multi-factor approach will be followed, taking into account relevant factors at the level of the child, the child’s family and the educational context. This approach will be used to explain the variation in reading literacy attainment (Chapter 3) and its development (Chapter 4), as well as the responsivity to a reading literacy intervention programme (Chapter 5) among school children in Lima (Peru).
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