The Impact of Phonological Awareness on Reading Comprehension
This action research was conducted to determine the impact of using comprehension strategies such as Reading for Meaning with students who receive strategic reading intervention. In order to compare the impact of the strategy on students at other levels of reading performance I also used this strategy with students with IEPs and those at/above grade level.
Students who were in the intervention group saw the greatest impact in their comprehension scores. The average comprehension score in this group went from 50% to 82%. Students with IEPS saw some impact but not to the same degree. The average for these students rose from 20% to 45%. Students who were already at/above grade level saw the least impact. This aligns with my predictions as these students already employ comprehension strategies as fluent readers. On average these students increased from 85% to 95% on comprehension assessments.
The findings of this study suggest that students who are in the full or consolidated alphabetic stage of reading will see greater improvement in comprehension scores than those who are still in the pre/partial alphabetic stage. This suggests a correlation between the level of phonological awareness and the impact of comprehension tools and strategies.
The next steps in this project will be to dive deeper into this correlation and determine how to best help students at all levels to implement appropriate comprehension strategies.
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