This study investigates the use of translational resources (both software and traditional print-based materials) to improve 8th grade students' comprehension of social studies text.
Judith Zorfass, Karen Clay, Alise Brann
Research question:
This study investigates the use of translational resources to improve 8th grade students’ comprehension of social studies text. The question is:
Do students who are taught to use Visual Thesaurus, in conjunction with a specific set of context clues strategies, demonstrate greater social studies content knowledge than students who are taught to use context clues in conjunction with traditional print resources (i.e. dictionary, thesaurus)?
Description:
This study is currently underway in one school district located outside of Boston, Massachusetts with approximately 180 students from eight heterogeneous social studies classes taught by two different teachers. The classes are randomly divided into treatment and control conditions. Each condition includes high, mid, and low level readers, as determined by (1) scores on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests and (2) ELA teacher perception.
Students in both conditions are receiving explicit strategy instruction in the use of the following types of context clues: definition/synonym example, contrast/antonym, sentence structure, verb tense and graphics. Students in the treatment group are applying use of these context clues in conjunction with the software tool, Visual Thesaurus as they read their social studies texts. Students in the control group are using the same context clue skills in conjunction with traditional print-based reference materials (i.e. dictionary and thesaurus). The pre- and post-tests for both groups include (a) test of context clues and (b) test of social students content drawn from the relevant curriculum units.
What we have learned:
This current study builds on EDC’s two previous NCSeT studies using Visual Thesaurus in 8th grade social studies classes. Findings from the previous studies indicated that:
- Students with and without reading difficulties are highly motivated to use Visual Thesaurus.
- Students with and without reading difficulties learn to use the features of the tool quickly and with limited assistance.
- To support reading comprehension, students need to learn to how to understand words looked up in Visual Thesaurus in relation to the social studies context. This was especially true for students with reading difficulties.
- Students need explicit instruction and modeling by teachers to enable them to make this next step, particularly students with reading difficulties.
- Teachers need to use effective instructional strategies to help students make the most of Visual Thesaurus, such as pointing out contextual information, encouraging students to use definitions in context, asking prompting questions, conducting think-alouds, and helping students link pieces of information (especially for students with reading difficulties).
- In terms of the features included in Visual Thesaurus, students with reading difficulties find listening to words read aloud, expanding on a word, reading the definition of a word and searching for images to be most helpful in improving their understanding of key vocabulary.
- All students improved their knowledge of key vocabulary words for specific chapters when they had access to Visual Thesaurus. When students (in a treatment class only) were tested both with and without using Visual Thesaurus for reading, their scores were higher overall for chapters when Visual Thesaurus was available as a tool.
What we do not know:
Based on questions that these preliminary findings raised, we are continuing to explore the following in the current study.
- In what ways will Visual Thesaurus, in conjunction with explicit instruction in using context clues, deepen student understanding of social studies content, especially for students who struggle with reading comprehension?
- Which elements of Visual Thesaurus, in conjunction with explicit instruction in using context clues, are most helpful for which type of learners? For example, searching for images may be particularly helpful for more visual learners.
- What is the effect of social studies teachers’ comfort level with instructional strategies that focus on context clues in conjunction with use of Visual Thesaurus?