Developing an Informational Text Comprehension Intervention for Struggling Readers in Third Grade

Abstract

During third grade, students are expected to transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Students who do not make this transition are at-risk for future reading failure. The increased focus on informational text in the intermediate grades poses additional challenges for transitional third-grade readers. Unfortunately, few experimental investigations have focused on this grade level. To address this research gap, I led the development of a third grade reading comprehension intervention focused on informational text. The intervention was evaluated in a randomized control trial involving 78 students from 14 schools and 44 classrooms in a large urban district. Results, derived from cross-classified hierarchical linear models, suggested the intervention produced statistically significant effects on measures of learning acquisition. Marginal effects were observed for some measures of informational text comprehension. There was no treatment effect on a commercial measure of reading comprehension. Implications of study findings are discussed.