Collaborative Strategic Reading during Social Studies in Heterogeneous Fourth-Grade Classrooms

In this study we investigated the effectiveness of a cooperative learning approach designed to foster strategic reading in 3 heterogeneous, culturally and linguistically diverse, general education classrooms in 1 school. Fourth graders in an 11-day experimental condition (N = 85) were taught by the researchers to apply reading comprehension strategies ("preview," "click and clunk," "get the gist," and "wrap up") while reading social studies text in small student-led groups. Control condition students (N = 56) in 2 classes did not learn comprehension strategies but received researcher-led instruction in the same content. Outcome measures (a standardized reading test, social studies unit test, audiotapes of group work) indicated that students in the experimental condition made greater gains in reading comprehension, F(1,138) = 10.68, p = .001, and equal gains in content knowledge. Discourse analyses of peer talk during cooperative group sessions indicated that 65% of discourse was academic in nature and content related, 25% was procedural, 8% was feedback, and 2% was unrelated to the task. Students implemented the clarification (click and clunk) and main idea (get the gist) strategies the most consistently and effectively.