COMPREHENSION MONITORING PERFORMANCE OF FIFTH AND EIGHTH GRADERS AND THEIR METACOGNITIVE PROCESSING OF NARRATIVE STORIES
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between grade level and the ability to monitor one's comprehension. The first issue addressed was whether children's ability to monitor for understanding was affected by grade level; second, whether the reader's knowledge of reading which establishes the basis for monitoring one's comprehension was affected by grade level; and third, what strategies do readers use to monitor ongoing reading activities. The study focused on both components of metacognition: testing knowledge of the reader about the reading process and testing the control and regulation of those processes. The following research questions were explored: (1) What knowledge about reading affects comprehension and comprehension monitoring performance of fifth- and eighth-grade readers? (2) What factors contribute to good comprehension monitoring performance? (3) Do fifth- and eighth-grade readers fail to understand that a message is problematic and do they have difficulty evaluating their comprehension? (4) What comprehension monitoring strategies do fifth- and eighth-grade readers employ while reading narrative stories? Fifteen fifth- and eighth-grade students, currently attending an elementary and middle school in Western Connecticut, completed the Reading Knowledge Interview and Comprehension Monitoring Interview and read two short narratives. The aim of the Reading Knowledge Interview was to measure what readers say they know about reading and what they do when they read. The aim of the Comprehension Monitoring Interview was to have students externalize their realization that they understand or do not understand and their deployment of specific monitoring strategies. Chi-Square tests were computed to test for group differences in category usage. Significance was set at .05 by the investigator. For category usage, some significant differences were found between grade level; some significant differences were also found in category usage for both Reading Knowledge Interview and Comprehension Monitoring Interview. Overall, the findings suggested that grade level had a slight influence on what readers know about reading and what they do when they read as well as on the planning, monitoring, evaluating, and checking processes of children's metacognitive performance.
Subject Area
Literacy|Reading instruction
Recommended Citation
SUMMA, DIANE THERESA, "COMPREHENSION MONITORING PERFORMANCE OF FIFTH AND EIGHTH GRADERS AND THEIR METACOGNITIVE PROCESSING OF NARRATIVE STORIES" (1986). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8624509.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8624509
