An Evaluation of Reading Comprehension Questions in a Basal Series

The purpose of this study was to examine the appropriateness of the guided-reading and post-reading questions contained in a basal series for promoting and assessing reading comprehension. Questions were investigated in three separate studies. Study 1 described questions in terms of their relationship to the text and pictures or illustrations accompanying the text. Study 2 investigated the type of information basal questions queried (important or less important), via a story grammar analysis and an event chain analysis, the specific features of the language in which they were expressed was also described. Study 3 examined the extent to which the publisher's suggested responses are a reliable standard by which the correctness of students' responses should be judged, and contains a comparison of the descriptive scheme used in the basal with the scheme proposed in this study. The results indicate that (a) a shift has occurred away from literal questions towards scriptal questions, (b) there is less reliance on the use of pictures to convey information, (c) basal questions focus the reader's attention on important text information most of the time, (d) there is a tendency for text-based questions to be taken verbatim from the text as opposed to being paraphrased, (e) the publisher's suggested responses are reliable most of the time, and (c) the scheme used in this study and the one used in the basal have important differences. Suggestions and recommendations are made for teachers and publishers of basal materials.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Foertsch, Mary Ann

• Education, Elementary
• Education, Educational Psychology
• Education, Reading

Identifier

(UMI)AAI9026182

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71912