Reading Stories to Young Children: Effects of Story Structure and Traditional Questioning Strategies on Comprehension

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine if the pre- and postquestioning and discussion portions of the directed reading activity (DRA) could improve comprehension when stories were read to kindergarten children. Questioning and discussion focused on the structure of stories as well as traditional (literal, inferential, and critical) questioning and discussion were investigated. The stories were read to children using the DRA format of pre- and postquestioning and discussion. Story structure treatment groups ( N = 73) received structural questions and discussion; traditional treatment groups ( N = 64) received traditional comprehension questions and discussion; and the combined treatment groups ( N = 57) received a combination of both. The control groups ( N = 60) heard stories with no pre- or postquestions or discussion. The results indicated that the use of the DRA when reading stories to children significantly improved comprehension. Traditional and structural treatment groups each significantly improved performance on traditional and structural questions, respectively. Each treatment also had a small positive effect on children's ability to answer the other type of question. The combined treatment group made the greatest gains. When differences occurred between achievement levels within the treatment groups, it was the high and middle achievers whose scores increased. None of the treatments significantly increased performance of the low achievers.