Effects on Comprehension and Time On-Task

A single-subject design was used to examine the effects of reading activities at three levels of challenge: the frustrational, instructional, and independent levels, on reading comprehension and task engagement. The three levels were operationalized according to Gickling & Havertape’s (1981) ratios of known to unknown words in text, with 93-97 % known words constituting the instructional level, greater than 97 % known the independent level, and less than 93 % known the frustrational level. Third grade students were selected based on screenings for both off-task behavior and reading difficulties. It was hypothesized that students would continue to exhibit high levels of off-task behavior at the frustrational level, but demonstrate increased time on-task when given materials at their instructional levels. Comprehension was hypothesized to be very low at the frustrational level and higher at the instructional level. At the independent level, comprehension was expected to remain high while the students ’ time on-task was expected to drop to lower levels as the students became less engaged in tasks. Moderate to large effect sizes supported these hypotheses for two out of three students selected. Overall results were consistent with Gickling & Armstrong’s (1978) original demonstration, although smaller i