The Effect of Explicit Teaching of Comprehension Strategies on Reading Comprehension in

This study investigated the effect of explicit teaching of comprehension strategies on the comprehension performance of elementary school students. Two schools with similar demographics, including a significant proportion of students at risk for reading failure, participated in the study. One school utilized an explicit comprehension strategy instruction program while the other school utilized traditional comprehension programs. A quasi-experimental mixed methods design was employed; standardized and researcher-developed pretests and posttests were administered and observations were conducted over a two-year period. Analyses of covariance that treated the pretests as covariates resulted in significant differences between the schools on several measures, but the overall results did not favor either school. Significantly more instances of explicit instruction were demonstrated by teachers using the explicit program than teachers using the traditional programs. Differences in the number of instances of explicit instruction were most substantial during the student practice and feedback sections of the lessons. Correlations between teacher explicitness scores and student achievement scores and