The Impact Of Collaborative Strategic Reading On Students’ Comprehension Of Secondary Social Studies Texts

This action research study evaluates the impact of the literacy intervention, Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR), on students’ comprehension of social studies texts in secondary classrooms at a high school in East Tennessee, and their perceptions of the intervention as an activity for learning. The identified problem of practice this study sought to explore is whether explicit, collaborative literacy instruction would impact students’ comprehension of grade-level appropriate social studies texts, and to evaluate students’ responses to such literacy instruction. Pre- and post-tests assessing students’ comprehension of informational articles pertaining to eras of United States history, and semi-structured interviews with students, provided the data for this concurrent mixed-methods action research study. The study found that while CSR does not have a statistically significant impact on students’ reading comprehension, the sample group’s comprehension scores increased slightly and students shared mostly positive perceptions of CSR. The resulting Action Plan includes an increase in the use and evaluation of collaborative literacy instructional strategies for a better understanding of the impact on students’ reading comprehension, professional learning for teaching literacy in content areas other than English/Language Arts/Reading (ELAR), and further exploration of the impact of students’ interest and motivation on expressed reading abilities