The Impact Of Critical Reading Strategies On Reading Comprehension Among Middle School Students

Research has demonstrated that there is a positive correlation between the use of critical reading strategies and reading comprehension in students. This capstone project was created as a resource for educators to increase the number of critical reading strategies that are used in the classroom to essentially increase reading comprehension among students. The research question addressed in the project was, How can using a variety of critical reading strategies and increasing the frequency of their use impact reading comprehension among middle school students? Reading is the basis for many components of learning and positively contributes to academic success. The literature review examed four major themes. These themes include factors of reading comprehension (such as literacy development, metacognition, and motivation), critical reading strategies that are currently used in classrooms, the connection between critical thinking and critical reading, and the way reading comprehension is measured. The project is a website that houses thirteen ready-to-implement critical reading strategies for educators, ways to differentiate for various levels of learning, a choice board for student learning, and a page to connect with other educators online. The website is intended to supply educators with resources to increase critical reading strategies in daily lessons across all curriculums