The effectiveness of a structured note taking and written retell intervention on increasing overall reading comprehension

This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of a structured note-taking and written retell intervention on improving reading comprehension in high school age students. The participants for this study were two freshmen, one male and one female, at a high school in a large urban Midwestern city. In order to qualify for the study, participants needed to score at least two levels below their current grade level on the Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI-5: Caldwell & Leslie, 2011). Reading comprehension growth was measured using the QRI-5 as the pretest and the posttest. One student was chosen at random to participate in the experimental condition, while the other student only attended typical coursework as the control condition. The student in the experimental condition participated in ten one-to-one intervention sessions over the course of five weeks. Each intervention session included modeling of the note-taking skill, practice retelling a text, and answer comprehension questions. After the intervention, both participants were given a posttest to determine growth. The participant in the experimental condition increased her reading comprehension level more than the student in the control group. This suggests that the intervention was successful at improving reading comprehension in high school age students