The Impact of Supplemental Instruction on Low-Achieving Adolescents’ Reading Engagement

ABSTRACT

The authors examined the impact of a supplemental reading course on 462 sixth-grade students’ reading engagement and performance as compared with 389 students in a control group. They further explored students’ cognitive strategy use through think aloud processes with a subset of students who participated in the intervention. Participating students reported significantly higher levels of strategy use, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy as compared with the control group. Think aloud measures indicated students who participated in supplemental instruction exhibited higher levels of cognitive engagement at the end of the intervention than they exhibited at the start of the intervention. There was no significant impact on students’ reading performance as measured by a standardized test.

Keywords:

• adolescent literacy
• reading motivation
• reading strategy use

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals to this study: Deepshikha Sigdel, Jane Arrington, Rebecca Gordon, Emily Hall, David Long, Angela Madden, Lindsey Myers, Jason Routin, Latricia Bronger, Brenda Overturf, Kathy Belcher, Amy Awbrey, the staff of Collaborative for Teaching and Learning, Cindy Parker, Robin Hebert, Cristofer Price, and the staff of the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development.

This research was supported in part by a grant from the Striving Readers program as administered by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U. S. Department of Education. The findings and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, or the U. S. Department of Education.