Date of Award
5-1-1986
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Education Specialist
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Keywords
basal readers, comprehension, diagnostic reading tests, disabled readers, inferential comprehension, reading, reading instruction, reading strategies, remedial skills, semantic webbing, seventh grade students, teacher-made assessments
Abstract
The author identified a key strategy for teaching inferential comprehension as implemented in a 7th grade classroom of students who were, at least, one year below grade in reading. The purpose was to improve the students' inferential comprehension skills.
The implementation began with a diagnostic reading test followed by several weeks of introducing different forms of semantic webbing to help clarify basal reader stories and other activities. After a mid-point teacher-made exam showed good results, the author implemented a few more weeks of webbing before a final diagnostic reading test was given to monitor progress. A comparison of the beginning and ending test scores indicated 33 percent of the students showed a 5 point increase in percentile rank. Results indicate semantic webbing to be an effective tool for improving the inferential comprehension of many students.