A Microanalysis of the Small-Group, Guided Reading Lesson: Effects of an Emphasis on Global Story Meaning

Six third-grade classes in the Midwestern United States each received two lessons in which the teaching emphasis was on story meaning (major plot elements) and two lessons in which the teaching emphasis was on surface features of language (word analysis and accurate reading). An emphasis on story meaning led to superior performance on an array of outcome measures, including recall of propositions, short answers to questions, recall of important elements, oral reading errors, story interest, and lesson time. The difference in performance was especially notable for children in low and average reading groups. Additional analyses confirmed that a child learns more at moments when he or she is taking an active turn reading aloud and answering the teacher's questions, particularly when the child's reading fluency is low. The study also showed that performance on various outcome measures is more strongly related to the average ability of a reading group, especially average group fluency, than to the abilities of individual members of the group. Page-level analyses showed that the likelihood that information will be comprehended and recalled is associated with the importance and density of information on a page and the serial position of the page, but not its readability.