Semantic Webbing, Semantic-Pictorial Webbing and Standard Basal Teaching Techniques: A Comparison of Three Strategies To Enhance Learning and Memory of a Reading Comprehension Task in the Fourth Grade Classroom.
- Resource Type
- Reports - Research
Speeches/Meeting Papers
- Authors
- McCarthy-Tucker, Sherri
- Source
- Subject
- Comparative Analysis
Conventional Instruction
Grade 4
Instructional Effectiveness
Intermediate Grades
Reading Comprehension
Schemata (Cognition)
Vocabulary Development
- Language
- English
A study analyzed the relative effectiveness of three teaching strategies for enhancing vocabulary and reading comprehension. Sixty-eight students in three fourth-grade classrooms in a suburban southwestern public school were presented with a vocabulary lesson on weather from the reading text according to one of the following strategies: (1) basal discussion technique (schema theory); (2) discussion through hierarchical presentation of key terms and semantic webbing (hierarchical presentation theory); or (3) discussion through hierarchical presentation of key terms and pictorial webbing (dual coding theory). Following the vocabulary lesson, students read the target passage from their texts silently. After the reading was completed, students were given the multiple choice measure of comprehension from the teacher's edition of the textbook. The same measure was administered one week later. Results indicated that students in the classroom instructed with semantic webbing performed significantly better, especially on the delayed recall measure. Memory between low and high achieving students varied differentially according to instructional strategy. Combining pictorial and written stimuli appeared to interfere with retention, especially among low achievers. (Nine tables of data are included; 19 references are attached.) (SR)