Can you provide a reference or more information on the study conducted on first- and third-graders? The link to Mary Myatt's website no longer works and I would like to explore this study, to see what I can take from it in the primary setting.
I agree that it matters, but there's often little detailed information about the nature of the tests in published studies. I'm not sure which studies you're referring to, but here's what I found in the article about the effects of reading novels aloud to 12- and 13-year-olds:
"Standardised comprehension tests (McCarthy & Crumpler 2014) were administered to all students in week one and week 12 by the research team. An hour-long, these ‘Hodder Access’ tests assessed vocabulary knowledge, literal comprehension, inference and analysis in very short mostly non-fiction texts."
While this doesn't say whether the questions were multiple choice or not, it's interesting that the passages were mostly non-fiction. The novels, of course, were fiction, but the tests still showed a huge positive effect on comprehension.
As a colleague explained to me, comprehension comes from reading but isn’t reading. When I work with educators, I use EWW to describe my perspective on reading achievement. Early, Well, and Wide(ly). Knowledge of the world/content is essential!
I would say comprehension comes from more than reading--especially with younger children. Fluent readers can gain knowledge most efficiently from reading. But readers who are not yet fluent gain knowledge and vocabulary best from listening to complex text being read aloud by an expert reader and then discussing it -- and doing this with a series of texts grouped around the same topic, so that they hear the same concepts and vocabulary repeatedly. And this isn't just for really young kids. Listening comprehension exceeds reading comprehension until about age 13, on average.
Can you provide a reference or more information on the study conducted on first- and third-graders? The link to Mary Myatt's website no longer works and I would like to explore this study, to see what I can take from it in the primary setting.
I'm afraid I don't have any additional information, but you could try this link to Mary Myatt's website and send a query through the contact page:
https://www.myattandco.com/
It would be great to see that study published somewhere! Please let me know if you find any additional information on it.
Actually, I spoke too soon. I managed to find a page on the Myatt & Co website with links to both parts of that primary study:
https://films.myattandco.com/catalog
How is comprehension being assessed? Multiple choice questions? Summarizing? It matters when analyzing studies.
I agree that it matters, but there's often little detailed information about the nature of the tests in published studies. I'm not sure which studies you're referring to, but here's what I found in the article about the effects of reading novels aloud to 12- and 13-year-olds:
"Standardised comprehension tests (McCarthy & Crumpler 2014) were administered to all students in week one and week 12 by the research team. An hour-long, these ‘Hodder Access’ tests assessed vocabulary knowledge, literal comprehension, inference and analysis in very short mostly non-fiction texts."
While this doesn't say whether the questions were multiple choice or not, it's interesting that the passages were mostly non-fiction. The novels, of course, were fiction, but the tests still showed a huge positive effect on comprehension.
As a colleague explained to me, comprehension comes from reading but isn’t reading. When I work with educators, I use EWW to describe my perspective on reading achievement. Early, Well, and Wide(ly). Knowledge of the world/content is essential!
I would say comprehension comes from more than reading--especially with younger children. Fluent readers can gain knowledge most efficiently from reading. But readers who are not yet fluent gain knowledge and vocabulary best from listening to complex text being read aloud by an expert reader and then discussing it -- and doing this with a series of texts grouped around the same topic, so that they hear the same concepts and vocabulary repeatedly. And this isn't just for really young kids. Listening comprehension exceeds reading comprehension until about age 13, on average.