THE EFFECT OF THE “THINK BEFORE READING, THINK WHILE READING, THINK AFTER READING” STRATEGY ON THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILL

“OKUMADAN ÖNCE, OKUMA ESNASINDA, OKUMADAN SONRA DÜŞÜN” STRATEJİSİNİN OKUDUĞUNU ANLAMA BECERİSİNE ETKİSİ

Abstract

Reading comprehension is one of the important skills that an individual must possess. This skill is an integral part of the individual’s life, an important determinant of the his/her academic success. It is observed that students who attend any school grades (e.g. from elementary to university) have difficulties in reading comprehension. In today’s information age, reading for getting information is one of the necessary behaviors. Today we have more chance to reach the informative texts compared to the past. As a result, it is required to make more research in order to understand these texts. The aim of this research is to carry out a teaching strategy that will help students to understand the informative texts, and enable them to check their understanding process. For this purpose, it is tried to revealed that the effect of “think before reading, think while reading, think after readingTWA” teaching strategy, which is coordinated according to self regulated strategy development model, on reading comprehension skills of students. In the research pre test-post test quasi-experimental design is used. The research was conducted in 2015-2016 academic year in Bafra district of Samsun province. The sample of the research consisted of 68 students who were 32 students in experiment group, 36 students in control group. The instruction of informative texts were done in the experimental group with TWA strategy and in the control group with Turkish Language Teaching Program. In practice, 12 sessions were held and each sessions consisted of two hours. “Demographic Information Form”, “Reading Comprehension Test in Informative Texts” and “Main Idea Determination Test in Informative Texts” which were developed by researchers were used as data collection tool in the research. In the analysis of the data, Shapiro Wilk test to determine normal distribution, t-test to compare normal distribution groups, Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test to compare groups without normal distribution were used. Also, covariance analysis was used to compare the post test scores of the groups in the main idea test. In the research, it was found that teaching 3D strategy significantly increased the mean score of the experiment group, but did not make a significant difference when compared to the control group. Another finding in the research is that the 3D strategy significantly improves the mean score of the main idea determination. These findings show that 3D strategy instruction is not effective in increasing the level of reading comprehension, but is effective in increasing the level of main idea determinationIn today's information age with the development of technology and the facilitation of information access, we often encounter texts that aim to provide information. Understanding these texts necessitates the development of language skills. Language skills have an important position in getting and using information (Özdemir, 1983). Reading is one of the language skills that is effective both in access to knowledge and in the development of thinking skills. Although reading has different definitions, every definitions reach to the comprehension. Because the important thing in the reading is comprehension (Durkin, 1993). When we look at the studies that aim improve the reading ability, it seems that studies are aimed at assesment the level of comprehension rather than improving the comprehension. This situation necessitates conscious studies for development of reading comprehension. One of the conscious studies is to teach comprehension strategies that enable students to control the comprehension process. The fourth grade of elementary school is an important step for students. Because after this step, student pass middle school. Students’ reading purposes change. Students who are especially interested in learning to read in the first years of primary school, begin to read intensively reading for learning with the fifth grade. This situation is closely related to their academic success. For this reason, students need to learn strategies that will help them understand the informative texts in the fourth grade. One of the strategies used to ensure that learners understand the informative texts is TWA (Think-While-After) which developed by Mason (2004). This strategy requires 3 different strategies to be employed in each part of the reading. In this study, it was aimed to reveal the effect of TWA strategy teaching on elementary school fourth grade students on the development of students' reading comprehension and determining main idea skills. Looking at the work done with the TWA strategy, Mason (2004) compared the effect of the TWA strategy with the reciprocal strategy on reading comprehension of informative texts. Apart from this study, studies on integrating TWA strategy with writing strategies have been done. Mason, Snyder, Sukhram and Kedem (2006), Mason (2008), Regovich and Perin (2008), Mason, Meadan, Hedin and Taft (2013) have combined writing strategies with TWA strategy. However, when studies are investigated, it appears that there is a lack of what the TWA strategy effect on the reading comprehension and determine the main idea. When view from this angle the study is very important because it found out the impact of the TWA strategy on the reading comprehension and defining main idea skills of fourth grade students who haven’t any inadequacy in informative texts. This research is an experimental research because it investigates the influence of the 3D strategy on reading comprehension and defining main idea skills of fourth grade students. Experimental designs are research designs aiming to reveal cause-effect relationships between variables (Büyüköztürk, 2001: 3). In the study, pre-test and post-test control group designs were used (Karasar, 2011: 97). A typical sampling method is used for the purpose of sampling in the research sample. In the typical sampling method, the sample is formed by a typica

Özet

Okuduğunu anlama, bireyin sahip olması gereken önemli becerilerdendir. Bu beceri, bireyin hayatının ayrılmaz bir parçası, akademik başarısının önemli belirleyicisidir. Buna rağmen her seviyede okulda(ilkokuldan üniversiteye) öğrencilerin okuduğunu anlamada zorluklar yaşadığı görülmektedir. Günümüz bilgi çağında, bilgi edinmek için okumak olmazsa olmaz davranışlardan biridir. Bu çağda bilgilendirici metinlerle geçmişe nazaran daha çok karşılaşılmakta bunun sonucunda bu metinleri anlamaya yönelik araştırmalara daha çok ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır. Bu araştırmanın amacı, ilkokul dördüncü sınıf öğrencilerinin bilgilendirici metinleri anlamalarında yardımcı olacak, anlama sürecini kontrol etmelerini sağlayacak bir strateji öğretimi gerçekleştirmektir. Bu amaçla, "okumadan önce düşün, okuma esnasında düşün, okuduktan sonra düşün-3D" stratejisinin öz düzenlemeli strateji gelişimi modeline göre öğretiminin öğrencilerin okuduğunu anlama becerilerine olan etkisi ortaya koyulmaya çalışılmıştır. Araştırmada, ön test-son test kontrol gruplu yarı deneysel desen kullanılmıştır. Araştırma, 2015-2016 öğretim yılında Samsun ilinin Bafra ilçesinde gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırmanın örneklemini 32'si deney, 36'sı kontrol grubu olmak üzere 68 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır. Bilgilendirici metinlerin öğretimi deney grubunda 3D stratejisi ile, kontrol grubunda ise Türkçe öğretim programı ile yapılmıştır. Uygulamada her biri iki ders saati olmak üzere 12 oturum gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak "Demografik Bilgi Formu", araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilen "Bilgilendirici Metinlerde Okuduğunu Anlama Testi" ve "Bilgilendirici Metinlerde Ana Fikir Belirleme Testi" kullanılmıştır. Verilerin analizinde normal dağılımı belirlemek için Shapiro Wilk Testi, normal dağılım gösteren grupların karşılaştırılmasında t-Testi, normal dağılım göstermeyen grupların karşılaştırılmasında Mann-Whitney U Testi ve Wilcoxon İşaretli Sıralar Testi kullanılmıştır. Ayrıca ana fikir belirleme testinde gruplara ait son test puanlarının karşılaştırılmasında kovaryans analizi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada 3D stratejisi öğretiminin okuduğunu anlama puanları üzerinde anlamlı bir farklılık oluşturmadığı bulgusuna ulaşılmıştır. Araştırmada ulaşılan bir diğer bulgu ise 3D stratejisinin ana fikir belirleme puan ortalamasını anlamlı bir şekilde arttırdığıdır. Bu bulgular, 3D stratejisi öğretiminin okuduğunu anlama düzeyini arttırmada etkili olmadığını ancak ana fikir belirleme düzeylerini arttırmada etkili olduğunu göstermektedir