1. Time to Transfer: Long-Term Effects of a Sustained and Spiraled Content Literacy Intervention in the Elementary Grades.
- Author
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Kim, James S., Gilbert, Joshua B., Relyea, Jackie Eunjung, Rich, Patrick, Scherer, Ethan, Burkhauser, Mary A., and Tvedt, Johanna N.
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READING , *INTELLECT , *STATISTICAL correlation , *ELEMENTARY schools , *RESEARCH funding , *CLUSTER analysis (Statistics) , *HUMAN services programs , *EVALUATION of human services programs , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *RANDOMIZED controlled trials , *LEARNING , *EXPERIMENTAL design , *LONGITUDINAL method , *INFORMATION literacy , *SCHOOL children , *ACADEMIC achievement , *RESEARCH , *VOCABULARY , *DATA analysis software - Abstract
We investigated the effectiveness of a sustained and spiraled content literacy intervention that emphasizes building domain and topic knowledge schemas and vocabulary for elementary-grade students. The model of reading engagement intervention underscores thematic lessons that provide an intellectual structure for helping students connect new learning to a general schema in Grade 1 (animal survival), Grade 2 (scientific investigation of past events like dinosaur mass extinctions), and Grade 3 (scientific investigation of living systems). A total of 30 elementary schools (N = 2,870 students) were randomized to a treatment or control condition. In the treatment condition (i.e., full spiral curriculum), students participated in content literacy lessons from Grades 1 to 3 during the school year and wide reading of thematically related informational texts in the summer following Grades 1 and 2. In the control condition (i.e., partial spiral curriculum), students participated in lessons in only Grade 3. The Grade 3 lessons for both conditions were implemented online during the COVID-19 pandemic school year. Results reveal that treatment students outperformed control students on science vocabulary knowledge across all three grades. Furthermore, intent-to-treat analyses revealed positive transfer effects on Grade 3 science reading (ES =.14), domain-general reading comprehension (ES =.11), and mathematics achievement (ES =.12). Treatment impacts were sustained at 14-month follow-up on Grade 4 reading comprehension (ES =.12) and mathematics achievement (ES =.16). Findings indicate that a content literacy intervention that spirals topics and vocabulary across grades can improve students' long-term academic achievement outcomes. Public Significance Statement: This experimental study illustrates how sustaining and spiraling science schemas (background knowledge) and vocabulary from Grades 1 to 3 can improve students' ability to comprehend passages in science, English language arts, and mathematics. Furthermore, findings suggest that systematically building background and vocabulary knowledge can sustain positive gains in elementary-grade students' reading comprehension ability through the end of Grade 4, 14 months after the conclusion of the intervention activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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