The impact of the reading engagement model on the 6^th graders’ reading comprehension achievement

Gülşah Mete

African Educational Research Journal
Published: August 4 2020
Volume 8, Issue 3
Pages 499-510
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30918/AERJ.83.20.104

Abstract

Reading is a cognitive process in which the mind works with the sensory organs to decode and interpret the symbols, and the achievement in this process is assessed through the reading comprehension skills. Reading comprehension skills have a pivotal role both in individuals’ educational lives and personal development. The studies indicate that individuals who do not comprehend what they have read or have not improved their comprehension skills experience failures in every period of their lives compared to the others. Therefore, this study focusing on a model to develop reading comprehension skills is quite crucial. Aiming to examine the impact of the Reading Engagement Model on the 6th graders’ reading comprehension achievement and engagement in reading, the study adopted the Pretest-Posttest Control-Group design. 62 students at the 6th grade participated in the control and experimental groups. In the experimental group, 36 class hours of implementations focusing on the Reading Engagement Model were carried out and the reading comprehension strategies as Cooperative Discussion and Questioning Strategy, Note-taking Strategy, and Cloze Technique were taught. In the control group, the activities in the coursebook were implemented as defined in the current curriculum. At the beginning and end of the 6-week implementations, to measure the reading comprehension achievement, the Reading Comprehension Achievement Test, and to evaluate their reading engagement levels, the Reading Engagement Index were applied to the groups as pretests and posttests. The SPSS program was utilized for the test analyses. Accordingly, the experimental group implemented the Reading Engagement Model indicated a significant difference relative to the control group. Hence, in the experimental group, the students’ reading comprehension achievements and reading engagement levels increased relatively. Concerning the results of the study, some implications have been reflected.

Keywords: Reading comprehension, reading engagement, reading engagement model, teaching reading.

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