Effect of Critical Thinking Skills on Reading Comprehension

Jennifer Wagoner

6th Grade Language Arts

Meadowview Middle School

Background Information

As a sixth grade Language Arts teacher, I am required to teach my students critical thinking skills and vocabulary. I find when they enter my classroom they are lacking in both areas. According to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, students should leave my classroom being able to analyze, interpret, and evaluate different types of print material. Students’ lack of vocabulary and critical thinking skills hinders them from performing well on reading comprehension exercises. They simply do not understand the vocabulary in the question stems. If I can teach them the vocabulary in the question stems in conjunction with critical thinking skills, I think they will be able to perform better on reading comprehension exercises.

Students lack vocabulary decoding and critical thinking skills. In my classroom, I already teach roots, affixes, decoding skills, and reading strategies in an effort that students will be able to decode and understand reading passages. Their problems arise within the question stems that assess comprehension. Students struggle with what the question is asking and how to choose the best answer. I believe the vocabulary within the question stem is a stumbling block to good performance.

I have also discovered that students have difficulty thinking beyond the text. They are quite capable of reading the words on the page, but when it comes to finding the real meaning within a passage, they struggle. Merely reading the words on the page is not enough, and I believe by teaching students critical thinking skills they will be able to analyze and evaluate text for meaning and understanding. They will also be able to apply critical thinking skills to other areas of their lives.

According to Walmsley, students fail to understand the big ideas while reading. They can point out main ideas of a paragraph or can easily work on a specific skill, but when it comes to understanding the big idea or underlying theme it is a struggle. “Understanding the big ideas is critical to full participation in work, life, and democracy.” (Walmsley) I think we are failing our students by teaching skills without connections. Students must know how to connect to text and life in order to succeed at life. They must be able to see the whole picture, not just parts of it like jigsaw pieces.

I think the Socratic Method is a great way to teach middle school students. They are capable of having logical thought processes and are beginning to be able to think abstractly. I believe if I help them learn how to think about the big picture without lecturing, they will be better equipped to problem solve on their own. For this task, I like the Socratic Method. The Socratic Method is a type of teaching in which the teacher asks the students a series of questions in order to teach a new concept or idea.

Socratic questioning helps students process information they already have in an effort to work through more complex problems. Questions using the Socratic Method rarely have one correct answer and allow students to express themselves and their opinions in a safe environment. Students are continually evaluating, defending or changing their views based on teacher inquiry. Socratic questioning promotes creative and higher order thinking (Paul and Elder).

My school district is a big fan of Robert J. Marzano. Marzano has a critical thinking taxonomy similar to Bloom with levels ranging from knowing to evaluative. These critical thinking levels are: knowing, organizing, analyzing, generating, applying, integrating, evaluating. Different thinking skills are associated with these levels. The knowing stage is merely defining problems, sorting and storing basic information, and seeking direction or new information. Whereas, the highest level of thinking, evaluating, is assessing an idea’s reasonableness and quality. The skills required to think at the higher levels are more complex and answers are not just sitting on the page waiting to be read and restated.

Teachers are constantly asking questions, but in actuality do not realize how many questions they are asking. Marzano believes there are two types of questions: recitation and construction. Recitation questions can be answered with knowledge students already have, they merely have to retrieve it from memory or text. On the other hand, construction questions require students to formulate responses by constructing knowledge from what they already know. Construction questioning and responding require higher order thinking. It requires students to work harder, probe for answers, and think about the reasonableness of things. Teachers should aim to ask higher order thinking questions rather than basic recall.

By combining Marzano’s question stems with Socratic questioning, my students will begin to make connections to text and understand the big idea. They will also become familiar with higher order thinking vocabulary and be more comfortable with the terms as time progresses. The combination of these elements will assist my students with reading comprehension and higher order thinking.

My questions:

What is the effect of teaching question stem vocabulary on reading comprehension?

How does teaching critical thinking skills impact reading comprehension?

Participants

Meadowview Middle School is located in Mt. Airy, NC and is part of the Surry County School System. Surry County is a rural area that has lost a lot of textile industry in the past several years. Many people have lost their jobs and are still unemployed or commuting to other areas, such as Winston Salem, for work. The students at Meadowview come from the poorest areas of the county. There are a total of 381 students in grades six through eight. Seventy three percent are white, thirteen percent are Hispanic, eight percent are black, and the remaining six percent are multi-racial, Asian, or “other”. Seventy two percent of our students receive free or reduced lunch.

Each day I teach three 80 minute 6th grade Language Arts classes. I have a total of 65 students, 29 male and 36 female. Sixty three percent of my students are white, twenty nine percent are Hispanic, and the rest are black, multi-racial, and Asian. All of my classes contain “average” students; however, one class is labeled 504 and one class is labeled ESL. I have an assistant in both of those classes. The assistants help with keeping students on task, reading conferences, and other small group activities. In the short time that I have had this group of young people, I have observed that they expect me to give them all of the answers and information they need. They lack the ability to go out on their own and find the answers to their own questions. I studied all 65 students in my classroom.

Instruction, Data, Results

NC End of Grade Coach Assessment

At the beginning of my study I administered a Coach reading assessment pretest consisting of 28 reading comprehension questions to use as a baseline for instruction. The Coach assessment focused on NC Standard Course of Study Goal 5 Objective 5.01. Students scored fairly well on the assessment with class averages around 65%. First period averaged 67%, second period averaged 63%, and third period averaged 64%. At the end of the study I gave the same Coach reading assessment with class averages increasing. Overall, thirty-nine students increased their scores, eighteen student scores decreased, four showed no change, and four were absent on either the pre or post-test assessment days. First period averaged 69%, second period averaged 70%, and third period averaged 67%.

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Coach Pretest and Post-test

Coach Pretest 8/27/2009Coach Posttest 10/21/2009

Each week during self-selected reading each student had to independently complete a Coach lesson. At the end of the study, each student had completed five lessons. Each Coach lesson focuses on one reading concept, for example summarizing, point of view, or context clues. Once a week I gave a whole class mini-lesson emphasizing the concept for the week and added those new vocabulary words to the word wall. During the mini-lesson we only focused on the lesson concept and vocabulary word. As a group we never discussed reading passages, strategies, or answer choices.

ClassScape

ClassScape is online End of Grade test preparation that aligns with the NC Standard Course of Study. The objective of ClassScape is to periodically check for student mastery of skills and adjust instruction accordingly. My students go to the computer lab every other week to take a reading comprehension ClassScape assessment. During my study we went to the computer lab four times. The students took two tests on NCSCOS Goal 1 Objective 1.02 for 6th grade LA and two tests for NCSCOS Goal 2 Objective 2.01 for 6th grade LA. The following chart shows each class average score on the four tests. My class averages were compatible with the school average.

Class 1 Class 2 Class 30

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ClassScape Assessments

ClassScape Goal 1 9/3/2009ClassScape Goal 1 9/17/2009ClassScape Goal 2 10/1/2009ClassScape Goal 2 10/15/2009

The questions in the ClassScape assessments covered all seven stages of Marzano’s higher order thinking question stems. Students scored the lowest on sub-objectives 1.02 b, e, and f and 2.01 b and f which involve the higher thinking skills such as connecting self to text, seeing the big idea (summarizing), making inferences, and determining significance.

Each objective is broken down into sub-objectives. The following charts display the data for the sub-objectives for both Goal 1 Objective 1.02 and Goal 2 Objective 2.01.

Goal 1 Objective 1.02

1.02b – Explore expressive materials that are read by determining the effect of literary devices and/or strategies on the reader/viewer/listener.

1.02c – Explore expressive materials that are read by making connections between works, self and related topics.

1.02d – Explore expressive materials that are read by comparing and/or contrasting information.

1.02e – Explore expressive materials that are read by drawing inferences and/or conclusions.

1.02f – explore expressive materials that are read by determining the main idea and/or significance of events.

Goal 2 Objective 2.01

2.01b – Explore informational materials that are read by restating and summarizing information.

2.01e – Explore informational materials that are read by comparing and/or contrasting information.

2.01f – Explore informational materials that are read by drawing inferences and/or conclusions.

14 Most Powerful Verbs (MPV)

The 14 Most Powerful Verbs (MPV) are the words most often found in reading comprehension question stems. 12 of the MPVs were compiled by educator Larry Bell, and the other two (signify and conclude) were added by Ann Moore, literacy coach at Meadowview Middle School. The MPVs are: infer, compare, contrast, summarize, evaluate, formulate, predict, conclude, signify, support, detail, describe, explain, and analyze. I have these words hanging on the classroom wall for the students to see and refer to during class. By using these words all year, the students are becoming familiar with test question vocabulary without completing

boring EOG test taking strategy drills. Thus, their anxiety at test time will be reduced and they will be able to read and understand what the question is asking.

At the beginning of the study I asked the students if they were familiar with the 14 MPVs. Most of them could rattle off the words, but did not know the definitions. We went over the words and definitions, and the students wrote them in their notebooks. In addition to reading the definition, I gave a real life example of how the vocabulary word would be used. For instance, the example I used for the word explain was, “If you are sitting in the principal’s office and she asks you why you hit that boy on the bus, are you going to say ‘because I felt like it’? No, you are going to tell exactly what happened and what led you to hit that boy on the bus. You are explaining your side of the story to stay out of trouble. You are giving all of the details.”

Throughout the study students worked with these words in various ways. They made a “Wanted Poster” for one of the MPVs. The poster had to contain the word, synonyms, places you might find it, the crime it committed, and any other information the student thought relevant. They did a great job coming up with creative ways to convey the meaning of their vocabulary word through the poster. When I had five or ten minutes of extra class time we played games using the MPVs. Some of their favorites were “The Bell Game” in which I would read a definition and the student that rang the bell first would give the word. Sometimes I would give the word and the student would give the definition. Similar to “The Bell Game” is word slap. I would write the vocabulary words on the board, read a definition, and the students would run to the board and slap the correct vocabulary word with a fly swatter.

“Mumball” was another favorite and rather difficult. Students would stand in a circle around the room and toss a bean bag to each other. The student that tossed the bean bag would say one of the vocabulary words and the student that caught it would have to give the definition. If that student didn’t know the definition they had to sit down. The last student to remain standing was the winner. The students did a great job at learning the MPV vocabulary words and their definitions, but as of right now, they still struggle to use the words in context. They have merely memorized the definitions. I gave a pop quiz on September 24, 2009 in which the students had to write the definition for each MPV; class averages were around 70%.

Jr. Great Books

This is the first time I’ve tried the Jr. Great Book series and the process of Shared Inquiry. Shared Inquiry is a process of analyzing and discussing text that teaches critical thinking and reading comprehension within a whole group discussion. I like Jr. Great Books because the stories are quality literature, interesting, and thought provoking. By using the Socratic method, Jr. Great Books inspires critical thinking because the discussion leader only asks probing questions that can have more than one answer.

I used Starting Off Strong: Beginning Shared Inquiry in Your Classroom as our text for the study. This book has four short selections. The purpose of the series is to introduce the class to Jr.

Great Books and familiarize them with the process of Shared Inquiry. Typically we would read the story together, discuss unfamiliar vocabulary, and have a class discussion based on a focus question.

The first story, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, was our introduction to the Shared Inquiry process. I read the story aloud, students answered the focus question on paper individually, and then we had a class discussion about the story. This first time discussion didn’t go so well. The focus question was, “Why isn’t the narrator satisfied with the house on Mango Street?” The class discussion consisted of students giving me basic recall answers from the text. They did not discuss with each other the big idea of the story. Also, their answers came from all parts of the text and did not focus on the house on Mango Street. They seemed confused as to how to interpret and respond to the focus question. The following map shows their recall answers.

Of course this was my first experience with Jr. Great Books as well. I had high expectations for my students and they did not meet them this first time. I could have probed deeper and got better and more thoughtful answers, but when you’re in the thick of the discussion and pressed

for time, you make do and go back to the drawing board for the next time. Part of my new idea was to have students develop their own focus questions on the next story. I was curious as to what types of questions they would ask, but knew in my heart I would get basic recall questions directly from the text.

The Moth and the Star by James Thurber was our second adventure in Jr. Great Books. This time I decided to see what types of focus questions the students could come up with. We read the story and then I asked the students to write one focus question for the story. We had never discussed elements of a good focus question. As suspected, the questions were basic recall questions that allowed for no class discussion. They were simple and contained only one correct answer derived from the text. Some of the student questions were: Did the moth reach the star? How did the other moths get burned? Did the dad want the moth to get burned? The Jr. Great Books focus question for this story was, “According to the story, would the moth have been better off setting his heart on the star, or on the streetlamp?” During the class discussion, the students still directed their answers toward me and not their classmates. However, they were beginning to cite text and think beyond what was written on the page. They were beginning to relate the moth to themselves and their families.

In between the second and third story I made posters of Marzano’s higher order thinking skills and hung them on the wall. As a class, we discussed what made good questions and why I had the posters on the wall with a giant arrow pointing up with the words “Think Higher” on it. I wanted the students to realize that there were different types of questions, and when we analyze text we need to use critical thinking, not just restate what is written in the passage. Using higher order thinking questions helps students connect to text and thusly, connecting to their own life experiences which helps them understand the big ideas in the text.

As a class, we decided that a good question for text analysis and interpretation had many components. Questions should be more than recall, they can have more than one right answer, and we will be able to have a class discussion centered on it. I also pointed out that the question stems on the wall contained the 14 MPVs that we had been using and discussing. The students realized that the words they had difficulty understanding, signify, formulate, and evaluate for example, were part of the higher stems. Whereas the MPVs they had a good grasp of, compare, contrast, describe were part of the lower stems. I encouraged students to refer to these posters as we formulate questions and have class discussions.

After we discussed the “Think Higher” question stems and vocabulary hanging on the classroom wall we read our third story, State of Affairs by Daniel Defoe, which is an excerpt from Robinson Crusoe. After the first reading I allowed the students to discuss the story with a partner and come up with a focus question. I reminded them to think higher, make sure the question has more than one correct answer, and that we should be able to discuss it as a class. The problem

with this task was that many of the students simply picked one of the question stems hanging on the wall and tried to fit a related story question in the stem. More often than not, the students did not know what they were asking. Once I figured this out, I added that they should be able to reasonably answer their own question. This made the task more difficult for them to complete, but their questions were progressing from basic recall to more critical thinking. A few student question examples are: Explain why the author lists the evil and good situations. What would you do if you were stranded on the island? How will the man survive?

The class discussion focused on the question, “Does Crusoe think the ‘goods’ of his situation make up for the ‘evils’?” I had the students sit in a large circle so they could see each other. They finally began to discuss and interact with each other instead of me. I sat quietly and took notes, asked probing questions to promote deeper levels of thinking, and brought them back to the text when the discussion began to go off topic. As usual, before our class discussion I went over the rules and was sure to emphasize the respectful nature our conversation would have. It is okay to disagree, but students must say why they disagree with a classmate and cite text to support their opinion. The following chart displays some student responses, and they are clearly thoughtful beyond the text. Students are beginning to think past the words on the page and look at the big idea.

Danny - Yes because he said “I began to comfort myself..."Zeb – He’s trying to assess his situationAnna- For every evil, a good makes him feel better. misery and comfortsTyler - p. 15 "Cast upon a desolate island..." It looks like he's hopeful.Laura - No. What if nobody ever finds him?Alan - He believes in himselfCole - Yes because he talks about good and evilKari - Yes because he's thinking positivelyFrank - He's not giving upJack - Yes, there is a slight hope of getting off the island. He has everything he needsTyler - There will always be bad thingsZeb- Where is his shelter? Might be none and it is hot and sunny there.Anna - Hope leads to help. He has food and supplies from the shipwreckAlan- But there is no waterCara - Family members would look for himJesus– He might run out of suppliesDana – He might be smart and be able to live off the land.

The last story in the Starting Off Strong book was Boar Out There by Cynthia Rylant. After reading this story, the students again were asked to write their own discussion question. What I found interesting this time was there were six basic questions among the three classes. Although working alone, many of the students submitted the same or similar questions. I decided to put them in groups of five and have them discuss one of the questions they wrote.

The next day we came together as a whole class and discussed each of the discussion questions the students wrote. I think this activity was worthwhile because the students had a vested interest in these questions. When I would ask one of the questions, several of their faces lit up with pride because that was the question they had written. The discussion was lively, respectful, and interesting. Students cited text, supported their answers, and most of the class contributed to the discussion. A few of the focus questions the students developed were: Explain what you would do if you were Jenny and were in front of a boar. Why does Jenny not pray when she has the chance? Why does Jenny still hook her chin over the old rail fence?

As a final activity with this book, I divided the classes into groups one last time and assigned one of the four stories to each group. The task was to reread the story, develop a completely new focus question, and tell the story on paper using only pictures. With little input from me, the students did a fantastic job coming up with a new focus question and illustrating their story.

The following three graphs show the progression of students’ questions through Marzano’s seven thinking skills and question stems. It is evident their thinking is progressing.

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Jr. Great Books Student Questions (Class One)

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Jr. Great Books Student Questions (Class Two)

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Jr. Great Books Student Questions (Class Three)

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Discussion

What does all of this mean? I think it means that students need to be taught how to think critically. They need to be taught not only new vocabulary words, but how to use those words to make sense of text. Students also need to be taught how to analyze text by asking questions that promote truth and understanding on a deeper level. And most importantly, teachers must model and have high expectations in an effort to promote critical thinking in a safe learning environment.

As far as standardized reading comprehension assessments, I think the Coach pre and post test were accurate measures of learning. It was the same test given in the same quiet, classroom environment. All students had the same amount of time, were allowed to use test taking strategies, and were comfortable in their own space. After analyzing student data, there are several higher order thinking questions that high numbers of students missed on both tests.

However, I believe the ClassScape assessments are not an accurate measurement of student learning and knowledge. ClassScape does not allow for students to use the reading strategies that they have been taught throughout the years. For example, they have been taught to highlight or underline sections of the passage and jot notes in margins. They cannot use paper and pencil on a computer based test. There are also many glitches with the computers. Sometimes it takes an exorbitant amount of time to simply get logged on to a computer, causing students to start late and rush through the assessment. Other times, the computers lock up or shut down completely in the middle of the assessment causing stress for the students because they do not know what happened or how to fix it. When reading the passages students have to scroll up and down and right to left. The text his hard to read when you have are unable to see it all on one page. The hum of the computers causes the room to be loud, and for some that is an invitation to talk to their neighbor. Students also sit close together and can see each other’s screen. The close proximity and hum of the computer is a perfect opportunity for cheating, which my students attempt to take advantage of. After analyzing scores, there is no pattern. There aren’t specific questions that were missed repeatedly. Students of all calibers perform poorly on these assessments; I wholeheartedly believe they are merely guessing at the answers instead of referring to the text.

Based upon the bar graphs, the critical thinking question activities with the Jr. Great Books is showing a clear progression of thinking skills. My students have begun to think before they ask a question or make a comment. They are thoughtful and considerate during class discussions. Moreover, they are beginning to see how their thoughts and ideas can impact and have influence on other people’s ideas and beliefs. Because of this, class discussions are progressing as well. They are more discussion and less student gives teacher an answer. Students are

interacting more with each other, citing text to support their thoughts, and considering all sides of an argument.

Students are also beginning to use and understand the 14 Most Powerful Verbs. These are words that we must all know in order to be successful at life, not just a standardized test. I think knowing these words does not reflect upon their reading comprehension, merely their ability to answer a question. Therefore, teaching and using these words as part of my study was unnecessary.

Sixth grade is a perfect time to begin honing students’ critical thinking skills. They are capable of having logical progression of thoughts, realizing their impact upon the world, and able to connect their lives to others situations. Beginning middle school is full of changes for a student and expectations for their performance changes drastically from elementary school. Why not take this transition time to push them in the direction of thinking?

Future Direction

One month is not enough time to teach 65 preteens to think critically, but we have gotten a good start on things. I will continue to teach critical thinking skills to my students. I firmly believe it is a valuable skill that takes years of practice to polish, and it is a skill that progress at different rates for each individual. I know learning how to think critically and connect to text will help my students ask more precise and clear questions in a quest to expand their own knowledge and understanding of the world.

Bibliography

Bell, Larry I. (2005). 12 Powerful words that increase test scores and help close the achievement gap. Multicultural America, Inc.

Davey, B and McBride, S. (1986). Effects of question-generation training on reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, Volume 78(Issue 4), 256-262. Retrieved September 13, 2009, from Education Research Complete database.

Gose, M. (2009) When Socratic dialogue is flagging: Questions and strategies for engaging students. College Teaching, Volume 57(Issue 1) 45-50. Retrieved October 23, 2009, from Education Complete database.

Joshi, R. M. (2005). Vocabulary: A critical component of comprehension. Reading & Writing Quarterly, Volume 21(Issue 3), 209-219. Retrieved September 13, 2009, from Education Research Complete database.

Marzano, R. (1993). How classroom teachers approach the teaching of thinking. Theory Into Practice, Volume 32(Issue 3), 154-161. Retrieved September 23, 2009, from Education Research Complete database.

Marzano, R. (1998). What are the general skills of thinking and reasoning and how do you teach them? Clearing House, Volume 71(Issue 5), 268-274. Retrieved September 23, 2009, from Education Research Complete database.

Nash, H and Snowling, M. (2006). Teaching new words to children with poor existing vocabulary knowledge: a controlled evaluation of the definition and context methods. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, Volume 41(Issue 3), 335-354. Retrieved September 13, 2009, from Education Research Complete database.

North Carolina end of grade coach: Reading grade 6. (2007). Triumph Learning. New York, NY.

Paul, R and Elder, L. (2007). Critical Thinking: The art of Socratic questioning. Journal of Developmental Education, Volume 31(Issue 1), 36-37. Retrieved October 4, 2009, from Education Research Complete database.

Starting off strong: Beginning shared inquiry in your classroom. (2006). The Great Books Foundation. Chicago, IL.

Walmsley, S. (2006). Getting the big idea: A neglected goal for reading comprehension. Reading Teacher, Volume 60(Issue 3), 281-285. Retrieved October 4, 2009, from Education Research Complete database.