Can 21st century technology help struggling readers comprehend grade level text?
Reading is an important stepping stone towards a successful future no matter if you further your education after high school or join the workforce. Reading is everywhere and a necessary skill for all students to learn. After watching the same group of students receive reading intervention support year after year I wanted to look into new ways to help these students. With all of the technology that is available to teachers and students I knew that I wanted to explore different technology tools that could help these students break the cycle and experience empowerment and excitement when it comes to reading.
The number of students who read and comprehend grade level text is below 50% statewide as well as nationally. If the United States wants to see this number improve, then finding a new strategy to help struggling readers is a crucial part of the education system. Exploring how technology impacts student’s recall and reading comprehension has potential to pose positive changes in the education system. This study aimed to look at how technology can impact student reading comprehension. A pre-experimental study was used with a one-group, pretest/posttest design method. The treatment was the use of two technology tools, Istation and Tumblebooks, to help increase student reading comprehension. The teacher administered the district reading comprehension test at the beginning of the school year, a grade level comprehension quiz before the treatment and a different grade level comprehension test after the treatment. Quantitative data revealed that there was not significant growth in student reading comprehension of grade level text with the use of technology. However, the qualitative data revealed that students enjoyed using technology tools to aid in their comprehension. More research is needed to determine if significant gains can be made with struggling readers.
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