Running Head: READING COMPREHENSION IN FIRST AND SECOND GRADE 1

Reading Comprehension in First and Second Grade

Katie Kralovic

EDU 344
READING COMPREHENSION IN FIRST AND SECOND GRADE 2

Introduction

Imagine for a moment that you have just spent an hour looking over a document written

in a foreign language. You identify letter and word patterns and can even quickly recognize

frequently used words. You feel very confident about these pattern findings and are eager to

share what you have learned with others. Now imagine that you have been asked to explain what

the passage actually means. Panic ensues. You have spent the entire time looking for patterns

that you spent little or no time finding out what these patterns mean. This is what a child feels

when all of their reading time is spent laboriously decoding the text and then is asked to explain

what they read. When all effort is put into decoding a passage, reading comprehension suffers

because little time is spent on constructing meaning (Reutzel & Cooter, 2012). In order for our

students to construct meaning as they learn to read (McKee & Carr, 2016), reading

comprehension strategies need to be incorporated into the classroom so that the feeling of being

lost is avoided. But how do we do this, and what do these strategies look like in the primary

grades? It is important for educators to look back on their students’ earliest encounters of reading

and investigate how to make connections between these early encounters and the more complex

reading they will be doing later on (Lysaker & Hopper, 2015).

Purpose

A developing problem in early education is that, while much attention is being given to

how t​ o read, the skills needed to know ​what​ is being read are not being sharpened. More and

more children progress through the primary and secondary grades not understanding the

information they read, which subsequently affects other content areas and influences overall

academic success. Through my research, my aim is to answer several questions about this issue:
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What comprehension strategies are being used in first- and second-grade, and how much time is

spent on these skills? How are primary grade teachers monitoring and assessing comprehension?

What difficulties do they face when teaching reading comprehension?

The methodological approach that will be used in my research is twofold: First, empirical

and non-empirical studies will be examined and reviewed for data relating to reading

comprehension instructional strategies and assessments. Information gleaned from these studies

will help to inform my investigation and clarify areas of particular concern to my topic. Second,

a survey using Google Forms will be sent out to first- and second-grade teachers across the

United States with questions directly relating to my research questions. For the convenience of

collecting data, the questions will mainly be multiple-choice, with a few short answer options.

Common core standards require reading comprehension to be taught in early grades; one goal of

this study is to discover what mentality primary teachers have towards early reading

comprehension skills. Another goal is to generate a list of instructional and assessment strategies

currently used by educators to facilitate comprehension.

I hypothesize my research will show mixed opinions about the acquisition of

comprehension skills in the primary grades. I think some teachers will stress phonological and

phonemic awareness more in their curriculum, with comprehension being incidental, while other

teachers directly teach comprehension strategies such as rereading, predicting, summarizing, and

question-asking. As a result, I think the list of comprehension strategies that my research

produces will be highly effective evidence-based practices. Lastly, because little research has

been done to investigate reading comprehension in early grades, I predict my research will
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uncover unique challenges that primary-grade teachers face in teaching this fundamental reading

skill.

Review of Literature

When a child is proficient at reading comprehension, they can easily combine several

literacy skills—decoding, fluency, and sentence construction—to generate meaning from text.

Conversely, these skills can become stumbling blocks if they are not grounded in a strong

literacy foundation. If this is the case, students need to be helped to examine what they are

reading on a deeper level. In their study, Baker and McEnery (2017) explain the benefits of using

a close reading strategy to improve reading comprehension. Furthermore, they explore the use of

technology to increase reading comprehension in an ever-digitalized society. The purpose of this

study was to show the implications for close reading—the benefits and flexibility within other

strategies—and list some digital platforms that can supplement reading comprehension

instruction. The authors pulled data from various sources in a cumulative case study approach to

support their findings for close reading and technology use. Resulting from this study, a

three-phase instructional framework is explained that educators can use to introduce close

reading into their classroom. Lastly, they list a number of technologies that can support

comprehension: two digital approaches for creating digital content; three platforms for reading in

digital environments; two digital progress monitoring programs; and two platforms that

encourage collaboration.

When it comes to improving elements of reading, often all our energy is spent finding the

latest trend. What we fail to realize is that simple strategies, such as close reading, are still very
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effective. Although not a new concept, this strategy provides developing readers opportunities to

simply look more deeply into what they are reading. The article was insightful about this fact, as

it highlighted what makes close reading different from simply reading a book from beginning to

end in small groups. In particular, I found the three-phase framework to be a great way for

teachers to make their reading small-group sessions a higher quality experience. One thing that

stumped me a little was that the authors mention in two different locations the importance of

choosing appropriately challenging books, yet only wordless picture books were highlighted. I

was hoping they would provide examples of what other types of books work best with this

strategy, but wordless picture books are the only ones mentioned. Regardless, this article was

relevant to my research on reading comprehension in early grades as it explains how close

reading is a “tried and true” comprehension strategy for developing readers. Future research

should conduct field experiments on how this strategy compares to other reading comprehension

strategies, what book genres are most effective with this strategy, and what evidence can be

found concerning the effectiveness of the different digital platforms listed

When considering the reading comprehension strategies of emergent readers, we are

naturally inclined to emphasize the skills necessary to construct meaning from print-based

reading. Such skills involve knowledge of the alphabetic principle, print concepts, and

sound-letter correspondence. Yet, before most children encounter reading instruction, they have

constructed background knowledge of print by being read to and viewing illustrations from

picture books. Lysaker and Hopper (2015) argue that the strategies children use to comprehend

picture books without words can support later print-reading strategies and increase

comprehension. The purpose of their study was to demonstrate how pre-reading children exhibit
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the same reading strategies for wordless picture books as beginning readers with print-based

books, and how an emphasis on picture-based strategies at an early age can support future

reading comprehension. The authors collected qualitative data to provide information about some

of the early reading strategies children use, such as searching, cross-checking, self-correction,

and rereading. Next, they conducted a direct-observation analysis on Maya, a kindergarten

student, as she read a wordless picture book. After comparing results with the qualitative data,

they found that Maya effectively used adapted versions of the reading strategies that a child

would use when making meaning from print-based reading. This finding supported their view

that reading comprehension strategies can be effectively taught in primary grades.

This article presented a different perspective that early childhood educators can take

when it comes to considering comprehension strategies for emergent readers. While immersing

students in a world of text seems to be the usual protocol for preparing children for reading

instruction, this article addresses the benefits of reading without text. This was something I had

never thought deeply about before, so I appreciated the clear connections they made between

print and non-print strategies. I also liked how they voiced the reasoning that Maya may have

done as she decided what strategy was best to use as she described the pictures on the book.

When it comes to research findings, more data allows us to generalize on a greater scale. That

being said, I think the authors could have benefited from conducting their own direct observation

on a larger number of children. There are many variables that affect what children know, and I

think it would be assuming to say that all children employ these strategies when reading

wordless picture books. Regarding my research, this article helped to clarify the particular

comprehension strategies emergent readers use prior to print-reading instruction. It also pointed
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out the importance of identifying and connecting prior knowledge to future reading

comprehension experiences. Future research should investigate which particular reading

strategies emergent readers seem to use most often, as well as what outside influences may

inhibit or improve the use of these strategies. Additionally, a greater sample size could be used to

ensure findings are consistent across different settings and situations.

There is an interesting trend in the teaching realm of early education teachers that focuses

reading instruction primarily on the concept of “learning to read.” After all, this is the most

important time for teachers to lay a strong foundation in phonemic and phonological awareness

so that students are fluent and accurate at reading in the future. However, many teachers believe

that “reading to learn” is also an important skill that can be introduced in early education. McKee

and Carr (2016) voice this opinion with regards to informational texts in first grade. Although

each concept requires different skillsets, the authors highlight the importance of these two

concepts happening simultaneously in order for success to continue through a student’s entire

school experience. In this article they describe a simple comprehension strategy—Read, Stop,

Think, Ask, Connect—that can easily be taught in the classroom for students to use as they read

independently. Furthermore, the authors elaborate on factors needed to ensure the strategy is

flexible in meeting the needs of all students. They advise educators to consider prior learning

experiences, text selection, and multimodal support. The article ends by listing a five-step

approach to implementing the comprehension strategy and restates the importance of beginning

readers reading to learn as they learn to read.

The simple strategy outlined in this article made a big impression on me as I found

myself agreeing with their view on reading to learn in primary grades. They presented clear and
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relevant insight and were very thorough in providing additional information to keep in mind as

the strategy is used. They also supplemented their strategy outline with helpful examples and

additional resources for educators who are considering the use of the strategy in their classroom.

However, one thing I wondered about while reading was the amount of time that is required of

this strategy. Stopping to think and ask questions may require a lot of time for beginning readers,

especially since they are encountering these skills for the first time. What can teachers do to

ensure students have plenty of time to practice these skills? What kind of practices can teachers

use to ensure students have time to practice this strategy, while not taking from other areas of

focus? I believe answering these questions would make this strategy even more convincing to

use in a classroom. Otherwise, this article is relevant to my study in two ways. First, it falls under

the category of strategies early educators use to improve reading comprehension. Second, it has

uncovered a particular challenge with comprehension strategies, time management, that teachers

may face.

Beginning at an early age, children must learn critical thinking and reasoning skills to

help them understand information from texts, and be able to do this for increasingly complex

texts. Witte (2016) addressed this need by way of developing an instructional approach which

helped students identify the central message of a story and give evidence from the text to support

findings from a variety of complex texts. The purpose of the study was to investigate the

effectiveness of her instructional approach on advanced reasoning skills with complex texts. Her

class consisted of 23 first-grade students, many of whom had a disability or exceptionality that

had to be considered when planning instruction. Witte developed the Complex Text Analysis

which incorporates the read-aloud strategy, chart organizers, and a handful of pre-selected
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complex texts. As the story was read aloud, students filled out a chart which required them to

identify the central message of a story and give evidence from the text. The complexity of texts

would increase after each trimester, so students had enough time to develop the necessary skills.

At the end of the year, Witte compared test results with baseline data collected during the first

week of school and found remarkable gains for all students in both targeted skills. Not only this,

but students’ vocabulary and story writing skills improved as well.

This article was extremely detailed and well thought out, providing future educators with

a useful comprehension monitoring strategy. Witte provided very clear rationales for why she

wanted her students to improve reasoning skills, how she would do this, what the roles of the

teacher and students were, and the careful process of data collection and analysis. Additionally,

her method of scoring was easy to follow and allowed for a more complete understanding of the

progress made on both an individual and whole-class level. While this article provides a fair

amount of positive information, the author does not go into much detail about areas of limitation

or need for improvement. These are important topics to discuss as it helps future researchers and

teachers consider the difficulties that may arise from a strategy, or areas that may need adjusting.

This article supports my hypothesis regarding the success that combining multiple instructional

strategies—read-alouds, task charts, and small group discussion—has on reading comprehension

for diverse learners. Future research might benefit from seeing how this Complex Text Analysis

strategy can be used in later grades to the benefit middle schoolers. Research might also examine

whether teaching this strategy to parents in the home setting might further improve reasoning

skills.

Methodology
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The methodological approach to this study involved analyzing data obtained from a

survey I created and comparing these results to empirical and non-empirical literature reviews.

The survey was created in order to obtain immediate feedback from teachers in the field about

reading comprehension. The questions were generated to gauge current teachers’ beliefs about

reading comprehension in primary grades and determine what instructional and assessment

strategies were most familiar to them. The reading comprehension strategies listed in this survey

were selected from the textbook ​Teaching Children to Read: The Teacher Makes the Difference

put forth by Reutzel and Cooter (2012). Due to the lack of research on this topic, I also

determined that it was important to find out what challenge’s teachers face when trying to

implement comprehension strategies in the classroom. The survey was created using Google

Forms and contained a total of 13 questions. Two questions required short answers, several

questions were multiple-choice, and two were designed for survey takers to select all that

applied. During the timeframe that the survey was sent out, I investigated several strategies by

means of literature reviews. The purpose of this was to develop a better understanding of the

research that has already been done. Upon receiving the results back from the survey, further

literature analysis was then conducted on the strategies and assessments that received the most

votes on the survey.

The participants of this survey were first- and second-grade teachers from across the

United States. The reason for this decision was that students at this grade range have just enough

background knowledge concerning essential reading skills, and are also progressing toward the

“reading to learn” stage. This in-between stage seemed a perfect choice for my study on

comprehension strategies used during the “learning to read” stage. Initially, the survey was sent
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only to school districts surrounding the Steubenville area, but low response rate urged that the

survey be sent out to a wider audience. The professor of the course, for which this research was

assigned, sent the survey to teachers she knew who taught first- and second-grade. Additionally,

I reached out to teachers in Washington State, and connected with online resources such as

Twitter and a teacher forum called ProTeacher.net, and asked first- and second-grade teachers

for their assistance.

Findings

The findings in this study are the results of the survey that was sent out to first- and

second-grade teachers across the United States, as well as the information obtained from

supporting literature review. The questions will be addressed in a way that breaks the research

question down into the following: (a) what teachers believe about reading comprehension; (b)

what reading strategies are being used; (c) what assessments and monitoring strategies are being

used; and (d) what challenges teachers face.

In total, the survey received seven responses; three were first-grade teachers, and four

were second-grade teachers. This suggests that responses will nearly be evenly distributed across

either grade. Six different states were represented by these teachers: Ohio received two

responses, and New York, Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Washington State received

one. Question two of the survey asked teachers to indicate how many years of experience they

have had as a teacher. Of these seven responders, three were teachers with 15 or more years of

experience; two had 10-15 years of experience; one had 5-10 years of experience; and one had
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0-5 years of experience. These statistics can be seen in Figure 1. What this information indicates

is that the responders differed widely in the level of experience they had as teachers. It is

possible that this fact influenced their beliefs on reading comprehension, and their individual

knowledge about comprehension strategies and forms of assessment.

Figure 1.

Teachers were asked to rate on a scale of one-to-five if they agreed with the statement

that reading comprehension does not receive enough instructional time. Of the seven responders,

three teachers indicated a 5; one indicated a 4, and three indicated a 3. Upon further analysis of

the individual responses, it appears that those with 15 or more years of experience agreed more

strongly about this statement than did those with less than 15 years of experience. Teachers were

then asked to share how much time they spent on the five core literacy skills, and the responses

ranged from 20 minutes to 2 hours per day. It is interesting to note that the instruction time of

first-grade teachers all averaged around 80 hours per day, while second-grade teachers averaged

around 41 minutes per day. Furthermore, the majority of second-grade teachers all strongly

indicated agreement toward the statement that comprehension instruction does not receive
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enough instructional time. It is guessed, therefore, that core literacy instruction time decreases

from grade to grade, even as early as first- and second-grade. This seems to align with the fact

that second-grade is on the cusp of the “reading to learn” stage. However, based on survey

response, it appears a decrease in phonological awareness, fluency, and accuracy instruction does

not necessarily mean an increase in comprehension skill practice. This gives rise to a new

question: What is taking time away from literacy instruction? This study, however, does not

answer this particular question.

We now move to the statistics regarding teacher familiarity with the reading

comprehension strategies listed in this survey. Various strategies were chosen from textbooks

used to teach preservice teachers about reading instruction in the education courses at Franciscan

University. Teachers were directed to select familiar strategies from a list of 12. Of these 12

strategies, only two were familiar to all the teachers—think aloud and rereading—with one

strategy, telling tales, familiar only to one teacher. A chart with the complete list of results from

this question can be found in figure 2. It is assumed that the teachers from this sampling seem to

understand the importance of teacher modeling when it comes to reading comprehension skills.

According to Ness and Kenny (2016), teacher modeling is one of the most effective ways to

show students how to analyze a text, make predictions, ask questions, and summarize findings.

These high-order thinking skills are essential to reading comprehension and are even required by

common core standards (Ness & Kenny, 2016). Especially for young children, think-aloud

explicitly models the cognitive process that occurs as we read which allows us to construct

meaning from text. This is a valuable strategy in primary grades as it makes comprehensible

those skills that would otherwise be very abstract for young developing minds.
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Figure 2.

Retell strategies involve the synthesis and summarizing of information that was just read.

It is possible that the familiarity of this strategy may be a result of its high use in

curriculum-based measures (CMB). One commonly used CBM is the Dynamic Indicator of

Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Among the different probes used to measure literacy

development in this assessment, the Retell Fluency (RTF) test is used to measure how well a

student can retell what took place in a passage read within a 1-minute time period (Bellinger &

DiPerna, 2011). While it is evident that this strategy can measure how well a student

comprehends the meaning and purpose of a passage, it should be noted that RTF tests can also

lead to inaccurate identification of students as “at-risk” (Bellinger & DiPerna, 2011). In their

study, Bellinger and DiPerna (2011) investigated the impact that a 1-minute passage reading had

on retell quality, as well as the accuracy of scoring procedures. What they found was that a

1-minute reading followed by a 1-minute retell may not sufficiently measure comprehension
READING COMPREHENSION IN FIRST AND SECOND GRADE 15

abilities of readers. Furthermore, fluent readers tended to score high on RTF because they spent

less time on the mechanics of reading and more time constructing meaning (Bellinger &

DiPerna, 2011). They also found that if the administer of the test could not keep up with the oral

retelling of the student, the quality and accuracy in scoring was negatively affected (Bellinger &

DiPerna, 2011). It is not known what particular retell strategy is used by the teachers in the

current study. A follow-up to ask what these retelling strategies look like would help determine

whether teachers use the 1-minute method or some other procedure. It is advised that careful

planning be considered when using retell strategies in order to avoid inaccurate scoring and

provide students with sufficient time to demonstrate comprehension.

In the “learning to read” stage, students’ brains must multitask with decoding, accuracy,

fluency, and comprehension skills as they read. To avoid being overwhelmed, the brain

processes these skills by naturally organizing and storing information as schema (Lopez &

Compoverde, 2018; Reutzel & Cooter, 2012). It was predicted by the researcher that one of the

top-picked strategies by teachers would be the graphic organizer. In a study done by Ozmen

(2011), she examined the effects of using graphic organizers and information texts with students

with disabilities. In particular, she posed the question of whether it was more beneficial to

present graphic organizers before or after instruction. The study was done with five

middle-school boys with mild intellectual disabilities. What she found was that, presenting the

graphic organizer after reading was beneficial for recalling similarities, and presenting the

organizer before reading was beneficial for recalling differences (Ozmen, 2011). The reason

graphic organizers work is that they make visual the cognitive processes that go on automatically

in the brain (Lopez & Compoverde, 2018). It is possible that the survey participants in this
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current study understand the value of using graphic organizers as a way to visualize cognitive

processes, such as categorizing and organizing information.

Three questions on this survey addressed assessment and progress monitoring. One of the

questions asked teachers to provide a short-answer written response regarding the steps or

processes they use to monitor students’ reading comprehension. One teacher reported that she

ensured students have many opportunities during the day to answer comprehension questions and

turn and talk with peers. Two other teachers also wrote that they used questions to track students

learning. According to Rosenshine (2012), providing students with questions allows them to

reflect on their own learning, and it provides teachers valuable insight into what students are

actually learning. By having students answer “process” questions, teachers can better determine

the reasoning process that students are using to solve problems or make connections

(Rosenshine, 2012). Modeling question-asking strategies can benefit reading comprehension

because students are influenced to reflect and ask questions of their own (Rosenshine, 2012).

Interestingly, this emphasis on question-asking seems to fall in line with the “close

reading” strategy mentioned by Baker and McEnery (2017). This strategy emphasizes asking

questions about an author’s intentions, or why a particular part of a story stands out, in order to

more deeply understand the text. Modeling this strategy through a think-aloud shows students

that our brain goes through a series of cognitive processes that help us construct meaning from

what we read (Baker & McEnery, 2017). Asking questions acts as a sort of guiding hand that

shows students how to work through problems and thereby access information that deepens their

understanding (Baker & McEnery, 2017). It is imaginable that the teachers in the current study
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see question-asking as a way for students to reflect on their reasoning process and deepen

understanding.

Two teachers described how they used fluency as a means to assess comprehension. One

went into substantial detail about how they improve fluency skills through the use of recording

cold reads on iPads before and after instruction. Research shows that fluency and comprehension

are closely related, especially in early reading development (Reutzel & Cooter, 2012). Fluency

allows automaticity to occur, which is when words become so familiar that decoding happens

automatically (Reutzel & Cooter, 2012). As students become more fluent at reading,

comprehension improves because their brain has more space to process the information that is

contained within each paragraph, sentence, and word. (Rosenshine, 2012). The other teacher they

briefly described how they use reading fluency passages to monitor comprehension. What this

actually entails is unclear and only speculations can be made, but it is possible that the teacher

has had experience with the Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) probe from the DIBELS assessment.

This probe is usually given right before the RTF probe, and students have 1-minute to read as

much as they can in a grade-level passage (Bellinger & DiPerna, 2011). Additionally, the book

Basic Reading Inventory: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve and Early Literacy Assessments

by Johns, Elish-Piper, and Johns, is frequently used as a resource for assessments. As such, it is

also speculated that the teacher may be referring to the fluency passage activities in the book,

which involve asking the student questions rather than having them recall information.

The other two questions regarding assessment had teachers check all that applied from a

list of assessment strategies, and choose between informal or formal assessment types. Of the

seven strategies provided, all teachers selected “before, during, and after question-asking”, and
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four teachers selected “oral retelling”. Teachers were then asked to specify which type of

assessment—formal or informal—they preferred: 71.4% said they preferred to use informal

assessment, and 28.6% said they preferred formal assessment. A deeper analysis of these two

questions shows a pattern that appears to coincide with what has previously been discussed

regarding question-asking and retell strategies for instruction. Additionally, the assessment

strategies chosen from the list seem to coincide with the question regarding assessment type

because question-asking and retelling strategies can be done informally as teachers observe

students participating during instruction, interacting in groups, or reading independently. Figures

3 and 4 illustrate the results obtained from the questions about monitoring and assessment

strategies.

Figure 3.​
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Figure 4.​

Lastly, the findings concerning teacher challenges are to be analyzed. To limit the

amount of time needed to take the survey, options were pre-determined based off the

researcher’s own observations from the field. Teachers were asked to select all that applied to

them and were provided the option to add a new challenge. The most-voted challenge faced in

the classroom regarding comprehension instruction “was not having enough time in the day”

followed by “lack of students’ prior knowledge,” and “collecting meaningful data that can be

used to inform instruction.” Figure 5 can be found below that shows the distribution of teacher

responses for challenges pertaining to teaching comprehension skills.

As can be seen from the few instructional strategies mentioned in this study, reading

comprehension takes time. The process of activating prior knowledge, making connections,

reflecting on and summarizing information is not something that can easily be reduced to quick

bursts of instruction and then neglected in favor of other reading skills. In their study, Lysaker

and Hopper (2015) highlighted the time-consuming process that a kindergartener embarked on as

she read a picture book. Each phase of reading comprehension takes its own amount of time;
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asking-questions involves reflection, answering questions involves activating knowledge, and

summarizing involves both reflection and question-asking which can take a fair amount of time.

As indicated by this question on the survey, it is supposed that some teachers of young children

do not have enough time during the day to ensure specific comprehension strategies are being

taught. Interestingly, this can be seen in the results of the questions pertaining to assessment and

monitoring strategies. The strategies described and chosen were nearly all informal assessments,

assessments that can be done during transition time, independent reading, or during the random

moments during class that a teacher finds they have five free minutes. This shows that, even

though teachers say they do not have enough time during the day, they still find ways to assess

comprehension skill-use in meaningful contexts.

The issue concerning students’ prior knowledge is an interesting one. On the one side,

some researchers imply that emergent readers should focus mainly on “lower process” literacy

skills (such as word recognition, fluency, and vocabulary) in order to build print-reading

background knowledge (Reutzel & Cooter, 2012, p. 260). On the other side, some researchers,

such as Lysaker and Hopper (2015), argue that emergent readers actually have quite a bit of

background knowledge built up from picture book reading and read-alouds that students can

benefit from using strategies that have them make connections between prior knowledge and

what they are reading. This practice in primary grade may even promote future reading success

(Lysaker & Hopper, 2015). Both sides of this topic present real cases that should be considered

when planning literacy education for students in primary grades.

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Figure 5.

Recommendations

There were several limitations to this study that need to be addressed before moving on to

implications and suggestions for future research. First, the initial research question was very

broad and attempted to answer too many questions at once. Although each question related to

this study was important to the researcher, it may have been more efficient to narrow it down to

one or two of the questions, perhaps focusing only on strategies or only on teacher challenges.

This would allow for an even deeper investigation into current teacher practices, rather than

simply skimming the surface of various topics and speculating about the data results.

Another limitation to this study was the survey itself. Limiting the audience to only first-

and second-grade teachers may have greatly influenced the low response received from the

survey, ultimately providing minimal data to be analyzed. Additionally, early childhood

education teachers often have experience teaching more than one grade. Some teachers have

experience in these grades but may currently be working with older or younger grades. By only
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sending this survey to current first- and second-grade teachers, a large group of teachers with

valuable insight was overlooked. Therefore, opening up the survey to a wider audience while still

addressing the topic of primary grade comprehension may provide more data to be analyzed. It is

hypothesized, however, that using a different methodological approach altogether, such as

teacher interviews or classroom observation, may have been a more appropriate way to obtain

information from current first- and second-grade teaches.

A third limitation of this study was the difficulty in finding relevant empirical and

non-empirical studies to support the research questions. It appears that, even in this day and age,

little research has been published regarding comprehension practices in primary grades. It is

unclear whether this is due to lack of interest in the topic or that research is still in progress,

however, this limitation could possibly have been prevented had the research questions been

limited and focused.

Although these limitations are substantial, this study was incredibly informative and shed

light on the somewhat unclear topic of reading comprehension in primary grades. The primary

grades are a time in literacy development when children learn the mechanical aspects of reading

and encounter more rigorous word and sound structures. As mentioned in the literature article by

Lysaker and Hopper (2015), children come to reading instruction with some phonological

awareness as a result of read-alouds and picture books. They make connections between pictures

and sounds, and between sounds and words which builds up a basic foundation for literacy to be

built (McKee & Carr, 2016). This can be used to the teacher’s advantage as they model

comprehension strategies, such as think-alouds and rereading, which will prepare students as

they transition to the “reading to learn” stage. The current study alluded to the fact that, although
READING COMPREHENSION IN FIRST AND SECOND GRADE 23

finding time to focus on comprehension is difficult when other skills are the primary focus,

teachers find subtle ways to incorporate comprehension skills by modeling their own cognitive

processes.

It is the opinion of the researcher that educators continue to investigate ways to improve

reading comprehension in the primary grades. When strong foundations are made, that which is

built upon it will be even stronger. The more attention that comprehension receives early on, the

more likely it is to help future reading performance (Lysaker & Hopper, 2015). It is

recommended that more research is done on the strategies that children in the pre-reading stage

use and investigate how this impacts future reading performance. Research should also

investigate the prevalence of think-aloud and rereading strategies in primary grades, as well as

whether primary grade teachers utilize question-asking strategies in a way that develops

comprehension skills. Finally, due to its strength in modeling important cognitive processes, it

might be beneficial for educators to investigate the implications for using think-aouds across

content areas in primary grades. By following these recommendations, primary grade can be

made into a time of literacy development that has a lasting positive effect on the reading habits

of a child’s entire life.

READING COMPREHENSION IN FIRST AND SECOND GRADE 24

References

Baker, S., & McEnery, L. (2017) Building the foundation for close reading with

developingreaders.​ Texas Journal of Literacy Education, 5(​ 1), 71–80.

Bellinger, J. M., & DiPerna, J. C. (2011). Is fluency-based story retell a good indicator of reading

comprehension? ​Psychology in the Schools, 48(​ 4), 416-426.

Edwards, O. W., & Taub, G. E. (2016). The influence of specific phonemic awareness

processes on the reading comprehension of African American students. ​Journal ofResearch in

Childhood Education, 30​(1), 74-84.

Lopez. J., & Compoverde, J. (2018). Development of reading comprehension with graphic

organizers for students with dyslexia. ​Journal of Technology and Science Education. 8​(2),

105-114.

Lysaker, J., & Hopper, E. (2015). A kindergarten’s emergent strategy use during wordless

picture book reading. ​The Reading Teacher, 68​(8), 649-657.

McKee, L., & Carr, G. (2016). Supporting beginning readers in beginning to learn: A

comprehension strategy. ​The Reading Teacher, 70​(3), 359-363.

Ness, M., & Kenny, M. (2016). Improving the quality of think-alouds. ​The Reading Teacher,

69​(4), 453-460.

Ozmen, R. G. (2011). Comparison of two different presentations of graphic organizers in

recalling information in expository texts with intellectually disabled students. Educational

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Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. (2012) ​Teaching children to read.​ (6​th​ ed.). Boston, MA:

Pearson Education, Inc.

READING COMPREHENSION IN FIRST AND SECOND GRADE 25

Rosenshine, B. (2012) Principles of Instruction: Research-based strategies that all teachers

should know. ​American Educator, 36(​ 1), 12-19.

Tobin, R., & McInnes, A. (2008). Accommodating differences: Variations in differentiated

literacy instruction in grade 2/3 classrooms. ​Literacy, 42​(1), 3-9.

Witte, P. (2016). Teaching first graders to comprehend complex texts through read-alouds.​ The

Reading Teacher, 70​(1) 29–38.

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Appendix A
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