A Mixed-Methods Exploration of Scaffolded Co-Constructive Interactions with Informational Texts in a Middle-Grades Classroom

Background: As documented by state and national reading assessments, many middle school students have comprehension deficits that leave them unprepared for the reading demands of high school, college, and beyond. In contrast, seventh graders in one southwest Houston middle school made notable progress on state reading assessments. Their English Language Arts teacher facilitated application of comprehension strategies during shared text studies through modeling, discussion, and process writing. Research has demonstrated that co-constructive, text-centered comprehension strategy instruction can help improve adolescents’ comprehension skills. Research Question: This study explored the following question: How can scaffolded text-centered interactions in a co-constructivist learning community support adolescent students’ comprehension of informational texts? Purpose: The participant-researcher examined students’ internalization of strategies during scaffolded text-centered interactions. The investigation yielded pedagogical insights for the participant-researcher and other educators and researchers who serve and study adolescent literacy. Methods: The participant-researcher conducted a mixed-methods study with the purposeful sample of two seventh-grade Pre-Advanced Placement English Language Arts classes, employing a multi-phase explanatory/exploratory design. Data were collected for six weeks during three informational text studies. In the first analysis phase, the participant-researcher mapped the instructional sequence in 14 lessons after coding whole-class transcripts and analyzing instructional artifacts. In the second phase, the participant-researcher analyzed the cohort’s growth in informational text comprehension. Scores were analyzed for six comprehension assessments (baseline, pre-test, post-test, two selection tests, and a delayed post-test), using descriptive statistics, data visualizations, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. In addition, four sets of student-composed summaries were scored with researcher-developed rubrics. The participant-researcher employed descriptive statistics, data visualization, and two-tailed t-tests to compare students’ coverage of controlling ideas, key ideas, and key terms in the first and last summaries. In the third phase, the participant-researcher returned to previously analyzed data and investigated additional data to contextualize tentative findings with three student cases selected via opportunistic sampling. Results: Students made statistically significant gains from pre-test to delayed post-test, aggregate starting points to aggregate endpoints, and Selection Tests 1 and 3. The median pre-test and post-test ranks were not statistically different. Students made statistically significant gains in summary rubric scores in terms of their coverage of controlling ideas, key ideas, and key terms. The participant-researcher scaffolded cognitive, metacognitive, and discourse strategies that supported mental model co-construction. These scaffolded interactions among the teacher, students, and text facilitated students’ uptake of strategies and ideas. The participant-researcher frequently adjusted instructional moves and strategy focus, providing contingent support. The participant-researcher constructed elaborated textbases along with students. This co-construction prompted a reconceptualization of Kintsch’s Construction-Integration model to more fully capture how readers co-construct meaning with informational text and other readers. Conclusion: Study findings suggest shifts in adolescent comprehension instruction: (a) greater emphasis on the co-construction of elaborated textbases; (b) explicit teaching of an expanded suite of cognitive, metacognitive, and discourse strategies conducive to informational text comprehension; (c) embedded strategic instruction within shared informational text studies; and (d) responsive scaffolding during whole-class, team, and individual text-centered interactions. Further research and educator development in these areas will continue to inform and improve pedagogy.