32nd Annual Student Research Conference
Small Group Differentiation on Student Learning and Engagement in Reading
Kendall A. Mitchem♦
Dr. Christopher Maglio, Faculty Mentor
This research study investigated the relationship between small group differentiation in reading and student learning and engagement. Twenty-six fourth grade students were previously placed into differentiated reading groups prior to the study based on the Developmental Reading Assessment. First, students read a book and individually completed a pretest assessing their reading comprehension. Days later, students individually read another book of the same level, then joined their differentiated reading groups for a small group discussion of the book led by the teacher. Following the posttest, students each completed a small group engagement inventory. A paired t-test was conducted to determine if there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores. The test did not produce significant results. A Spearman correlation was also run to explain the relationship between student engagement in small groups and the final posttest score. This test proved to show no correlation.
Keywords: Action research, Reading comprehension, Pretest, Posttest, Differentiation
Topic(s):Education
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 307-2
Location: MC 208
Time: 1:45