Improving reading comprehension instruction through professional development in a collaborative think aloud protocol
Date
2016
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This Executive Leadership Portfolio (ELP) addresses the need to improve the reading comprehension skills of students in the Brandywine School District (BSD) so that they will be able to meet the increasing comprehension demands that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) assessment require. The overarching improvement goal of the ELP is to improve reading comprehension instruction by creating a professional development module for the district. To achieve that goal, a professional development project with five reading specialists was conducted to examine whether professional development using a collaborative think aloud protocol would change teachers’ understanding of and instruction of comprehension strategies.
Data from the project showed that a combination of workshop trainings, classroom practice and coaching feedback was generally effective in improving both understanding and instruction in reading comprehension. Reading specialists strengthened both their understanding and classroom practice of metacognitive modeling and responsive elaboration techniques after the workshop trainings and follow-up coaching sessions. However, reading specialists did not change the guided practice they provided for students during metacognitive modeling, even though they increased their understanding in this area. Reading specialists did improve their existing responsive elaboration instructional techniques but did not change in their understanding or practice of alternative instructional strategies to help students correct misunderstandings during responsive elaboration.
Recommendations for future professional development were to focus on implementing structured instructional routines in the classroom, to include longer professional development to improve unstructured practices, to offer additional opportunities to practice the following three components of scaffolding: lessening the level of support, making connections to new knowledge, and including scaffolding in existing instructional programs and routines. The next steps include the implementation of a revised professional development module that will be offered to all fourth- and fifth-grade teachers in the district. The revised module will include multiple resources in a blended format for teachers.