A Study of the Reading Interests of Fourth-Grade Boys and Girls, the Content of a Fourth-Grade Basal Reader, and the Relationship of Interests to Comprehension of the Content of the Basal Reader

Date of Graduation

Summer 1980

Degree

Master of Science in Education in Literacy

Department

Reading, Foundations, and Technology

Committee Chair

James Layton

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the interest of fourth-grade boys and girls and compare those interests to the content of a selected basal reader, and to correlate the reading interest to comprehension of the content of the basal reader. The subjects for this study were twenty-eight fourth-graders judged to be reading on or above fourth-grade level. The instruments used were a reading interest questionnaire and eight 50-blank cloze passages based on basal reader content. An analysis of the data revealed fourth-grade boys and girls to be interested in reading mystery, adventure, and animal stories. Results of a t-test indicated significant differences in interest in adventure and sports between boys and girls. Analysis of the content of the basal reader revealed limited representation of student interest. The Pearson product-moment technique was used to correlate frequency of choice and comprehension raw scores. A significant positive correlation was found between interest in reading adventure and comprehension of a representative story from the basal reader for both boys and girls. Interest appeared to have no predictive value when selections were on the instructional or independent level.

Subject Categories

Other Education

Copyright

© I. Marie Markstrom

Citation-only

Dissertation/Thesis

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