Leah Pedder, Stacy A. Williams

Critical Reading Instruction and its Impact on Success in the Science Classroom

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In this research, reading strategies presented have been to students and collecting data on their critical reading success and their perception of reading. The focus of this research was based on the focus of Archbishop Spalding High School, the school at which I teach. The strategies that I presented to the students, Honors Physics students in 11th and 12th grades, focused on how critical reading can increase success in the science classroom including reading scientific texts and word problems. The literature that students were given was scientific in origin and included science textbook reading. The success of the methods was evaluated based on student perception as well as on changes to critical reading scores in three key areas: vocabulary in context, extended reasoning, and literal comprehension.

I found that students reported greater desire to engage in reading in school while the three critical reading scores all changed with extended reasoning and literal comprehension success decreasing while vocabulary in context success increased. Other influences to the results of this study may include student participation, attendance, and consistency of effort.