Story-Mapping Training as a Means of Improving Reading Comprehension

Abstract

In a multiple-baseline ABA design, five intermediate-level, elementary students with mild learning handicaps and poor comprehension were trained to use story-mapping procedures as a schema-building technique to improve reading comprehension. The primary dependent measure was a set of responses to 10 explicit and implicit comprehension questions. Secondary dependent measures were length of story retell, comparison of story retell responses to comprehension-question responses, standardized reading tests, generalization probes, and listening comprehension. All five students' performance improved on most of the dependent measures. Four students demonstrated increased ability to answer comprehension questions, maintained performance after intervention, and increased the tendency to include story-mapping components in their story retells. The remaining, and much slower, student improved marginally on most measures; however, his slow progress did not enable a maintenance phase to occur. In addition, three students' performance on comprehension of more difficult classroom reading materials also improved. The reason for the lack of improved generalization in the remaining two students is not known. It may have been due to classroom materials being more difficult than those used for instruction or an overall lack of generalization ability found in some learners.