TEACHING SHORT STORY COMPREHENSION WITH TEACHER-POSED AND STUDENT-GENERATED QUESTIONS

This researcher investigated the effectiveness of the use of a story scheme with either student-generated or teacher-posed questions as a means of facilitating community college students' comprehension of short stories. Three groups of community college students attending Broward Community College South Campus, south Florida, and enrolled in English 1102, Composition, constituted the sample for this study. The first experimental group, consisting of 15 students, read short stories with the use of the story scheme as an aid in generating their own questions on the stories they read. The second experimental group, consisting of 16 students, read short stories with the help of teacher-posed questions based on the story scheme. The control group, consisting of 13 students, read short stories with no instruction in how to read each; however, they were given instruction designed to improve their writing skills. Each group read six short stories over a period of two weeks. The results of six 15-item multiple-choice tests administered after each story was read disclosed the following: (1) Instruction in reading short stories with the use of a story scheme and self-generated questions did not significantly improve student comprehension of stories read. (2) Instruction in reading short stories with the help of teacher-posed questions based on a story scheme did, after three sessions of instruction, significantly improve student comprehension of the story they read. However, the significant comprehension gains that students derived from this instructional method were not sustained over subsequent sessions. (3) It took several sessions of instruction for the two instructional methods tested in this study to produce significant or even slight gains in student comprehension of stories. (4) Teaching students the story element Theme, as described in the story scheme of this study, did not significantly improve their comprehension of the story they read when that story element was taught. (5) Students in the self-generated question group did apply what they learned about a particular story element to the questions they asked concerning its role in the story. However, this process did not significantly improve their comprehension of the stories they read.