A longitudinal cross sectional comparison of the relationship between phonemic knowledge, prior knowledge, content knowledge, domain knowledge, discourse knowledge, and strategic knowledge to reading comprehension for readers in grades two through five

Abstract

This investigation examined the relationship between word recognition, prior knowledge, content knowledge, domain knowledge, discourse knowledge, and strategic knowledge to reading comprehension for grades two through five. The investigation also examined the relationships found within one school district and compared these with another, more diverse district. Using Content Based Literacy Assessment instruments developed by each school district, measurement models of word recognition, prior knowledge, content knowledge, domain knowledge, discourse knowledge, strategic knowledge and reading comprehension for both narrative and expository text were developed. Covariance analysis of linear structural equations was used to examine the relations among the described variables and cross validation of multiple regression was used to test the confirmatory of fit to the second data set. Relationships for each data set across the grade levels two through five were reported and compared. Even though the models developed for each school district did not indicate a high level between goodness of fit for the two models, important relationships among the components of reading comprehension were recorded. For both school districts, at grades two and three, decoding and word recognition skills indicated strong paths toward reading comprehension. Metacognitive and Conceptual knowledge also began to show paths to reading comprehension at grade levels three through five. Paths leading to reading comprehension became more complex at grades four and five. Also at grade levels four and five the role of word recognition began to show decreased effects and the variables of strategic knowledge began to show stronger paths toward reading comprehension. The forms of conceptual knowledge related to expository text did not indicate strong relationships to expository comprehension. For the rural school district which consisted of a large minority population, the features that demonstrated the strongest paths to reading comprehension of narrative and expository text were the features of strategic knowledge and comprehension of the other form of text.