Effects of the K-W-L Plus strategy on college developmental readers' recall of expository text

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effectiveness of the K-W-L Plus strategy (Carr & Ogle, 1987) on developmental college students' ability to recall expository text. The pre and posttest design involved treatment in the strategy while control subjects read and discussed the same four passages taken from a history text written at the tenth/eleventh grade level. The number of major and minor information units were calculated for both the pre and posttest passages by two independent raters. The same units were counted for study notes. In addition, study strategies and the minutes spent reading and preparing for the tests were noted.;Eighty-six university freshmen, enrolled in a college developmental reading course, took part in the study. Four entire sections were assigned by the two instructors to either treatment or control conditions. Both groups were given the pretest, which consisted of reading and studying a passage, then writing as much information as each student could recall. Practice using the K-W-L Plus strategy was given for four weeks; the control group read and discussed the same passages. During week five, all students again were asked to read and study a passage, then write for a free recall test.;A comparison of the students' study strategies showed that a number of the treatment group chose to employ the K-W-L Plus mapping strategy or combined the K-W-L worksheet with a map or a summary. A statistical analysis indicated a significant difference between the groups for the amount of time spent studying, as well as the number of major and minor information units copied in study notes. In addition, t-tests showed a significant difference between treatment and control groups in the number of major, minor, and total information units written on the free recall posttest.;The findings suggest that instruction in the use of the K-W-L Plus strategy can make a significant difference in the way students study, in the amount of time students remain on task while studying, and in the amount of information students are able to recall from expository text.