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Mosher, Douglas

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    Improving Second-Grade Reading Comprehension Through a Sustained Content Literacy Intervention: A Mixed-Methods Study Examining the Mediating Role of Domain-Specific Vocabulary
    (2024) Mosher, Douglas; Burkhauser, Mary; Kim, James S.
    This mixed-methods study explores the relationship between early elementary students’ domainspecific vocabulary knowledge and their ability to comprehend grade-level reading passages on unfamiliar science topics. Specifically, this study used (a) structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the extent to which students’ networks of domain-specific vocabulary knowledge in Grades 1 and 2 mediated the effects of a Tier 1 content-based literacy intervention on domainspecific reading comprehension scores in Grade 2 (N = 2,156); and (b) quantitative survey and qualitative interview data from teachers (N = 48) to surface new themes about teacher vocabulary instruction that might suggest potential explanations for the SEM findings. SEM analysis revealed that students’ domain-specific vocabulary knowledge in first and second grade explained 69% of the treatment effect on a domain-specific reading comprehension outcome. Results from the quantitative survey also indicated that treatment group teachers reported providing more incidental exposures to vocabulary than control teachers (Effect Size [ES] = .54) and qualitative analyses revealed that teachers with high incidental exposures tended to provide expanded opportunities for their students to engage with words and to connect words to topics. Findings from this mixed-method study paint a more complete picture of (a) the important role domain-specific vocabulary knowledge plays in facilitating reading comprehension transfer in the domain of science, and (b) what teachers do during vocabulary instruction to promote transfer in domain-specific reading comprehension.
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    Building a Science of Teaching Reading and Vocabulary: Experimental Effects of Structured Supplements for a Read Aloud Lesson on Third Graders’ Domain-Specific Reading Comprehension
    (Informa UK Limited, 2024-07) Mosher, Douglas; Kim, James S.
    Purpose: This study contributes to the science of teaching reading and vocabulary by illustrating how a ubiquitous classroom practice – read alouds – can be enhanced by structured supplements. This experimental study examines whether and to what extent providing structured supplements can improve student comprehension outcomes by helping teachers foster discussions about academic vocabulary that support schema transfer as students make connections between known and new topics. Method: A total of 80 third-grade teachers and their students (N = 965; 32% Black, 31% Hispanic, 25% white, 9 Asian, 48% Male) were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Treatment students received a single social studies read aloud on the story of Apollo 11 with structured supplements while control students received the same read aloud story but without structured supplements. Students were from linguistically, economically, and ethnically diverse backgrounds. Results: Effect sizes from hierarchical linear models indicated that students in the treatment condition outperformed students in the control condition on four measures of domain-specific reading comprehension: recall (ES=.17), near-transfer (ES=.17), mid-transfer (ES=.18), and content comprehension (ES=.18). Further exploratory analyses using structural equation modeling revealed that teacher language scaffolds—that is, temporary dialogic supports in which teachers went above and beyond the intervention script—explained 66% of the treatment effect on domain-specific reading comprehension. Conclusion: Results from this study suggest that read alouds, when enhanced with structured supplements designed to facilitate schema transfer, can increase the amount of academic vocabulary teachers use during classroom instruction and improve their students’ ability to comprehend disciplinary texts.