The effect of ‘elaboration curriculum’ on the reading strategy, reading comprehension and story retelling for 2nd grade students

The present study explored the influence of “elaboration curriculum” on reading strategy, reading comprehension, and story retelling for 2nd grade students. Thirty-seven 2nd grade students from remote areas were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group received 9 weeks of elaboration curriculum, whereas the control group did not. All the students were required to take the following tests both before and after the experiment: (i) a word recognition test, (ii) the Standard Reading Comprehension Test (parallel form A and B), (iii) a thinking aloud test, and (iv) a story retelling test. The elaboration curriculum utilized direct instruction, thinking aloud, and a gradual release of responsibility teaching model. The results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in reading strategy and reading comprehension.