Using verbal protocol to examine construction of meaning from social studies texts

Verbal protocol methodology is used to examine how fourth-grade students construct meaning as they read and respond to two informational social studies texts. Results indicate most students are active readers, often engaging in higher-level comprehension strategies and critical thinking as they read independently. However, critical thinking and comprehension processes are not often captured in their responses to end-of-reading questions (ERQ), which as a result have limited scope and utility for guiding social studies instruction. Results also indicate that when students change their patterns of strategy use for reading and responding to text in response to a change in text, they are more successful on the ERQ than when their strategy use remains stagnant.