Does+underlining+a+passage+help+you+when+you+have+to+take+a+test?-+Ryan,+Al,+Craig

Research Question:
Which group of students, underlining verses not underline

Hypothesis:
If we test four different people, first not underling then taking a test, then using a same level passage except this time they underling the main idea of each paragraph on the paper, then, they will do better on the test they underlined on because they have gone over the test more than once and they have more knowledge on the topic then they would have if they didn't underline.

Manipulated Variable:
The variable that we manipulated or changed in the experiment was whether or not the test subject underlined the main idea of each paragraph on the test.

Responding Variable:
The variable that changed as a result of the manipulated variable was the students scores and the test.

Controlled Variables:
The Variables that we had to control in order for the experiment to be liable were: The people, the level of the test, the amount we told them to underline, the types of questions, and the grades of the test subjects.

Procedure:
First, we created a measurable question to which we would test that had to do with underline. Then we found two passages w/ questions of the same level from the same reliable website. Next we had to find four people (two boys and two girls) from Mrs. Kelly's fourth period 7th grade language arts class. Then we had two of the students, one boy and one girl, underline the main idea of each paragraph in the passage and take the test. Then we had the other two take the test without underlining. We then had them take the other test doing the opposite thing they did before. We graded the scores of the two test and gathered our results.

Conclusion:
After our experiment, we were able to conclude that our hypothesis was correct, underlining that main idea of each paragraph was able to help students do better on the test, and when we asked them, they were also able to understand the passage better. We can conclude that underlining is a very helpful reading strategy.

Recommendations:
Judging from the results of our experiment, and our prior knowledge, we would recommend underlining as a reading strategy. It is simple, easy and anyone can do it, it also helps a lot. Underlining is a great thing as long as you keep it under control. If you just tell kids to underline, most likely a lot of them will just underline the entire paragraph and they will do even worse that before. You have to be very specific as to what you would like the kids to underline. One example is "underline the main idea of each paragraph in the passage" is a great one to use. Since three out of four students did better on the test and the one scored the same, it is most likely that underlining usually helps kids do better on the test.