Reading

Comprehension

Reading Comprehension
What do proficient readers do?
Make connections between prior knowledge and the text
Ø Readers naturally bring in prior knowledge, but they
comprehension better when they make connections between
the text, their lives, and the world
Ask questions
Ø Asking question clarifies understanding and helps make READING
meaning
Visualize What is reading
Ø Active readers create visual images in their minds based on comprehension?
the words they read in the text
Drawing inferences Reading comprehension is
Ø Readers evaluate or draw conclusions from information in the the ability to understand the
text written text. The process of
Determine important ideas comprehending involves
Ø Active readers find essential ideas and important information decoding the writer’s words
Synthesize information and then using background
Ø Involves combining new information with existing knowledge knowledge to construct and
to form and original idea understand the writer’s
message. Howard Gardner
Repair understanding
stated, “The purpose of
Ø Reader need to stop and clarify their understanding when they
become confused
education is to enhance
understanding” (1991). By
enhancing understanding, the
readers go beyond the literal
meaning of the story or text.
Gathering this information
allows us to gain knowledge
Meaning doesn’t arrive because we have highlighted text or used about the world and ourselves
sticky notes or written the right words on a comprehension in relation to it.
worksheet. Meaning arrives because we are purposefully engaged
in thinking while we read. –Cris Tovani
Struggling Readers
What do struggling readers need?
Students who read well have a repertoire of
strategies to draw upon and know how to use
them in different contexts. Students who
struggle with reading need explicit teaching of
the following strategies to become better
readers.
§ Knowledge of different types of texts and
the best strategies for reading them.
§ Multiple and meaningful opportunities to
practice reading in subject-specific
contexts.
§ Opportunities to practice reading with
appropriate resources.
§ Opportunities to talk about their reading
and thinking.
§ Background knowledge in subject areas.
§ Expanded sight vocabularies and word-
solving strategies for reading subject-
specific texts.
§ Strategies for previewing texts,
monitoring their understanding,
determining the most important ideas
and the relationships among them,
remembering what they read, and
making connections and inferences.
§ Strategies for becoming independent
readers in any context.
Resources
Reading Rockets
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-research-tells-us-about-
reading-comprehension-and-comprehension-instruction
Teacher Instruction
Four components of
comprehension instruction are:
Teacher Modeling
§ The teacher explains the strategy
§ The teacher thinks aloud to model the
mental processes she/he uses when
she/he reads
Guided Reading
§ After explicitly modeling, the teacher
gradually gives the students more
responsibility for task completion
Independent Practice
§ After working with the teacher and with
other students, the students try to apply
the strategy on their own
§ The students receive regular feedback
from the teacher and other students
Application of the Strategy in Real Reading
Situations
§ Students apply a clearly understood
strategy to a new genre or format
§ Students demonstrate the effective use
of a strategy in more difficult text
The University of Kanas
http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/?q=instruction/reading_comprehension
Strategies that Work – by Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis
Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? By Cris Tovani
Think Literacy – Grade 7-12
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/thinkliteracy/files/reading
.pdf