Comprehension is...
- the essence of reading
- active and intentional thinking in which the meaning is constructed through interactions between the text and the reader (Durkin, 1973, see References).
Comprehension: the complex cognitive process involving the intentional interaction between reader and text to extract meaning.
Factors that Impact Reading Comprehension
Reader Based Factors | Text Based Factors |
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Comprehension Strategies for Proficient Readers Consist of:
- an awareness and understanding of one's own cognitive processes
- recognition of when one doesn't understand
- coordination and shifting the use of strategies as needed
Instruction
Comprehension instruction should:
- Begin in early childhood with storytelling and discussions
- Consist of question answering and lessons on simple story structure in kindergarten and first grade with accessible texts
- Include comprehension strategy instruction in second and third grade in narrative and expository texts
Teaching Comprehension Before, During, and After Reading
Before Reading
- Set comprehension objectives
- Refer to instructional priorities on grade-level curriculum maps to set objectives
- Examples:
- Accurately answer literal and inferential questions
- Identify the main character and setting
- Preteach difficult to read words
- Identify words that will be barriers to students' independent reading.
- Use familiar procedures to teach or review difficult-to-decode words:
- Sounding Out
- Structural Analysis
- Preview text and prime background knowledge
- Teach students to preview the text and predict what the text is going to be about before reading a passage.
- After previewing, teach students to think about what they already know and what they'd like to learn about the story or topic.
- Chunk text into manageable segments. Considerations include:
- Appropriate stopping points for asking questions
- Specific vocabulary that might need to be reviewed
- Appropriate points for identifying text structure elements
- Opportunities to summarize the main ideas in the passage
During Reading
- Identify text structure elements
- Narrative Text
- Texts that usually follow a familiar story structure and include the following structural elements:
- Characters
- Setting
- Problems
- Solutions
- Theme
- Texts that usually follow a familiar story structure and include the following structural elements:
- Expository Text
- Informational books
- Contain structures that can differ from one text to another and within a single passage (e.g., compare-contrast, description).
- Help students understand content area textbooks.
- Narrative Text
- Answer literal, inferential, and evaluative questions
- Literal questions have responses that are directly stated in the text.
- Inferential questions have responses that are indirectly stated, induced, or require other information.
- Evaluative questions require the reader to formulate a response based on their opinion.
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Text Questions: Literal, Inferential, or Evaluative? Puppies are very small when they are born. They cannot see until they are about two weeks old. During this time, they stay very close to their mothers. - What are puppies like when they are born?
- Are puppies born blind?
- Why do they stay close to their mothers?
- Would you like to have a puppy?
- Retell stories or main ideas of informational text
- Proficient readers periodically summarize text as they read, monitoring their understanding of the passage.
- Teaching children to retell occurrences in a story or the main ideas of informational text helps them become more accurate in summarizing and monitoring their understanding.
Informal Assessment: Monitoring Students' Progress After Reading
- Have discussions and conversations about texts that include open-ended, more complex questions.
- Observe students as they read and respond.
- Have students retell stories and monitor for accuracy and completeness of responses.
Assessment
Comprehension skills can be assessed with four DIBELS measures:
- DIBELS 6th Edition Oral Reading Fluency
- DIBELS 6th Edition Retell Fluency
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DIBELS Next DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency
- Retell
- Retell Quality
- DIBELS Next DAZE
TIP: For more information about Comprehension, including additional teaching strategies, visit the Big Ideas in Beginning Reading website.