Reading
Comprehension
Prepared by
Patrice Bucci
Title I
Roberts School
“If learning to read effectively is a journey toward ever
increasing ability to comprehend texts, then teachers are the
tour guides, ensuring that students stay on course, pausing
to make sure they appreciate the landscape of
understanding, and encouraging the occasional diversion
down an inviting and interesting cul-de-sac or by way.”
Nell Duke, P. David Pearson,
Stephanie L. Strachan, Alison K.
Billman
What Reading Scholars Have to Say
about Reading Comprehension
• “Reading is not simply recognizing meaning
that is written in a text. Reading requires that
meaning be constructed with text. In other
words, reading is a transaction in which the
reader brings purposes and life experiences to
the text.”
– Doug Fisher, Dianne Lapp,
– Nancy Frey
What Reading Scholars Have to Say
about Reading Comprehension ( cont.)
• Comprehension strategies are thoughtful behaviors that
students use to facilitate their understanding as they read.
*Afflerbach, Pearson, & Paris, 2008
• Text comprehension can be improved by instruction that
helps readers use specific comprehension strategies
• Students can be taught to use comprehension strategies
• Text Comprehension is purposeful and active
• Text comprehension can be taught through explicit instruction
* Put Reading First, 2001
What Reading Scholars Have to Say
about Reading Comprehension ( cont.)
• Reading Comprehension emphasizes both what the author has written
and the readers ability to use their background knowledge and thinking
ability to make sense of what they read.
• Reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and
constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written
language.
• Extracting meaning is to understand what the author has stated.
• Constructing meaning is to interpret what the author has said by bringing
ones abilities, knowledge and experiences to what he or she is reading.
• IES WWC Practice Guide
What Reading Scholars Have to Say
about Reading Comprehension
• “Comprehension strategies are procedures that guide
students as they attempt to read and write.”
•
- National Reading Panel, 2000
• “Readers bring to the reading event their cognitive
capabilities, purposes for reading, knowledge of language and
the world, and prior experiences. Readers draw upon these
resources to make sense of the texts they encounter.”
– Frank Serafini, The Reading Workshop
Comprehension Strategies
• Students learn to use a variety of cognitive
and metacognitive strategies to ensure that
they comprehend what they are reading.
• Important comprehension strategies:
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Activating Prior Knowledge
Making connections
Determining Importance
Drawing Inferences
Using Fix-Up Strategies ( Monitoring)
Questioning
Making Mental Images ( Visualizing)
Summarizing
–
Tompkins, 2010
Comprehension
Constructing meaning
Conveying Meaning
• Involves utilizing
comprehension
strategies
• Involves retelling or
summarizing text
• Can be Text Centered or
Student Centered
• ( this is the response
part)
• ( this is the reading
part)
Teaching for Strategies
• Strategies to Sustain
Processing
• Strategies for Expanding
Thinking
• “Fix up Strategies”
• Predicting/Previewing
• Accessing/Developing Prior
Knowledge
• Making Connections
• Questioning
• Determining the Big Idea
• Inferring
• Summarizing
• Visualizing
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Self-Monitoring
Self Correcting
Searching cues
Solving Words: Taking
words apart while
reading
• Fountas/Pinnell
Factors that Effect Comprehension
Reader Factors:
• Readers level of
background knowledge
• Readers vocabulary
knowledge
• Readers oral fluency
• Readers ability to use
skills and strategies
• Readers level of
motivation and
engagement
Text Factors:
• Readers
familiarity/knowledge of
genre
• Readers
knowledge/understandin
g of text structures
• Readers
knowledge/understandin
g of text features
Tompkins, 2010
Motivation and Engagement: Many factors contribute
to involvement in reading and writing
Teacher
Attitude:
Teachers show
they care about
their students
Rewards:
Positive Feedback
and specific praise
Motivation
and
Engagement
Student
ownership of
LearningImportance of
Choice
Community:
Share reading
and writing for
authentic
purposes
Tompkins, 2010)
Best Practices
10 essential elements of effective reading
comprehension Instruction that research suggests
every teacher should engage in to foster reading
comprehension:
1.Build disciplinary and world knowledge.
2.Provide exposure to volume and range of texts.
3.Provide motivating texts and contexts for reading.
4.Teach strategies for comprehending.
5.Teach text structures.
6.Engage students in discussion.
7. Build vocabulary and language knowledge
8.Integrate reading and writing.
9. Observe and assess.
10. Differentiate instruction.
-Duke & Pearson, et al, 2002
Role of the Teacher
• Know the reader
• Know what comprehension strategies are used and
neglected
• Know the demands of the text
• Facilitate understanding….
• Think: Conversation, not interrogation
Implications for Teaching
Teaching for Comprehension Strategies:
•
Instructional Practices:
– Interactive Read Aloud
– Shared reading
– Guided Reading
– Transactional Strategy Instruction
– Concept Oriented Reading Instruction
– QtA ( Questioning the Author)
– DRTA ( Directed Reading Thinking Activity)
Keeping in mind the importance of :
– Modeling
– Gradual Release of Responsibility
– Dialogic thinking/talking
– Anchor Charts to chart thinking, keep track of thinking, a visual map of the
child’s/groups feed forward/feed backward thinking
Anchor Charts
• Anchor charts are a record of thinking and
learning. They are co-constructed by both
teacher and students. They should have a
prominent place in the classroom for teachers
and students to refer to.
• http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/An
chorChartPhotographsfromKellyandGinger/sli
des/Fiction-Nonfiction.html
Comprehension: Teachers need to engage in explicit comprehension instruction.
Through modeling teachers can make comprehension more visible.
When…
Construct Meaning
Prereading
During
Reading
After
Reading
Convey Meaning
Activate Schema, Prior
Knowledge
Preview Text
Build prior knowledge
Ask Questions
Ask Questions
Make Connections
Visualize
Infer
Set Purpose
Scaffolds/Supports:
Anticipation guides,
KWL Charts,
Brainstorming
T-Charts,
Determine the Big Idea
Use Fix up Strategies as
needed
Double/Triple Entry
Journals
Sticky notes
Graphic Organizers
Summarize
Questions the Author
Synthesize
Respond
Reading Logs , Conferences
Create project to
demonstrate learning
Comprehension is a multifaceted thinking process in
which students engage with text. Readers construct
meaning by interacting with the text.
Tompkins, 2010
Struggling Readers/ ELL Learners
Reasons Comprehension is
difficult:
• Limited background
knowledge
• Limited cultural knowledge
• Difficulty with figurative
language
• Mismatch between reading
level and English proficiency
level
Ways to Support these
learners:
• Careful selection of text
• Build background
knowledge and hierarchical
knowledge
• Front-load, pre-teach
important vocabulary
• Explicitly model use of
comprehension strategies
• Utilize interactive reading
aloud/think aloud
instructional practice
Tompkins, 2010)
Assessment
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An effective reading program includes assessment of all the essential components of reading:
alphabetics/phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary.
Purposes of assessment practices:
– 1. Identify skills and strategies that need review
– 2. Monitor student progress
– 3.Guide teacher instruction
– 4.Demonstrate effectiveness of instruction
– 5. Provide teachers with information on how instruction can be improved.
Why?
“We want our ongoing reading assessments to provide us with evidence that students are using systems
of strategic actions across instructional texts”
Fountas & Pinnell
“We assess students for four reasons:
1. Screening
2. Diagnosis
3. Progress monitoring
4. Outcome measurement”
David Pearson
Questions to Consider when
choosing assessment tools:
• Does the tool you used yield evidence of:
– Comprehension strategy use?
– Use of strategies on text ( fix up strategies)?
– Instructional level? Independent Level?
– Highlight focus for further instruction?
– Show evidence of progress?
– Measure students growth in the reading process?
Or Measure students growth within standards
based curriculum? Both?
• Tools that assess how
students construct
meaning:
• Tools that assess how
students convey
meaning:
•
( most neglected)
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Running Records
Miscue Analysis
DRA, QRI
Rubrics
• Retellings/responses
• Rubrics
• Reading response logs
( most used)
Assessment: Consider the Reader
• Understanding the “reader” involves
considering:
– the child’s prior experiences ( background
knowledge, prior knowledge, hierarchical
knowledge)
– The child’s decoding knowledge
– The child’s word knowledge
– The child’s knowledge of language
• ( this includes “book language” as well as oral language)
The Challenge?
• The challenge for us is to assure use of a
variety of assessments that will allow us to:
– Observe and analyze the reader
– Observe and analyze both the process
( strategic behaviors that construct meaning) and
the products ( responses/retellings that convey
meaning)
– Provide us with evidence of progress
– Allow for planning for further instruction
If…( based on assessment)…then…(instructional possibilities are)…
-What's’ After Assessment, Kathy Strickland 2005
If the student… Then present opportunities for… Work on…
-Reads word by
word
-Repeated reading, readers theater
Modeling fluent reading through shared
reading, read aloud
-Reads slowly but
comprehends
-Re-reading, readers theater, writing text
for struggling readers
Modeling fluent reading, shared reading ,
read aloud
-Reads slowly and
comprehension is
compromised
-Activate prior knowledge, set purpose,
use anticipation guides, KWL,
Take time for pre-reading activities, DRTA,
Think aloud, careful selection of text
-Reads fluently but
can’t retell
-Teach retelling, webbing, story mapping,
story frames, anticipation guides
Guided reading, use of reciprocal teaching,
DRTA
-Unable to identify
main idea, infer,
make connections
- Literature circles, response logs, story
mapping, use of graphic organizers
Help reader understand how to examine
text, discuss and revisit story
-Has problems with
Word study activities
sight words
-Help reader build a repertoire of sight
words, use word walls,
-Has little interest
in reading
- Help reader set purpose, authentic
purpose for reading, choice
Interactive read aloud, shared reading,
improving self efficacy
-Has difficulty with
new, unfamiliar or
vocabulary words
-Help reader understand that reading is
not just reading words, help in use of
three cueing systems
Cloze activities, structural analysis,
contextual analysis, word consciousness
Differentiation
•
•
Student achievement levels differ
according to their interests, preferred
ways of learning, as well as ability.
When teachers differentiate
instruction, they modify instructional
programs so that all students can be
successful.
Teachers modify instruction by
differentiating:
– Content
– Process
– Product
• Characteristics of
Differentiated Instruction:
• High Standards
• Assessment Instruction Link
• Flexible grouping
• Matching students with text
• Varied instructional activities
• Instructional modifications
Tompkins, 2010
IRA: Excellent Reading Teachers
http://www.reading.org/Libraries/Po
sition_Statements_and_Resolutions/
ps1041_excellent.sflb.ashx
Suggested Reading
Suggested Reading
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Mosaic of Thought, Ellin Keene
Strategies that Work, Stephanie Harvey
Reading with Meaning, Debbie Miller
Teaching for Comprehension and Fluency, Fountas and Pinnell
Teaching Struggling Readers, Carol Lyons
Lessons in Comprehension, Frank Serafini
What Really Matters for Struggling Readers, Richard Allington
Teaching for Deep Comprehension, Linda Dorn
Comprehension Instruction, Michael Pressley
On Solid Ground, Sharon Taberski
Comprehension Going Forward, Ellin Keene,
To Understand, Ellin Keene
Reading Assessment, Peter Afflerbach
Reading Essentials, Regie Routman
Suggested Resources
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www.readinglady.com
http://reading.ecb.org/teacher
http://www.storylineonline.net/
http://www.readingrockets.org/atoz/reading_comprehension/
http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/compre.htm
www.choiceliteracy.comhttp://
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/
http://www.reading.org/General/Publications/webinars-archive/webinars-freetext-talk-task.aspx
http://www.reading.org/downloads/podcasts/II-LappFisher.mp3
http://www.cori.umd.edu/
http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/resources.html
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/29035/
References
Tompkins, G., (2010). Literacy for the 21st Century, Boston, MA, Pearson
Samuels, S.J., & Farstrup, A.E. (2011). What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction (4th ed.). Newark, DE: International
Reading Association
Fisher, D.,Frey, N., and Lapp, D., (2009). In A Reading State of Mind. International Reading Association, Newark DE
Duke, N.K., & Pearson, P.D. (2002). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. In A.E. Farstrup & S.J. Samuels (Eds.),
What research has to say about reading instruction (3rd ed., pp. 205-242). Newark, De: International Reading Association.
Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G., ( 2006).Teaching for Comprehension and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH
Keene,E.O., & Zimmerman, S. ( 1997). Mosaic of thought: Teaching comprehension in a readers workshop. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann
Anderman, E., & Anderman, L., (2010). Classroom Motivation. Upper Saddle River, NJ Pearson
Allington, Richard. (2001). What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc.
Tomlinson, C. A., (1995). Differentiating instruction for advanced learners in the mixed-ability middle school classroom. ERIC
Digest ED443572
Johnston, Peter. (2010), RTI in Literacy- Responsive and Comprehensive. Newark, DE: International Reading Association
Strickland, K.,(2005). What's’ After Assessment?. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
Shanahan, T., & North Central Regional Educational Lab., N. L. (2005). The National Reading Panel Report. Practical Advice for
Teachers. Learning Point Associates / North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Shanahan, T., Callison, K., Carriere, C., Duke, N. K., Pearson, P., Schatschneider, C., & ... What Works Clearinghouse, (. (2010).
Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade: IES Practice Guide. NCEE 2010-4038. What Works
Clearinghouse, Retrieved from EBSCOhost.