Categories for Video Analysis of
Instruction in Comprehension Strategies
and Development of Motivation for Text
Comprehension
Øistein Anmarkrud and Ivar Bråten
Institute for Educational Research
2006
1. Strategy instruction before reading
1.1. Memorization strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues and
utterances before reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to select and
rehearse information, without transforming or moving beyond what is given in the text they
are going to read.
Examples:
- When you read this text, I want you to underline the most important ideas.
- Write down the keywords you find in the text, and then memorize those words.
- “Honesty” is the most important word in this text, remember that.
1.2. Elaboration strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues
and utterances before reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to build
connections between information given in the text they are going to read and background
knowledge/information from other sources. This category also include situations were
teachers activate relevant background knowledge.
Examples:
- This text is about evaluation, that’s a word we have been talking about before. To
evaluate is almost the same as to judge or assess something.
- When I read expository text, I often write down what I know about the topic before I
start to read.
1.3. Organization strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues and
utterances before reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to order/arrange
text information to get a better overview of relations among ideas and words in the text they
are going to read.
Examples:
- When you read this article, I want you to make a mind-map that visualizes relations
among the main ideas in the text.
- As you will see, the different paragraphs of an article will often include one main idea
or argument, and the support of this idea. Use the paragraphs to organize the main
ideas and arguments in the text.
1.4. Control/monitoring strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues
and utterances before reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to assess or
regulate their own text comprehension (problem detection and problem solving).
Examples:
- If you ask yourself questions while you read, you could find out if you really
understand what you’re reading.
- If you notice that you don’t understand what you’re reading, ask someone in your
group for help.
2. Strategy instruction during reading
2.1. Memorization strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues and
utterances during reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to select and
rehearse information, without transforming or moving beyond what is given in the text they
are reading.
Examples:
- Repeat the key-words until you remember them
- Try to memorize the main ideas
- You should underline only the key-words.
2.2. Elaboration strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues
and utterances during reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to build
connections between information given in the text they are reading and background
knowledge/information from other sources.
Examples:
- Try to relate this to the texts we read last week
- Try to imagine how you could use this information in other situations
- Can you think about anything else you’ve read about this topic before?
2.3. Organization strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues and
utterances during reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to order/arrange
text information to get a better overview of relations among ideas and words in the text they
are reading.
Examples:
- It would be smart to write a summary of the text.
- You should make a “concept map” to get a good overview of the central ideas.
- You could try to organize the text content in a way that gives you a good overview.
2.4. Control/monitoring strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues
and utterances during reading, where teachers give instruct in, or recommend students to
assess or regulate their own text comprehension (problem detection and problem solving).
Examples:
- When you’re done with this text, you should be able to explain the concept
“capitulate”. Ask yourself questions while you read to cheque if you really understand
what the word means.
- You should consecutively ask yourselves questions about the text content, that’s a good
way to control your understanding of the text.
3. Strategy instruction after reading
3.1. Memorization strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues and
utterances after reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to select and
rehearse information from the text they have read, without transforming or moving beyond
what is given in the text.
Examples:
- Repeat the key-words until you remember them
- Try to memorize the main ideas
- You should have underlined only the key-words.
3.2. Elaboration strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues and
utterances after reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to build connections
between information given in the text they have read and background knowledge/information
from other sources.
Examples:
- Now that you have read this article, you should write a summary where you combine
the content of it with what you know about this topic already.
3.3. Organization strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues and
utterances after reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to order/arrange text
information to get a better overview of relations among ideas and words in the text they have
read.
Examples:
- Now you should use the key-words you have underlined and make a “concept-map” to
visualize the relationship between them.
- When reading expository text, as we have done today, you could use the composition
of the text to support your organization of the text content. In the introduction, the
theme or topic is presented, every paragraph will typically hold one main argument
and the support of this argument, and the conclusion will summarize the text as a
whole.
3.4. Control/monitoring strategies: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues
and utterances after reading, where teachers instruct or recommend students to assess or
regulate their own text comprehension (problem detection and problem solving).
Examples:
- You had some problems with understanding the concept “capitulation”. You could
try to write down what it means without looking in the text. If you can’t do that, you
should do some rereading.
- Write down which parts of the text that were hard to understand, think about what
made these parts difficult.
4. Explicit and implicit instruction in
comprehension strategies
Whenever codes concerning strategy instruction (code groups 1, 2 and 3) are used, the codes
concerning the explicitness of such instruction must also be used.
4.1. Explicit instruction in comprehension strategies: This category includes situations,
episodes and dialogues where the teacher model and/or verbalize use of comprehension
strategies.
Example:
The students have read a text about the battles on the eastern front during WWII. The
teacher then models how to write a summary that includes both the new information
acquired from the text and the background knowledge students had about the topic.
4.2. Explicit request of strategy use: This category includes situations, episodes and
dialogues where the teacher explicitly requests students to use specific strategies without
modelling or verbalizing the use of the strategies.
Example:
The students have read a text about the battles on the eastern front during WWII.
The teacher then requests the students to write a summary that includes both the new
information acquired from the text and the background knowledge students had about
the topic.
4.3. Facilitation of strategy use: This category includes situations, episodes and dialogues
where the teacher encourages strategy use without requesting students to use a specific
comprehension strategy.
Example:
The students have read a text about the battles on the eastern front during WWII.
The teacher then says that the students should find a way to relate text content to
background knowledge.
4.4. Implicit instruction in strategy use: This category includes situations, episodes and
dialogues where the students read text and none of the above criteria is met.
Example:
The students have read a text about the battles on the eastern front during WWII, and
the teacher tells how the information from the text relates to background knowledge.
It is up to the students to understand that such elaboration of text content is important
for good text comprehension.
5. Motivation for text comprehension
5.1. Importance of text comprehension: This category includes situations, episodes,
dialogues and utterances where teachers address the importance of good text comprehension.
Examples:
- I can see that this text is a little bit hard, but to be able to grasp the theme we are
working on now, you have to understand it.
- Even if you have to put some effort into the reading, it’s important to understand this
chapter.
5.2. Interest in text comprehension: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues
and utterances where teachers address students’ interest in text comprehension.
Examples:
- Isn’t it much more fun to read when you really understand what’s it all about?
- This article has a lot in common with the one you liked, so I guess you’ll find this one
interesting as well.
- You will like this one since you’re so interested in politics.
5.3. Utility value of text comprehension: This category includes situations, episodes,
dialogues and utterances were teachers explain or address the utility value of text
comprehension.
Examples:
- It’s not only in Language arts that it’s important to be good at comprehending texts.
You won’t get good grades in science or social studies unless you understand what you
read.
- If you want to get good grades, you have to be a good reader.
- Most jobs these days require good comprehension skills.
5.4. Perception of competence in text comprehension: This category includes situations,
episodes, dialogues and utterances were teachers address students general perception of
competence in text comprehension.
Examples:
- You have really become good at grasping the most important information in texts.
- You are a good reader.
5.5. Reading efficacy: This category includes situations, episodes, dialogues and utterances
were teachers address students text-specific expectations for text comprehension.
Examples:
- This was a hard text to understand, but you made it. That’s really good.
- Use your strategies, and I’m sure you will get the most important information from
this text.
6. Comprehension assessment and assignment
after reading
6.1. Comprehension assessment (verbal): This category is used when teacher assess
students’ text comprehension by asking questions about the text and/or initiating classroom
discussions about the text.
6.2. Comprehension assignment (written): This category is used whenever teachers use
written assignments to test students’ comprehension of the text they have read.
7. Reading
This category is used when there is reading going on in the classroom (individual reading,
reading aloud, group reading, reading of web-texts etc.). In situations where not all the
students read, the category is used when at least 50% of the students are involved in reading
activities.
To cite this document:
Anmarkrud, Ø., & Bråten, I. (2006). Categories for video analysis of instruction in
comprehension strategies and development of motivation for text comprehension. Institue of
Educational Research, University of Oslo
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