Teaching Comprehension Skills

1. Teaching Comprehension Skills By Anna Strole

2. Research • RAND: Reading Study Group Report on reading comprehension • Shows that there are 3 domains to comprehension: • Instruction • Teacher preparation • Community, cultural differences, the school and classroom culture, curriculum design, instructional activities, and teacher-student interactions • Assessment

3. National Reading Panel Report All reading programs should include: Phonological Awareness Phonics Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension Classroom organization, appropriate and interesting texts, choice of reading and collaboration with peers, writing, and expert tutoring also affect comprehension

4. Comprehension Strategies • “guide students to become aware of how well they comprehend as they attempt to read and write” • Interactive process: involves the reader and the text

5. The Reader • The teacher needs to make sure that each student has the appropriate amount of background knowledge to understand the text • It is important to eliminate biases in reading • Cultural Context for students is important, especially ESL students • Proper motivation for reading is necessary along with a specific purpose

6. Scaffolding • The teacher must include scaffolding, especially for young readers • Scaffolding can be provided through pictures, other resources, or books • Dr. Seuss is an example of predictable language books, i.e. rhyming • Schema theory: prepares children for new knowledge, builds on previous knowledge

7. The Reading Comprehension Activity • Includes: • Decoding Words • Recognizing Vocabulary • Using Higher Order Thinking Skills • Applying Comprehension Strategies • Purpose: • Increase Knowledge • Find Solutions to Real or Imagined Problems • Engage in the text • Predict outcomes

8. Strategies to Develop Schemata for Students • Discussion • Background-generating activity • Prequestions and Stating objectives • Story previews • Field trips • Semantic mapping/brainstorming • Video, Film, Pictures • Quick Write • Role-playing

9. Fluency • Fluency builds comprehension • Builds vocabulary • Helps make the story clearer • Reading is more efficient and effective

10. Metacognition and Comprehension Strategies“thinking about thinking”Students become aware of how they read, learn, and strategies that work for them • Prediction • Monitoring comprehension • Using graphic and semantic organizers • Generate student questions • Recognize story structures • Summarize • Sequence events • Indentify main ideas • Use context clues • Compare and contrast • Draw conclusions

11. Pre-reading Activities • Activate prior knowledge • Build background knowledge • Preteach vocabulary • Motivate and interest • Predict • Prequestion • Direction set

12. During Reading Activities • Map the story • Make connections • Text-to-text • Text-to-self • Text-to-world • Guide reading • Teacher modeling • Modify texts

13. Post Reading Activities • Retell • Summarize • Synthesize • Make connections • Hands on activities • Discussion • Writing

14. Teaching Strategies • SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read, Retell, Review • DR-TA: Directed Reading and Thinking Activity • QAR: Question-Answer Relationship • P-L-A-N: Predict, Locate, Add, Note

15. Technology Strategies: Activate prior knowledge Monitor comprehension Identify the main idea Synthesize text Infer Generate student questions Navigate the text • Non-linear hypertext • Multimedia text • Interactive texts • Online communication networking texts

16. Key Words • Comprehension strategies • Interactive process • Automaticity • Schemata • Visual literacy • Social Cultural Context • Schema theory • Fluency • Metacognitive Strategies

17. Citation Cohen, V.L., & Cowen, J.E. (2008). Literacy for children in an information age: teaching reading, writing, and thinking.. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.