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Chapter 7. Comprehension. Comprehension. Comprehension is the main purpose of reading. Reading is the process of constructing meaning from print. Comprehension is a constructive, interactive process involving: The reader The text The context in which the text is read. Schema Theory.
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Chapter 7 Comprehension
Comprehension • Comprehension is the main purpose of reading. • Reading is the process of constructing meaning from print. • Comprehension is a constructive, interactive process involving: • The reader • The text • The context in which the text is read
Schema Theory • It is theorized that our knowledge is packaged into units known as schemata. • A schema is the organized knowledge that one has about people, places, things, events, and even for how texts work (ex. narrative versus expository texts). • Schema can be very broad (ex. a schema for animals) or very narrow (ex. a schema for Siamese Cats)
Situation Models • Comprehension can also be thought of as the construction of a mental or situation model. • Situation models emphasize the active, constructivist nature of comprehension and the importance of prior knowledge. • What is your mental model for expository text? • Activating schemata is a part of a situation model. • To construct situation models, readers must integrate information from the text with his or her own prior knowledge.
So what? • Based on the situation model, you could take three steps to improve comprehension: • Build background, • Give students material on the appropriate level, and • Teach strategies, such as generating questions as they read, to help your students make connections.
Comprehension Strategies • According to a schema-situational model of reading, the reader plays a very active role in constructing an understanding of text. • One way the active reader constructs meaning is by using strategies… • deliberate, planned procedures designed to help us reach a goal.
12 Top Categories Most Effective for Improving Comprehension
Comprehension Monitoring--Through teacher modeling, student learn how to identify what does not make sense, how to look back or read ahead in the text to solve a problem, and how to restate a text in their own words. • Graphic Organizers--Using diagrams, pictures, or story maps to organize information. This helps students to learn text structures, focus on concepts and relationships between concepts, construct tools to represent text relationships visually, and help to write well-organized summaries. • Listening Actively--Listening to someone read and following what is being read can promote active listening. It can increase students’ participation in discussions and encourage more thoughtful response to questions. • Mental Imagery--Readers learn how to construct an image that helps them remember the information that is read.
Mnemomic Instruction--Readers use an external memory aid, such as a picture or a concept, to associate it with information in the text. • Prior Knowledge--Activation of prior knowledge will help students attend to relevant parts of the text, and they are then able to infer and elaborate to fill in missing or incomplete information. • Question Answering--Learning how to answer questions can help students remember what they read, and helps them learn how to use strategies for finding the answers. • Question Generation--Instruction in how to generate questions helps increase the amount of information that is remembered, be more accurate in answering questions, and better able to identify the main ideas in a text. • Story Structure--Instruction in the who, what, where, when, and why of stories helps students infer causal events in stories, remember more of what was read, and identify elements of story structure.
Summarization--Learning how to summarize makes readers more aware of the structure of a text, and how the ideas in the text are related. They are better able to identify main ideas along with ideas that are related to the main idea. • Vocabulary Instruction with Reading Comprehension--Instruction in vocabulary knowledge has the added benefit of enhancing comprehension of text. A strong vocabulary helps students to be better readers and better listeners. • Multiple Strategy Instruction--Instruction that shows students how to draw upon two to five strategies is a powerful way to teach reading comprehension. Examples of strategies include rereading, retelling, reviewing, summarizing, generating questions, answering questions, making predictions, deriving word meaning, drawing conclusions. Adapted from Trabasso and Bouchard (2002). Teaching readers how to comprehend text strategically. In C.C. Block and M. Pressley (Eds.), Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices. New York, NY: Guilford.
Preparational Strategies--Used Before Reading • Previewing—also known as surveying • Students read the title, headings, introduction, and summary and look at the illustrations to get an overview of the text. • Activating Prior Knowledge—through questioning • Subject knowledge—school-type knowledge • Personal knowledge—their personal experiences outside of school • Setting Purpose and Goals • Establish a purpose for reading by giving students a question to answer, but also help them learn how to set their own purposes for reading. • Help readers learn how to establish an overall goal for reading—for pleasure, to gain information, or to study for a test. • Important for all of these strategies is that the teacher serves as a model in how to use them when reading.
Organizational Strategies—Used During and After Reading • Organizational strategies are at the heart of constructing meaning. • Constructing the main idea—a summary statement that includes other details in a paragraph or longer piece. • Classifying—objects, then words, then sentences • Recognizing topic sentences
Organizational Strategies—Used During and After Reading • Determining important details—knowing which details support the main idea • Do this by drawing on… • Textual clues • Text structures • Relational terms • Repetition of words or concepts • Reader’s schemata or background knowledge • Beliefs about the author’s purpose
Organizational Strategies—Used During and After Reading • Organizing details—grouping together with common topics • Sequencing—in order • Following directions—using cue words • Summarizing—one of the most effective comprehension strategies of all • Teach students how to summarize orally before doing written summaries. • Retelling is a a natural way to lead into summarizing. • Teach students how to use titles, illustrations, topic sentences, headings, and other textual clues when summarizing.
Elaboration Strategies—During and After Reading • Making inferences • Schema-based—depends on prior knowledge • The wind howled outside. • Text-based—putting together two or more pieces of information in a text • “Now, my dears,” said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, “you may go into the field or down the lane, but don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden. Your Father had an accident there. He was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.” • To make inferences, students must have had access to the information in the text and then be able to recall the information.
Elaboration Strategies—During and After Reading • Imaging—creating sensory representations of items in a text • Fosters understanding • Promotes retention of information • Encourages monitoring for meaning • Draw upon auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile imaging. • Question Generation • Moves the reader from passive observer to active participant • Encourages the reader to set purposes for reading • Evaluating, or Critical Reading • Judging what is read • Considering other viewpoints • Learning to deal critically with words, statements, and whole sections of text
Monitoring Strategies • Relates to metacognition--Being conscious of one’s mental processes • Knowing what one does know, and what one does not know, and knowing what needs to be done to fix it. • Regulating • The reader guides his/her own reading processes. • The reader surveys the material, gets a sense of the organization, sets a purpose, and then chooses and implements an effective strategy.
Monitoring Strategies • Checking • Involves noting whether the focus is on important, relevant information and engaging in self-questioning to determine whether goals are being achieved. • Repairing • The student knows when to take corrective action when comprehension falters. • The student knows there is a problem and knows what to do to fix it. • Examples— • Reread the sentence or paragraph • Reading to the end of the page or section • Reread the preceding section • If important details can not be recalled, then skim back through the material to find important details. • Slow down or adjust the reading rate to accommodate the difficulty level of the text. • Consult a map, diagram, photo, chart, or illustration to provide clarification of something that is puzzling. • Consult an encyclopedia or dictionary to clarify a confusing concept.
Strategy Instruction Works Best When… • Students evidence a need for a strategy. • The strategy is taught and applied to a selection. • The teacher repeatedly models and explains the strategy. • When assessment is based on comprehension of the text and use of the strategy.
Before, During, and After– Activities to Use Note: Some activities are listed as being “after reading”, but you might build on the idea of it as part of “before reading”. For example, if students are going to make a story map, then you would review what elements are included on the story map. They might even have a story map that can be used to add notes as part of “during reading”. The actual activity would not be completed until after they have read the story/text.
Social-Constructivist Nature of Comprehension • Learning is a social process. • Directions and explanations provided by a more knowledgeable other are internalized by the learner and become part of his/her thinking. • Understandings can be enriched through conversations and discussions with others.
Types of Lessons that Scaffold Comprehension Processes • DRA • DRTA • QtA • Reciprocal Teaching • QAR • Think-Aloud • SQ3R • Guided Reading
Reciprocal Teaching • After reading a text, the teacher and students move through a cycle of: • Predicting • Question generating • Clarifying • Summarizing • Reciprocal teaching draws on expert scaffolding, cooperative learning, guided learning, and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development.
Questioning the Author (QtA) • The teacher uses six QtA moves: • Marking —highlight a student’s comment or idea that is important to the meaning being built • Turning Back —turn students’ attention back to the text to get more information • Revoicing —help students clearly express what they are attempting to say • Modeling —teacher shows how she creates meaning from the text • Annotating —fill in missing information • Recapping —highlight key points and summarizes
Directed Reading and Thinking Activity (DRTA) • Make predictions • Read a segment of text • Discuss what was read • Revisit prediction • Make new prediction • Continue the cycle by reading the next segment of text
