Reading Comprehension
Introduction
Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to
accurately understand written material, children need to be able to
(1) interpret what they read; (2) make connections between what they read and what
they already know; and (3) think deeply about what they have read.
One big part of comprehension is having a sufficient vocabulary.
Reading comprehension is a multicomponent, complex process that involves many
interactions between the reader and what s/he brings to the text (previous knowledge,
strategy use), as well as variables related to the text itself (interest in the text,
understanding of the types of texts).
Reading Comprehension is the ability to easily and efficiently read the text for
meaning.
Five Core Components of Reading - Comprehension
Ability to Identify Main Idea & Key Details. ...
Ability to Sequence a Passage into an Ordinal Series. ...
Ability to Answer Direct Recall Questions. ...
Ability to Make Inferences and/or Predictions. ...
Identify Unfamiliar Vocabulary
Factors associated with good comprehension
Vocabulary and background knowledge
Integration and reading skills
Understanding language structure/connections
Knowledge and use of text structure
Comprehension monitoring.
Reading and language comprehension requires that readers have lexical knowledge
(that is, knowledge about words) that can be retrieved quickly and used flexibly to
derive appropriate contextual meaning.
What kids can do to help themselves
• Use outlines, maps, and notes when you read.
• Make flash cards of key terms you might want to remember.
• Read stories or passages in short sections and make sure you know
what happened before you continue reading.
• Ask yourself, "Does this make sense?" If it doesn't, reread the part that
didn't make sense.
• Read with a buddy. Stop every page or so and take turns summarizing
what you've read.
• Ask a parent or teacher to preview a book with you before you read it
on your own.
• As you read, try to form mental pictures or images that match the
story.
What parents can do to help at home
• Hold a conversation and discuss what your child has read..
• Help your child make connections between what he or she reads and
similar experiences he has felt or read in another book.
• Help your child monitor his or her understanding. Teach her to
continually ask herself whether she understands what she's reading.
• Help your child go back to the text to support his or her answers.
• Discuss the meanings of unknown words, both those he reads and
those he hears.
• Read material in short sections, making sure your child understands
each step of the way.
• Discuss what your child has learned from reading informational text
such as a science or social studies book.
What teachers can do to help at school
As students read, ask them open-ended questions such as "Why did
things happen that way?" or "What is the author trying to do here?"
and "Why is this somewhat confusing?".
Teach students the structure of different types of reading material.
For instance, narrative texts usually have a problem, a highpoint of
action, and a resolution to the problem. Informational texts may
describe, compare and contrast, or present a sequence of events.
Discuss the meaning of words as you go through the text. Target a
few words for deeper teaching, really probing what those words
mean and how they can be used.
Cont…
Teach note-taking skills and summarizing strategies.
Use graphic organizers that help students break information down
and keep tack of what they read.
Encourage students to use and revisit targeted vocabulary words.
Teach students to monitor their own understanding. Show them how,
for example, to ask themselves "What's unclear here?" or "What
information am I missing?" and "What else should the author be
telling me?".
Teach children how to make predictions and how to summarize.
Vocabulary development important for comprehension
The relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension is two-way: they
support each other. One reason for this strong relationship is that rich knowledge of
word meanings enables readers and listeners to make inferences and thematic links
within a text.
While being familiar with a large number of words is important, the depth of a
person’s vocabulary is also important – how well they can use their knowledge of the
word and its related words in order to understand what they are reading.
Cont…
The range of language used in written text means that reading is a good way of
expanding vocabulary knowledge, because written text contains rarer, less familiar
words than conversation does.
All children, even those who can decode (understand) fluently, benefit from being
read aloud to as it provides access to these less familiar words, as well as providing a
model for fluent reading and pronunciation.
Comprehension strategies help students
improve their range of comprehension skills
Discovering Main Idea
Identifying Detail
Sequencing Events
Using Context
Getting Facts
Drawing Conclusions/Predicting Outcomes
Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion
Understanding Cause and Effect
Cont…
Identifying Figurative Language
Identifying Bias and Prejudice
Using Prior Knowledge
Comparing and Contrasting Ideas
Generating and Answering Questions
Identifying Inferences
Summarizing Concepts
Understanding Vocabulary
Cont…
Visualizing Ideas
Determining Author’s Purpose
Understanding Point of View
Five levels of reading comprehension
1. Lexical Comprehension
2. Literal Comprehension
3. Interpretive Comprehension
4. Applied Comprehension
5. Affective Comprehension
Cont…
• Lexical Comprehension
• It deals with the understanding of the words in a text.
• The reader must be equipped with the knowledge of unlocking the meaning of the
terms in a text.
Literal Comprehension
• Identify the main ideas of the paragraph.
• Recall details to support the main idea.
• Organize the sequence of main events that occurred
Cont…
Interpretive Comprehension
Reading between the lines.
Predict endings and anticipate consequences.
State reasons for events.
Make generalizations.
Understand the facts that are explicitly stated in the text
Applied Comprehension
Reading beyond the lines.
Reader links between the text and his own experience and knowledge to develop an
answer.
A reader asks open-ended questions to promote deeper understanding.
Readers support their answer with a logical reason.
Readers do the following:
1. Make generalizations.
2. Make comparisons.
3. Make judgments.
4. Make recommendations and suggestions.
5. Make decisions.
6. Create alternative endings
Affective Comprehension
Understand social and emotional aspects.
Previews social scripts to ensure understanding of plot development.
Connects motive to plot and character development.
Understand social and emotional aspects.
Three Types of Comprehension
Literal Comprehension
Retell or summarize the facts to communicate what is made explicit through the
elements of a story (fiction) (based on imagination)
Summarize the facts to communicate what is made explicit through the elements of
information (non-fiction) (based on fact)
Inferential Comprehension
Express what is implicit within the text. Make inferences, interpretations, and
reflections supported by evidence: text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world
connections.
Cont…
Analytical Comprehension
Evaluate the quality of writing in a story or information against the Traits of Writing:
ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. How rich is
the quality and originality of the writing?
Effective Reading Comprehension
Instruction
A reader’s background knowledge is necessary in building a coherent
representation of a text. Well-connected memory storage facilitates quicker
retrieval and use of relevant information (Kintsch & Rawson, 2005).
Comprehension monitoring is a metacognitive skill that refers to readers’
ability to reflect on their understanding of a written text.
eneral Strategies for Reading
G
Comprehension
Using Prior Knowledge/Previewing
Predicting
Identifying the Main Idea and Summarization
Questioning
Making Inferences
Visualizing
Story Maps
Retelling
The Complexity of Reading
Comprehension
Reading comprehension is one of the most complex cognitive activities in which
humans engage, making it difficult to teach, measure, and research.
Reading comprehension is one of the most complex behaviors in which humans
engage.
Reading comprehension requires the coordination of multiple linguistic and cognitive
processes including, but not limited to, word reading ability, working memory,
inference generation, comprehension monitoring, vocabulary, and prior knowledge
(Perfetti, Landi, & Oakhill, 2005).
Challenges to good reading comprehension
Specific difficulties with reading comprehension can arise for different reasons, and
these can vary from child to child.
Some children may have poor reading comprehension because their word reading is
slow or inaccurate. Other children can develop good word reading skills, but
experience reading comprehension problems because of less-developed language
skills.
Children learning English as an additional language can actually do very well on
word reading. However, their knowledge of the meanings of words and idioms and,
for some children who have recently arrived in the country, their limited cultural
experience of life in the UK can restrict their background knowledge, affecting their
comprehension
