harrison comprehension 2015+

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

Colin HarrisonUniversity of Nottingham

colin.harrison@nottingham.ac.uk

ESRC seminar: Reading Comprehension : From Theory to Practice

Overview

• Why did the UK government drop the Searchlights model?

The National Literacy Strategy

The ‘Searchlights Model’

How do children learn to read?

The ‘Searchlights Model’ Phonological awareness

Letter knowledge

Vocabulary knowledge

Knowledge of grammarAutomatic,

rapid, word recognition

Text structure knowledge

World knowledge

How do children learn to read?

The ‘Searchlights Model’ Phonological awareness

Letter knowledge

Vocabulary

knowledge

Knowledge of grammar

Automatic, rapid, word recognition

Txt st

ruct

ure

know

ledg

e

World knowledge

The Back Story

• What is the Simple View of Reading?

• How does Rose understand the Simple View of Reading?

Interactive-compensatory model of the reading process(Stanovich)

Processing capacity use

Comprehension

Word recognition

• How does Gough understand the Simple View of Reading?

The simple view of reading

R = D x C = x

• What’s morally repugnant about the Simple View?

- Milton’s daughters are certainly part of itMan, the comprehender, the scholar, the active mind, the intellectual

Woman, the incomprehending channel, the maidservant of knowledge

What’s right with the Simple View?

• What’s right with the Simple View?-automatic, context-free word recognition is the hallmark of the fluent reader- word recognition and comprehension have not only consistently been shown to factor out as separate skills in children; they continue to show up as distinct skills even in adults (Carver, 1990)- most researchers agree that most children will benefit from instruction in decoding

• What’s dangerous about the Simple View?

-Whether Gough wanted it to or not, it seems to put all the emphasis on decoding

• What’s dangerous about the Simple View?

-Whether Gough wanted it to or not, it seems to put all the emphasis on decoding, if it’s understood like this:

“If R = D x C, then the D is what the teacher

has to focus on; the C (linguistic comprehension) is what kids come to school with anyway….”

• What’s dangerous about the Simple View?

-Whether Gough wanted it to or not, it seems to put all the emphasis on decoding, if it’s understood like this:

“If R = D x C, then the D is what the teacher

has to focus on; the C (linguistic comprehension) is what kids come to school with anyway….”

So clearly the reading teacher’s job is to teach decoding….

• What’s dangerous about the Simple View?

-Whether Gough wanted it to or not, it seems to put all the emphasis on decoding

- if there’s no decoding, or inadequate

decoding, then R = 0[this in turn opens the flood gates not only to a need for the good teaching of phonics, but to the need for phonics ‘first, fast and only’- as

used by ‘successful teachers’ according to the Core Knowledge Foundation….]

• What’s dangerous about the Simple View?

-It seems to miss out so much

-What about fluency?-Motivation?-Engagement?

-Lunzer: Reading comprehension is the ability and willingness to reflect on what is read

• What’s dangerous about the Simple View?

-It seems to miss out so much

-What about fluency?-Motivation?-Engagement?

-Lunzer: Reading comprehension is the ability and willingness to reflect on what is read

And it’s the teacher’s job to teach this- it doesn’t develop spontaneously

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

Researchers don’t agree

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

Researchers don’t agree

on definitions

At least part of the reason for this is that they begin with or draw upon very

different theoretical frameworks

US research efforts impact very positively on early reading (despite massive demographic changes, reading attainment at

age 8 remains steady)

It is easier to improve beginning

reading @ Gr 4 than

comprehension @Gr 8 (Timms, etc)

Models of developing comprehension

• The Rand Reading Study Group (Catherine Snow for OERI/RAND, 2002)– What do we know

about reading comprehension?– What do we know about how

to develop it?– What should teachers know

about how to develop it?

Models of developing comprehension

• Comprehension subskills development?– Thurstone/Davis debate -? Rx model

(connects with Skinnerian models)

• Textual analysis skill development?– DARTs, etc. (connects with schema theory)

• Development of vocabulary and world knowledge [US+/UK-]?– teach vocabulary development (connects

with a Kintsch view of text as n-dimensional semantic network)

Which??

And why??

Models of developing comprehension

• Comprehension subskills development?– Thurstone/Davis debate -? Rx model

(connects with Skinnerian models)

• Textual analysis skill development?– DARTs, etc. (connects with schema theory)

• Development of vocabulary and world knowledge [US+/UK-]?– teach vocabulary development (connects

with a Kintsch view of text as n-dimensional semantic network)

Which??

And why??

Theoretically weak- black boxy; data- dredging

Models of developing comprehension

• Comprehension subskills development?– Thurstone/Davis debate -? Rx model

(connects with Skinnerian models)

• Textual analysis skill development?– DARTs, etc. (connects with schema theory)

• Development of vocabulary and world knowledge [US+/UK-]?– teach vocabulary development (connects

with a Kintsch view of text as n-dimensional semantic network)

Which??

And why??

Theoretically weak- black boxy; data- dredging

Models of developing comprehension

• Comprehension subskills development?– Thurstone/Davis debate -? Rx model

(connects with Skinnerian models)

• Textual analysis skill development?– DARTs, etc. (connects with schema theory)

• Development of vocabulary and world knowledge [US+/UK-]?– teach vocabulary development (connects

with a Kintsch view of text as n-dimensional semantic network)

Which??

And why??

Theoretically weak- black boxy; data- dredging

Theoretically attractive- but just not supported by

data

Models of developing comprehension

• Comprehension subskills development?– Thurstone/Davis debate -? Rx model

(connects with Skinnerian models)

• Textual analysis skill development?– DARTs, etc. (connects with schema theory)

• Development of vocabulary and world knowledge [US+/UK-]?– teach vocabulary development (connects

with a Kintsch view of text as n-dimensional semantic network)

Which??

And why??

Theoretically weak- black boxy; data- dredging

Theoretically attractive- but just not supported by

data

Models of developing comprehension

• Comprehension subskills development?– Thurstone/Davis debate -? Rx model

(connects with Skinnerian models)

• Textual analysis skill development?– DARTs, etc. (connects with schema theory)

• Development of vocabulary and world knowledge [US+/UK-]?– teach vocabulary development (connects

with a Kintsch view of text as n-dimensional semantic network)

Which??

And why??

Theoretically weak- black boxy; data- dredging

Theoretically attractive- but just not supported by

data

Attractive, unless you worry about grammar and the ‘not’ question

Models of developing comprehension

• Comprehension subskills development?– Thurstone/Davis debate -? Rx model

(connects with Skinnerian models)

• Textual analysis skill development?– DARTs, etc. (connects with schema theory)

• Development of vocabulary and world knowledge [US+/UK-]?– teach vocabulary development (connects

with a Kintsch view of text as n-dimensional semantic network)

Which??

And why??

Theoretically weak- black boxy; data- dredging

Theoretically attractive- but just not supported by

data

Attractive, unless you worry about grammar and the ‘not’ question

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

Fundamental principles:

• Decoding and comprehension are two key components of reading, but this does not mean that they should be taught separately; the goal of decoding should be to find meaning, and learners need a sense of the rewards that meaning can bring.

Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

• Reading helps children develop not just decoding ability, but an awareness of self, and of self in relation to others.

Bruner, J. (2001). Self-making and world-making. In J. Brockmeier & Donal Carbaugh (Eds.). Narrative and identity: Studies in Autobiography, self, and culture. Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s.

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

Fundamental principles:

• Reading comprehension is an active, not a passive process: it involves a triangular relationship between reader, author and text, rather than a linear transmission of meaning from author to reader.Lunzer, E.A. and Gardner, K. (1979) The Effective Use of Reading. London: Heinemann.

• Reading comprehension does not necessarily develop spontaneously: for most readers, it’s helpful to see thoughtful and critical reading modeled by teachers and peers.Pressley, M. (2000) What should comprehension instruction be the instruction of? In M.Kamil, P.B.Mosenthal, P.D.Pearson and R.Barr (Eds.) Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III (pp. 545-562). Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

Fundamental principles:

• Critical literacy is as important as literacy, and if anything, this is even more important when children encounter texts on the Internet.Leu, D. J., Jr. (2002). The new literacies: Research on reading instruction with the Internet and other digital technologies. (pp. 310-336). In J. Samuels and A. E. Farstrup (Eds.). What research has to say about reading instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

• Engagement is fundamental to developing reading comprehension, and engagement depends upon four things: a coherent curriculum, high motivation, sufficient instruction about strategic reading, and sufficient choice in all areas of reading.Guthrie, J. T., & Wigfield, A. (2000).

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

What do teachers need to know?

The Matthew Effect: children who choose to read become exponentially better at reading and comprehending than those who do not.Stanovich, Keith E. (1986). Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individuals Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy (PDF). Reading Research Quarterly 21 (4), 360-407.http://leo.oise.utoronto.ca/~kstanovich/pdfs/reading/RRQ86.pdf

When motivation is high, children will tackle (and understand) much more difficult texts than those they usually read.

Harrison, Colin (1980) Readability in the Classroom. Cambridge: CUP.

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

What do teachers need to know?

• Reading while listening helps most learners to comprehend, and is likely to also increase fluency.

Mary H. Neville, A. K. Pugh Context in Reading and Listening: Variations in Approach to Cloze Tasks Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 1 (1976 - 1977), pp. 13-31 doi:10.2307/747495

• Weaker readers are generally the poorest at monitoring their own comprehension- so they need support in this.

Markman, E. M. (1978). Realizing that you don’t understand: A preliminary investigation. Child Development, 48, 986-992.

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

What do teachers need to know?

• When the texts encountered in school are difficult, children need bridging tasks to assist them in gaining meaning; DARTs activities can be very helpful here.

Lunzer, E.A. and Gardner, K. (1979) The Effective Use of Reading. London: Heinemann.

Children who are taught to develop tactics and strategies for tackling and understanding texts learn more and remember more than those who are not; such readers acquire effective self-regulation strategies.

Duffy, G.G., Roehler, L.R. (and eight co-authors) (1987)

What is reading comprehension, why is it so hard to develop, and what do teachers need to know about it?

Colin HarrisonUniversity of Nottingham

colin.harrison@nottingham.ac.uk

ESRC seminar: Reading Comprehension : From Theory to Practice