CHAPTER 7

Reading

Comprehension

What is reading comprehension? A complex process often summarized as

the “essence of reading.” Reading comprehension is intentional

thinking during interaction with text.

8 comprehension strategies that provide a firm basis for teaching reading Comprehension monitoring Cooperative learning Graphic organizers Question answering Question generating Story structure/text structure Summarizing Multiple-strategy instruction

How do children develop reading comprehension?

Discussion… Your thoughts in small groups Let’s share…

Begins with basic sight words, word meanings, fluency rate, accuracy,etc

Second stage: Schema

A schema can be thought of as a kind of file cabinet of info in our brains containing related concepts, events, emotions, and roles.

Examples Events-weddings, birthdays, school

experiences Emotions-anger, frustration, joy, pleasure

Construction-integration Theory by Kintsch

This theory explains the complex cognitive process used by readers to actually comprehend a text.

Page 156 The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss Begins with a familiar series of statements

and then draw on personal experiences. Next we call on our specific situational

recollection for gardening. Then we can focus on meaning and make

predictions.

Surface Code

This printed text or surface code of The Carrot Seed will remain in the student’s memory for a very short amount of time. What is read is processed and moved through short-term memory and is generally forgotten in a few days.

Situational Model by Kintsch

These are situations that are remembered the longest. Students remember the actual planting and harvesting done by people in The Carrot Seed the longest because it is more connected to a real situation.

2 phases of mental processing occur: Construction phase-lower level

processes such as activating prior knowledge and experiences take place here.

Integration phase-The ideas from the text are strongly interconnected with our prior knowledge and are strengthened.

*this two step process pulls it all together.

How is reading comprehension assessed?

Oral retellingsStudent tells you:How does the story begin?What happens next?What happens to the main character(s)?Setting, plot, conflict and resolution questions

Unaided recallStudent just tells about the story as you

check points

Example of a retelling coding form1. Student retells the story2. The teacher checks for the information

she is looking for from the student3. The teacher tallies the points4. The teacher establishes a level

How we teach reading comprehension effectively

Activate prior knowledge (KWL chart) K(knows) W (wants to know) L

(learned)

6 C’s

Motivation and engagement 6 C’s1. Choice2. Challenge3. Control4. Collaboration5. Constructing meaning6. consequences

Materials for comprehension The text structure and using graphic

organizers Thinking maps Venn diagrams Story mapping

Other ideas for effective reading comprehension include…

Effective expository text structure information

Asking questions at varying levels of Bloom’s taxonomy HOT ?’s

Question-answer relationships-where to find answers…

Questioning the author Elaborative interrogation (why ?’s)

Metacognition

The act of monitoring one’s unfolding comprehension of text.

Self monitoring and realizing that as you read, you are understanding what is read and comprehending it.

Comprehension Monitoring and ways to help

Click or clunk -stopping periodically to assess and ask themselves what is being read. Checking for meaning.

Fix-ups-ignore and keep reading Suspend judgement for now and keep reading Form a working idea and keep reading Look back and reread Stop and think and reread Seek help from those around you or the

environment.

The way we teach and why…

Explicit comprehension strategy instruction-

EMS explain, model, scaffold. **You tell them why we learn this, model

it, and guide them in practicing this through guided practice.

Scaffolding –whole group, small group, individual then assess learning

Other ideas…

Text talk Reader response Literature circles Book clubs Grand conversations

**these all lead students to discuss what is read and further reading comprehension.