Text comprehension - Mrs Paplinski's Page!



Text comprehension

(Adapted from the report of the National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research of

Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction)

What is comprehension?

COMPREHENSION involves both reading and understanding; it is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand what they are reading, they are not really reading.

What do good readers do?

Good readers have a purpose for reading. They may read to find out how to construct a toy, they may read a magazine for entertainment, or read to learn about a topic or interest.

Good readers think actively as they read. To make sense of what they read they engage in a complicated process. Using their experiences and knowledge of the world, their knowledge of vocabulary and language structure, and their knowledge of reading strategies, good readers make sense of the text and know how to get the most out of it.

What are the benefits of text comprehension instruction?

Text comprehension can be improved by instruction that helps readers use specific comprehension strategies. Comprehension strategies are sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text.

Six strategies for improving text comprehension

(1) Monitoring comprehension

Children who are good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. They have strategies to ‘fix up’ problems in their understanding as the problems arise. And instruction helps children become better at monitoring their comprehension. Effective readers use the following strategies when monitoring their own comprehension of a text:

Identify where the difficulty occurs

Identify what the difficulty is

Restate the difficult sentence or passage in their own words

Look back through the text

Look forward in the text for information that might help them to resolve the difficulty

(2) Using organisers

Organisers illustrate concepts and the interrelationships among concepts in a text such as maps, webs, graphs or charts. Organisers help children focus on concepts and how they are related to other concepts.

(3) Answering questions

Parent/teacher questioning strongly supports and advances students’ learning from reading because they:

Give children a purpose for reading

Focus childrens’ attention on what they are to learn

Help children to think actively as they read

Encourage children to monitor their comprehension; and

Help children to review content and relate what they have learned to what they already know

Question-answering instruction encourages children to learn to answer questions better and therefore, to learn more as they read. There are three main types of question-answer instruction:

(a) literal: stated explicitly in a single sentence

(b) inferential: implied by information presented in two or more sentences

(c) evaluative: not found in the text at all, but part of the reader’s prior knowledge or experience

(4) Generating questions

Teaching children to ask their own questions improves their active processing of text and their comprehension. By generating questions, children become aware of whether they can answer the questions and if they understand what they are reading.

(5) Recognising story structure

Story structure refers to the way the content and events of a story are organized into a plot. In story structure instruction, children learn to identify the categories of content and how this content is organized(introduction, problem, attempts, conclusion/resolution). Instruction in the content and organisation of stories improves students’ comprehension and memory or stories.

(6) Summarising

A summary is a synthesis of the important ideas in a text. Summarising requires children to determine what is important in what they are reading, to condense this information, and to put it into their own words. Summarizing instruction helps children to

Identify main ideas

Connect main ideas

Eliminate unnecessary information

Remember what they read

How can I teach my child effective comprehension strategies?

Effective comprehension can be taught through explicit instruction. Such instruction tells readers why and when they should use strategies, what strategies to use and how to apply them. Explicit instruction involves four steps:

(a) Direct explanation: Explain why the strategy helps comprehension and when to apply it.

(b) Modelling: Demonstrate how to apply the strategy by ‘thinking aloud’ while reading the text your child is using.

(c) Guided practice: Assist your child as they learn how and when to apply the strategy.

(d) Application: Help your child practise the strategy until they apply it independently.

How does cooperative learning at school encourage comprehension?

Cooperative learning involves students working together as partners or in small groups on clearly defined tasks. Students work together to understand text content and teacher demonstrations of comprehension strategies. Working together, the students help each other learn and apply taught comprehension strategies.

When should text comprehension instruction begin?

Text comprehension instruction should begin in Grade One. Reading is a complex process that develops over time. Instruction benefits students by showing them how reading is a process of making sense out of a text, or constructing meaning. Therefore, beginning readers, as well as more advanced readers, must understand that the ultimate goal of reading is comprehension.

You can highlight meaning in all interactions with text. Talk about the content. Model or ‘think aloud’ about your own thinking and understanding as you read. Lead your child in a discussion about the meaning of what they are reading. Help children relate the content to their experience and to other texts they have read. Encourage your child to ask questions about the text.

TEXT COMPREHENSION SUMMARY

Text comprehension is important because

comprehension is the reason for reading

Text comprehension is

purposeful

active

Text comprehension can be developed

by teaching comprehension strategies

Text comprehension strategies can be taught

through explicit instruction

through cooperative learning

by helping readers use strategies flexibly and in combination

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download