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= Teaching Reading Comprehension = A Wiki Created by Laura Swanson, Laurie Ryan, Lisa Pennington, Colleen O'Brien, Caitlin Johnson, Dana Bard, and Krista DeMaio

Information taken from Samuels and Farstrup (2011) //“Explicit instruction in reading strategies – showing our thinking and the mental processes we go through when we read gives students an idea of what thoughtful ////readers do. We explicitly teach reading comprehension strategies by demonstrating them for students before turning the task over to them."// (Harvey and Goudvis, 2000, p. 30)

=Why is Reading Comprehension Important?=

Studies Cited by the Authors

 * 80% of first grade students in a high poverty district achieved a grade level reading comprehension designation while only 20% in a similar district were able to do as much
 * Second through fifth graders show drastic differences in reading comprehension depending on the teacher they have
 * If lower socioeconomic students have a strong reading comprehension teacher for two consecutive years, they can overcome the disadvantages typically associated with their backgrounds

=How do Skilled Comprehenders Construct Meaning?=

The Construction-Integration Model

 * As we read, we combine our background knowledge along with what we decipher the meaning of a text to be to construct a mental representation of the text
 * We then merge that information with the information we already have
 * This integration allows us to learn by reading
 * Thus, according to Samuels and Farstrup, "Knowledge begets comprehension begets knowledge in just the sort of virtuous cycle we would like students to experience" (p. 55)

**The 10 Essential Elements of Effective Reading Comprehension Instruction** **An Overview**

Please click on the links below for more information about each topic:

 * 1. Build Disciplinary and World Knowledge**
 * Construction-Integration model:
 * Domain and world knowledge significantly affects the readers comprehension
 * Provide readers with opportunities to build domain and world knowledge
 * Provide knowledge building goals along side with reading comprehension and literacy goals


 * 2. Provide Exposure to a Volume and Range of Texts**
 * Factors that affect success with reading comprehension:
 * The more experience students have with interacting with text
 * Students who have access to a variety of texts throughout the summer
 * Suggestions for teachers:
 * Provide lots of opportunity to engage with texts in comprehension instruction
 * Provide a variety of quality and range of books


 * 3. Provide Motivating Texts and Contexts for Reading**
 * Capitalize on students’ interest and attention
 * Engage in reading for authentic purposes
 * Six Cs of motivation: choice, challenge, control, collaboration, constructing
 * CORI (Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction), lesson format


 * 4. Teach Strategies for Comprehending**
 * Strategies researchers indicate are worth teaching:
 * Setting purpose for reading
 * Previewing and predicting
 * Activating prior knowledge
 * Monitoring, clarifying, and fixing
 * Visualizing and creating visual representations
 * Drawing inferences
 * Self-questioning and thinking aloud
 * Summarizing and retelling
 * Model for teaching comprehension Strategies:
 * An explicit description of the strategy and when and how it should be used
 * Teacher and/or student modeling of the strategy in action
 * Collaborative use of the strategy in action
 * Guided practice using the strategy with gradual release of responsibility
 * Independent use of the strategy


 * 5. Teach Text Structures**
 * Direct instruction around the structures commonly found in different genres
 * Include explicit instruction of various structures (narratives and informal texts)
 * Include instructional support such as graphic organizers


 * 6. Engage Students in Discussion**
 * Classroom discussion help students make meaning from the text
 * Higher order questioning
 * Critical thinking
 * Collaborative reasoning
 * Questioning the Author to engage students’ with text
 * Promote student-centered interpretive, critical discussion
 * Promote greater student involvement
 * Promote higher level comprehension


 * 7. Build Vocabulary and Language Knowledge**
 * Vocabulary impacts comprehension
 * It is learned incidentally while reading and listening to books
 * Repeated exposure, especially in different contexts, is the key to learning new meanings
 * Prereading instructions of keywords can be helpful
 * Computerized programs seem to help to increase vocabulary knowledge
 * Teachers should relate new words to known words
 * Read Alouds are effective
 * Explanations, dialogic interactions, and discussion are effective
 * Semantic Ambiguity Instruction helps
 * Remember the multiple meaning of words
 * Remember the multiple meaning of sentences
 * Teachers should help students analyze and creating riddles
 * Reading, interpreting, and enjoying books helps


 * 8. Integrate Reading and Writing**
 * Reading and writing mutually reinforce one another
 * Both rely on some of the same cognitive processes
 * Cross curricular boundaries and hands on activities promote oral and written language
 * Writing Intensive Reading Comprehension (WIRC)
 * Directly and systematically linking writing to reading comprehension
 * Through talk and writing students build a richer representation of the context of the text


 * 9. Observe and Assess**
 * Careful attention is needed to ascertain students’ strengths and weaknesses
 * Examine several aspects of and/or contributors to comprehension
 * Qualitative Reading Inventory
 * Students’ background knowledge related to the passage
 * The nature of the students’ miscues
 * Students’ approach to retelling a passage
 * Students’ literal and inferential comprehension
 * Benchmark Assessment
 * Key understanding of material
 * Ability to write about what they have read
 * Concepts of Comprehension Assessment
 * Understanding of graphics within a text
 * Vocabulary knowledge and strategies
 * Knowledge of informational text features
 * Use of comprehension strategies
 * Diagnostic Assessment
 * Students’ inferencing, text memory, and recall of knowledge
 * Ability to integrate prior knowledge


 * 10. Differentiate Instruction**
 * Small group instruction
 * Needs-based grouping
 * The complexity of comprehension process and the variation in comprehenders = differentiated instruction