What Classroom Teachers Need to Know About Comprehension Office of Instructional Services Division of Instructional and Student Services West Virginia Department of Education Fall 2004

Complexity of Comprehension

Split second decisions

Content area teachers are uniquely qualified to teach students how to actively think about the texts in their classes. Analyze cause/effect of historical processes Visualize physical and chemical processes Interpret character motives and figurative language

Need to show, not just tell: Modeling Scaffolding –I do- you watch –I do – you help –You do – I help –You do – I watch

National Reading Panel Report Comprehension Monitoring (Metacognition) –Identify where difficulties occur –Restate passages in their own words –Look back or forward through text to clarify

How do you know you’re stuck? The voice inside the reader’s head isn’t interacting with the text. The camera inside the reader’s head shuts off. The reader’s mind begins to wander. Clarifying questions asked by the reader are not answered. The reader reencounters a character and has no recollection when that character was introduced. Tovani, C. (2000) I Read It, But I Don’t Get It

National Reading Panel Report Question answering (with immediate feedback) –Gives a purpose for reading –Focuses attention –Helps students actively think as they read –Reviews content and relate to what they already know (background knowledge)

Why is background knowledge key? Although Cretaceous and Tertiary deposition has buried older rocks in the area under a sedimentary blanket many thousands of feet thick, an outline of the earlier geologic history may be inferred from deep well records and from studies in the surrounding areas. In the half-billion years from the close of the Precambrian to the end of the Cretaceous, this region experienced none of the great folding and faulting so conspicuous in the Appalachians, the Oachitas, and parts of Europe and Asia. »Evans & Belknap, Desolation River Guide

National Reading Panel Report Use of graphic and semantic organizers

National Reading Panel Report Question Generating (asking themselves questions as they read) –WWWWWH –What if… –I wonder…

National Reading Panel Report Cooperative learning

National Reading Panel Report Story structure –Narrative Different Genre –Expository Texts References Trade books

National Reading Panel Report Summarization –Identify or generate the main idea –Connect main or central ideas –Eliminate unnecessary or redundant information –Remember what they have read.

Bibliography Put Reading First. (Sept. 2001). reading/publications/reading_first1text.html reading/publications/reading_first1text.html Report of the National Reading Panel. (Apr. 2000).

Bibliography Tovani, C. (2000). I Read It, But I Don’t Get It. Stenhouse Publishers, Portland, ME. Zimmerman, S. & C. Hutchins. (2003). 7 Keys to Comprehension. Three Rivers Press, NY. Zwiers, J. (2004). Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades International Reading Association, Newark, DE

Additional Resources Beck, et al. (1997). Questioning the Author. International Reading Association, Newark, Delaware. Block and Pressley. (2002). Comprehension Instruction. Guilford Press, NY. Ruddell and Unrau. (2004). Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading. International Reading Association, Newark, Delaware.