Teaching Comprehension Skills Dr Anisa G. Mujawar Chhatrapati Shivaji College, Satara Associate Professor and Head Department of English

What is Comprehension? Comprehension is the act of constructing meaning with text The reader plays an active role – filtering, organising, interpreting and generating relationships with incoming information Comprehension is an interaction between word identification, knowledge and comprehension skills (Johnson, A.P., 1998)

Why comprehension skills need? To increase the ability to create meaning with text independently. This is best done by explicit teaching in the use of comprehension skills. Not everyone acquires these skills naturally.

Purpose of Reading Narrative Texts – to enjoy the story Expository (Information) Texts – Information/ Explanation/ Persuasion Diagrammatic/ Representational Texts – present or illustrate information

What are comprehension skills? They are the strategies a reader uses to construct meaning and retrieve information from a text They are cognitive processes which can be broken into steps and taught explicitly

Three types of comprehension skills Pre-reading During reading Post-reading

Pre-reading Skills Pre-view/ Overview Brainstorm

During – Reading Comprehension Skills Paragraph Re-Read Read and Pause Note-taking

Post – Reading Comprehension Skills Summarise Article re-read Sequencing

Teaching Comprehension Skills Direct instruction and modelling Identification of the procedural components Scaffolded Instruction Regular Practice Integration across the Curriculum

Resources A.P. Johnson (1998) Teaching Comprehension Skills: Reading : 32:2:98 Drumcondra Primary Reading Test:Levels 3 – 6: Administration Manual: pps.22 – 25 Drumcondra English Profiles: pps.108 – 116 English Curriculum Handbook –Teacher Guidelines: pps.61 - 65