1. Comprehension Factors: The Reader

2. Five Factors of Comprehension
Text
Reader/
Learner
Comprehension
Teacher/
Teaching
Task
Context

3. The Mind in Action: What it Means to Comprehend during Reading Van den Broek & Kremer
Mental representation and motivation
Process vs product
Coherence and motivation/engagement
Reader must infer the relations between elements (e.g., climate, sun, and butter melting)
Usable information for later comprehension
Two types of relationships
Referential; Causal/logical

4. The Reader Word Level Skills
Oral Language Skills and Verbal Reasoning Ability
Background Knowledge
Literacy Knowledge
Attention/Memory Problems
Metacognition
Motivation/Engagement
Social/Emotional

5. The Reader The Simple View of Reading
Accurate, fluent word reading
Language comprehension skills
D X LC = Reading Comprehension
Gough, 1996

6. Word Level Skills
Phonemic awareness (what are the sounds in cat? /k/ /a/ /t/ )
Grapheme (letter) knowledge
Phonics (mapping sounds to letters and knowledge of orthographic patterns:
e, e-e, ee, ea,ey, ei, ie, y, i SAY LONG /e/
Decoding c-a-t = cat
Sight word recognition (high frequency words); word reading fluency

7. Oral Language Skills Content Use Form (pragmatics)
(semantics)
Use
(pragmatics)
Form
(phonology, morphology, syntax)
In the context of literacy, these components do not operate independently

8. Levels of Language: Mapping Speech to Print
Phonology
The language sound system: awareness, reception, memory, manipulation
Morphology
The smallest meaningful units in language
Semantics (Vocabulary)
Word meanings
Syntax
(Sentence Structure)
Sentence construction, effects of word ordering on meaning
Discourse
Language that goes beyond the boundary of a sentence

9. Levels……
Pragmatics
Goals or functions of language; the use of context; rules for converstions
Metalinguistics
Awareness of the workings and rationale of language; thinking about language and how it works

10. Levels of Language: Mapping Speech to Print
Phonology
The language sound system: awareness, reception, memory, manipulation
Essential for speech, reading decoding, spelling, second language mastery,
vocabulary development
Morphology
The smallest meaningful units in language
Supports decoding/ word recognition, spelling (orthographic units) vocabulary acquisition; understanding of words
Semantics
Word meanings
Critical for building a lexicon of individual words and relational connections; shades of meaning; literal, figurative meanings, similes, metaphors, etc.; word retrieval difficulties impacting fluency, writing
Syntax
Sentence construction, effects of word ordering on meaning
Critical to reading comprehension and written expression

11. Levels……
Discourse
Language that goes beyond the boundary of a sentence
The language of the classroom and curriculum; students must integrate form, content, use; the language of the classroom is decontexualized; text structures and paragraphs; interacts with active working memory and requires active processing
Pragmatics
Rules for conversational speech and discourse
Writing for a variety of purposes and audiences; understanding point of view
Metalinguistic
Awareness
To use language to talk about language; think and talk about language
An essential component in literacy development; stronger in students who have strong language skills

12. Warning Signs…. RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE Difficulty with directions
Slow in responding to questions
Difficulty with concepts, vocabulary
Memory difficulties
Discourse comprehension

13. Warnings…. EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE
Limited phonetic inventory; more sound errors; atypical errors such as unusual substitutions (d / h); vowel errors
Rarely initiates verbal interactions or activities
Does not respond to questions/ comments
Simple syllable structures
Shorter, less complex syntax
Smaller vocabularies
Relies on gestures
Does not repair communication breakdown
Does not verbally request help
Empty speech with meaningless words (‘thing”)
Difficulty understanding the child’s speech

15. Background Knowledge
Readers may have inadequate experiences, knowledge base
Students may have difficulty in processing new information more deeply and making significant connections between what is new and what is known
Significant impact on inferencing
A character who has “met his Waterloo”
Rich content information, read-alouds, audiovisual supports, kinesthetic input, engaging discussion

16. Struggling with Language and Background Knowledge Level 3 with a 5th grader
Where could this student struggle with comprehension?:
The small brown head of an animal with bright eyes pops out of a hole in the hot dirt of Africa.
It is a meerkat, only one foot long, out to catch some warm sun.
The cute meerkats lay on the sand to soak up the heat from the sun.
They take turns hopping up to sniff the air for danger.
It sleeps cuddled with its large family in a small safe burrow.

17. Sentence by sentence analysis
1. The small brown head of an animal with bright eyes pops out of a hole in the hot dirt of Africa.
Processing multiple modifiers; vocabulary; distance between the subject and verb; knowledge of Africa to be able to visualize
2. It is a meerkat, only one foot long, out to catch some warm sun.
Knowledge of meerkats; figurative expression
3. The cute meerkats lay on the sand to soak up the heat from the sun.
Processing the verb; figurative expression; multiple phrases; background knowledge of animals warming up
4. They take turns hopping up to sniff the air for danger.
Concept of predators and protecting behavior; background knowledge; taking turns and integration with sentence 3.
5. It sleeps cuddled with its large family in a small safe burrow.
Vocabulary and background knowledge

18. Literacy Knowledge Verbal Reasoning
Print concepts, genres, text structure…
Verbal Reasoning
Inference, metaphor, etc.

19. Verbal Reasoning Inferences
Poorer readers struggle with inferencing ability; make less inferences
Students with reading disabilities demonstrate less inferencing within narrative texts (Westby, 2005; Wright & Newhoff, 2001)
Less skilled readers may only bridge ideas between adjacent sentences while more skilled readers will make connections between multiple sentences, chapters, and even books!

20. Attention and Memory Attention and Executive Function
management/regulation/planning of cognitive processes including working memory; mental skills that help you get things done; comorbidity with learning differences)
Short-term memory: a small amount of information is held passively and reproduced; e.g., a telephone number is remembered for the time it takes to dial the number (Swanson, 1993)
Working memory: holding a small amount of material in mind for a short time, while simultaneously carrying out further operations; e.g., performing mental math (Swanson, 1993)

21. Memory Problems
Children and adults with language and literacy difficulties often show considerable difficulty with short-term memory
Deficits in STM/WM will impact any task:
Listening and comprehension
Understanding directions, stories or videos
Remembering strings of phonemes
Remembering strings of letters
Remembering previous information when reading; making connections to previous information
Remembering ideas when writing

22. Metacognition Knowledge and Use of Strategies:
Metacognition: thinking about thinking; good readers think about what they are reading in complex ways; this is an active process
Struggling students may lack of a diverse set of tools to support the construction of meaning
They may approach reading passively

23. Motivation and Engagement

24. Comprehension and motivation are interconnected
Intrinsically motivated readers…
are more proficient; use strategies more effectively
are more knowledgeable; more likely to understand new texts
are purposeful and goal-directed
see learning as fun
are willing to work hard; learning is a challenge

25. Motivational Issues Brainstorming Solutions
A student with reading difficulties…
…may struggle with reading subskills …outcome?
…may lack the endurance and fluency to sustain reading…outcome?
…may have had negative experiences and not trust that anyone can help…outcome?
…may have been embarrassed by level of reading…outcome?
…may lack the metacognitive skills necessary to direct reading comprehension strategies…outcomes?
…may not have found any text interesting…outcome?

26. Creating Motivation Discussion pg. 163 Learners
achievement, belonging, control
Texts, Tasks, Teaching
engaging, geared to interests and providing choice, intriguing questioning, integration of technology and multisensory activities, discussion time and collaboration

27. Motivation and Engagement
Pick a motivational factor that inspires you; provide an example; pg. 173

28. A High Standard of Coherence Example
A child with a high standard of coherence….(grade six)
Strong language and higher-order cognitive skills including reasoning, inferencing; ability to make cohesive ties
Strength in content and background knowledge
Percy Jackson series is highly motivational (see diagram)

29. Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters
Back to book one
Nonmortals
and cannon balls
All refitted with
Celestial bronze
cannon balls
A paragraph and local coherence
Dark
rooms
Dead
sailors
Ship
tour
Gunnery
deck
pilothouse
Clarisses’
favorite
cannons
Rifled
guns
Boilers,
engine
Coal
bunker
port
Brooke
Dahlgren
aft
starboard
fore
It might
explode

30. Review The Reader Word Level Skills
Oral Language Skills and Verbal Reasoning Ability
Background Knowledge
Literacy Knowledge
Attention/Memory Problems
Metacognition
Motivation/Engagement
Social/Emotional