1. Comprehension Strategies and Understandings

2. Comprehension Reading involves a lot more than simply “ decoding ” the sounds of words, the same way music involves a lot more than mechanically playing notes. The following reading “ problems ” demonstrate what is at stake in comprehension.

3. Jabberwocky You can decode all these words (sound them out), but can you understand what the poem is about? ‘ Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogroves, And the mome raths outgrabe. “ Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch! ” He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought — So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead and with its head He went galumphing back. “ And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy. ‘ Twas brillig and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogroves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

4. Ladle Rat Rotten Hut Wants pawn term, dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist. Disk ladle gull orphan worry putty ladle rat cluck wetter ladle rat hut, an fur disk raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut. This passage is for you auditory learners. Try reading it out loud in order to get the meaning. The point is, that you can read all these words, but comprehending the story is difficult. (Answer given at end of slide show).

5. Comprehension Process *Purposeful *Constructive *Motivated *Skillful and Strategic *Self-monitored Individual Factors Interest Persistence Knowledge and Experience Awareness/ Confidence As a Reader Style of Interacting With Text Style of Interacting With Others Social Factors Home School Community Emotions

6. Comprehension Process Purposeful: We set a purpose for every text we read. Your purpose in reading this text is different from your purpose in reading a novel (remember reading for fun????). Your purpose for reading then changes how you comprehend the text. When you know you have a test, you tend to attend to the details of a text in a different way from when you are reading as entertainment.

7. Comprehension Process Constructive. Good readers construct meaning from text. When you read a novel, you pull from your experiences with other forms of fiction in order to understand it. When you read your music history text, you pull from your experiences reading about and playing music in order to understand the text.

8. Comprehension Process Motivated. This is related to setting a purpose. It also has to do with how people experience the process of reading. Some children are motivated to read by the pleasure the have in the process of reading. Other children dislike reading.

9. Comprehension Process Skillful and Strategic. There are strategies that you use when you are comprehending a text. You may or may not be aware of these strategies. I gave you a strategy for comprehending the “ Ladle Rat Rotten Hut ” text. These days, children are being taught explicitly reading strategies and how to choose to use them.

10. Comprehension Process Self-monitored. We check constantly to see if a text makes sense to us.

11. Individual Factors Interest. Your interest in a text has a lot to do with how well you comprehend it. This is one of the problems with reading tests, is that when they choose a low interest text, children ’ s comprehension will be misrepresented. Of course, there is no one text that will interest all children, so this is a problem inherent in assessing comprehension.

12. Digression I once designed a reading test, and I attempted to choose interesting texts. One text I chose was about a teacher who brought a snake into her first grade classroom in order to teach the children about snakes and reptiles. She described how the kids learned a lot more than they had by going to a snake show at a zoo. Then she described how the snake got loose in the classroom and how she got bit when she caught it. One person taking the test did very poorly on the questions related to this text. It turned out he had a deathly fear of snakes!

13. Individual Factors Persistence. Some children have a high tolerance for working out a difficult text. Others get frustrated easily. Children who struggle with basic decoding issues (who are not sure of the letter-sound relationships) will have more of a struggle in comprehension and may appear to be less persistent in their dealings with text.

14. Individual Factors Knowledge and Experience. Think about how your knowledge and experience in music influences your reading of music-related texts. When we read texts in new-to-us areas, we have less comprehension because we bring less to the text. For many children, school-type texts are foreign and they bring little knowledge or experience to them.

15. Individual Factors Awareness/Confidence as a Reader. Children who feel confident as a reader are going to interpret text more easily than children who don ’ t.

16. Individual Factors Style of Interacting with Text. Students who are fluent readers have a different style of interacting with text than students who have difficulties with decoding or vocabulary (due to any number of problems: learning disabilities, English as a second language, etc.)

17. Individual Factors Style of Interacting with Others. Think of that intensely social period of life, middle to high school. Our social interactions can influence how we engage with text (or IF we engage with text).

18. Individual Factors How we feel in general and how we feel about a particular topic will influence how we comprehend. Keep in mind the information on how the brain learns. It is very hard to comprehend when one is upset about something.

19. Another digression I was a good and capable reader, but I remember one time my tenth grade English teacher sent my father a letter home. I read the note, but I felt so horrible about the necessity of the teacher sending it (as well as my choice to look at it), that I had absolutely no idea what the letter actually said.

20. Social Factors How literacy is valued in a home determines how children will interact with literacy at school. Middle and upper class culture are aligned with school culture; children from these homes are usually well- prepared to take on school tasks. Education has changed significantly in the past generation. Many children from lower class families have parents who suffered at the hand of insensitive teachers. These parents are going to be less able to support their children ’ s work at school.

21. Social Factors Literacy is constructed differently at different schools. One such split is between urban and suburban schools. Expectations of how and what children will read differ across these settings, even though in Ohio all children take the same proficiency test.

22. Social Factors Education plays different roles in different communities. For some, education replicates the existing social order, including the inequities. Some cultures and communities tend to see little of value in education. Other communities view education as a means towards liberation. The African American community has historically had this perspective, and much of the Civil Rights struggle took place in and around schools. A child ’ s social world influences how much effort they put into reading and how they interpret what they read.

23. Word Strategies to Use with Young Students Look at the other words around it in the sentence or paragraph. Read on and come back to the word. Think of another word that would make sense. Break the word apart into syllables, base words, prefixes/suffixes. Try to sound it out. Re-read the word in the context of the sentence to see if it makes sense.

24. Comprehending Non-fiction Tell students before they read: Scan titles, subtitles, bold-face words, pictures, captions, diagrams, charts, and maps. Think: What do they know about the subject already? Question: What would they like to learn? Be sure students understand how the text is set up. Some double column formats are confusing for students — they might not read the print in the correct sequence. As students read: They should ask themselves if they understand. After they read: They should re-read the confusing parts. They should summarize what they have learned and decide whether their questions were answered.

25. Comprehending Fiction Before they read: Think about the book — what do you know about the book ’ s subject. Predict what might happen. Predictions don ’ t have to be accurate. They just need to be reasonable based on the knowledge one already has about a situation. As they read: They should be encouraged to visualize what they are reading. They should confirm or revise their predictions. They should question what is going on and why and then re-read the confusing parts. After they read, they should summarize the story in their minds and make connections with other books they have read or events that have happened in their own lives.

26. Your turn How have comprehension processes, individual, and social factors influenced your own reading comprehension? Have there been times when you comprehended something difficult? Have there been times when you struggled to comprehend? Write a discussion thread, a piece for the drop box, or a private e-mail to me about this. You may do this all in words, or you may add other media (pictures, sound) to get across your meaning.

27. At Last!! The Answer!! Ladle Rat Rotten Hut=Little Red Riding Hood. Here is what the text said: Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived with her mother in a little cottage, on the edge of a large, dark, forest. This little girl often wore a pretty little cloak with a little red hat and for this reason people called her Little Red Riding Hood.