Comprehension

1
Comprehension

• The _____________ process involving the
  intentional interaction between reader and text
  to convey meaning.

2
Comprehension is...

• The ____________ of reading
• The content of meaning is influenced by the text
  and by the contribution of the reader's
  ______________ (Anderson Pearson, 1984).

3
Specific Comprehension Skills for the Early
Primary Level

• Three early primary-grade comprehension skills
• Literal Comprehension
• _____________
• Summarization

4
Literal Comprehension

• Involves teaching students to retrieve
  information stated in a passage
• Simplest written comprehension exercise
• What is the difference between literal and
  nonliteral comprehension items?
• Format p. 222

5
Sequencing

• Requires ordering several events according to
  when they occur in a passage
• e.g., A student reads a passage and then writes
  numbers in front of several phrases that describe
  events, writing 1 in front of the event that
  occurred first, 2 in front of the event that
  occurred next, etc.
• Text p. 225

6
Summarization

• Not only allows students to identify key ideas,
  but ______________________________________________
  _______________________
• Summary condenses a passage into a few sentences
• One-sentence summary can be considered a main
  idea

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Summarization Teaching Procedure

1. Teacher tells students a rule for writing a main
   idea sentence (e.g., Name the person and tell the
   main thing the person did in all the sentences)
2. Students read the passage
3. Teacher asks the students to figure out a main
   idea sentence by naming the person and telling
   what the person did in all the sentences

8

1. Teacher calls on a student to say the sentences
   (teacher corrects the student by telling the
   correct answer)
2. Teacher repeats the same procedure with the
   remaining passage
3. Teacher has the students write the main idea
   sentence for each paragraph (difficult to spell
   words would be written on the board)

9
Commercial Basal Reading Programs

• Mainly include narrative reading passages
• Stories have text structure called story grammar
• Structure revolves around conflicts or problems
  faced by characters in the story and their
  attempts to resolve the problem
• Components of story grammar
• Conflict
• Goal
• Resolution of conflict
• Plot
• The characters thoughts and feelings are common
  to many stories

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Procedures for presenting components of story
grammar

• Progress from simple stories to more complex
  stories
• Factors to consider
• Number of characters, plots, goals
• Number of attempts by characters to achieve goals
• Explicitness of story grammar components (main
  character, goals, conflict)
• Length of the story
• Readability of story (structure of sentences)
• Amount of background knowledge required of
  students

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Advanced Story-Reading Comprehension

• Two procedures to teach advanced story
  comprehension
• A ___________________ designed to help students
  summarize and clarify story grammar components
  during reading (p. 256)
• A _______________ in which the teacher summarizes
  and points out how to anticipate questions to be
  asked.

12
Intermediate Grades

• Major emphasis shifts from learning to read to
  reading to learn
• Children begin reading _______________materials
• Content-area textbooks or reference books
  designed to convey factual information or to
  explain what is difficult to understand

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Why is comprehension of expository material
difficult?

• Very different from narrative material
• New ______________ and use of typographic
  features and graphics
• ______________ is difficult to understand and
  introduced at a high rate
• Ease in understanding comes from prior knowledge
  that allows the student to build on previously
  introduced concepts

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• In narrative writing, students were carried
  through the material
• In expository writing, there is no build up to
  the critical point
• Instead, many equally important concepts are
  introduced
• It may not be at an appropriate reading level for
  your students.

15
Four parts of content-area lesson

• ________________
• ________________
• ________________
• _________________

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Preparation

• Read the material several times
• Select ________________
• Develop ______________
• Rather than overviewing everything, identify the
  critical information and commit to teaching it.
  These are the main ideas.
• Design (or adapt) a Chapter Test
• Must match the critical content
• Link between objectives and test items
• Describe, identify, explain
• Divide the chapter into _____________________

17
Prereading

• Teach Difficult-to-Decode Words
• Focus on phonic and structural analysis
• Forest, renewable
• Teach _____________________
• DI procedures
• Concept map (graphic organizers) visual
  representation p. 271
• Feature Analysis
• Concepts fall in 1 category (p. 287) have
  features or does not have features
• Preview ________________
• Preview selection (title, headings, summary,
  questions at end)

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Reading

• ________________
• 1. Guiding quest ion Read to find out
• 2. Read silently then orally
• 3. Teacher asks questions
• ____________________
• 4 strategies question generating, summarizing,
  clarifying, predicting
• __________________
• Coach reader, correction procedures, paragraph
  shrinking
• ________________
• Verbal rehearsal (SQ3R written rehearsal (note
  taking)

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Postreading Activities

• ______________
• p.302
• Major concepts
• Literal and inferential
• Beyond yes and no responses
• Well worded to promote ease of interpretation
• ______________________
• 1. skim 2. list key points 3. combine related
  points into signal statements 4. cross out least
  important 5. reread 6. combine and cross out to
  condense points 7. number remaining points in
  logical order 8. write points into paragraph in
  numbered order
• __________________________

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National Center on Accessing the General
Curriculum

• http//www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_go.html
  
• Other valuable websites
• http//www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/
• http//www.thinkingmaps.com/