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Comprehension has often been viewed as "the essence of reading" (Durkin 1993). When we think about comprehension the first thing that comes to mind is an interaction with text, of some kind, and then the intentional thought process that begins to create meaning from the words we just encountered. Perfetti (1985) puts it in the simplest terms possible by stating it as "thinking guided by print."
(Teaching Reading Sourcebook, 3rd ed., p. 609)
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Literary Texts
stories, dramas, and poetry
Informational Texts
literary nonfiction, historical, scientific, and technical texts
Qualitative
Measuring something by the 'quality' of it rather than the 'quantity'
Quantitative
Measuring something by the 'quantity' of it rather than the 'quality'
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Comprehension At-a-Glance:
Comprehension At-a-Glance:
Often viewed as the "essence of reading" (Durkin 1993) (Teaching Reading Sourcebook, 3rd Ed., p 69)
Consists of 3 interrelated elements:
the TEXT that is to be comprehended
the READER who is doing the comprehension
the ACTIVITY and related tasks in which comprehension is a part
Comprehension builds upon these factors:
reading fluency, vocabulary, world knowledge, comprehension strategies, and motivation
Approach to Comprehension:
Approach to Comprehension:
Let's look a little deeper at each of the 3 components that make up comprehension.
The Reader
characteristics of the reader must be taken into consideration when selecting texts
every reader has their own unique set of competencies which will affect comprehension
Competencies include: fluency, vocabulary knowledge, general world knowledge, knowledge of specific comprehension strategies, and motivational factors
The Text
"Text is any printed or electronic form of connected written language."
The majority of texts will fall under two categories: literary or informational
There is a Common Core model for measuring text complexity: qualitative measures of text complexity, quantitative measures of text complexity, and reader/task considerations.
The Activity
activity of reading is broken into 3 task-related variables: one or more purposes, a set of processes for reading the text, and outcomes of performing the activity (RRSG 2002)
(Teaching Reading Sourcebook, 3rd Ed., pp 609-611)
Joan Sedita reviews the most effective strategies for comprehension instruction in this 10:13 video.
Dianna Townsend reviews scaffolding reading at the text level in this 21:00 video.
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