Maximizing Effectiveness of Reading Comprehension Instruction in Diverse Classrooms

Sheri Berkeley, Ana Taboada Barber

• Publisher: Brookes Publishing
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781598577976
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Literacy
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

With 8 million students in Grades 4–12 struggling to read on grade level, effective comprehension instruction is a top priority for middle and high school teachers. This teacher-friendly supplemental textbook fully prepares current and future educators to help all students "read to learn." With a strong emphasis on teaching a wide variety of struggling readers, this concise introductory text gives educators research-based knowledge on reading comprehension and the practical instructional techniques they need to explicitly teach comprehension skills. The ideal foundational text on comprehension—and a great resource for in-service educators—this accessible volume equips teachers with the critical background knowledge they need to strengthen every reader's confidence and competence.

GET TEACHERS READY TO

• Understand why some students struggle with comprehension
• Improve the comprehension skills of students with learning disabilities and English language learners
• Promote language development—the foundation of reading comprehension
• Understand how basic reading skills affect comprehension and are addressed at the secondary level
• Modify texts and provide accommodations when necessary
• Identify pitfalls to common instructional practices and plan ways to differentiate for a wide range of learners
• Explicitly teach key vocabulary words students need to know to be better readers
• Help students connect new information to their existing knowledge as they read
• Plan instruction appropriate for the type of text being used
• Teach students how to read strategically and monitor their own comprehension
• Get students motivated and engaged
• and more

TEACHER-FRIENDLY FEATURES: Vignettes that model instructional techniques, "Dig Deeper" features with research-based enrichment information, "Practical Applications " features with supplemental information and resources.

1

What Is Comprehension?

Mr. Bloom asks his ninth-grade world history class to get out their textbooks. “This week we will be learning about ancient Greece, which is covered in Chapter 4 of your textbook. There will be a quiz at the end of the week, so be sure to answer the questions at the end of the chapter. You have the next 20 minutes to get started.” Mr. Bloom watches as students turn to Chapter 4 and begin reading. Students sit quietly for the next 20 minutes, occasionally turning a page, and some take notes while they read.

Imagine you are Mr. Bloom. Who are the good readers? Which students are struggling to understand? It is impossible to know because reading comprehension is an internal cognitive process. Just because a student is looking in the direction of the text does not mean that he or she is understanding or even correctly identifying the words. In a typical classroom there are good readers who understand quite a bit of what they are reading and there are those who do not.

We also know that in this instance, Mr. Bloom has not provided much support to the weaker readers in his class. He is not alone—assignments like the one previously described are common in the secondary grades. There is an expectation that students will independently read to learn new information. Yet, Mr. Bloom can implement many specific practices to ensure that all students in his class are successful with these independent reading tasks—from purposeful selection of class reading materials to explicit instruction that supports reading comprehension. A description of these instructional practices is the focus of this book.

OVERVIEW OF READING COMPREHENSION

The purpose of reading is to construct meaning from print (Kintsch & Kintsch, 2005; Pullen & Cash, 2011). This process requires simultaneous proficiency in numerous skills, including the basic skills needed to gain access to print (e.g., phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency), vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension strategies. Furthermore, reading comprehension is an active process that requires focus from the reader before, during, and after reading. Hence, reading comprehension is complex and involves many interactions between the reader and the text itself (Klingner, Vaughn, & Boardman, 2007).

There are approximately 8 million young adults between 4th and 12th grade who struggle to read on grade level. Understanding how good readers approach text provides great insight into the reasons other students struggle with reading comprehension. Good readers connect new text with past experiences and actively interpret, evaluate, and synthesize what they read (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). To accomplish this, good readers are more strategic than poor readers (Paris, Lipson, & Wixson, 1983). In other words, they have a plan that they systematically follow when reading text. Contrasts between good readers and poor readers at different times in the reading process are illustrated in Table 1.1. Notice the strategic nature of good readers before, during, and after reading compared with poor readers.

Table 1.1. Good versus poor readers: Before, during, and after reading

	Good readers	Poor readers
Before reading	Use text features (e.g., headings, illustrations) to get a sense of what they will read and help themselves set a purpose for reading Set goals and ask questions that will help them be selective in the focus of their reading Consider what they already know about the topic Observe how text is organized, which prepares them to make connections between and among concepts	Begin reading without a purpose for reading Do not consider (or do not have) background knowledge about the topic Do not recognize how text is organized and therefore do not have a plan for how to approach reading it Lack motivation or interest in reading
During reading	Read fluently (quickly and accurately) and use word identification strategies to decode unfamiliar words Use strategies, such as context clues and prior knowledge, to figure out the meaning of vocabulary and concepts Recognize and use text structures to make connections between the meanings of sentences and/or concepts Ask and answer questions while they are reading Make predictions about what will happen next and evaluate their predictions as they read further May make mental images of what they are reading to help them visualize what they read Identify the main ideas as they read to determine what is important, what is supportive, and what is less important Monitor their reading by recognizing comprehension problems and using fix-up strategies to repair their understanding	Have difficulty decoding words, particularly multisyllable words, resulting in slow labored reading that detracts focus from comprehension. Laborious reading is also likely to result in frustration and a desire to just “get it done.” Have limited vocabulary and lack strategies to figure out new words May not have background knowledge of the topic of the text, which impedes their ability to make connections between the text and what they already know Do not recognize text structures Move through the text, even if they do not understand what they have read May be easily distracted because they are not actively engaged with the text Are not aware when comprehension has broken down and/or lack strategies to repair comprehension problems when they do
After reading	Reflect on content that was read Summarize important points from the reading Draw inferences May go to other sources to clarify concepts they did not understand Believe success is a result of effort	Do not use strategies to reflect on reading Cannot summarize important points Do not seek out information to help them understand what they read Think success is a result of luck or some other external variable rather than strategic effort

Before reading

• Good readers

• Use text features (e.g., headings, illustrations) to get a sense of what they will read and help themselves set a purpose for reading

• Set goals and ask questions that will help them be selective in the focus of their reading

• Consider what they already know about the topic

• Observe how text is organized, which prepares them to make connections between and among concepts

• Poor readers

• Begin reading without a purpose for reading

• Do not consider (or do not have) background knowledge about the topic

• Do not recognize how text is organized and therefore do not have a plan for how to approach reading it

• Lack motivation or interest in reading

During reading

• Good readers

• Read fluently (quickly and accurately) and use word identification strategies to decode unfamiliar words

• Use strategies, such as context clues and prior knowledge, to figure out the meaning of vocabulary and concepts

• Recognize and use text structures to make connections between the meanings of sentences and/or concepts

• Ask and answer questions while they are reading

• Make predictions about what will happen next and evaluate their predictions as they read further

• May make mental images of what they are reading to help them visualize what they read

• Identify the main ideas as they read to determine what is important, what is supportive, and what is less important

• Monitor their reading by recognizing comprehension problems and using fix-up strategies to repair their understanding

• Poor readers

• Have difficulty decoding words, particularly multisyllabic words, resulting in slow, labored reading that detracts focus from comprehension. Laborious reading is also likely to result in frustration and a desire to just “get it done.”

• Have limited vocabulary and lack strategies to figure out new words

• May not have background knowledge of the topic of the text, which impedes their ability to make connections between the text and what they already know

• Do not recognize text structures

• Move through the text, even if they do not understand what they have read

• May be easily distracted because they are not actively engaged with the text

• Are not aware when comprehension has broken down and/or lack strategies to repair comprehension problems when they do

After reading

• Good readers

• Reflect on content that was read

• Summarize important points from the reading

• Draw inferences

• May go to other sources to clarify concepts they did not understand

• Believe success is a result of effort

• Poor readers

• Do not use strategies to reflect on reading

• Cannot summarize important points

• Do not seek out information to help them understand what they read

• Think success is a result of luck or some other external variable rather than strategic effort

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Differences in student reading performance become more pronounced as students progress through the grades because the texts that they are expected to read and understand become more complex and demanding. This is especially true in content area classes in which a large amount of reading is assigned from textbooks (Wiley, Griffin, & Thiede, 2005). Textbooks contain a dense amount of new concepts and terms (Mastropieri, Scruggs, & Graetz, 2003). Close inspection of textbooks has shown that they traditionally have been written well above the students’ grade level and in ways that are inconsiderate for the reader (e.g., Armbruster & Nagy, 1992). Inconsiderate texts are inconsistently organized from chapter to chapter, section to section, and even paragraph to paragraph. Although some textbooks have made progress in improving continuity, they continue to have weaknesses in the supports provided for the reader. For example, newer textbooks tend to consistently contain introductions to each chapter, and headings and subheadings accurately represent the content of those sections of text; however, textbooks continue to be written at readability levels above the grade level in which they are used, contain large numbers of unclear text structures (see Chapter 6), and include comprehension questions that are primarily detail oriented (Berkeley, King-Sears, Hott, & Bradley-Black, 2014).

Narrative texts (e.g., stories, novels) generally are easier for students to navigate and understand than expository texts (e.g., textbooks); however, they become increasingly complex as students progress through the grades. Plots become more convoluted (sometimes with multiple storylin...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• About the Authors
• Acknowledgments
• Dedication
• 1. What Is Comprehension?
• 2. Basic Reading Skills
• 3. Teach Vocabulary
• 4. Teach to Activate Students’ Prior Knowledge and Help Them Make Connections
• 5. Teach Students to Ask and Answer Questions
• 6. Teach Students to Recognize Text Structure
• 7. Teach Students to Read Strategically and Monitor Their Comprehension
• 8. Motivation and the Struggling Reader
• References
• Index