Reading Comprehension    

 

          There are vast differences among students’ comprehension abilities.  These differences may be due to unique learning styles of students and the may be due to innate differences among students.  Reading comprehension can be greatly affected by these differences.  While the reading comprehension of all students can be improved, students with less innate abilities will make less progress.

 

            There are two areas that are prerequisites to reading comprehension.  The first is reading fluency.  Students who are able to read quickly with proper intonation generally perform better on measures of reading comprehension than students who are not fluent.  The second area is listening comprehension.  Listening comprehension by itself does not assure good reading comprehension but students with poor listening comprehension generally have poor reading comprehension.

 

            There are a number of specific skills that when developed will improve a students reading comprehension.  These skills will be explained later.  For many students, working on reading fluency and listening comprehension will greatly improve their reading comprehension.  Focusing the tutor’s efforts in these areas first will result in the greatest gain for many students.  Because fluency building is a major component of our reading programs we will be improving the reading comprehension of many students through that process.  Word knowledge has been shown to be a prerequisite to reading comprehension.  The multi-syllabic reading program REWARDS focuses on learning root words or morphographs which builds word knowledge leading to improved reading comprehension.  Reading to students and then questioning them will improve listening comprehension.  There is a listening comprehension section on the Kaufman achievement battery that can be used to assess gains in this area.

 

            There are two approaches that teach specific skills that effectively improve reading comprehension.  The first approach is an older, well researched process, known as SQ3R.  This stands for Survey – Question – Read – Recite and Review.

 


Approach One

 

Survey! Question! Read! Recite! Review!

Before you read, Survey
the page:

(approximately one minute)

  • the title, headings, and subheadings
  • captions under pictures, charts, graphs or maps

Question
while you are surveying:

  • Turn the title, headings, and/or subheadings into questions;
  • Ask yourself, "What do I already know about this subject?"
  • These are often “who”, “what”, or “why” questions

When you begin to
Read:

  • Look for answers to the questions you first raised as you read the page

Recite
after you've read a section:

  • Orally, recite what you have just read answering the questions previously raised

 

Review:

  • Compare what you have just recited against what you just read.
  • Correct any errors

 

Approach Two

 

            The second skill based approach teaches strategies for self questioning.  Poor readers approach reading in a passive manner.  They believe that by reading enough words the meaning will reveal itself.  Good readers are active.  They challenge what they are reading by asking questions. (What did they mean by that?  Why did they say that?  How did he do that?) When teaching reading comprehension, the tutor should focus on two questions:

 

1.  “What strategies should I teach?” 

2.  “How should I teach strategies?”

 

A practical way to addresses these questions is to teach:

 

            1.  Before Reading Strategies

            2.  During Reading Strategies

            3.  After Reading Strategies

 

 

BEFORE READING

 

            Self questioning strategies, Before Reading, are designed to create questions and predictions about what we want to know and what we think we will learn.  To teach these strategies select a chapter in the middle of a textbook that has a table of contents and chapters preceding and following the chapter.  Section headings, pictures and textual cues can all be used.  From this information the student needs to generate three or four questions.  Examples of questions might include:

 

1. What would be a good title for this chapter?

2. What is the relationship between this chapter and the one before and after?

3. What do I believe I will learn from this chapter?

 

During Reading

 

            Self questioning strategies, During Reading, are designed to ask questions about what the student is really reading and to connect with the author.  This will help the reader better understand and by making the information more personal it will help the reader remember.  Examples of questions the reader might ask During Reading might include:

 

1. Question and predict where you think the author is going

2. Ask I wonder… questions with who, what, when, why, which, how, how many, how much

3. Create predictions based on the…I wonder… questions.

 

 

After Reading

 

            Self questioning strategies, After Reading , are designed to answer the “So what?’ question.  It also gives the reader a chance to determine whether he agrees or disagrees with the author.  Examples of questions the reader might ask After Reading might include:

 

1. Looking back, I know…. (Has my knowledge changed?)

2. Looking back, I think … (Do I agree?)

3. Looking back, I question … (What additional questions do I have?)

4 .Looking back, I feel … (What emotions did the author stir?)

5. Looking back, I predict … (What will happen in the future?)

 

            Self Questioning Strategies can be very helpful with students where improved reading comprehension is the goal and with students where the focus is homework help.  Typically these strategies are used with older students.