This document defines comprehension strategies and instructional strategies used to teach reading comprehension. It describes comprehension strategies like comprehension monitoring and questioning that students can use when reading. It also explains instructional strategies teachers can use to teach these skills, such as modeling, scaffolding, and guided practice. The document also discusses cognitive and affective aspects of comprehension and provides examples of comprehension activities and programs teachers can implement, such as a Daily DEAR program and author studies.

1. Defining Comprehension
Strategies and
Instructional Strategies
Jocelyn Caswell
Walden University
September 17, 2015

2. Defining Metacognition:
Thinking about Thinking
Dr. Lisa Bald (2014i) describes metacognition as a
process that includes regulating, checking and repairing.
Metacognition includes an awareness of one’s thinking, a
knowledge of learning needs and regulation of cognitive
strategies (Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas & Doyle, 2013).
Pro’s of metacognition include increased reading
comprehension, promotion of academic learning and
control of reading (Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas&
Doyle,2013).

3. Defining Comprehension
When one understands what is read, they are
comprehending text.
Hollenback and Saternus (2013) describe this as
meaning the reader constructs after interaction
with a text.

4. Comprehension Strategies and
Instructional Strategies
Comprehension strategies are for students.
These are used to help students monitor their
comprehension as they move through a text.
Instructional strategies are conditions created
by a teacher to facilitate learning (Laureate
Education, Inc., 2014g). This instruction teaches
students about comprehensions strategies and
how to employ in reading.

5. Comprehension Strategies
Comprehension Monitoring
Questioning
“Expert readers use a variety of comprehension
strategies to construct meaning while
reading” (Hollenback and Saternus, 2013).

6. Comprehension Monitoring
Using this strategy, students differentiate between what is understood
and what is confusing.
Students must know how to regulate, check for understanding and
repair confusion.
Essential to provide students with steps until this strategy is used with
automaticity.
Example: Read, stop, restate what is happening, find difficulty, repair.
*The National Reading Panel (2000) explains how comprehension monitoring helps
students become aware of comprehension struggles, thus improving
comprehension.

7. Questioning
Students mentally ask and answer questions about a text
before, during and after reading.
Students must be taught how to formulate questions and
types of questions that can stem from text.
Example: Teacher modeling and Think-Alouds.
Students can work in collaborative groups to practice
building textual questions.
Graphic organizers can be used for students to ask and
answer questions about text.

8. Instructional Strategies
Modeling, Scaffolding, Guided Practice
Example: I do, we do, you do.
Collaborative Learning

9. Modeling, Scaffolding,
Guided Practice
Modeling provides students with an exemplar model
of the specific task.
Example: Think-Alouds to model regulation of text.
Guided practice and scaffolding give students
support in the new task using a gradual release of
responsibility. Using these two practices, the
teacher guides the student in the practice with
varying support.

10. Collaborative Learning
A learning condition in which students work
together in building comprehension strategies.
Example: Students work in a collaborative group to
practice forming questions about a text.

11. Cognitive Aspects of
Comprehension
Includes awareness of text and ability to make meaning.
Students are expected to use such skills and strategies
with increasing rigor (Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas &
Doyle, 2013).
Examples of cognitive skills include phonics and
comprehension.
Common Core supports cognitive strategies.

12. Affective Aspects of
Comprehension
Moods, feelings and attitudes—Epistemic beliefs, self-
efficacy, motivation and engagement.
Emotional aspects of learning such as beliefs about
knowledge, or epistemic beliefs.
Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas & Doyle describe self-efficacy as
a student’s thoughts about performance abilities.
Motivation and engagement includes a student’s effort and
quality of participation within the learning environment
(Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas & Doyle, 2013).

13. A Daily DEAR Program: Drop
Everything, and Read!
Independent, choice reading time that occurs in a
classroom daily. Teachers use this time to work with
students one on one, addressing deficient skills.
Teachers and students work together to create realistic
goals for student reading development and reflect on past
learning/growth.
Teachers model strategies and skills for students during
the mini-lesson.

14. Author Study: Improving Reading Comprehension
Using Inference and Comparison
Students need to be aware of their own thinking in order
to build an inference.
Students use metacognition to regulate building
background knowledge, finding textual evidence and
making educated assumptions about an author.
This is a higher order comprehension skill as multiple
processes/strategies are used to develop inferences.

15. References
Afflerbach, P., Cho, B.-Y., Kim, J.-Y., Crassas, M. E., & Doyle, B. (2013).
Reading: What else matters besides strategies and skills? The
Reading Teacher, 66(6), 440–448.
Hollenbeck, A. F., & Saternus, K. (2013). Mind the comprehension iceberg:
Avoiding titanic mistakes with the CCSS. The Reading Teacher, 66(7),
558–568.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014g). Conversations with Ray Reutzel:
Supporting comprehension [Audio file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014j). Metacognition: Thinking about
thinking [Multimedia file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of
the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: an evidence-
based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading
and its implications for reading instruction. Retrieved September, 17,
2015, from http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/smallbook.htm.