The document discusses reading fluency and its effect on reading comprehension. It describes how reading fluency involves accuracy, rate, and prosody. It also discusses how reading fluency helps build the bridge between basic word decoding and comprehension. The document then discusses different strategies that can be used to improve reading fluency, such as repeated reading and reader's theater, which both focus on the three elements of reading fluency. Modeling fluency is also described as an important part of improving student fluency.
1. Reading Fluency and its Effect on Reading Comprehension
Topic Selection As an elementary teacher, I have often thought reading fluency plays a large role in
a child's reading development. Few reading programs give fluency the recognition it deserves.
Reading fluency has been a prominent and reliable benchmark for me, even when students have
comprehension difficulties. Once fluency is assessed, the results were used to place students in their
reading ability group. Often times, the fluent readers were placed in the high ability reading groups.
In the past, our district used a reading program that gave very little focus to reading fluency and few
strategies for improvement. It assessed fluency based on rate and...show more content...
Reader's theater brings a new, more exciting approach to repeated practice. Like repeated reading,
reader's theater focuses on all three elements of reading fluency.
Reader's theater requires students to reread, memorize, and perform the text, which are key
components to improving fluency. Adding dramatic performance to a student's reading experience
will positively affect the student's expression, or prosody, a key component to reading fluency
(Nathan & Stanovich, 2001). Modeling fluency is essential so students can better understand what
reading fluency sounds like. Proper modeling focuses on accuracy, rate, phrasing, and prosody
(Worthly & Broaddus, 2001). Evanchan (2010) suggested proper modeling gives students exposure
to vocabulary above their independent reading level. Modeling allows students to be engaged with
text they may wrestle with independently, and comprehension is also enhanced (Worthly &
Broaddus, 2001). The student's engagement and evidence of comprehension suggests students'
listening comprehension level is at a higher level than their independent reading levels (Evanchan,
2010).
How does reading fluency affect reading comprehension? There are five essential components to
reading. They are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Evanchan
(2010), referred to the components as links in a chain, and comprehension is the link that secures the
chain; however, if one of the four
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2. The Importance Of Reading Comprehension
Reading failure is a societal problem with greater consequences downstream. Students who are
struggling readers will need targeted instruction in comprehension strategies. Once students have
learned to read, the focus of instruction needs to shift to comprehension. Comprehension skills must
be expertly taught so that students explicitly taught so that students can understand information
presented in the written form. Strategies help students stay engaged and think about what they are
reading (Lynch, 2012). It is an active process and creates an understanding of the text on a deeper
level. Authors assume their readers can see how sentences relate to the overall idea. However, if the
level of knowledge that the writer assumes does not...show more content...
Why a character said or did something? Vocabulary–centered strategies can increase student
comprehension beyond the 3rd or 4th grade as children encounter more complex texts (Collins,
2016). Students with more robust vocabularies may comprehend more story content. Vocabulary is
related to comprehension by supporting the inferential process. It is word–level knowledge, a key to
better comprehension. Note that acquisition of vocabulary is a significant feature across the
curriculum for students at the middle school stage, such as Billy. Researchers concur that learners do
the majority of their vocabulary forgetting shortly after the lesson (Alaraj, 2015). Therefore an
intentional set of actions must be performed by learners to learn, store, recall, and retrieve new
vocabulary. All teachers of all subjects need to understand that to teach vocabulary strategies should
provide purposeful exposure to new vocabulary. Young children predominantly acquire vocabulary
by hearing new words used in the environment (Christ & Wang, 2010). Intentionally teach word
meanings. Explicitly teach word–learning strategies, and give children opportunities to use new
words meaningfully. The third comprehension strategy that could help Billy would be active
learning of multisensory strategies to store new vocabulary for better recall & retrieval. Multisensory
strategies link visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile modalities as a memory tool. The
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3. English Comprehension: Sample Questions
ENGLISH COMPREHENSION: Sample Questions
All questions are Multiple–Choice Questions with only one option as the correct answer.
Choice–Questions answer In the following question select the word which is OPPOSITE in the
meaning of the given word. Q1. INDISCREET a. b. c. d. reliable honest prudent stupid
Q2. SOLICITUDE a. b. c. d. insouciance ingenuity propriety austerity
Q3. In the sentence there is a bold word or phrase One of the words or phrases given in phrase. the
options conveys almost the same meaning as the bold word or phrase in the sentence sentence.
Select that option which is nearest in meaning meaning. It is preposterous on your part to look for a
job without first completing your education education. a. b. c. d. e. Wise...show more content...
did. But, people were taught little about leadership To some degree,management was leadership.
emphasised because it's easier to teach than leadership But even more so, management was the
leadership. main item on the twentieth–century agenda because that's what was needed For every
century needed. e entrepreneur or business builder who was a leader, we needed hundreds of
managers to run their ever–growing enterprises. Unfortunately for us today, this emphasis on
management has often been institutionalised in corporate cultures that discourage employees from
learning how to lead. employees lead Ironically, past success is usually the key ingredient in
producing this outcome The syndrome, outcome. as I have observed it on many occasions, goes like
this: success creates some degree of marked dominance which in turn produces much growth After a
while keeping the ever–larger uces growth. ever organisation under control becomes the primary
challenge So attention turns inward and challenge. managerial competencies are nurtured With a
strong emphasis on management but not nurtured. leadership, bureaucracy and an inward focus
takeover But with continued success, the result takeover. mostly of market dominance, the problem
often goes unaddressed and an unhealthy arrogance
begins to evolve. All of these characteristics then make any transformation effort much more
difficult. Arrogant managers can over evaluate their current performance and
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4. Comprehension strategies are used as part of an effective reading program to teach students how to
monitor their understanding of what they have read. Additionally, students learn where and how to
implement these strategies to derive meaning and clear up any areas of text that are confusing. These
strategies help students monitor their understanding of the text by making predictions, attaching the
content to prior experiences, and asking questions about the text to deeper their understanding (
Reading Rockets, n.d.). When students understand what they read, they can summarize or retell
facts or stories from various genres (Reading Rockets, n.d.). When incorporating comprehension
strategies, educators should model how, where, and when each strategy is used (Swanson & De la
Paz, 1998). One way to accomplish this task is by teaching students how to use a graphic organizer.
Graphic organizers are visual tools that help students organize information in a text before, during,
and after reading. They also teach students about text structures to build memory and the sequencing
of events that occur in a story. Additionally, students learn to identify the main idea and signal words
such as first, next, finally or last to reinforce comprehension.
Independent Practice Students need lots of opportunities and time to apply the comprehension
strategies they are learning. This can be achieved when students engage in reading activities that
reinforce the specific strategy. For example,
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5. Helping Children Struggling With Comprehension
Introduction Comprehension is a complex and multi–faceted concept, but most researchers agree
that the construction of meaning from text is a central component to reading (Lyon & Moats, 1997;
Perfetti & Adolf, 2012). It occurs when the reader builds on one or more mental representations of
the meaning of a text (Kintsch & Rawson, 2005). These mental representations are not only
constructed at the lexical level (word identification), but also occur at higher sentence level involving
syntactic processes. In understanding a text, the reader has to recognise the words, retrieve their
appropriate meaning within the contexts, and construct phrases from words (Perfetti & Adolf,
2012). In other words, it is an active process in which the reader has to engage in an intentional and
thoughtful interaction with the text (NICHD, 2000). At–risk young children who are falling behind
in literacy skills, and those who have severe language impairment as part their disabilities, face great
difficulties in understanding (Kluth & Chandler–Olcott, 2008). A common aim in research of early
reading comprehension interventions is to help more children learn to read early and well, prevent
those at risk of failure from falling behind, and alleviate the effects of learning disabilities (Lyon &
Moats, 1997). The two studies reviewed in this essay were both concerned with scaffolding their
participants' emerging comprehension of story narratives by adapting the format of presentation of
traditional
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6. Reflection On Reading Comprehension
Introduction
Reading is one of the most beneficial activities a man can do. Out of reading, man can be able to
discover new things, concepts, places and people. More so, reading is a way to relax our mind and
soul, going deeply through the world of story and improves our thinking and internalization process.
Furthermore, reading opens the mind to new horizons and exposes a new experience. That's why,
whilst reading it also needs some sort of any other way of process, wherein man can read and
understand texts deeply. This so–called other way of process is the outlining, that in such a way, can
be a tool for a meaningful reading comprehension.
An outline establishes an orderly relationship of facts or ideas. It is an essential tool and a
time–saver. (De La Cruz and Aquino, 2008). It is the guide when reading or guide for writing a
report. Furthermore, outlining serves as a visualization of the ideas and information in an orderly
manner....show more content...
Since it has already organized the thoughts and theme of the texts, then had already eliminated the
irrelevant details.
Reflection/Discussion Good reading comprehension is a fundamental element that students must
have to attain. Through researches, it is clearly stated that reading proficiency has a strong
relationship between reading proficiency and academic success at all ages included in the university
level. It is definitely important to discuss what strategy is the best way to practice to improve BSIE
students reading comprehension for the sake of students' success in the field of teaching.
Students having hard times in comprehending the thought of the text and what the author implies. It
seems to be reading by words but not reading between the lines. It is important to know how
comprehension plays an integral part in a manner of thinking and conceptualizing facts and ideas
from the
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7. Introduction
Numerous experts have specified that a deficiency of reading fluency seems to be the area of
extreme impairment in reading. According to Huemer and Mann (2009), "children with ASD have
been reported to show a disassociation between decoding and comprehension". Children with ASD
usually have a higher leverl of reading compared to their reading comprehension. Overall, the
evidence suggests that children with ASD have low levels of reading accuracy, which implicates
weak decoding skills as being one of the factors in reading comprehension deficits in ASD (Huemer
and Mann).
National Reading Panel define fluency as "reading text with speed, accuracy, and proper
expression."(2000, p. 3–1). Reading Fluency has three interdependent distinct elements which are
accuracy, rate, and prosody. Several decades of scientific research by National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development [NICHD], clearly shows effective reading instruction addresses
five critical areas: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension.
Research points out that Reading Fluency helps build a bridge between basic word decoding and
comprehension.
The baseline project will focus on Fluency. Fluency is identified by "the words in a text rapidly
and accurately and using phrasing and emphasis in a way that makes what is read sound like
spoken language" (NICHD report of 2000). The reasoning for fluency being important is research
identified a close relationship between
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8. Comprehension Monitoring and Applying Fix–up Strategic readers monitor their thinking and
recognize when errors are committed but they also know what strategy to use to correct the error.
For example, they may need to reread the text to make sense, use context clues to understand
unfamiliar words. No matter what the obstacle is, a fix–up strategy is applied. The K–W–L is a
well– known teaching technique to assist in the monitoring strategy. The K–W–L chart provides the
teacher and students opportunity to participate in discussions before, during, and after reading. It
helps the student to ask and answer questions, identify the main idea and detail, and summarize the
text (Santoro, Baker, Fien, Smith, and Chard, 2016 p. 284)....show more content...
The QAR consist of four types of questions, which require different skills to answer (Jones & Leahy,
2006). The QAR requires explicit instruction before implementing the strategy. The four types of
questions of the QAR: Right There–Answer found in the text Think and Search–Answer found in the
text in more than one place. Author and Me– Make an inference On My Own– Student' access
personal background to answer question. Story Structure Question generation Generating questions
can be troublesome for students, as they are used to answering questions. However, generating
questions is a comprehension strategy that improves reading, teaching asking questions to locate
information and develop a deeper understanding (McLaughlin, 2015). McLaughlin (2015) provides
several examples of teaching ideas in generating questions such as, Thick and Thin Questions,
ReQuest, Paired Questioning, KWL, and Annotating Text (p. 135–144). Another example of a
teaching idea in generating questions as suggested by Stricklin (2011) "Sentence starters offer
guidance to students new to reciprocal teaching. Written on Index cards, sentence starters for each of
the "Fab Four" strategies and metacognitive thinking may help in beginning group conversations as
Stricklin (2011) explains: Predicting–"I wonder..." or "I think that..." Clarifying–"I was confused
about..." or "I don't understand..." Questioning–"How...?" or "Why...?" Summarizing–"The author
wants us to know..." or
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9. Information Comprehension Essay
Information comprehension or also known as reading comprehension is defined as the level of
understanding of a text or message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the
words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text or message. Comprehension
is one of the most important components when it comes to reading no matter what age. As much as
it is important for children to understand the words they are reading they should also be able to
understand what they are reading. Reading comprehension is something many students have trouble
with throughout their school years, and this can possibly lead them to discouragement and
disliking reading all together. Reading is used for every subject and a skill and asset we will need
for the rest...show more content...
In order to understand a text the reader must be able to comprehend the vocabulary used in the
piece of writing. If the individual words don't make the sense then the overall story will not either.
Children can draw on their prior knowledge of vocabulary, but they also need to continually be
taught new words. The best vocabulary instruction occurs at the point of need. Parents and teachers
should pre–teach new words that a child will encounter in a text or aid her in understanding
unfamiliar words as she comes upon them in the writing. In addition to being able to understand
each distinct word in a text, the child also has to be able to put them together to develop an overall
conception of what it is trying to say. This is text comprehension. Text comprehension is much more
complex and varied that vocabulary knowledge. Readers use many different text comprehension
strategies to develop reading comprehension. These include monitoring for understanding, answering
and generating questions, summarizing and being aware of and using a text's structure to aid
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10. The Three Elements Of Reading Comprehension
Part A
Reading comprehension is considered an essential element to the success of a young reader. It is a
common thought to believe that comprehension is simply deciphering the message the author is
trying to convey through written print. However, reading comprehension is more complex than this
"traditional view". Comprehension is defined as "the process of simultaneously extracting and
constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language" (Robinson,
2012, p.67). Additionally, Robinson believes that comprehension is divided into three categories
which collectively encompass the skills, knowledge and experiences that the reader brings "to the
table" which influence comprehension of text. These three domains include "the reader who is doing
the comprehending, the text that is to be comprehended and the activity in which comprehension is
a part" (Robinson, 2012, p.67). These three elements all contribute to the readers sociocultural
experiences which influence their abilities to read and retain information relevant to the text.
I agree with Robinson's model of thinking when he views comprehension as broken into these three
elements. A reader's knowledge and abilities plays a key role in comprehension. A reader's
cognitive capabilities (i.e. attention span and memory recall), background knowledge and
motivations to read all influence the comprehension process. As a teacher I feel that it is important
to utilize all of these qualities readers possess in
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11. Comprehension Reflection Paper
Comprehension Strategy/Lesson Plan Reflection
Once the students left, I sat there pondering all that had happened during class within the past
hour. I wrote down my notes and was flabbergasted that I actually performed my first lesson. I
have to say that even though the students were my very own children it got me excited about the
prospects of teaching my own class. I learned that how students feel about a lesson matters and that
I want my future students to get excited about what they learn in my class. I loved that the youngest
student enjoyed when I read to the class, I do possess some great character voices. As a future
teacher, I want kids to get excited about coming to school: I want to strive to make education fun for
my students....show more content...
51). Frequent assessments noted from the book Balanced Assessment: From Formative to
Summative by Burke (2010) relates to the following and their use in schools: RTI and Curriculum
Based Measurement (CBM) noted from The IRIS Center (2017); these assessments deem the first
consideration for teachers, to obtain constant feedback on students achievements in their literacy
skills ("The IRIS CENTER," 2017; p. 18). RTI and its frequent assessments ensure that teachers use
every resource available to reach students, so all students have equality within the classroom.
Equality for students visualized when teachers consider all learning styles with the use of
differentiated instruction/interventions to help students manage and master reading skills. RTI not
only aids those who fall behind but can find those who might struggle with a Learning Disability
(LD) ("The IRIS Center," 2017). The sooner an LD student gets discovered the sooner teachers can
implement a plan to help the student excel in reading, for prosperity in all content areas.
IQ–Achievement Discrepancy Model, another intervention that other schools use instead or RTI to
aid struggling students. The IQ–Achievement Discrepancy Model, a traditional method, that seeks
out and determines a
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12. I Had A Hard Time With Reading Comprehension
Ever since elementary school, I never enjoyed English. I've always had a hard time with reading
comprehension. I never knew what to write about when I was asked to write a paper. I grew to
dislike English even more throughout the years. Once I got into high school, I thought I was going
to actually like English. I also thought the teachers were going to be different than the teachers I had
before. I was definitely wrong. I was extremely nervous about ninth–grade English once freshman
year begun. I received my schedule and saw the name Carver on it. Having no idea where the class
room was, I wandered around the halls for a few minutes. Finally, I found my English class. Mrs.
Carver was standing outside the door waiting for her students. She must have been around five and a
half feet tall. Mrs. Carver wore glasses, and she had brown hair. I was the first student in class. I
noticed she had posters on every wall of the classroom. I sat down and I continued looking around
the room. I looked to the right and saw a chalk board, she had work from her former students
hanging up on it. After the first few days of class, I realized that this year English wouldn't be so
bad. She would give me one on one assistance when I needed it. Mrs. Carver would come sit next to
me and she would ask me "How has your day been so far Brooke?" I always told her "My day hasn't
been good, and it hasn't been bad." I would ask her questions during class, and every time I got an
answer that helped me. My
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13. Essay on Reading Comprehension
Reading Comprehension In any interaction with a text, the text is pretty much useless unless the
reader can comprehend the meaning of that text. Since narrative, expository, and poetic texts all have
different reasons for being written, and different forms of presenting the text, different strategies are
needed to comprehend these texts. There are also many reading strategies that can be used for all of
these types of text. In order to describe strategies to help develop activities that facilitate
comprehension of narrative, expository, and poetic texts one must first have an understanding of
what comprehension means, they then need a better understanding of how the human brain works.
"Comprehension is a creative, multifaceted...show more content...
If there are no changes in long–term memory, nothing has been understood or learned." (Sweller,
2005) The competent comprehender is a skilled reader. "Skilled readers are those who actively and
automatically construct meaning as they read; they are self–motivated and self–directed; they
monitor their own comprehension by questioning, reviewing, revising, and rereading to enhance
their overall comprehension." (Douglas Fisher, 2011) One other skill that is crucial to being a
skilled reader and comprehending text is the fluency with which a student reads. Teaching fluency
skills is a very important aspect of helping a student comprehend what they are reading. If a student
is using all of the short term memory decoding words and sentence stucture, there is very little left to
work on the process for gaining meaning from the text. The most common strategies used to improve
fluency are; adding vocabulary to the students long–term memory, activating background knowledge
(schema), modeling, and having the student read.
So what are other strategies that can be used to help the non–skilled student comprehend what they
are reading? "The most important comprehension strategies for struggling readers are activating
background knowledge, determing importance, summarizing, questioning, visualizing and
monitoring." (Tompkins, 2010, p. 267)
Background knowledge helps the student with both fluency and the understanding
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14. Language plays a central role in almost all aspects of our lives. This paper will focus on examining
the cognitive processes that are involved in using and understanding written language. Because
language almost always involves units of language larger than an individual word or a single
sentence, it is important to emphasize how people understand connected discourse, such as stories.
Understanding these central cognitive processes will help school psychologists understand how to
facilitate reading comprehension in the classroom setting. Although most of these psychological
studies do not deal with specific methods on how to how to comprehend a story, these studies do
indicate some of the more powerful factors that influence whether...show more content...
Bartlett found that story recall depends on how memory is reconstructed, and that there would be
selective omissions of information, rationalization, a dominant theme, and transformation of
information and sequence, and general blending of information. Bartlett constructed a new
framework for memory and explained the importance of prior experience in one's memory for
narrative information, which was different than the theories of the time that assumed memory was
more like an exact replica of incoming information (Solso, 2008). Bartlett felt that readers used
their prior experience to construct expectations about what should occur in a story. These
expectations would influence how a text was remembered because the reader would interpret
incoming information using what he or she already knew and expected. These prior experiences
were labeled "schemata". Knowing something about a subject makes it easier to learn more about
that subject. Thorndike et al. explains that our prior knowledge serves as a framework which
makes the new information more meaningful and easier to absorb. At Bartlett explained,
comprehension depends only in part on the information provided by the text. To show how the
reader also uses his/her knowledge of the topic, Anderson and Pichert (1978) directed an
experiment where participants were asked to read a story about the home of a wealthy family from
either the viewpoint of a homebuyer or a
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15. The Importance Of Text Comprehension
Introduction
Many students do not begin mastering text comprehension until upper elementary grades. Teachers
often push text comprehension to the back burner, so that the students can be taught to read before
introducing the students to reading to comprehend. For example, students are given fictional text to
engage them and interested them in reading when they are in primary school, but older students are
given more informational text because they are being pushed to read to comprehend and learn.
However, students should be taught how to break down text and work to comprehend it from the
very beginning of their schooling. Students who only begin working to comprehend text in upper
elementary school are at a disadvantage to the students that are being asked comprehension questions
from the beginning. Text comprehension is a vital part of learning for all students from kindergarten
to adulthood. Children are not able to learn from reading until they are taught how to break down the
text and begin comprehending. Text comprehension is important for students because it allows them
to learn independently while also allowing them to build on each skill taught in class.
Importance
Standards
Standards are the basis of what each teacher must teach every year in order for the students to
succeed in the next grade. Something important to look at in the Mississippi College and Career
Readiness Standards (MCCR) is that text comprehension is written into the MCCR Standards for
every
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16. Reflection On Teaching Comprehension
Improving vocabulary is crucial to the learners reading comprehension abilities. For the Reflective
Observation stage of the vocabulary instruction part of the session, the learners will be provided with
a list of words that are commonly seen in materials the learners are likely to encounter in their
everyday lives. They will be given a few minutes to look over the words and then asked to rank their
knowledge of the words, including pronunciation. Next, for the Concrete Experience stage, the
instructor will introduce the words and their definitions, giving the learner time to write down the
definitions, visual pronunciation cues, and the opportunity to ask questions. For the Abstract
Conceptualization stage, the learner will then be asked to reflect on their initial rankings, and
invited to discuss whether they felt their initial ranking was accurate or not. For the Active
Experimentation stage at the end of the vocabulary session, the learners will be given a fieldwork
assignment, which request that they find in materials that contain the vocabulary words they learned
during that session. If the learners have demonstrated above basic–though not necessarily
proficient–performance levels in fluency and vocabulary, the session will shift focus to
comprehension. Comprehension is an active process, and learners will utilize their fluency and
vocabulary skills in order to engage with and understand the passages. Learners will begin in the
Concrete Experience stage by rereading a
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17. In this information–driven age, preparing students to read a variety of texts with complete
understanding should likely be one of our educational system's highest priorities. Understanding is
more than just the ability to produce information on demand (knowledge) or the ability to perform
learned routines (skills). "Understanding is the ability to think and act flexibly with what one
knows." (Active Learning Practice for Schools, n. d.) A review of the literature in the area of reading
comprehension of elementary–age students shows two principle areas of focus. There is a body of
literature that examines the development of proficient vs. struggling comprehenders and another
body of literature that compares methodologies for teaching...show more content...
When data from students who had average accuracy and fluency scores, but lower comprehension
scores were compared to data from those with similar accuracy and fluency but average
comprehension, the consistent differences were found to be lower oral language and vocabulary
skills in the poor comprehenders upon entry into formal schooling. (Nation, Cocksey, Taylor &
Bishop) Thousands of dollars each year are spent on intervention, trying to improve the reading of
children that show delays. When one reads, the clear goal is comprehension of what is read. Without
communication of ideas between the author and reader, decoding texts is pointless. Most
intervention programs are focused on phonics and word decoding. Oral language interventions
concurrent with vocabulary and comprehension tasks at age eight have been shown to lead to
significant improvements in reading comprehension. (Nation, et al., 2010). Reading comprehension
is not merely a product of being able to decode words and sentences. How we teach children to
process and integrate the ideas found in text can have a large impact on their ability to function in a
world of ever expanding knowledge and information. Reading comprehension at a knowledge level is
a complex task. Reading comprehension instruction that attempts to move students beyond the
knowledge level to a place of true understanding is daunting at best and not something that can be
left to guess work. A review of current literature in
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18. Importance Of Technology On Reading Comprehension
The emergence of technology in school systems provides options to use to enhance or hinder reading
comprehension (Margolin, Driscoll, Toland, & Kegler, 2013). However, there is an insufficient
amount of data that has been conducted on this topic (Cuevas, Russell, Irving, 2012). Research has
been conducted on technology's effects on reading retention but not comprehension. Now, teachers
are including technology in their lessons to teach their students how to use these technological tools.
Therefore, technology has become an integral aspect of the school system, because of this;
instructional technology has been used to improve students reading comprehension (Cuevas,
Russell, Irving, 2012).
Through the use of various technological instruments; such as e–readers and iPads, and web–based
systems (Welch, 2010), technology has a potential to help improve a student's reading abilities. Many
times students will be faced with on–screen text rather than the paper copies, through these tools,
they are given more resources and opportunities to explore the text they are reading. With web–based
systems teachers are able to utilize the resources given that help test and encourage reading
achievement. However, these tools should be used alongside instruction rather than guiding it
(Welch, 2010).
Technological Tools Several technologies are offered to the school system to help enhance learning.
These different types of technologies are used by teachers and students to improve reading
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19. Purpose
Research conducted by the National Reading Panel shows that there is a relationship between
vocabulary and reading comprehension. The relationship between vocabulary and reading
comprehension prompted researchers to recommend educators to identify students in the early
grades with low language and vocabulary, and to intervene as soon as possible to prevent later
reading comprehension difficulties. Once educators are awareness of the students that have low
language and vocabulary, interventions should be implemented to target vocabulary development
(p.308).
A strategy identified to build vocabulary is read alouds. A read aloud is an oralreading done by the
teacher that builds background knowledge, vocabulary and comprehension. Research shows that
although read alouds enhance vocabulary it does not close the vocabulary gap. It is suggested that
the addition of extended instruction in the form of a small group could close the vocabulary gap.
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between small–group instruction and
vocabulary development and reading comprehension. The author hypothesizes that students with low
vocabulary and comprehension skills will improve from extended small–group instruction (p.309).
Method
The study included 106 first graders from 18 classrooms in nine Title I schools in the Pacific
Northwest. Fifty–four students were in the experiment group and received small–group instruction,
and fifty–two students were in the control group.
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20. Students Struggle With Reading Comprehension
Chapter One
Statement of the Problem Ziva, a boisterous third grade student, is quickly disheartened after taking
and failing her Accelerated Reading (AR) comprehension test for the second time this week. This is
not the first time Ziva has failed her AR tests; in fact she fails them every week. Not only are these
low scores impacting her reading grades, but they are detrimentally affecting her self–efficacy and
desire to enjoy reading. Ziva's Fountas and Pinnell running record data indicates that Ziva reads on
grade level with 110 words per minute and 99%–100% accuracy, but achieves limited
comprehension. What Ziva's teacher fights to understand is how Ziva can fluently read with near
perfect accuracy, yet fail to comprehend what she is reading. Ziva is not alone; studies show that
many students struggle with reading comprehension. While Ziva's lack of comprehension is not
currently affecting her core subjects; it is only a matter of time. "Comprehension becomes especially
important to students in later elementary grades because it provides the foundation for further
learning in secondary school. A student's academic progress is profoundly shaped by the ability to
understand what is read. Students who cannot understand what they read are not likely to acquire the
skills necessary to participate in the 21st century workforce" (Butler, Urruti, Buenger, and Hunt,
2012, p. 7).
Rationale
Comprehension, or understanding, is the ultimate goal of reading. Readers,
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