2. What is Reading Comprehension?
Teachers
Students
• Reading comprehension becomes a
skill.
• It starts with the reader.
• Students read different types of
literature.
The classroom library provides various literature for
students to indulge in reading on their level.
•Guide students through comprehending
what they read.
3. There are various elements to reading that refer to
comprehension according to SEDL:
• Language Comprehension
• understanding speech
• Decoding
• recognize and use written expression and information
• Background Knowledge
• knowledge about the content
• Linguistic Knowledge
• sounds used to make words and form sentences that make sense
• Phonology
• understanding spoken language
• Syntax
• understanding word placement in a sentence
• Semantics
• information and meaning within language
• Cipher Knowledge
• reading regular words and pronouncing them effectively
• Lexical Knowledge *continues to develop*
• recognizing irregular and regular words and pronouncing them
effectively
• Phoneme Awareness
• words and spoken language are made of individual sounds
• Alphabetic Principle
• learning letter names and sounds
• Letter Knowledge
• being familiar with the letters in the alphabet
• Concepts About Print
• understanding all parts and direction of a text
• (SEDL, 2013)
4. Reading Comprehension
Start with Background Knowledge Please Note:
• The previous slide explains that there are
various elements to ensuring our students
comprehend the text they are reading.
• Teachers and students need strategies to
encourage comprehension.
• Motivation is key!
• Motivate, MOTIVATE, Motivate
Schema – A filing cabinet for information.
5. Factors that Influence Various Readers’
Comprehension (according to the RAND)
• Oral language development
• Word recognition fluency
• World and domain knowledge
and experiences
• Motivation, purposes, goals, and
strategies
• Reutzel and Cooter, 2011, pg.
275
6. Student Strategies
• Peer Interactions
• Identify what is understood.
• Think about and use appropriate
strategies (metacognition).
• Use graphic organizers.
• Place events from the story into the
correct sequence of events. Peer interaction benefiting vocabulary
knowledge and social development.
7. Teacher Strategies
Strategies
• Scaffold, or model, comprehension
strategies.
• Use read alouds.
• Incorporate background knowledge
• Use schema
• Use small group or guided reading
instruction time.
• Motivate!
Small group, or guided reading,
instruction
8. Reading Comprehension Assessments
Assessments for Grades 4 – 6
• Oral Story Retellings
• The teacher prompts and the students’ retelling of a
story.
• This assessment is perfect for struggling readers.
• Oral Story Assessments
• The teacher uses a form to document the students’
answers.
(Reutzel and Cooter, 2007)
Oral Story Retelling Coding Form
From Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B. (2011). Strategies for Reading
Assessment and Instruction: Helping Every Child Succeed. 5th ed.
9. Assessing Student Comprehension
Reading Assessments
• Student - The assessment should
ask open-ended questions to ensure
students’ knowledge of the text.
• Teacher – The assessment should
ask the teacher questions to ensure
the students’ comprehended the
text.
Fountas and Pinnell Assessment
10. Remember
Focus on the needs of the
student
• Students need to be motivated
throughout the reading process.
• Students’ beliefs about reading can
and will influence their reading
ability (Afflerbach, Cho, Kim,
Crassas, and Doyle, 2013).
11. Resources
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.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. (2011). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction: Helping
every child succeed (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
SEDL. (2013). Cognitive elements of reading. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.sedl.org/reading/framework/elements.html
