Describes effective comprehension strategies for students and effective instructional strategies to improve comprehension.

1. DEFINING COMPREHENSION
STRATEGIES AND
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES
Makenzy Deckard
READ 6707: Reading and Literacy Growth, Grades 4-6

2. IMPORTANCE OF COMPREHENSION
AND METACOGNITION
-According to the SEDL, reading comprehension is a skill that should be taught explicitly. Teachers can help
students effectively demonstrate the different types of reading comprehension including; literal comprehension,
inferential comprehension, and evaluative comprehension. Through comprehension instruction, students also
become more familiar with expository, narrative, formal and informal texts (Wren, Litke, Jinkins, Paynter, Watts,
Alanis & Iilana, 2000).
-Along with teaching explicit comprehension strategies, teachers can help students learn to monitor their own
comprehension of texts as they read through a process called metacognition (Wren et al., 2000).
-Students us metacognition; the awareness of their own thinking process. Successful readers use metacognition
to monitor and evaluate their reading as they choose strategies that support their comprehension (Afflerbach,
Young Cho, Kim, Elliker Crassas & Doyle, 2013).
Retrieved from google images

3. STUDENT COMPREHENSION
STRATEGIES
Schema
Students us schema while they
read to activate background
knowledge before, during and
after reading texts (Hollenbeck
& Saternus, 2013). Students use
prior knowledge and connect it
to new information to make
sense and understand what they
read (Harvey & Goudvis, 2013).
Questioning
Students learn to use
questioning to formulate
questions about the text before
reading to set the purpose for
reading. Students stop to think
of questions while they read
and after they finish reading, to
support their comprehension of
the text (Hollenbeck & Saternus,
2013).
Inferring
Students use prior knowledge
and schema along with
information in the text to infer
and develop new ideas or
conclusions about the
characters or text (Hollenbeck &
Saternus, 2013).
Retrieved from google images

4. INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES
Read Alouds
Students benefit from teacher read-
alouds of a variety of literary genres
(Hiebert & Pearson, 2013). Students
are engaged in the text and learn
new vocabulary words as the
teacher pauses to explain unfamiliar
words and models other
comprehension strategies. Student
discussions after reading supports
their comprehension and vocabulary
development (Reutzel & Cooter,
2016).
Graphic Organizers
-Reutzel and Cooter (2016) define
graphic organizers as visual
representations of key story elements
and the interrelationships among these
parts.
-Graphic organizers are used in
comprehension instruction to facilitate
the growth of students’ independent
comprehension strategies. The use of
graphic organizers also encourages
students to independently make meaning
of the text they are reading (Hollenbeck
& Saternus, 2013).
-Examples of graphic organizers include:
Venn diagrams, literature webs, KWL
charts, and story maps (Reutzel & Cooter,
2016)
Word Walls
Teachers should create Word Walls to
post high frequency words or new
vocabulary words. The word wall should
be placed where students can easily see
it as they read and write (Reutzel &
Cooter, 2016).
Retrieved from google images

5. Transitional, Intermediate and Advanced Literacy Learners
According to the Key Components of Literacy Transitional, Intermediate and
Advanced Literacy Learners benefit from direct explicit vocabulary instruction.
Students are reading a variety of genres independently and their comprehension
is developing. Reading comprehension becomes a more complex process and
students are required to make connection to and between texts. Students are
begin to think about the meaning of texts on deeper levels than before (Laureate
Education, 2014).
COMMON CORE STANDARDS FROM GRADE 4 AND 5 THAT ALIGN WITH COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTION FOR TRANSITIONAL, INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED
LITERACY LEARNERS:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on
others' ideas and expressing their own clearly
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.5.4.A
Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.4.4.C
Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
Common core state standards initiative. (2012b). English language arts standards: Reading:
Foundational skills: Kindergarten. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/K Retrieved from google images

6. STUDENT COMPREHENSION
Cognitive Aspects Affective Aspects
Other aspects such as student engagement,
motivation, and self efficacy influence reading
instruction and affect student comprehension
(Afflerback et al., 2013).
Metacognition plays a crucial role in
comprehension development. As students
become aware and monitor the process of
comprehension they become more successful
skilled readers (Anastasiou & Griva, 2009).
Cognitive skills such as phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency, and
vocabulary influence comprehension and
are important elements of reading
development. These cognitive elements
are often assessed to determine a
student’s reading development and
success (Afflerbach et al., 2013).

7. AQUIRING NEW VOCABULARY
THROUGH BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
LESSON GRADES 3-5
Objectives:
- SWBAT develop new strategies to enhance reading comprehension.
- SWBAT locate unfamiliar words in a story and determine their meaning using a variety of
strategies (prior knowledge, context clues, group discussion, media sources).
Overview:
-Teacher reads passage from Pink and Say
-Teacher models how to chose a challenging vocabulary word: erratically and models how to
find the definition and synonyms from dictionary.com and thesaurus.com
-Small groups with students who have the roles of Vocabulary Enricher, Literary Luminary,
Connector, Discussion Director and Summarizer discuss unknown words in the passage they
read and find the definition and synonyms using the media sources.
International Reading Association (IRA) and National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE),
2014).

8. COMPREHENSION STRATEGY VS.
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY
Comprehension strategy students used in the lesson:
Students in the lesson used metacognition to monitor themselves as they read the
passage to identify unfamiliar words (Hollenbeck & Saternus, 2013). Students used
their schema and media source to find the meaning (definition) of the word to help
them understand the story better. Students also engaged in discussions to connect
prior knowledge to the new vocabulary word and the context in which it was used in
the passage (IRA and NCTE, 2014a).
Instructional Strategy used by Teacher:
The teacher demonstrated and modeled how to stop at unfamiliar words through a
read aloud. She explicitly modeled how to find the definition and synonyms of the
word erratically through media sources. She then reread the sentence showing her
new understanding.

9. COMPREHENSION IN THE
CLASSROOM
Comprehension Strategies
• Students make inferences about characters through
information in the text and schema and find evidence
from the text to support inferences.
• Students ask questions before reading, during and
after reading
• Students use graphic organizers to organize and
remember what they read in the text (Laureate
Education, 2014g).
• Students monitor comprehension through regulating,
checking for understanding, and repairing while
reading by rereading, changing reading rate, or going
back into the text (Laureate Education, 2014i).
Instructional strategies
• Read Alouds
• Explicit modeling of comprehension strategies.
• Explicit vocabulary instruction
• Use of graphic organizers to model comprehension
strategies and metacognition.
• Word Walls in the classroom to display new and
challenging vocabulary.
• Picture walk/previewing text
• Think/pair/share collaborative student discussions
(Reutzel & Cooter, 2016)

10. 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.
Anastasiou, D. & Griva, E. (2009). Awareness of reading strategy use and reading comprehension among poor and good readers. IIkogretim online. 8(2). 283-297.
Common core state standards initiative. (2012b). English language arts standards: Reading:
Foundational skills: Kindergarten. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/K
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2013). Comprehension at the core. The reading teacher. 66(6) 432-439. doi:10.1002/TRTR.1145
Hiebert, E. H., & Pearson, P. D. (2013). What happens to the basics? Educational Leadership, 70(4), 48–53.
Hollenbeck, A. F., & Saternus, K. (2013). Mind the comprehension iceberg: Avoiding titanic mistakes with the CCSS. The Reading Teacher, 66(7), 558–568.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
International Reading Association (IRA) and National Council of Teachers of English(NCTE). (2014a).ReadWriteThink. Retrieved
from http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?grade=13&resource_type=6&learning_objective=8
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2014g). Conversations with Ray Reutzel: Supporting comprehension [Audio file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2014i). Metacognition: Thinking about thinking [Multimedia file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B., Jr. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction in an era of common core standards: Helping every child succeed (5th
ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Wren, S., Litke, B., Jinkins, D., Paynter, S., Watts, J., & Alanis, Iilana (2000). Cognitive foundations of learning to read: A framework. SEDL. Retrieved from
http://www.sedl.org/reading/framework/