Comprehension for All
By Diane Snowball

To read Diane Snowball's reading recommendations click here

If a student can read words but doesn't comprehend their meaning, is he or she really reading? The answer is no. Therefore, teaching and learning about comprehension is of paramount importance, from the very beginning of reading instruction and right through all years of school, in all curriculum areas.

The good news is that various researchers have identified the six main comprehension strategies that should be taught at all grade levels:

1. Predicting/prior knowledge use
2. Answering and forming questions
3. Thinking aloud about reading
4. Using text structures and features
5. Visualizing and creating visual representations
6. Summarizing

If you focus on learning to teach these strategies, your students will become proficient users of them, learning with early reading material and advancing to more sophisticated texts.

Strategy teaching and learning. Although comprehension strategies may be learned informally to some extent, your instruction should include:

• Explaining the purpose of the instruction
• Specifically describing the strategy plus how and when it is helpful for reading
• Demonstrating use of the strategy in authentic reading situations
• Thinking aloud about strategy use as you read (but not every time you read)
• Encouraging your students to collaboratively use the strategy with you and with each other
• Asking your students to explain how they are processing texts
• Guiding your students' practice of the strategy in small groups and individually
• Emphasizing that different strategies may be used in different situations
• Integrating the use of different strategies and explaining why, how and when
• Relating the strategy to your students' independent reading
• Providing many opportunities for your students to use all comprehension strategies independently, across all curriculum areas and with a range of texts

Integrating strategies. Although such instruction may focus on only one strategy, you will find that the use of other strategies will naturally occur at the same time. Have discussions about what is occurring to figure out the meaning, even though the focus will be helping your students to use each strategy automatically as they read.

SAILing away. You might like to try a routine called SAIL (Students Achieving Independent Learning). Students are not only encouraged to articulate what the strategies are and how to use them (metacognition), they are also able to discuss with each other when it's most appropriate to use or not use particular strategies and why.

There's no particular order for strategies to be used in the SAIL routine. You'll need to frequently model such thinking processes with various texts for your students to know that this is what competent readers do. You'll also want to provide many opportunities for small-group discussion, where students talk to each other about their reading, and encourage individual think-aloud during independent reading times. Several studies show that students who verbalize their strategies while reading score significantly higher on comprehension tests.

Reciprocal teaching. You might prefer to begin with a more formalized, small-group routine called Reciprocal Teaching, with the strategies of:

• Predicting – Using information such as the title, based on prior knowledge and experiences (prediction should be confirmed or revised based on what is read)
• Questioning – Asking questions that naturally arise through reading the text
• Clarifying – Checking the meaning of words, terms, phrases and sections in the text
• Summarizing – Establishing the most important ideas and restating them (this is different from retelling, which is restating all that's occurred.)

The cycle is continued with prediction being influenced by what has been read so far. When first introducing this routine, work with a group of your students while others gather around you to observe and listen. You may lead the discussion, asking students to predict, then question, clarify and summarize. Eventually your major function will be to listen to a group as they engage with a text, using this routine to provide feedback about their strategy area, suggesting ways to improve when necessary.

Comprehension can improve dramatically after about 20 sessions of properly conducted Reciprocal Teaching. This applies particularly to the most struggling readers, so it's worth the investment to teach this routine to your students.

Comprehending independently. Regardless of the age of your students and whether you've been focusing on one strategy or integrating several, make sure your students know that they need to use the strategies when reading independently. Ask questions and make comments like: "How would you use this strategy in your own reading?" "Don't forget to predict and confirm before and during your reading today."

Decoding, vocabulary, fluency and world knowledge. Of course it is not sufficient to only focus on comprehension, because other factors influence the understanding of what is being read. Here are some points to consider:

• Your students can't understand texts if they can't read the words, so be sure they have material at their independent reading level to learn and practice comprehension strategies.
• Being able to sound out a word does not guarantee that the word is understood as the child reads.
• When words are learned to the point of being automatically recognized, word recognition consumes little cognitive capacity, leaving more for understanding what's being read.
• When vocabulary is taught in a thorough fashion, your students' comprehension improves.

Vocabulary knowledge develops through extensive reading of texts rich in new words. Involve your students in a word-rich environment, engage them in fun word activities and do some explicit teaching of vocabulary as required during reading.

Comprehension instruction. Research has shown that comprehension instruction can improve the reading comprehension of all readers, even beginning readers and struggling older readers. It will help your students to understand, remember and communicate with others about what they read. Most importantly, it will help your students want to read more!

To read Diane Snowball's reading recommendations click here

Diane Snowball is a literary consultant and author, and the President of the professional development company Australian and United States Services in Education (A.U.S.S.I.E.).

May, 2006, Vol.36, No.8