The pinnacle component of reading is comprehension. Without it, the rest of reading is pointless. We instruct reading through a series of lessons. Each lesson is meant to teach the reader how to use one of many comprehension strategies. The goal is for the student to have 3 or 4 strategies that they know really well and can use interchangeably to get meaning out of the text.
Listed below are some common comprehension strategies:
- Summarizing
- Visualizing
- Developing Background Knowledge
- Inferring
- Asking Questions
- Predicting
- Synthesizing
Teaching these strategies involves instructing the students in
- Declarative Knowledge - What the strategy means in student-friendly terms
- Conditional Knowledge - When the strategy should be used
- Procedural Knowledge - What you do before, during, and after reading with this strategy
The tricky part is to help the students to use these strategies interchangeably whenever they read. Even this takes direct instruction. Students are given teacher-chosen passages that have clues for the student to determine a strategy to use. The teacher then has them use that strategy until another strategy may seem more useful. The reader then uses a different strategy to make meaning. With guided practice and scaffolding, the reader becomes more and more able to tackle difficult passages by themselves, using the comprehension strategies in their toolbox.
I enjoy reading your blog. My passion the last few years has been reading instruction. It is an essential life skill. And, you are exactly right, "The pinnacle component of reading is comprehension." I know many teachers understand that statement, but I believe not many teachers know how to teach reading comprehension effectively. I liked your three step approach: teaching what the strategy means, when it should be used, and what to do before, during, and after reading with this strategy.
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