Comprehension @ the Station

      Reading is the skill but comprehension is the purpose! We read in order to comprehend. It is not enough to teach our students to read the specific words of a text fluently and without error, but the real goal should be placed on our students' overall comprehension of a text. Tonight I learned a lot about comprehension in my Integrated Literacy class. I learned that effective readers:

• Are active (they are engaged, thinking, and questioning the text)
• Place goals for reading 
• Look at a text prior to reading to identify structure and make predictions
• Think about prior knowledge and how it connects with the text
• Monitor how well they understand a text and make necessary adjustments 
• Think about the author and their purpose for writing a text
• React to and connect the text to their own lives.

     Students do all of these things THROUGH comprehension strategies. There are 8 Comprehension Strategies that students need to become skillful at in order to comprehend and cognitively think about a section of text. The strategies are:

1. Predicting
2. Questioning
3. Visualizing
4. Connecting
5. Monitoring
6. Summarizing
7. Inferring
8. Using Text Structure 

      As teachers, we need to know the important details that will help us effectively implement these strategies into our students' curriculum. I heard some great feedback from a bunch of my fellow classmates tonight that I want to share with whoever is interested.

1. Predicting -Formulating a guess about what a story might be about, as well as the predictions of important events or endings that might take place. Prediction can be done individually or in small and large group settings. Students should ask questions, make charts, or write predictions down on sticky notes throughout the book. Prediction should take place before reading and during reading.
2. Questioning - Asking questions about a text while reading. Students can clarify misunderstandings as they become engaged in a text. They can evaluate and reflect after they read. Have students brainstorm!
3. Visualizing - Creating mental images of a text during reading. Students can stop throughout their reading to close their eyes and create or draw a mental or artistic image of what they have read. 
4. Connecting - Making connections and discovering the meaning of a text. As teachers, we should model connections by giving students examples of text-to-text connections, text-to-self connections, and text-to-world connections. Reading logs provide students opportunities to think and reflect on how the text relates to their own life or prior knowledge.
5. Monitoring - Keeping track of text understanding during reading. Thinking out loud or silently about the purpose, structure, and meaning of a text will aid in student comprehension of a text. We can model how to monitor our comprehension through mini lessons. This skill can be used individually or in small and large group settings.
6. Summarizing - Picking out the most important "big ideas" of a text. As a large group, have students vocally summarize a text, or if they are working independently, have them complete a concept map to summarize the text. This skill should be done at the end of reading or used to help students remember what they may have read the day before.
7. Inferring - "Reading between the lines." Students can activate their background knowledge and connect what they know to the purpose or theme of the text they are reading. Ask students questions during and after reading to help them make connections and link prior knowledge to new knowledge gained from their reading. 
8. Using Text Structure - Coming Soon...

     Now that we have named the strategies we can use to aid in our students' comprehension, it is important to understand how to implement effective questioning to check for text understanding. Comprehension is either behavioral or cognitive:

      Behavioral - Students answer questions about the text by reading.

      Cognitive - Students connect prior knowledge about the topic to new information read.in the text.

There are two types of questions we can ask our students to assess their comprehension of a text:

      Literal Questions - Students repeat answers straight from the text.

      Higher-Order Questions - Students infer from their text about what they already know.

We should question students through:

1. Main Idea Questions - Summarize/describe what a text is about.
2. Detail Questions - Identify small details within a text.
3. Cause and Effect Questions - See the relationship of how one thing will make another thing occur. 
4. Sequence Questions - Recall events in order of when they were seen within the text.
5. Inference Questions - Provide logical answers based on evidence within the text. 

      When assessing students' comprehension of a text, it is important to use the proper questions based on their ages, abilities, and what is expected of them academically. :)