Reading Comprehension

5 Steps in Reading Comprehension
Read the passage Strategically
Determine the type of Question
Research the text in passage
Make a prediction
Evaluate Answer Choices

Strategic Passage Details
Topic
Scope
Purpose
Main Idea of each paragraph
Any opinions offered
Definition of specialized terms
Key examples

Keywords - Emphasis
Strong Adjectives or Adverbs that highlight the authors opinion. (very, clearly, important)

Keywords - Contrast
But, yet, however indicate a significant conflict, disagreement, or change in thinking.

Keywords - Opinion
Beneficial or dead-end.
provide emphasis on a negative or positive

Keywords - Continuation
Words that indicate more of the same line of reasoning;
Moreover, furthermore, also and in addition to

keywords - illustration
For instance , for example.

Sequence/Grouping
Key Words outline how events or characteristics are related

Global Questions
• Identify the question type: 'Main idea', 'Purpose', 'Organization'
• Task: Think big picture
• You should be able to predict an answer to most Global questions
• Do global questions first
• Global questions are usually the first and next to last questions
Eliminate answers that reflect only part of the passage or supporting ideas other than the main idea

Detail Questions
• Identify the question type: 'According to the author', 'The passage states', 'the author mentions'
• Task: Research the relevant text to find the appropriate answer
Correct answers: will be close paraphrases to the text
Incorrect answers: will distort what the author actually said about the matter in the passage

Inference Questions
• Identify the question type: 'the author implies', 'the passage suggests', 'likely to agree'
• Task: Read between the lines, Perhaps combine statements, Identify what must follow from the passage
It's a statement that must be true if everything in the stimulus is true.
• Inference questions require you to paraphrase the relevant text or make a deduction
• Common wrong answer choices; 180, faulty use of detail, extreme, out of scope
• The correct answer to an inference question doesn't require any information that isn't included in the passage

Logic Questions
These type of questions ask why the author included a certain word,phrase, or statement.
Language to look for ' in order to' or 'primarily serves'
Typically include line references or quotes from the passage.
Read before the mentioned line in the question and after the mentioned line to answer the questions

Reasoning Questions
Questions that ask the reader to analyze an author's reasoning in an argument. Identify an arguments assumption

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Reading Comprehension (for teachers)

Six Comprehension Instruction Strategies
- Monitoring
- Using Graphic and Semantic Organizers
- Answering Questions
- Generating Questions
- Recognizing Story Structure
- Summarizing

Students Monitoring Themselves
There are several comprehension monitoring strategies:
- Identify where the difficulty occurs
- Identify what the difficulty is
- Restate the difficult sentence or passage in their own - words
- Look back through the text
- Look forward in the text for information that might help them resolve the difficulty

Metacognition
'Thinking About Thinking' Pre-reading: Clarify their purpose for Reading. During Reading: Monitor understanding, adjust reading speed as needed, 'fix up' any comprehension problems

Graphic Organizers
Illustrate concepts and interrelationships among concepts in a text, using diagrams or other pictorial devices. (maps, webs, graphs, frames, charts, or clusters)

Semantic Organizers
Graphic organizers that look somewhat like a spider web - lines connect a central concept to a variety of related ideas or events.

Graphic Organizers can .....
- help students focus on text structure as they read
- provide students with tools they can use to examine and visually represent relationships in a text
- help students write well-organized summaries of text

Effective Questions....
- give students a purpose for reading
- focus students' attention on what they are to learn
- help students think actively as they read
- encourage students to monitor their comprehension
- help students to review content and relate what they have learned to what they already know

Types of Questions
Text Explicit - stated explicitly in one sentence in the text
Text Implicit - implied by information presented in 2 or more sentences
Scriptal - not found in the test at all, but part of the reader's prior knowledge or experience

Students Generating Questions
Generating their own questions improves active processing. It is a way for them to check their understanding of text.

Recognizing Story Structure
Refers to the way the content and events of a story are organized into a plot. Students learn to identify the categories of content (setting, initiating events, internal reactions, goals, attempts, and outcomes) and how it is all organized into a plot. Story Maps are useful.

Summarizing
Synthesis of important ideas in a text. Students can:
- identify or generate main ideas
- connect the main or central ideas
- eliminate redundant or unnecessary information
- remember what they read

Effective Comprehension Instruction Strategies
Are Explicit or Direct.

Steps of Explicit Instruction
- Direct Explanation
- Modeling 'Thinking Aloud'
- Guided Practice
- Application (helps student practice the strategy)

Effective Comprehension Strategy Instruction can also be accomplished through ....
Cooperative Learning (Collaborative Learning)
as partners or small groups

Multiple Strategy Instruction
Flexibly using multiple strategies assists with comprehension

Reciprocal Teaching
Example of Multi-strategy instruction.
Teachers and students work together to learn 4 comprehension strategies:

1.) asking questions about the text they are reading

2.) summarizing parts of the text

3.) clarifying words and sentences they don't understand

4.) predicting what might occur next in the text

When should text comprehension instruction begin?
From the beginning. It develops over time and is not static.

Has research identifies comprehension strategies other than the 6 outlined here?
Yes. (the 6 strategies have the strongest support)
Making use of prior knowledge and Using Mental Imagery also have some research to support

Text Comprehension is Important Because.....
Comprehension is the reason for reading
It is purposeful and active
It can be developed by teaching strategies through explicit instruction, cooperative learning, and by helping readers use strategies flexibly and in combination