PROMOTING COMPREHENSIO

N:READER

FACTORSCHAPTER 7

EDMI 422: Middle School Literacy

COMPREHENSION INVOLVES… 4 Levels of thinking:

Literal Inferential CriticalEvaluative

With your neighbor, describe the difference between them.

COMPREHENSION INVOLVES… 4 Levels of thinking:

Literal The most basic level of comprehension…answers to

“right there” questions Inferential

Reading “between the lines” Prior knowledge + information from the passage

Critical Being able to recognize the author’s purpose and

tone Distinguish fact/opinion…draw conclusions

Evaluative Students understand fact, opinion, bias,

assumptions, and elements of persuasion, and can evaluate the quality and validity of written material. Students can compare works, evaluate conclusions, and apply what is learned to real life experiences.

COMPREHENSION IS DEPENDENT UPON THE INTERACTION OF READER FACTORS AND TEXT FACTORS.

Reader FactorsBackground KnowledgeVocabularyFluencyComprehension Strategies/Skills

Motivation/Engagement

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE Having adequate background knowledge is

a prerequisite and builds a bridge to new text

Teachers use prereading activities to help build students’ background knowledge

Teachers provide experiences and information to develop their schema Visual representations (photos, graphs, charts,

videos, books, websites, etc.) Talk (least effective…especially for ELL students) Field trips Dramatizations Artifacts

VOCABULARY The knowledge of words plays a

tremendous role in comprehension…it is difficult to understand a text that is loaded with unfamiliar words

Teachers need to create a word-rich environment to immerse students in words

Teachers need to demonstrate word-learning strategies to figure out the meanings of unknown words

FLUENCY Fluent readers read fluently Attention is spent on comprehension, not

decoding unfamiliar words Teachers demonstrate word-identification

strategies, do repeated readings, and provide students with books at their instructional level

When reading grade-level texts that are too difficult for struggling readers, they are read aloud so that everyone can comprehend and participate in the related activities

COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES

Students use these strategies to comprehend texts they are reading:Refer to text on p. 182 for descriptions of these strategies… p. 191 gives examples for teaching these strategies

Activate Background Knowledge

Predict

Connect Question

Determine importance

Repair

Draw inferences

Set a purpose

Evaluate Summarize

Monitor Visualize

READERS MAKE CONNECTIONS

Readers make 3 types of connections between the text and their background knowledge:

Text-to-SelfReaders link ideas in the text to their own

lives.Text-to-World

Readers relate a text to their “world” knowledge.

Text-to-TextReaders link the text to another text they

have read.

Chapter 7

MOTIVATION: THE TEACHER’S ROLE

AttitudeTeachers show excitement.

CommunityTeachers create nurturing

communities. Instruction

Teachers plan authentic activities.

RewardsTeachers offer positive feedback.

Chapter 7

MOTIVATION: THE STUDENT’S ROLEExpectations

Students who feel they have little hope for success are unlikely to be engaged in literacy activities.

CollaborationStudents are often more engaged when working with peers.

Reading and Writing CompetenceStudents who read well are more likely to be motivated to read.

ChoiceStudents want to select their own books and writing topics.

Chapter 7