Reading and Reading comprehension
It is important to clarify that when we are talking about construction of meaning
we are talking about reading comprehension. In relation to this more specific term
Rudell, defines reading comprehension as “a process in which the reader
constructs meaning while, or after, interacting with text through the combination of
prior knowledge and previous experience, information in text, the stance he or she
takes in relationship to the text, and immediate remembered or anticipated social
interactions and communication” (Rudell, 1993, p.) in addition Goodman also
states that, comprehending is “the process of making sense of written language”
comprehension “is the resulting meaning” (Goodman, 1996, p109). Thus, when I
am saying that this research experience was made with the purpose of getting
more understanding on students’ reading comprehension processes to identify
what was causing their poor performance at reading tasks, I am saying that I
wanted to understand better my students’ processes when making sense of
different kind of texts, to ameliorate their resulting meanings (performance at
comprehension tasks).
I consider that the clearer it is for teachers the process students go through
when building meaning, the easiest it will be for them to implement reading
instructional practices that promotes autonomous readers. The teacher does not
need advice, but understanding of the particular children they have, what they are
finding easy and difficult, and understanding of reading and how children must
learn to read Smith (1997). In this train of thought, Peña (2009) supports these
statements with her study on the understanding of the process of construction of
meaning of her 42 eight graders at a public school in Bogotá, Colombia.
As she considers reading as a powerful Socio – Cultural and intellectual
activity, her study addressed the question how do readers construct meaning of
written texts when working in small groups? Considering the large classes that
public teachers must handle at public schools (42 students), group work is a good
strategy used for teachers to master the class. Hence, she observed students
interactions during group reading tasks, she gathered data through audio
recordings, conferences and field notes and she described the way how students
build meaning through their interaction among them and with the texts. Therefore,
it is observable how the process of construction of meaning is not the same for all
of the settings and it is mandatory for teacher then, to start by understanding how it
works for their particular students. The results of the study showed that meaning
does not only depend on the reader and the text but also the interactions among
individuals and their context. Peña concluded that the construction of meaning is a
social phenomenon rather than an individual mental exercise and that students’
background plays a very important role that can take readers to work on various
draft meanings before they come up with a final version.
Furthermore, Peña’s study based on her particular group of students invites us
to integrate speaking tasks to support pupils in their reading comprehension
process, and advises us also to build meaning using students’ lifestyles’, nets and
contexts, raising their cultural awareness contrasting theirs with others. Although,
findings are relevant mainly in context like hers, we could use them as a way to
explore and find what work for our students in terms of reading comprehension.
Something that calls my attention also from her research experience was her
assertion that “We urge a renewed conception of reading for the reader not for the
tester. We need to generate reading environments that contribute to individual and
social growth” (Peña, 2009, p.23). In schools, sometimes we give too much
importance to students’ results and scores, but in the long run what matters is what
we can help students achieve by themselves towards understanding, rather than
giving them a temporary training with short term results. Moreover if students are
actively involved in teachers’ interventions, we may see improvement on
performance as a partial consequence of it.
As I mention before, I read several studies in the field of reading and reading
comprehension to clarify my thoughts about my specific group of third graders. I
found among some others, another very useful study. This time, and with the
purpose of providing insights into the specific nature of the literacy practices, the
texts used and the particular ways in which the teachers and learners made sense
of these texts, Valencia (2006) examined how the students in two public secondary
schools in Colombia were learning to read in English and what the teaches
understand by doing “reading” and ‘”reading comprehension”.
The researcher observed and audio recorded four English lessons with tenth
graders in the first public school, and eighth graders in the second one. She also
conducted some semi structured interviews with the teachers and the schools’
coordinators. Valencia found that reading in these literacy practices were activities
focused on vocabulary, translation and grammar. Students learnt to read words
and phrases identifying grammar structures and translating lexical items. Even
academic coordinators considered that students needed to develop this skill for
instrumental purposes in higher education, and especially for passing the ICFES
exam. Due to the fact that in public schools students cannot afford books teachers
adapted texts from North American publications for students and then they gave
them photocopies. The relevance of this study is the conclusion the researcher
came at. She stated that the implementation of more pedagogical innovations in
public schools was necessary and also that teachers should be provided with
opportunities to reflect on the immediate teaching / learning context in their schools
and on their relation with the wider policy context.
Once more we can see, how important it is to observe and find out which are
our students’ needs to plan accordingly. Teachers in these two schools based
reading practices on vocabulary and grammar issues rather than on students’
construction of meaning. They were focused on the ICFES exam but they were not
training students to make sense of the texts beyond recognizing vocabulary and
grammar structures. Unfortunately the study does not show how students were
building meaning through translation, vocabulary and grammar and it did not show
any intervention done afterwards either.
As I been mentioning understanding on where our students are at in regards
reading comprehension should help teachers to modify and implement teaching
practices that support and guide students to overcome their lacks in learning.
Otherwise, this new understanding would not have any purpose. This help or
support offered by the teacher to assists students in their learning process is
known in teaching as scaffolding.