What is Comprehension?
Constructing meaning is the main goal of comprehension. Students should be able to:
-Enhance their understanding
-Acquire and use their knowledge
-Monitor their understanding
-Develop insight (Goudvis & Harvey, 2009).
True comprehension goes beyond literal understanding and involves the reader’s interaction with the text. In order for students to become thoughtful, insightful readers, they must extend their thinking beyond a superficial understanding of the text (Goudvis & Harvey, 2009).
Readers should think not only about what they are reading but what they are learning. When readers construct meaning they are building their background knowledge which aids in the use of new meaning (Goudvis & Harvey, 2009).
“Constructing meaning” refers to building knowledge and promoting understanding. Readers need to make the meaning. Our students need to be transformed by great literature and be given opportunities to explore their passions, interests and questions to comprehend (Goudvis & Harvey, 2009).
-Enhance their understanding
-Acquire and use their knowledge
-Monitor their understanding
-Develop insight (Goudvis & Harvey, 2009).
True comprehension goes beyond literal understanding and involves the reader’s interaction with the text. In order for students to become thoughtful, insightful readers, they must extend their thinking beyond a superficial understanding of the text (Goudvis & Harvey, 2009).
Readers should think not only about what they are reading but what they are learning. When readers construct meaning they are building their background knowledge which aids in the use of new meaning (Goudvis & Harvey, 2009).
“Constructing meaning” refers to building knowledge and promoting understanding. Readers need to make the meaning. Our students need to be transformed by great literature and be given opportunities to explore their passions, interests and questions to comprehend (Goudvis & Harvey, 2009).
This article, by Laura S. Fardo, explains what every teacher should know about comprehension.
Why is Comprehension Important?
Without comprehension, reading would simply be decoding words on a page from left to right while sounding them out. The goal of reading is to derive meaning, then to make use of that information. This could be for fact gathering, learning a new skill or for pleasure (K12 Reader.com, 2012).
This "K-12 Readers" contains reading instruction resources for teachers and parents. It has a reading comprehension guide with strategies and worksheets.
The "Balanced Literacy Diet" shares reading comprehension strategies. This website gives an overview of comprehension strategies, it shares how to teach comprehension strategies and then how to assess the reading comprehension strategies.
This website also shares over 70 reading comprehension strategy examples. There are quite a few videos and print-outs that will be a helpful resource.
This website also shares over 70 reading comprehension strategy examples. There are quite a few videos and print-outs that will be a helpful resource.