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READING

COMPREHENSION:
CONCEPTS & STRATEGIES
Questions:

1. What is the passage about?
2. What processes did you engage in
before reading? While reading?
After reading?
3. What reading comprehension skills
did you use?
4. What strategy did you use to come
up with the answer?
5. When did comprehension occur?
6. What is comprehension?



COMPREHENSION is

..an active process

..a complex process involving knowledge,
experience, thinking and teaching

..an interactive process

COMPREHENSION is


..an integrative process


..a constructive process


an affective process


COMPREHENSION is


..is the thinking we do when we read
(cognitive)


..is the grasping of understanding using
the intellect (dictionary definition)


..is the process of constructing meaning
from text involving the reader and the
writer



is the ultimate goal
of READING.
Without
comprehension,
there is no reading.
FACTORS THAT AFFECT
READING COMPREHENSION
THE READER


Script knowledge

Knowledge about language

Knowledge of text structure

Pragmatic system


Graphophonic
language cues
Pragmatic
language cues
Syntactic
language
cues
Semantic
Language
cues
M
E
A
N
I
N
G
Sampling
Integrating
Confirming
Predicting
A Language-based Model of the Reading Process
FACTORS THAT AFFECT
READING COMPREHENSION
THE TEXT


Text Structure
its genre, vocabulary, language, even the
specific word choices

How well text is written

Content, difficulty or readability

Authors intent

FACTORS THAT AFFECT
READING COMPREHENSION
THE CONTEXT


Purpose
- reading a text for a specific reason.

Setting
- teacher creates the learning opportunities to
support the construction of meaning.
CONTEXT
READER
TEXT
Constructing meaning
happens here
Background Experience
Knowledge about subject
Vocabulary
Attitudes and motivation

Type/Organization
Content
Readability
Concepts
Authors purpose
FIGURE 2: Interactive Model of Reading Comprehension
Adapted from Cook, 1986, 1989
Reading
Situation
Setting
Task
Environment
Physical
Factors

Learning how a
reader learns!


The SCHEMA THEORY

Is basically a theory about
knowledge. It is a theory about
how knowledge is represented
and about how that
representation facilitates the
use of the knowledge in
particular ways. (Rumelhart,
1980)





The SCHEMA THEORY

A schema is defined as the
building block of cognition
or knowledge.



The SCHEMA THEORY and READING

Schema Theory postulates that a
spoken word or written text
does not in itself carry
meaning. Instead, meaning is
created by using previously
acquired knowledge or schema.


Readers Schema

1. Script Knowledge
knowledge and beliefs
about the world
derived from repeated
experiences with
people, places,
events, situations in
day-to-day living
2. Linguistic Knowledge
graphophonic,
syntactic, semantic,
pragmatic
3. Knowledge of text
structure text
cohesion, general text
structures and types
Texts Schema

1. Content Information
subject
matter/concepts,
theme
2. Linguistic Features
spelling patterns,
language structure,
vocabulary, language
functions
3. Cohesive Devices and
general text
structures story
grammar (narratives),
top-level structure
(exposition)
Comprehension as a result of interaction between
readers and texts schema
Activity 3: Read the passage and try to guess what it is all about.
Rocky slowly got up from the mat, planning his escape. He
hesitated a moment and thought. Things were not going
well. What bothered him most was being held, especially
since the charges against him had been weak. He
considered his present situation. The lock that held him was
strong but he thought he could break it. He knew, however,
that his timing would have to be perfect. Rocky was aware
that it was because of his early roughness that he had been
penalized so severely much too severely from his point of
view. The situation was becoming frustrating; the pressure
had been grinding on him for too long? He was being ridden
unmercifully. Rocky was getting angry now. He felt that he
was ready to make his move. He knew that his success or
failure would depend on what he did in the next few
seconds. (Anderson, 1977, in Vacca&Vacca, 1986)
Questions:

1. What is the passage about?
2. Does every sentence in the
passage confirm your
interpretation?
3. What details seem to disprove your
interpretation, if any?
4. What other interpretations of the
passage can you think of?

The SCHEMATA and HOW WE
UNDERSTAND TEXT

1. What is meant by finding the goodness-of-
fit of a readers interpretation of a text?

2. Why do different readers give different
interpretations to the same text?

3. Why do some readers fail to understand the
text?

Evaluating the GOODNESS-OF-FIT of
schema in the text

As we read the text, clues from the
story suggest possible
interpretations that are then
evaluated against the successive
sentences of the story until finally
a consistent interpretation is
discovered.

Why do different readers give
different interpretations to
the same text?

Differences in interpretation
obviously result from
differences in readers
experiences.

SCHEMATA and the FAILURE
TO UNDERSTAND

There are usually four (4)
reasons why readers fail to
understand the text:

1. The reader may not have
the appropriate schema.
SCHEMATA and the FAILURE
TO UNDERSTAND

2. The reader may have the
appropriate schema, but the
clues provided by the author
may be insufficient to
suggest them.
SCHEMATA and the FAILURE
TO UNDERSTAND

3. The reader may find a
consistent interpretation of
the text, but may not find
the one intended by the
author.
SCHEMATA and the FAILURE
TO UNDERSTAND

4. The reader may be unable
to maintain a schema
during reading, getting
easily distracted by details
and forgetting the overall
context of the passage.
LEVELS OF READING
COMPREHENSION

1. LITERAL COMPREHENSION
Reading the lines.

WORD RECOGNITION is crucial
here because even literal
comprehension cannot occur if the
reader does not recognize the
words in the text.

LEVELS OF READING
COMPREHENSION

2. INTERPRETATION Reading
between the lines.

The specific skill of reading
between the lines is what we
mean when we teach the skill
of inference.

LEVELS OF READING
COMPREHENSION

3. EVALUATION (CRITICAL
READING).

LEVELS OF READING
COMPREHENSION

4. INTEGRATION (APPLICATION
TO SELF AND LIFE) Reading
beyond the lines.

5. CREATIVE READING




What is the value of teaching
reading through the
different levels of
comprehension?


What are the comprehension skills needed
in the reading process?
summarizing
predicting
sequencing
of events
inferencing
getting the
main idea
noting details

What are comprehension
strategies crucial in the
reading process?

1. MONITORING

2. GENERATING QUESTIONS
How do we teach
comprehension strategies?

1.EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION.

How?
- Direct Explanation
- Modeling
- Guided Practice
- Application
What are comprehension
strategies crucial in the
reading process?

3. RECOGNIZING STORY
STRUCTURE

4. SUMMARIZING

How do we teach
comprehension strategies?

1.COOPERATIVE LEARNING

How?
- Teacher will provide demonstration
lessons using the comprehension
strategies and have the pupils work in
small groups then monitor the progress
of each group.
How do we teach
comprehension strategies?

2. MULTIPLE STRATEGY
INSTRUCTION or reciprocal
teaching.
How?
- ask questions about the text they are reading
- summarizing parts of the text
- clarifying words and sentences they dont
understand
- predicting what might occur in the text
How does comprehension look like?

If your child begs you to keep reading, chances
are good she comprehends. If he laughs at the
funny parts and cries at the sad parts, most
likely shes making meaning. If she pulls out
books about the previous subject read, its a
very good sign that hes in the road of
understanding. If your child is engaged and
entertained by books and pleads to be read to,
most likely she gets it.

The positive change that you see in your readers
in terms of motivation and attitude towards
reading is the greatest factor that will lead
them to comprehension.
Activity:

Recall comprehension assessment
activities that you commonly use
during the reading activity.

Describe each activity.

Do these activities work or not?
Explain.

ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR READING
COMPREHENSION

INFORMAL READING INVENTORY
is an assessment device in which a
student reads a series of graded
selection that gradually increases in
difficulty. Each has two selections: one
is silent and the other is oral.


Four Levels of the IRI:

1. INDEPENDENT OR FREE READING
students can read on their own without
teacher assistance. Comprehension is 90% or
higher and word recognition is 99% or higher.

2. INSTRUCTIONAL
students need assistance because the
material contains too many unknown words or
concepts or their background experience is
insufficient. Comprehension is 75% - 89% and
word recognition is 95% - 98%.

Four Levels of the IRI:

3. FRUSTRATION
reading material is so difficult that the student
cant read it even with help. Comprehension is
50% or lower and word recognition is 90% or
lower.

4. NON-READER
students listen to the teacher reading and can
understand the material read to them with 75%
comprehension.


ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR READING
COMPREHENSION

RUNNING RECORD
is an assessment device in which a students
oral reading errors are noted and classified in
order to determine whether the material has
the appropriate level of difficulty and to see
which reading strategy the student is using.

ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR READING
COMPREHENSION

CLOZE PROCEDURE
Cloze refers to the psychological principle of closure, or the
human tendency to complete a familiar not-quite-finished
pattern.


OTHER METHODS OF ASSESSMENT

CRITERION-REFERENCED TESTS
Compares students performance with
the same standards or criterion.

PORTFOLIO
A collection of work samples, test
results, checklists or other data used to
assess a students reading performance.

OTHER METHODS OF ASSESSMENT

RETELLING
The process of summarizing or
describing a story that one has read.


THINKING ALOUD
Readers are asked to describe the
processes they are engaged in
throughout the reading process.
I wish I could persuade you
teachers to be proud of your
occupation - not conceited or
pompous - but proud , and
stop introducing yourselves
with the shameful remark ,I
am a just teacher, as if you
have the least liked job in the
world.
I am a
Teacher!
Did you ever hear a lawyer
say depreciatingly that he was
only a patent attorney?
Did you ever hear a physician
say I am just a brain
surgeon?
Did you ever hear a bank
manager say that he is only a
sad slave?
Answer? No, No, No!
My only wish is that you stop
belittling yourselves and stop
apologizing for being a member
of the most important
profession in the world.

The lawyers, the doctors, the
managers, even the
presidents, will not become
such personalities without
the teacher who taught them
everything they know, who
cuddled them and
encouraged them to become
what they are now.
Dear Teachers, start drawing
yourself up to your full height
because you possess the greatest job
in the world. Celebrate the gift that
God has entrusted to you.

Look at anybody squarely in the
eye and say, I AM A TEACHER,
and yes, I AM PROUD TO BE
A TEACHER!
Because as a TEACHER,
only YOU,
have the power to make
all your childrens dreams
come true!
Thanks everyone!

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