Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary

Engagement with the text (affecting comprehension)

A reader's ability to comprehend text can be influenced by his or her intrinsic motivation to read. A reader's engagement or involvement with text increases significantly when he or she is interested in what he or she is reading, is enthusiastic about reading, and expects to be successful in the reading task.

using reference materials to support word learning (vocabulary instruction)

A thesaurus is useful to find writers alternative word choices for overused words. However, if given the opportunity, readers can research an unknown word in a thesaurus and find a list or discussion of similar or related word meanings that will allow them to get a good sense of the new word's meaning.

use multimedia (vocabulary instruction)

Multimedia environments immerse students into interconnected pathways that provide more convenient access to word meanings and visual and interactive connections. Like wide reading, wisely chosen reading in technological environments can support independent word learning, especially if websites contextualize learning.

k-w-l charts (graphic organizers)

While many graphic organizers provide tools for students to review what they have read, the K-W-L (Ogle, 1986) chart is one graphic organizer that can be started in the before reading phase and completed in theafter reading phase. It is a three column chart that asks students to begin withWhat I Know about a topic (activating prior knowledge) and includes What I Want to Learn (setting up a purpose for reading). At the end of the reading, students complete the "What I Learned" column (summarizing) and adjust any items in the"What I Know" column to reflect initial misunderstandings that were cleared up through the text.

Recognize factors affecting reading comprehension

An understanding of the difference between reader factors and text factors and their effect on reading comprehension will be important.

using reference materials to support word learning (vocabulary instruction)

Applying the meaning of the word can also be challenging—for example, a sentence that says, "He wouldn't give a brass farthing for a ride in the hot air balloon." The dictionary is likely to define farthing as an old coin worth one quarter of a penny. Readers would need then to infer that in this idiomatic usage,brass farthing means 'not caring for something' (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2010).

Text structures (text factors) (affecting comprehension)

Each text genre has characteristic elements. Frequent exposure to various genres allows readers to become familiar with the characteristic elements of each and thus aid in their comprehension.

restructure reading materials (vocabulary instruction)

If students are having difficulty understanding the vocabulary in their reading materials, teachers can revise the reading and substitute simpler synonyms or otherwise simplify the text. This can be especially helpful for low-achieving or at-risk students.

comprehension instruction

Reading comprehension instruction is best accomplished through explicit teaching. Step-by-step comprehension instruction typically includes

Text features/visual representations (text factors) (affecting comprehension)

Authors organize their text in various ways to convey their messages or plan for specific features or visual elements to create a particular effect. Headings, charts and graphs, illustrations, glossaries, and indexes help readers navigate informational texts. Page layout and unconventional uses of capitalization and punctuation can distinguish poetic style and forms.

Evaluative comprehension

Evaluating text may mean distinguishing between fact and opinion and drawing conclusions about a text's meaning. Evaluating as a part of the comprehension process also requires students to detect faulty reasoning or bias, construct a personal opinion about the information in the text, and make personal connections to the text. During the evaluative reading process, readers judge the quality and validity of the written material and the effectiveness of the message.

location or setting (using context clues as a word learning strategy ) (word learning strategies)

For example: The roustabout strode about looking for the foreman of the construction site to see how long he expected to need help on the building project.

vocabulary knowledge

Multiple meanings and the nuances of those meanings

using context clues as a word learning strategy (word learning strategies)

New vocabulary words are often surrounded by other words that provide clues for knowing what the new word means. Students can learn how to review the context clues that help them know the meaning of the new word. For example, "The farrier made the donkey some shoes for his hoofs." The meaning of the word farrier can be determined by the words in the sentence that describe the farrier's job. Other types of information in sentences that can provide context clues include

expose students repeatedly to a new vocabulary (vocabulary instruction)

Teachers help students use new vocabulary across the curriculum. By providing multiple opportunities to use a new word in its written and spoken form, students more successfully integrate that word into their vocabulary.

Text genres (text factors) (affecting comprehension)

Texts may be literary or informational. Readers who are familiar with various kinds of literary or informational text genres expect and recognize particular textual elements when they encounter each kind of text.

Reading Factors (affecting comprehension)

The ability of a reader to understand text is influenced by the background knowledge of the reader, the reading skills and strategies a reader knows and employs, and the reader's motivation. Being able to identify how individual readers are affected by these factors is important to teaching reading comprehension successfully.

word learning strategies (vocabulary)

The goal of vocabulary instruction is to help students become independent word learners. Teachers should provide explicit instruction to help students master the following independent strategies for learning words.

connect new words to known words (vocabulary instruction)

When readers can connect new words to known words, their vocabulary framework expands and they extend their understanding of what a word means. Each time a word is encountered, more information is added to the reader's conceptual "network" and the word becomes interconnected with other words. Making these connections builds the reader's background knowledge, allowing the reader to call upon this knowledge when needed and facilitating the understanding of a new word or the nuanced meaning of a word.

Tier I words are basic words which are usually learned at home or in a student's community (vocabulary)

(e.g., floor, deep, people). Teachers—particularly primary-grade teachers—may choose to teach some words from Tier I to support beginning readers and English language learners.

Tier III words are used with lower frequency but are important in the context of content areas or are domain-specific words

(e.g., multiplicand, divisor, or equation). Content area words have traditionally been the focus of upper elementary teachers and, while important to supporting the study of certain disciplines, content-specific words should not become the focus of all vocabulary learning.

world mapping (graphic organizers)

A vocabulary word map is a graphic organizer that helps students show the relationships among and between words or concepts. To build a word map, ask students to enter the new word in the middle of the map (choose Tier II words). Then have students fill in the rest of the map with a definition(s), synonyms, antonyms, and a picture to illustrate concepts that are related to the word. Word maps can point out the difference between denotations (the literal meaning of a word) and connotations (the emotional or cultural meaning attached to a word), both important to learning definitions. Students can also use word maps to generate related words, building connections on their maps as they uncover more information about their word.

Understand reading comprehension and vocabulary skills

Comprehension can be succinctly defined as the process of interpreting and making meaning from what is being read; it has long been considered the primary goal of reading instruction. In order for students to construct meaning, however, they must first become fluent readers, skillfully decoding what they are reading. Those students who can recognize words automatically devote minimal conscious attention to that aspect of reading and thus can focus on the meaning of what they read, which they must be able to do to read the text fluently. Automatic word recognition and reading fluency are prerequisite to comprehending a text during reading, but ensuring that students have mastered decoding skills is not sufficient for effective comprehension instruction. Teachers should recognize that skilled text comprehension also calls on readers to apply knowledge and strategies for understanding the ideas expressed in the texts they read. Increasingly as students move beyond beginning reading materials, they are called upon to understand a wide range of words that may not be in their speaking vocabularies and a range of text types for a wide range of purposes.

Comprehension strategies and instruction

Comprehension strategies are active, purposeful tactics that skilled readers use to make sense out of text. Skilled readers are both purposeful (they read with a goal in mind) and active (they work hard to understand what has been read). Explicit instruction in comprehension strategies helps students become active, purposeful readers. Effective strategies include those that prepare readers for reading, help readers organize what they read, provide readers opportunities to elaborate on what they read, and allow readers to draw conclusions about what they have read. Research has identified six reading comprehension strategies that benefit students in learning to comprehend what they read

word tiers (vocabulary)

Even as many words are learned incidentally through interactions with others and through reading, teachers can help ensure that students master essential words by including these words in direct vocabulary instruction. Decisions about what words to include are often based on the importance and utility of the words themselves. Teachers usually choose the words they will teach from word categories or tiers. Tier II words are the most critical for teachers to incorporate into vocabulary instruction.

synonyms or antonyms (using context clues as a word learning strategy) (word learning strategies)

For example: His friends discovered his deceitfulness, or dishonesty, when he left town with their money. His deceitfulness was found out by friends who trusted him with their money and discovered it gone when he left town.

comprehension monitoring

Good readers not only use comprehension strategies but constantly monitor their comprehension so they recognize when they need to use particular strategies to help them understand what they are reading. Comprehension monitoring is "thinking about thinking" and is self-reflective. Comprehension monitoring instruction has positive effects on standardized reading comprehension test performance

Text structure (comprehension strategies and instruction)

Good readers use text structure to assist in reading comprehension. Text structure refers to the way authors organize their ideas in narrative stories, informational text, and poems (Tompkins, 2010). Narrative, informational texts, and poems each have various predictable organizational features, vocabulary, and presentations that readers can anticipate. As such, text structures that become familiar and predictable to readers facilitate their comprehension and recall of information. Teachers therefore must explicitly teach students to recognize the predictable nature of story structures, expose children to a variety of literary genres, and show children how to distinguish among the various text structures authors use to organize their texts.

comprehension task: using graphic organizations

Graphic organizers are often used by teachers to assist students before, during or after reading. Graphic organizers help students translate and organize information into a structured, simple-to-read graphic display. Examples include Venn diagrams, story maps, cause-and-effect charts, t-charts, concept maps, and flowcharts. Regardless of the label used, graphic organizers help students focus on key content and ideas and how they are related to other content and ideas. The following list provides meaningful examples of graphic organizers.

Inferential comprehension

Inferring ideas and cause-and-effect relationships that are not explicitly stated in the text are examples of inferential comprehension activities. Inferring and making predictions based on those inferences requires students to "read between the lines" or "beyond the lines" to suggest meanings that are not explicitly stated in the text. Once again, a reader's background knowledge can help the reader make inferences based on previous experiences and prior knowledge that support the visualization and interpretation of implicit information shared in the text.

vocabulary knowledge

Knowing a word entails more than being able to recognize and pronounce it or use it in a sentence. According to Nagy and Scott (2000), word knowledge encompasses multiple dimensions,

vocabulary knowledge

Knowledge of the kind of word that a word is—e.g., words that are articles (a, the, an), words that represent nouns (cow, castle, birthday), or words that represent ideas (values, goals, tributes)

vocabulary knowledge

Knowledge of words used in conjunction with and interconnected to other words, such as academic words that have relevance and specific meanings in their academic use with one another (e.g., biology, phylum, kingdom, evolution)

Literal comprehension

Literal comprehension requires students to locate and recognize information that is stated explicitly in the passage, such as facts, stated main ideas and supporting details, the sequence of events, or cause-and-effect relationships. A reader's background knowledge facilitates the ability to glean literal information from the text and connect it to known information.

activate prior knowledge (vocabulary instruction)

One of the most effective methods of helping students learn new vocabulary words is to define and discuss unfamiliar words prior to the reading experience.

preteach vocabulary (vocabulary instruction)

One of the most effective methods of helping students learn new vocabulary words is to define and discuss unfamiliar words prior to the reading experience.

Questions and questioning (comprehension strategies and instruction)

Questions and questioning play a key role in comprehension instruction. The types of questions that teachers ask students focuses them on the kinds of information they should seek in the text. For example, if a teacher focuses on asking students to find factual information in a text, readers will learn to focus on finding facts when they read. However, if the teacher's questions continually expect students to make connections between what they are reading and their prior knowledge, then students will learn to integrate what they know with what they are learning. Most effective is if students learn to ask their own questions while reading.

using reference materials to support word learning (vocabulary instruction)

Readers can use print dictionaries, electronic dictionaries, or a thesaurus to determine the meaning of new vocabulary words. Teaching readers when to use a dictionary, how to find dictionary entries, how to choose the correct meaning of a word from multiple meanings, and how to apply that meaning are skills teachers need to address with students to facilitate successful dictionary use (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2010). Finding the right meaning of a word that has multiple meanings is easier if a prediction is made first about the meaning of the new word. Then, readers can cross-check the meaning of the word choice in the sentence to see if it fits the context.

Reading comprehension

Readers complete comprehension tasks before, during, and after reading.

visual representations in text (comprehension strategies and instruction)

Readers use graphic features to assist in understanding text. Graphics such as story maps, flowcharts, Venn diagrams, or semantic maps visually display information that often summarizes a key text idea or re-represents information from the text. These visuals highlight important information from the text and aid readers in understanding and remembering it.

Literal, Inferential, and Evaluative Skills

Reading authorities have developed approaches to teaching comprehension that engage students in active thinking processes ranging from identifying facts and details to establishing a strong emotional response to text. The comprehension process is activated when teachers help students connect their background knowledge to the text and direct them toward a clear purpose for reading. Teachers must constantly emphasize reading for purpose. They want their students to know why they're reading: "Do I need to find specific information, or will I need to predict what the character will do to solve a problem?" Once the students know why they are being asked to read, they can tailor their reading and thinking strategies accordingly. Understanding and distinguishing the following three thinking processes guides teachers to orchestrate comprehension skill instruction.

Affecting comprehension

Reading comprehension is impacted by two major factors: reader factors and text factors (National Reading Panel Report, 2000). The interaction between the reader's knowledge and the structure of the text impacts the reader's comprehension.

Reading factors (affecting comprehension)

Reading comprehension is impacted by two major factors: reader factors and text factors (National Reading Panel Report, 2000). The interaction between the reader's knowledge and the structure of the text impacts the reader's comprehension.

semantic feature analysis (graphic organizers)

Semantic feature analysis can be used to help students determine how concepts are related. Students compare items, events, or people and identify if they share some features. Teachers can create a grid for

analyzing word structure and function (word learning strategies)

Sometimes students can use knowledge of word parts (i.e., basic words, affixes, inflections) to indicate the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Compound words (e.g., football) and root words with affixes (e.g., defrost or useless) are examples of such words. Studying word parts can help students recognize them in longer words.

Think-alouds (comprehension strategies and instruction)

Teachers and students can think aloud after they read some part of a text. During a think-aloud, the reader shares out loud what he or she is thinking while reading a story, perhaps linking what he or she already knows with information in a story or what new information he or she understands based on prior knowledge. Think-alouds allow teachers and students to make predictions, ask questions, summarize, or otherwise point out what is thus far understood in a story and what new information they will seek as they continue reading. Teachers model think-alouds before asking students to try them out. Think-alouds demonstrate for students the need to monitor their own comprehension and illustrate the metacognitive processes of skilled reading.

vocabulary instruction

The National Institute for Literacy concluded that there is no single, research-based method for teaching vocabulary and recommends the use of a variety of direct and indirect research-based methods to teach vocabulary. The National Reading Panel (2000) studied explicit and implicit ways to engage students in vocabulary. Like the National Institute for Literacy, The National Reading Panel indicated that using a variety of research-based methods leads to increased vocabulary learning.

modeling (comprehension instruction)

The teacher demonstrates how to use the prediction strategy. For example, she chooses a story to share with students and thinks aloud her predictions, demonstrating for students what she knows already about the story topic or people who have had the same problem. She might pull out words from the story and think out loud what they might mean. She models her predicting processes and then reads some of the story to see if her predictions were accurate. She and her students can discuss the accuracy of her predictions and how her predictions helped her understand the story.

independent practice (comprehension instruction)

The teacher provides multiple opportunities for students to apply the strategy that has been taught. For example, she would provide experiences with various kinds of instructional routines that would allow students to make predictions with different kinds of narrative stories. As students practice the strategy, the teacher identifies who has mastered the use of the strategy among different types of narratives and can apply the strategy with no help from others. She would also determine who needs more assistance and reteach the strategy as necessary.

Vocabulary instruction should focus on important words (i.e., key words to help readers make sense of the text), useful words (i.e., words they will encounter often), and difficult words (i.e., words with multiple meanings, idiomatic words, etc.). (vocabulary instruction and learning)

These words are not only essential in comprehending the text being read, but also have utility beyond that context.

Tier II words are a large group of high frequency words which often appear in different contexts and can serve students in important ways. (vocabulary)

Tier II words have the potential to allow students to build visual representations and illustrate connections to other words. Tier II words richly contribute to students' conceptual understanding, helping to further develop students' background knowledge. Examples of Tier II words include sustain, requirement, and probability.

Teaching vocabulary

Vocabulary knowledge, or the words students must understand to communicate effectively, has long been considered critical to successful reading comprehension. This relationship is self-evident, for students will not be able to understand what they are reading if they do not know what the words mean. Helping students acquire a deep understanding of new words they learn—knowing not only definitions, but also how words are used in context (i.e., relationships to other words and concepts)—requires teachers to know and teach the many dimensions that vocabulary knowledge involves.

Text Factors (affecting comprehension)

What readers know and the basic comprehension strategies that readers engage in play a critical role in their understanding of what they read. Comprehension is also dependent on text-based factors, including the reader's familiarity with the genre of a text, text structure, and predictable features related to that text structure.

use visuals (vocabulary instruction)

When combined with text clues, showing students a visual image that provides a context for vocabulary learning can be beneficial. Photos or illustrations in books or graphic organizers that illustrate how words are connected to text ideas are examples of ways to engage students in visual imagery that facilitates vocabulary learning.

help students learn to use context clues (vocabulary instruction)

Writers often include other words or phrases in the sentence to help with the understanding of a new word. These words or phrases are referred to as context clues. For example, "The dry thatch, or straw, on the roof burst into flames."

vocabulary instruction and learning

Younger readers begin to learn the meanings of most words incidentally through everyday experiences with oral and written language: from conversations with other people, especially adults; from listening to adults read to them; and from reading extensively on their own. As beginning readers, they use their oral vocabulary (i.e., words used while speaking or understood while listening) to make sense of the words they see in print. As students grow older and begin to read more advanced texts, they encounter words that have little to no connection to their everyday experiences. They learn the meaning of new words that may not be already part of their oral vocabulary. If they read widely, they will incidentally learn many new words. However, if students are not avid readers, providing direct and systematic vocabulary instruction is essential to improving their vocabulary and reading comprehension. Even students who read constantly can benefit from intentional vocabulary instruction. Systematic instruction includes (1) providing explicit vocabulary instruction and (2) teaching students specific word-learning strategies.

Vocabulary Instruction and Learning

While teachers may choose vocabulary words that they want students to learn, they teach vocabulary informed by what research has to say about successful vocabulary instruction. The National Institute for Literacy analyzed vocabulary instruction and learning and highlights the following from research.

Background knowledge.

A student's background knowledge can either facilitate reading comprehension or hinder it. Familiarity with different kinds of text—nursery rhymes, fairy tales, historical fiction, science fiction, information texts, and so on—assists readers in knowing what to expect from a text, such as the kind of content a text has and how that content will be delivered. Topical knowledge also affects a reader's ability to comprehend text. Students who are read to often or who read often learn vocabulary and acquire conceptual knowledge that they can draw on when they read new text. Thus, good readers with relevant background knowledge can activate their prior knowledge about a topic and use it to understand new information and new words.

vocabulary knowledge

A word's spoken form, written form, grammatical form, conceptual meaning, synonyms, antonyms, frequency of use, and contextual usage

engage students in wide reading (vocabulary instruction)

Engaging students in wide reading—reading many books, particularly narratives—provides students opportunities to acquire new words everyday. Upper elementary students who read widely might encounter 20,000 new words and learn 1000 new words a year from their readings. Exposure to words through wide reading helps students construct and retain meaningful personal contexts for words

general ideas related to the word (using context clues as a word learning strategy) (word learning strategies)

For example: The circle of hopeful women and children watched the shaman as he burned the herbal medicine and danced around the fire, praying for healing.

Text Factors (affecting comprehension)

Instruction in reading comprehension begins with young readers. While students make progress in kindergarten and grade one in developing word-recognition skills, they also need to understand the visual elements that allow them to access literary and informational texts. Teachers use explicit instruction, modeling, and scaffolding strategies such as questioning to help students learn comprehension skills and understand what they read—the sequence of a story, the characters, the setting or plot. Basic comprehension strategies are modeled and taught—predicting, inferring, connecting text to what they know. Text-based comprehension strategies should be taught throughout the elementary school grades as students broaden their background knowledge and expand their vocabulary.

Vocabulary knowledge (affecting comprehension)

It is difficult for readers to comprehend text that has too many unfamiliar vocabulary words. This can be especially true if readers do not have the background knowledge to figure out the meaning of unknown words. Also, while a reader's knowledge of words is related to his or her background knowledge, it also is connected to how widely he or she reads. Even if students have not had personal experiences to draw upon, students who read widely are typically more fluent in both the act of reading and in their ability to decode words and discern meaning from the context in which words are used.

predicting (comprehension strategies and instruction)

Making predictions about what is to be read can mean both previewing text and activating a reader's background knowledge. Making predictions asks the reader to preview text structure, images, or beginning story elements and make connections to something they already know. Predictions can become questions that help readers set a purpose for reading. Predicting is not guessing. It is making reasonable assumptions about what may develop in a narrative story or what may be discussed in informational text. Those assumptions are often built on prior knowledge—knowledge of a topic, knowledge of text structure, or knowledge of certain vocabulary. Predictions are not only made before reading a text but throughout the reading of a text, allowing the reader to continually use his or her existing knowledge to facilitate an understanding of new ideas encountered in the text

Difficulty with reading comprehension

Reading comprehension can be difficult for a variety of reasons. Some students have difficulty comprehending because they are not fluent readers and must spend too much mental energy on word recognition. Some students have trouble remembering what was read, or have difficulty distinguishing the significant information in a passage. Some of these difficulties can be addressed by providing reading practice to build fluency. Some reading difficulties require taking time to build background knowledge and vocabulary. Some difficulties will require the use of reading specialists trained to address learning disabilities that affect reading abilities. All, however, require engaging students in concrete comprehension instruction with lots of opportunities to practice reading. In fact, comprehension instruction should be well-balanced between direct and explicit instruction and the actual reading and writing of text and text discussions

Strategies readers know (affecting comprehension)

Some students possess reading skills that assist them in reading comprehension; they are fluent readers and can accurately decode what they read. They also activate and build on their prior knowledge as they read. They may make predictions, create mental images, connect to their own experiences, draw inferences, and monitor their understanding while they read. Other students have not developed these basic skills and strategies. Teachers assess students to find out what comprehension skills and strategies students have developed and what they need to learn.

summarizations (comprehension strategies and instruction)

Summarizing is a complex skill and can take several years to develop (Gunning, 2010). The complexity of the strategy comes from the need to teach readers three things: 1) how to extrapolate the main idea and supporting details from text, 2) how to determine which information is irrelevant and discard it, and 3) how to reduce relevant information to key words and phrases which can be integrated into a concise summary. Teachers often begin to teach summarization by using smaller amounts of text (such as a paragraph) or familiar content so students can focus on learning the process.

direct explanation (comprehension instruction)

The teacher offers an explicit explanation of a specific comprehension strategy and how and when to apply it. For example, the teacher decides to teach students to make predictions when they read. She explains to students that making predictions means drawing on their own experiences to preview what might happen next in the story or predict what a character is thinking or feeling. She shares that good readers make predictions all the way through the reading of a story. The teacher also points out that predictions allow readers to think about what in the story is real and based on facts and what part of the story or writing is the opinion of the author or an idea the author has shared.

Students learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through everyday experiences with oral and written language (vocabulary instruction and learning)

They do so by engaging daily in oral language, listening to adults read to them, and reading extensively on their own.

Although a great deal of vocabulary is learned indirectly, some vocabulary should be taught directly (vocabulary instruction and learning)

This can be done through specific word instruction (i.e., teaching specific words, extended instruction that promotes active engagement with words, and repeated exposure to words in many contexts) and word learning strategies (i.e., word study, using context clues, instructional technologies including computer-assisted programs).

activate prior knowledge (vocabulary instruction)

What readers bring to the printed page affects their ability to unlock the meaning of words. Prior knowledge might be the single most important component of the vocabulary learning process.

Recognize factors affecting reading comprehension

reading comprehension is affected by factors such as the reader's fluency and prior knowledge, which may be influenced by home literacy; access to books; and socio-economic factors. You will be asked about text-based factors that influence reading comprehension, including the reader's familiarity with various text structures and text features.