Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension

1. process of making meaning from a text

   • Goal: to gain an overall understanding of what is described in text
     • in understanding read text information children develop mental models
       • text-based model
         • mental representation of the propositions of the text
           • inferentially light
       • situation model
         • what the text is perceived to be about
           • inferentially dense
   • What is Reading Comprehension?

2. ·

   • But how?
     • by enabling the reader to construct a more elaborated understanding of the passage
   • Comprehension and Organization

3. Comprehension and Metacognition

   • studies suggest that skilled readers are dynamic and they predict what is going to happen in the text
     • as a result, they activate past memories and experiences
       • and test themselves as to whether they have sufficient knowledge about the present topic in order to comprehend the text

4. Comprehension difficulties

   • respect for education
     • community standards
       • value placed on education
         • influence
           • whether students have mastered basic literacy skills or not
         • Comprehension difficulties
           • But why some students are poor at comprehension?
             • Because reading and comprehension of text is a complex interactive process, and there is more to reading and comprehension than just decoding or word calling

5. Purpose

   • reader's roles
     • a code breaker
     • text participator
     • text user
     • text analyser

6. Comprehension as a Cognitive Process

   • comprehension involves the interaction of a wide range of cognitive skills and processes
   • Cognitive theory places importance on the reader’s ability to make appropriate choices between contextual cues and the ability to decode and comprehend read text
     • less sucessful readers
       • they have difficulty considering the writer’s interpretations, and forming appropriate inferences from unfamiliar events or relationships
     • sucessful readers
       • they are more efficient at gaining unfamiliar word meanings from texts
   • Readers comprehension of the text
     • linked to the reader’s ability to construct hypotheses, rules, schemas, and mental models