Defining Comprehension Strategies and Instructional Strategies

READ 6707: Reading and Literacy Growth Megan Diamond

Supporting Comprehension• Effective teachers that support the literacy needs of their

learners include instructional strategies that foster comprehension as well as provide opportunities for students to learn comprehension strategies that help them understand narrative and informational texts better.

What is the difference?

Comprehension

• Used by students • Used to understand a text• Used as monitoring tools for

regulating, checking, and repairing

• Used to develop metacognition

Instructional• Used by teachers for teaching

and learning • Used to create supportive,

collaborative, an cooperative conditions

• Used to teach the individual, specific comprehension strategies

(Laureate Education, 2014g)

Comprehension Strategies

• Conscious plans used to support meaning construction while reading.• Examples include: Schema and Questioning

(Hollenbeck & Saternus, 2013)

SchemaThe File Cabinet in our Brain

• Students activate relevant background knowledge before, during, and after reading.

• Students use their background knowledge to process the new information from the text and make connections (text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world).

Thinking Stems:• That reminds me of ….• I’m remembering …• I have a connection to …• I have schema for …• I can relate to …

(Hollenbeck & Saternus, 2013)

Questioning The Question-Answer Relationship (QAR)

• Students decipher what types of questions they are being asked by teachers and textbooks and where to find the answers to them (in the text or in their heads).

• Not only does this strategy improve question-answering behavior but also comprehension.

• Encourages students to write their own questions for each of the categories.

Four types of questions:• Right There- Answers found in the text.• Think and Search- Readers needs to

put together different parts of the text to find the answer.

• Author and You- Readers need to think about how the text and their prior knowledge fit together.

• On Your Own- Readers need to use their schema to answer the question.

(Reutzel & Cooter, 2016)

Instructional Strategies“It is essential to move beyond teaching comprehension strategies in isolation and instead model

strategy use as a flexible way of problem solving while reading” (Hollenbeck & Saternus, 2013, p. 560)

• Selected to support the development of students’ comprehension strategies.• Examples include: Think-Pair-Share and Picture Walk

(Hollenbeck & Saternus, 2013).

Think-Pair-Share • A collaborative strategy where

students work together to answer a question posed by the teacher about an assigned reading. • Students are given time to think

about the question individually, then time to work in pairs, and finally share their ideas as a whole class.

Picture Walk • Before reading, teachers and

students engage in an interactive discussion about the book. The teacher provides modeling and think-alouds.• The interaction around pictures

is intentional. It focuses on text structure, students’ prior knowledge, and making predictions based on the pictures in sequence.

• According to Hollenbeck and Saternus (2013), “Comprehension strategy instruction should provide students the awareness of when strategy application is necessary, as well as the knowledge to independently apply strategies to make sense of complex texts” (p. 561). • Therefore, these research-based strategies are appropriate and

effective in supporting transitional, intermediate, and advanced learners. The comprehension and instructional strategies are engaging, relevant, and meaningful to readers to comprehend any text. Additionally, they provide opportunities for collaboration and differentiation based on student need.

Effective Strategies

Cognitive Aspects Traditional instructional focus on strategy and skill that contribute to students’ reading success. These include:• Comprehension (language and

decoding)• Phonics

• Vocabulary • Phonemic awareness

• Fluency

(Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas, & Doyle, 2013)

Affective Aspects Important instructional focus on “other” factors that influence learning. These factors include:

• Metacognition• Motivation and Engagement

• Self-efficacy• Epistemic Beliefs

(Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas, & Doyle, 2013)

Cognitive and Affective Aspects that Inform Instruction

• Although cognitive strategies and skills are important, they are not all that students need to succeed.

• Affective factors operate in relation to cognitive strategy and skill. For example, epistemic beliefs influence the type of reading strategies used, motivation helps a student persevere in using strategies to construct meaning, high self-efficacy encourages motivated reading, and metacognition influences achievement as students select and use strategies, and self-monitor the effectiveness of their reading.

• Consequently, attending to both cognitive and affective aspects enhances students’ reading experiences and reading development.

(Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas, & Doyle, 2013)

References • Afflerbach, P., Cho, B.-Y., Kin, J.-Y., Crassas, M.E., & Doyle, B. (2013). Reading: What else

matters besides strategies and skills? The Reading Teacher, 66(6), 440-448. • Hollenbeck, A.F., & Saternus, K. (2013). Mind the comprehension iceberg: Avoiding titanic

mistakes with the ccss. The Reading Teacher, 66(7), 558-568. • Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2014g). Conversations with Ray Reutzel: Supporting

comprehension [Audio file]. Baltimore, MD: Author. • Reading Rockets. (n.d.) Think-pair-share. Retrieved from

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think-pair-share• Reutzel, D.R., & Cooter, R.B., Jr. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction in

an era of common core standards: Helping every child succeed (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.