In this literature review, I will share what I have learned from my readings related to my wondering “How can I differentiate instruction to challenge my students based on their level in reading comprehension?” To find literature for my wondering, I used the USF on line library. I looked up articles in The Reading Teacher by typing in the keyword phrase teaching reading comprehensions. I found many article that were useful but these three helped me out the most with my wondering.
The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction
By: Sharon Ruth Gill
This article was about using the Comprehension Matrix in the classroom. The author talked about how teachers not only need to decided which techniques to use but how to fit them into their daily instruction. There are three major factors that affect comprehension, the reader, the text and the situation. Activities to help teach comprehension are broken up into three categories, prereading, during reading and post reading. Section A of prereading states activities that makes students interested, build and active background and model strategies that can be used during reading. Section B of the prereading shows students the structure of the text and introduces new vocabulary. Last, section C of the prereading provides students with the purpose of reading which helps improve comprehension. Next stage in the matrix is during reading. Section D demonstrate the type of thinking that can take place during reading. Next, section E helps students use text structures and understand new vocabulary and concepts. Last, section F provides more specific purposes for reading. Students should know why they are reading something and what they are required to do after. Two examples of during reading activities are Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA) and Reciprocal Questioning Strategy (ReQuest). Last, component of the comprehension matrix is post reading. These activities help deepen the students understanding of text. Good examples of activities students can do during post reading are creating a timeline, map or letter to show understanding.
Help with Teaching Reading Comprehension: Comprehension Instructional Frameworks
By: Lauren Aimonette and Janice A. Dole
This article was about just five of the frameworks that can be used to teach comprehension. Comprehension instruction is divided into two major categories. The first one, focuses on helping students understand the content of a certain text and the second one focuses on comprehension strategies to help students understand all text. In the Scaffolded Reading Experience (SRE), supported practice is given to students in all types of text for understanding. SRE is done is two major phases, the planning phase and the implementation phrase. In SRE teacher preparation is high level. There is a lot that goes into planning for SRE. Questioning the Author (QtA) teaches students to question what they read, to think, to probe, to associate and to critique. It is done in four essential features,1) viewing the text as a fallible product written by fallible author, 2) dealing with the text through questions that are directed towards making sense of it, 3) questioning as students are reading and 4) encouraging student collaboration in the construction of meaning (McKeown et al. 1993). In this framework, the teacher preparation is also high and very time consuming. The Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) was originally designed to aid students at risk and those with learning disabilities. There are four specific comprehension strategies that can be used with all text they read. The is first taught as a whole group where the teacher models all comprehension strategies. First is the preview cards where they look for key features of the text. Next they are looking for things that “Click” or “Clink”. A “Clunk” is being something they are still confused about. At the end of the passage, they have to determine the most important ideas in the passage. After the text is completed, they take the Wrap up card, where they make a list of questions with answers that show they understood the text. Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), consists of three basics activities that pair a high reader with a low reader, one as a “coach” and one as the “reader”. The first activity consists of the high reader reading first as a model. Then the low read rereads the same passage. The low reader then tells the high reader what the passage was about while the high reader asks questions. The second activity consists of each reader reading one paragraph and then stopping and talking about the main idea of it. The last activity is called prediction relay. It has four steps, 1) reasonably predict about what will happen next, 2) accurately read half a page, 3) accurately check the prediction and 4) correctly summarize the most important information (Laing and Dole, 2006). The last framework talked about in this article is Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI). CORI is designed to assist teachers in motivating students to learn conceptual knowledge about content area subjects through the use of comprehension strategies. There are four phrases to CORI. First phase, is observe and personalize. Second phase is search and retrieve. Third phase is to comprehend and integrate. The fourth and final phase is to communicate to others. The focus of this is to understand a topic that is learned through a number of texts.
Comprehension before, during, and after Reading
By: Linda K. Crafton
This article talks about comprehension before, during and after reading. Just because the reading is done does not mean comprehension is complete. Comprehension before reading is comprehension without print. The reader needs to be able to access background knowledge of a topic so they can relate to it or comprehension will suffer. All students in all grade levels should be encourage to anticipate what they are going to meet in the text before reading and also how the text is going to organized. Being able to access background knowledge is a problem for some students in the prereading process. Having students read other passages about the same topic can help develop background knowledge. Next is during reading strategies and readers need to be able to develop flexible reading strategies to use. Readers need to remember that they do not need to know every bit of information in a reading, just the main ideas. After reading strategies help students understand the reading not just being able to answer questions about the reading. Students should be able to expand, share and exchange information after. This can show full comprehension of the reading. Teachers often give the students a glimpse of a topic before moving on because of lack of time in the classroom. Shared books allow students to read books of the same topic and share with others in the classroom. This is a good activity to use in the classroom.
Connection and Plan of Action
A common theme in all of my readings, is using strategies before, during and after readings to help comprehension. Before reading should help access background knowledge and teach new vocabulary. It should also provide the reader with what to anticipate when reading in both content and organization of text. During reading is something that should be modeled by the teacher using strategies such as think-aloud or Reciprocal Questioning Strategy. Then students should be monitored using these strategies while they read silently. After reading strategies this should help the students get a deeper meaning of the text. Activities that could be used to help with after reading comprehension are having the students write a letter or create a mini lesson to teach to the class.
Another common theme I saw in my readings was that teachers have a hard time finding ways and time to teach comprehension. Gill said, “For years it seems we have tested comprehension, but rarely taught it (Gill,2008).” The article about the frameworks, gives teachers five different instructional frameworks to use. I know for me, teaching comprehension is hard because I didn’t know how to go about it in the short time we were in the classroom. Using these frameworks as a starting point is really helpful.
There are a few ways in which I plan on using some of the ideas I got out of the reading during my inquiry process. I will try the prereading, during reading and post reading strategies with my focus students. For example, I will try and activate or build background knowledge about a certain topic before having them read a text. One way I plan on knowing the background knowledge is using a KWL chart at the beginning of reading. This will also give them purpose to their reading because they will want to know more about the topic given. I plan on modeling think aloud strategies with my students while I read a paragraph aloud to them. At the end of the reading, I plan on giving them an assignment that will have them becoming experts on the topic and teaching it to the rest of the class. By using these strategies, I will be able to challenge my students in comprehension based on their reading level and may even increase their reading level in the end.
References
Crafton, L. K.. (1982). Comprehension before, during, and after Reading. The Reading
Teacher, 36(3), 293–297. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20198210
Gill, S. R.. (2008). The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension
Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 62(2), 106–113. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20203091
Liang, L. A., & Dole, J. A.. (2006). Help with Teaching Reading Comprehension:
Comprehension Instructional Frameworks. The Reading Teacher, 59(8), 742–753.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204415