Reading comprehension or text comprehension is not easily defined since it requires several skills. It is a complex activity. Comprehension may be regarded as the ultimate goal of reading.
Notwithstanding its complexities several authors have posited definitions of what comprehension is. Julie Coiro in the article Reading Comprehension on the Internet: Expanding our understanding of Reading Comprehension to Encompass New Literacies quoted the RAND Reading Study Group’s Report (2002) as defining reading comprehension as “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing measuring through interaction and involvement with written language.”
Since the comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading, the other fundamental skills in reading are prerequisites for comprehending to take place. The ability to decode words and know their meanings in their contexts, because words carry different meanings depending on the context.
Teachers therefore must provide the learner with tools for skillful decoding. These include phonics skills, structural analysis, word-picture association and use of context clues. These tools can be reinforced by the reading of stories, and discussions on topics of interest as well as use of multimedia, such as videos, music digital stories, e books blogs and wikis. Parental involvement in these activities is an integral part of this process and the advent of new literacies allows for this.
I agree with your comment on the importance of Text Comprehension, Syndy. Text Comprehension is crucial if a student is to become a successful reader. One way to develop text comprehension is to teach students ways to connect reading to their individual experiences. " To learn meaningfully, individuals must choose to relate new knowledge to related concepts and propositions they already know." (Novak & Gowin,1984)
ReplyDeleteNovak also states that concept mapping is an excellent tool for 'extracting' meaning from texts.
It allows students to:
1. see how their ideas are connected
2. connect new ideas encountered to their pre-existing ones
3. organise new ideas in a way that allows the student to alter them in the future.
Hello Syndy,
ReplyDeleteComprehension not only involves decoding words, vocabulary and context clues but I just want to add that comprehension must also include fluency. Fluency according to Allington (2009) as cited in Tompkins (2010) stated that fluency is the ability to read efficiently and it bridges the gap to comprehension. Pressley (2002) also agree that when readers spend less time on decoding they focus on comprehending the text. Therefore when one is fluent he is able to comprehend the text quickly.
Fluency involves accuracy, speed and prosody. Accuracy refers to the ability o automatically recognize words. The reader needs to be aware that there are two types of words, high frequency words that cannot be decoded and those other words that can be decoded. High frequency words are present in almost two thirds of the reading materials. Therefore readers need to acquire knowledge of these words for automatic recognition. Then there are those words that can be decoded using morphemic analysis and structural analysis. When readers can automatically recognize words less time is spent on decoding and pronouncing words and more time is spent on comprehension. Tompkins (2010) agreed with other authors that an accuracy rate of 95% is the average for a fluent reader but Allington (2009) contends that it should be 99%.
The speed of reading is the rate at which students read and it is recommended that at Standard One students read one hundred words per minute and in Standard Two one hundred and fifty words per minute and as an adult two hundred and fifty words per minute. Reading speed also affects comprehension because you lose the meaning of the piece as one struggles to read at the required pace. Prosody refers to the ability to read expressively with the correct pronunciation and intonation. Students therefore need to be aware of how to chunk words and pause to read expressively. The way one reads affects comprehension since if one reads and misses punctuation they may get a different meaning than someone who reads expressively.
Therefore it is important to also state that in order to comprehend a written piece one must also be a fluent reader.