what is reading comprehension?????

RC Handout 2A (1 of 2)
Effective Instruction for Secondary Struggling Readers: Research-Based Practices
READING COMPREHENSION
2010
What Is Reading Comprehension?
Reading comprehension is the ability to gain meaning from text. There are two
categories of comprehension: Literal comprehension and inferential comprehension.
Literal comprehension is the recognition and recall of explicitly stated information.
Inferential comprehension requires the reader to make conjectures or hypotheses based
on stated information, intuition, and personal experience, including cause/effect,
anticipating the remainder of a story, forming opinions, and making inferences.
• Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills learned in school.
– The ability to comprehend is essential to learning content area materials in
school. It also affects multiple aspects of students’ lives, such as employment.
Without comprehension, reading is meaningless and can be very frustrating.
• Reading comprehension is an interactive process involving the reader, the text,
and the context in which reading occurs.
– Reading comprehension results from the interactions among the reader’s
characteristics, such as age, reading ability, and motivation, the text
characteristics, such as structures and organization, and the context, such as
tasks, classroom environment, teacher’s knowledge and experience, and
instructional practices. To promote reading comprehension, these three
elements should be considered.
• Comprehension of text depends on the extent of students’ prior knowledge and
their ability to activate and apply it.
− Reading requires the ability to interact with text to interpret and construct
meaning before, during, and after reading by using strategies to integrate
information from the text with the reader’s prior knowledge. Students bring
to instruction a range of experiences and knowledge about many topics. Prior
knowledge significantly influences the reader’s comprehension of the
concepts and vocabulary in text.
• The goal of reading comprehension instruction is to help students learn and apply
effective, research-based strategies that are necessary to become effective readers.
RC Handout 2A (2 of 2)
Effective Instruction for Secondary Struggling Readers: Research-Based Practices
READING COMPREHENSION
© 2010 UT System/TEA
• Reading comprehension strategies are plans or procedures that readers can use to
gain meaning from what they read.
− There are a number of effective, research-based reading comprehension
strategies that can be applied before, during, and after reading to promote
comprehension.
• Reading comprehension can be improved via effective reading comprehension
instruction.
− Many struggling readers, including students with disabilities, show problems
with reading comprehension. As struggling students enter intermediate grades,
the problems become more significant. The meaning of reading materials in the
intermediate grades is more implicit than in materials in elementary grades.
(Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985; Baker & Brown, 1984; Bryant & Lehr, 2001; Gardill &
Jitendra, 1999; Heilman, Blair, & Rupley, 1998; Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1997; Mercer & Mercer, 2001;
National Reading Panel, 2000; Readance, Bean, & Baldwin, 1998; Texas Reading Initiative, 2000; Vail, 1999)

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