Comprehension Strategies

Preparational Strategies
Organizational Strategies
Elaboration Strategies
Metacognitive
Gunning, T. (2010). Assessing and Correcting Reading and Writing Difficulties. USA:Pearson
Education, Inc.
 The use of comprehension strategies
strengthens the use of the main
processes of basic comprehension:

•Understanding
•Integrating
•Inferring
•Monitoring
 The use of strategies also bolsters
working memory.
• Strategic readers are able to use four sources of knowledge in a
flexible way: (1) knowledge of a variety of appropriate strategies; (2)
knowledge of one’s self as a learner; (3) knowledge of the demands of
the reading task, which makes it possible for the reader to select, use,
monitor, and evaluate strategies; and (4) background or world
knowledge (Palinscar, Winn, David, Synder & Stevens, 1993)
• Readers must be motivated to use their knowledge of strategies
(Paris&Okra, 1986) and have confidence that they will work (Dole,
Brown, & Trathen, 1996).
• Garner (1994) concluded that a lack of interest in the text and a lack
of confidence in strategies will diminish the students’ willingness to
use strategies.
Steps in a Strategy Lesson
• Introducing the strategy. Explain what the strategy is, why it is
being taught, how it will benefit students, and when and
where it might be used.
• Demonstrating and modeling the strategy. Show how to use
the strategy.
• Guided practice. The guidance provided might be extensive
initially, but you should gradually turn over more responsibility
to students.
• Independent practice and application. Strategy learning is
contextual. To promote transfer, have students apply the
strategy to a variety of materials and content areas.
• Assessment and reteaching. Observe students to see if they can
apply the strategy and can do so effectively. Also conduct a
brief written assessment. Reteach and review as necessary.
• Ongoing reinforcement and implementation.
Trickster Tale
Trickster tale, in oral traditions worldwide, a story
featuring a protagonist (often
an anthropomorphized animal) who has magical powers
and who is characterized as a compendium of opposites.
Simultaneously an omniscient creator and an innocent
fool, a malicious destroyer and a childlike prankster, the
trickster-hero serves as a sort of folkloric scapegoat onto
which are projected the fears, failures, and unattained
ideals of the source culture
(https://www.britannica.com/art/trickster-tale)
 Fostering the comprehension of
narratives…
• Requires being aware of the students’ level of knowledge of
narratives
• One way of assessing a student’s comprehension of narrative schema
is to ask the student to retell a familiar story or to create a story
based on a wordless picture book (Westby, 1999).
• Ask questions that probe the depth of students’ understanding of a
story
• How did Jan feel in the story?
• Why do you think she felt that way?
• What might she do to make up for her embarrassing mistake?
• Students with poorly developed story schema
will retell stories as a series of isolated incidents
or will have information about isolated
incidents but will have difficulty creating a
coherent story. They will have a difficult time
making inferences about the characters’ goals
and motivation. They will also have difficulty
inferring emotions and characteristics and
predicting outcomes (Westby, 1999).
 Developing a Sense of Story
The best way to develop a sense of story is to read to
students and discuss stories with them. After hearing and
discussing many stories, students naturally acquire a
series of expectations about what takes place in a story.
If your students lack a strong sense of story, start out by
reading brief action stories told in relatively simple
language. As students’ comprehension of stories
becomes more advanced, read stories that emphasize
the development of characters and that provide insight
into motivation and emotions.
 As you discuss stories, you might
also highlight the most important
elements in a story, asking
questions such as these:
• Where did the story take place?
• Who were the most important characters in the story?
• What did Anansi plan to do?
• How did Turtle trick Anansi?
• How do you think Anansi felt after he discovered that he had been
tricked?
• Why didn’t Warthog believe Anansi?
• What did Anansi learn?
• What lesson do you think the story teaches?
 Ways to develop a sense of story

• Questions should be geared to the key elements of the story. One way
to make sure questions are keyed to the major elements in a story is
to create a key element map (Beck, Omanson, &McKeown, 1982).
Student versions of key elements maps, which are also known as
story maps, can be used to enhance low-achieving readers’
comprehension (Cunningham & Foster, 1978; Fitzgerald & Spiegel,
1983).
• Story map: graphic display showing the major elements in a story.
Often the focus is on the plot.
 Story Map
• Setting: • By the river
• Characters: • Anansi, Turtle, Warthog
• Problem: • Anansi wanted a fish.
• Main happenings in the story: • Anansi asked Turtle to teach him
to fish.
• Anansi made a net.
• Anansi put the net in the river.
• Anansi caught a fish and cooked
it.
• Turtle ate the fish.
 • Anansi asked Warthog for
justice.
• Warthog did not believe Anansi.
• Outcome: • Spiders learned how to weave
nets.
• Questions, as well as the type of story being read, should be geared
to the students’ level of story knowledge. As Westby (1999) notes,
“Children with limited narrative abilities frequently do not enjoy
listening to or reading complex stories.” If students have difficulty
retelling a story or responding to questions about a story that you
have read to them, try selecting less complex stories.
• Writing also helps develop a sense of story. Students might begin by
imitating a simple, predictable pattern. In time, they can try more
complex patterns. As students develop a sense of story, they can also
take a deeper look at theme, more complex plots, and more realistic
characterization. Composing group stories provides reluctant writers
with support and also models the process for them.
• Wordless picture books or a series of illustrations can also be used as
a prompt for a story. The advantage of using a series of illustrations is
that this helps structure the story for the student.
• In addition to story knowledge, students must also know the language
of stories to be able to read and write stories. As you read stories to
students and discuss and write stories with them, highlight the
language of storytelling.
 Other Techniques for Developing a
Sense of Story
• Techniques that involve the use of story grammar to predict and build
comprehension are the probable passages, Predict-o-Gram, and story
impressions techniques.
• Story grammar: shows how the major parts of a story are
interrelated. A story grammar might include setting, problem, goal,
characters, major episodes, and resolution.
 Probable Passages

In probable passages, students use their inferential skills to predict

which vocabulary words tell about which story grammar category:
setting, characters, problem, resolution, or ending. Once they have
placed vocabulary words in story grammar categories, students predict
what the story might be about. This can be done orally, or students
might create a written probable passage that summarizes the story. In
addition to fostering a sense of story grammar, comprehension and
vocabulary knowledge, probable passages also promote summarizing
skills.
 Story Impressions

Story impressions also use vocabulary from the story to activate

students’ story schema. Story impressions are designed specifically for
corrective readers and have been shown to be an effective technique
for fostering improved comprehension (McGinley & Denner, 1987). In
story impressions, students use a series of words and phrases from a
selection to reconstruct the story. Words and phrases that offer useful
clues are chosen. Although students are encouraged to structure a
story that is as close as possible to the actual story, faithfulness to the
original tale is not the essential factor in assessing students’
achievement. The ability to use clues the clues to construct a logical
tale is the main factor in improved comprehension.
 Expository Text Structures

We organize information from our reading

according to the structure of the ideas in a
selection. The main idea is at the top of the
structure. Supporting details are organized
around the main idea.
 What makes the following paragraph
easy or hard to read?
Skin has four important jobs. One, it keeps harmful bacteria
out of your body. Two, it keeps the water in your body from
dying up. The outer layer of skin is waterproof . And oil glands
in the skin produce oils that keep the skin moist. Three, skin
regulates the temperature of your body. Layers of fat in the
skin help to keep you warm. Sweat glands in the skin let the
body give off moisture through the skin. This helps you cool
off. Four, skin is the sense organ of touch. (Bledsoe, 1990,
p.185)
• It is a text for below-level readers and it is well-structured.
• It has a main idea followed by a listing of four details.
• By using the structure of that paragraph, the student can better
understand its content.
• The structure provides a map of the information presented in the
paragraph.
• Using that map should improve the encoding of the information.
• Students will know that they will be looking for four items as they read the
paragraph.
• The structure also helps the readers organize the information: one main
idea and four details.
• Knowing the structure, the student will be better able to take notes, create
a semantic map, or outline the paragraph.
• Typically, young and low-achieving readers fail to use text structure as
a reading strategy. For younger readers, this may be due, in part, to a
lack of experience with expository text.
• For older low-achieving, it may reflect a lack of knowledge about text
structure strategy or simply the failure to use this strategy.
• Using text structure strategy, good readers seek the author’s main
idea and then relate the details to that main idea. The students then
create a mental representation of the text that reflects the text
structure (problem-solution, cause-effect, for instance).
• When recalling the text, they retrieve the major idea first and then
the details.
• Poor comprehenders, on the other hand, do not organize information
and simply encode a passage as a list of unrelated items.
• As Meyer, Brandt, and Bluth (1980) comment: “The reader has no
focus and simply tries to remember something from the text” (p.80).
The result is a list-like collection of description about the passage
topic with no attempt to interrelate them” (p.80).
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