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  • 272 2004 International Reading Association (pp. 272280) doi:10.1598/RT.58.3.5

    LAURA S. PARDO

    What every teacher needs to know about comprehension

    Once teachers understand what is involved

    in comprehending and how the factors of

    reader, text, and context interact to create

    meaning, they can more easily teach their

    students to be effective comprehenders.

    Comprehension is a complex process that hasbeen understood and explained in a num-ber of ways. The RAND Reading StudyGroup (2002) stated that comprehension is theprocess of simultaneously extracting and con-structing meaning through interaction and involve-ment with written language (p. 11). Duke (2003)added navigation and critique to her definitionbecause she believed that readers actually movethrough the text, finding their way, evaluating theaccuracy of the text to see if it fits their personalagenda, and finally arriving at a self-selected loca-tion. A common definition for teachers might bethat comprehension is a process in which readersconstruct meaning by interacting with text throughthe combination of prior knowledge and previousexperience, information in the text, and the stancethe reader takes in relationship to the text. As thesedifferent definitions demonstrate, there are manyinterpretations of what it means to comprehendtext. This article synthesizes the research on com-prehension and makes connections to classroompractice. I begin by introducing a visual model ofcomprehension.

    How comprehension worksComprehension occurs in the transaction be-

    tween the reader and the text (Kucer, 2001;Rosenblatt, 1978). The reader brings many things

    to the literacy event, the text has certain features,and yet meaning emerges only from the engage-ment of that reader with that text at that particularmoment in time. Figure 1 below presents a visualmodel of this process. Each of the elements in themodel (reader, text, context, and transaction) is de-scribed in more detail later in this article, alongwith specific suggestions for how teachers can in-teract with the model to help children becomestrong comprehenders, beginning in kindergarten.

    The readerAny literacy event is made up of a reader en-

    gaging with some form of text. Each reader isunique in that he or she possesses certain traits or

    FIGURE 1Model of comprehension

    SocialCultural

    Context

    Reader

    Transaction

    Meaninghappens here

    Text

  • What every teacher needs to know about comprehension 273

    characteristics that are distinctly applied with eachtext and situation (Butcher & Kintsch, 2003;Fletcher, 1994; Narvaez, 2002). The most impor-tant of these characteristics is likely the readersworld knowledge (Fletcher, 1994). The more back-ground knowledge a reader has that connects withthe text being read, the more likely the reader willbe able to make sense of what is being read(Butcher & Kintsch, 2003; Schallert & Martin,2003). The process of connecting known informa-tion to new information takes place through a seriesof networkable connections known as schema(Anderson & Pearson, 1984; Narvaez, 2002). Inschema theory, individuals organize their worldknowledge into categories and systems that makeretrieval easier. When a key word or concept is en-countered, readers are able to access this informa-tion system, pulling forth the ideas that will helpthem make connections with the text so they cancreate meaning. Schema theory involves the stor-age of various kinds of information in long-termmemory. Because long-term memory appears tohave infinite capacity (Pressley, 2003), it is likelythat readers have many ideas stored in long-termmemory. When a key word or concept is presentedto the reader (through a title, heading, or someonewho has recommended the text), some of thisstored information is brought forward and tem-porarily placed into short-term memory so that thereader can return to it quickly as he or she reads.Short-term memory has limited capacity, and of-ten the information pulled from long-term memo-ry prior to or during reading is only available for ashort time and then is placed back in long-termmemory. Short-term memory shifts and juggles in-formation, using what is immediately pertinent andallowing less pertinent information to slip back intolong-term memory (Schallert & Martin, 2003).

    The amount and depth of a readers worldknowledge vary as do other individual characteris-tics. Readers vary in the skills, knowledge, cogni-tive development, culture, and purpose they bringto a text (Narvaez, 2002). Skills include such thingsas basic language ability, decoding skills, and high-er level thinking skills. Knowledge includes back-ground knowledge about content and text andrelates to the available schema a reader has for aparticular text. A readers cognitive developmentcauses that reader to evaluate text in differentwaysfor example, to make moral judgments.

    Comprehension is affected by a readers culture,based on the degree to which it matches with thewriters culture or the culture espoused in the text.Readers also read in particular ways depending onthe purpose for reading. Another individual differ-ence that exists in readers is motivation. Motivationcan influence the interest, purpose, emotion, or per-sistence with which a reader engages with text(Butcher & Kintsch, 2003; Schallert & Martin,2003). More motivated readers are likely to applymore strategies and work harder at building mean-ing. Less motivated readers are not as likely to workas hard, and the meaning they create will not be aspowerful as if they were highly motivated.

    Teachers support readersIf readers have all these individual differences,

    how do teachers best support elementary-age read-ers to become competent comprehenders? Theyteach decoding skills, help students build fluency,build and activate background knowledge, teachvocabulary words, motivate students, and engagethem in personal responses to text.

    Teach decoding skills. In order to comprehend,readers must be able to read the words. Some levelof automatic decoding must be present so thatshort-term memory can work on comprehending,not on decoding, words. Teachers help students getto this level of automatic decoding by providing in-struction in phonemic awareness and phonics at allgrade levels. If students put too much mental ener-gy into sounding out the words, they will have lessmental energy left to think about the meaning.While teachers in the primary grades work withphonemic awareness and phonics, teachers in theintermediate grades support students continued de-velopment of automatic decoding through spelling,vocabulary, and high-frequency word activities.

    Help students build fluency. As word reading be-comes automatic, students become fluent and canfocus on comprehension (Rasinski, 2003). Teachershelp students become more fluent by engaging themin repeated readings for real purposes (like perform-ances and Readers Theatre). Teachers also modelfluent reading by reading aloud to students daily sothat they realize what fluent reading sounds like.

  • Some research indicates that reading aloud to stu-dents is the single most effective way to increasecomprehension (see Morrow & Gambrell, 2000, fora review of this literature).

    Build and activate prior knowledge. Backgroundknowledge is an important factor for creating mean-ing, and teachers should help students activate priorknowledge before reading so that information con-nected with concepts or topics in the text is moreeasily accessible during reading (Keene &Zimmermann, 1997; Miller, 2002). If students donot have adequate background knowledge, teacherscan help students build the appropriate knowledge.Duke (2003) suggested that one way to add to worldknowledge is to use informational books with all stu-dents, particularly very young students. By usinginformation books, students build world knowledgeso that they will have the appropriate information toactivate at a later time. Teachers also support stu-dents acquisition of world knowledge by establish-ing and maintaining a rich, literate environment, fullof texts that provide students with numerous oppor-tunities to learn content in a wide variety of topics.

    Another way teachers help students build back-ground knowledge is to create visual or graphic or-ganizers that help students to see not only newconcepts but also how previously known conceptsare related and connected to the new ones (Keene& Zimmermann, 1997; Miller, 2002). Teachersteach students how to make text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections so that readerscan more easily comprehend the texts they read.

    Reading aloud and teacher modeling show stu-dents how to activate schema and make connec-tions. For example, a first-grade teacher read aloudfrom Ira Says Goodbye (Waber, 1991). She beganthe lesson by thinking aloud about the title andcover of the book. Oh I see that the author isBernard Waber and the title is Ira Says Goodbye. Ithink this book is about the same Ira as in IraSleeps Over (Waber, 1973). I can activate myschema from that book. I am making a text-to-textconnection. I remember that.... She continuedmodeling for her students how to activate schemaand make connections that helped her make mean-ing from this text. As she read the book to her stu-dents, she stopped occasionally to model and thinkaloud how she activated her own schema to makeconnections.

    Teach vocabulary words. If there are too manywords that a reader does not know, he or she willhave to spend too much mental energy figuring outthe unknown word(s) and will not be able to un-derstand the passage as a whole. Teachers help stu-dents learn important vocabulary words prior toreading difficult or unfamiliar texts. When teachingvocabulary words, teachers make sure that the se-lected words are necessary for making meaningwith the text students will be reading and that theyhelp students connect the new words to somethingthey already know. Simply using the word lists sup-plied in textbooks does not necessarily accomplishthis task (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2000). Many teach-ers consider the backgrounds and knowledge levelsof their students and the text the students will beengaging in and then select a small number ofwords or ideas that are important for understandingthe text. Once teachers have decided on the appro-priate vocabulary words to use, students must ac-tively engage with the wordsuse them in writtenand spoken languagein order for the words to be-come a part of the students reading and writing vo-cabularies. For example, asking students to creategraphic organizers that show relationships amongnew words and common and known words helpsthem assimilate new vocabulary. Asking students tolook up long lists of unrelated, unknown words isunlikely to help students access the text more ap-propriately or to increase personal vocabularies.

    Motivate students. Many individual reader fac-tors (e.g., cognitive development, culture) are notwithin a teachers control. However, teachers canmotivate students by providing them with interest-ing texts, allowing them choices in reading andwriting, and helping students set authentic purpos-es for reading (e.g., generating reports, writing let-ters, demonstrating some new ability or skill;Pressley & Hilden, 2002). Many teachers activelyseek out students interests so that they can selecttexts, topics, themes, and units that will more like-ly engage students. Teachers also provide and pro-mote authentic purposes for engaging in readingand writing. Authentic literacy events are those thatreplicate or reflect reading and writing purposesand texts that occur in the world outside of schools.Some teachers do this by providing pen pals, us-ing students authentic questions for in-depth study,

    The Reading Teacher Vol. 58, No. 3 November 2004274

  • responding to community needs, or having studentssolve problems.

    Engage students in personal responses to text.Teachers encourage students to read both efferentlyand aesthetically (Rosenblatt, 1978). Researchers(McMahon, Raphael, Goatley, & Pardo, 1997)building on the ideas of Rosenblatt developed aliterature-based approach to teaching reading com-prehension through the Book Club program. In thisinstructional approach students read authentic liter-ature; write personal, critical, and creative respons-es; and talk about books with their classmates(Pardo, 2002). Teachers help students learn and ap-ply comprehension strategies while reading,through writing, and during student-led discussiongroups called Book Clubs, where students explorethe individual meanings that have emerged as theyengage with the text over a period of time. Whilethis program initially focused on the intermediategrades, many teachers have found that students infirst and second grades are successful comprehen-ders when they read and engage in Book Clubs(Grattan, 1997; Raphael, Florio-Ruane, & George,2001; Salna, 2001).

    The textUnderstanding the reader is one important

    piece of the comprehension puzzle, but features ofthe text also influence the transaction where com-prehension happens. The structure of the textitsgenre, vocabulary, language, even the specific wordchoicesworks to make each text unique. Somewould even argue that it is at the word or micro-structure level that meaning begins (Butcher &Kintsch, 2003). How well the text is written,whether it follows the conventions of its genre orstructure, and the language or dialect it is written inare all factors of the text. The content of a specifictext, the difficulty or readability of it, and even thetype font and size are factors of a text that can in-fluence a readers interaction. These features col-lectively are referred to as surface features, andstudies have shown that the quality of the text at thesurface level is important for readers to be able tomake meaning effectively (Tracey & Morrow,2002).

    The authors intent in writing the text can in-fluence how a reader interacts with that text, par-ticularly if this intent is made known through aforeword, back-cover biography, or knowledgeableother (as in the case of teachers in schools). Sometexts are promoted as carrying a certain messageor theme by those who have encountered the bookpreviously (Rosenblatt, 1978). The inherent mes-sage that some texts carry with them, often relatedto the authors intent, is referred to as gist and hasbeen defined as what people rememberthe mainideas in the text (Pressley, 1998, p. 46). Gist is fre-quently assessed through basal workbooks andstandardized reading tests; therefore, the authorsintent is a key feature of text.

    Teachers support textsBecause certain features make some texts more

    easily comprehensible, teachers help young readersunderstand those features so they can comprehendeffectively. Teachers teach text structures, modelappropriate text selection, and provide regular in-dependent reading time.

    Teach text structures. Because features of thetext are beyond a teachers control, teachers selecttexts that have an obvious structure. They teach avariety of narrative genres and some expositorytext structures. With narrative works teachers helpstudents understand basic story grammar, includingthe literary elements that are common across narra-tive pieces, such as plot, characters, and setting.They teach specific elements that make each genreunique (e.g., talking animals in folk tales). By do-ing this, students will be able to access a schemafor a certain narrative genre when they begin toread a new text and can begin to make text-to-textconnections for a particular story genre, which willhelp them more easily make meaning. Likewise,teachers share some common expository text struc-tures with students, such as sequence, description,comparison, and cause and effect. Teachers discussthe idea of inconsiderate texts (Armbruster,1984) with students and show them how to usecues when reading nonfiction (such as readingtables, charts, graphs, and the captions under pic-tures; using bold print and italics to determine bigor important ideas). Inconsiderate texts do not

    What every teacher needs to know about comprehension 275

  • adhere strictly to one structure, but might be a com-bination of several structures. Many textbooks havea varied and mixed set of structures, and teacherscan address specific features and demands of infor-mational text so that students are more likely toengage in informational text with a repertoire ofstrategies and schema to help them construct mean-ing (Duke, 2003).

    Model appropriate text selection. Teachers teachstudents how to select appropriate texts by showingthem what features to consider. Some teachers usethe Goldilocks approach (Tompkins, 2003), whileothers suggest that teachers level books and tell stu-dents which level books they may select (Fountas& Pinnell, 1996). In the Goldilocks approach, read-ers look for books that are not too hard or too easy,but just right. Just-right books are those that lookinteresting, have mostly decodable words, havebeen read aloud previously, are written by a famil-iar author, or will be read with a support personnearby (Tompkins, 2003). Teachers have a wide va-riety of genres and levels of books available for stu-dents to select for independent reading, and theysupport students throughout the year with appro-priate book selection.

    Provide regular independent reading time.Teachers can make sure they provide students withtime to read independently every day. Reading be-comes better with practice, and comprehending be-comes better with more reading practice (Pressley,2003). Many teachers use programs such as DEAR(Drop Everything And Read) or SSR (SustainedSilent Reading) to ensure that students read inde-pendently every day.

    Teachers create and support a sociocultural context

    Reading takes place somewhere between aspecific reader and a specific text. A socioculturalinfluence likely permeates any reading activity(Kucer, 2001; Schallert & Martin, 2003).Depending on the place, the situation, and the pur-pose for reading, the reader and the text interact inways that are unique for that specific context. Thesame reading at another time or in a different placemight result in a different meaning. The context

    also involves the activity that occurs around thetransaction. If a teacher assigns his or her studentsto read a certain text for a specific reason, the trans-action that occurs will be based on this context. Ifstudents are asked to discuss a text, generate ques-tions from it, or come up with a big idea, thesekinds of activities form a context within which thereader and text interact for a specific reason, onethat is unlikely to occur in exactly the same mannerever again. Teachers create contexts and learningopportunities that will support the construction ofmeaning. Environments that value reading andwriting, that contain a wide variety of texts, thatallow students to take risks, and that find time forreading aloud and reading independently are con-texts that effectively promote the construction ofmeaning (Keene & Zimmermann, 1997; Miller,2002; Pardo, 2002).

    The transaction As we consider the readers individual and

    unique differences, the characteristics of the con-text, and the features of the text, we are left to won-der exactly what happens when these three cometogether. At the most basic level microstructures(words, propositions) are being decoded and rep-resented by mental images (Butcher & Kintsch,2003). This is most likely happening quickly, au-tomatically, and in short-term memory. These men-tal images are calling forth ideas and informationstored in long-term memory to assist the reader inbuilding a series of connections between represen-tations (van den Broek, 1994). These connectionsoccur between the reader and the text and betweendifferent parts of the text. This representation isfine-tuned by the reader as more information is en-countered in the text and more connections aremade. Readers exit the transaction maintaining amental representation or gist of the text.

    How do these connections lead to mental rep-resentations? One way is through making infer-ences. A reader is quite intentional as he or sheengages with the text, asking, What is it Im look-ing at here? Readers are searching for coherenceand for a chain of related events that can lead themto infer or make meaning. As readers continuemoving through the text, they continue to build in-ferences, drawing from long-term memory specific

    The Reading Teacher Vol. 58, No. 3 November 2004276

  • ideas that seem to create coherence and answer thequestion posed earlier, What is it Im looking athere? As this answer emerges, meaning is real-ized. Inferencing is most likely done automatical-ly and is one of the most important processes thatoccur during comprehension (Butcher & Kintsch,2003; van den Broek, 1994).

    The mental representation needs to make senseto the reader as it emerges; therefore, readers mon-itor the emerging meaning as they read, usingmetacognitive and fix-up strategies, sometimes dis-carding ideas in the text if they do not add to the co-herence that the reader is trying to build (Pressley& Afflerbach, 1995). If the readers backgroundknowledge or personal experiences agree with thetext, the reader assimilates this new informationand creates new meaning. If, however, the readersbackground knowledge and personal experiencesdo not agree with the new information presentedin the text, readers either adjust the information tomake it fit (accommodation), or they reject that in-formation and maintain their previous understand-ing (Kucer, 2001). Readers apply a variety ofstrategies throughout this process to support theirconstruction of meaning such as summarizing,clarifying, questioning, visualizing, predicting, andorganizing. It is through the application of thesestrategies at various moments throughout the in-teraction that meaning emerges.

    Teachers support transactionAt this point, it seems fairly obvious that com-

    prehension occurs in the transaction between areader and a text within a sociocultural context.That makes the transaction crucial to comprehen-sion and the teachers role within this transactionvery important. Teachers provide explicit instruc-tion of useful comprehension strategies, teach stu-dents to monitor and repair, use multiple strategyapproaches, scaffold support, and make readingand writing connections visible to students.

    Provide explicit instruction of useful comprehen-sion strategies. Good readers use strategies to sup-port their understanding of text. Teachers helpstudents become good readers by teaching them howto use the strategies of monitoring, predicting, in-ferring, questioning, connecting, summarizing, visu-

    alizing, and organizing (Keene & Zimmermann,1997; Miller, 2002; Pardo, 2002). Teachers are ex-plicit and direct in explaining what these strategiesare and why good readers use them (Duffy, 2002;Pressley & McCormick, 1995). They model thestrategies (often by thinking aloud) for the studentsand provide them with numerous opportunities topractice and apply the strategies. In order for strate-gies to transfer so that students use them on theirown or in assessment situations, contexts need toremain similar. Therefore, teachers use texts andclassroom structures that are easily maintained forteaching, practicing and applying independently, andassessing. Teachers help students think metacogni-tively about strategies, considering when and whereto apply each strategy, how to use it, and the impactit can have. In addition, teachers occasionally pro-vide students with difficult text. If students en-counter only texts that they can read easily, there willbe no reason to practice and apply strategies. It iswhen readers encounter challenging texts that theyput strategies to use (Kucer, 2001).

    Teach students to monitor and repair. Knowingwhat is understood and not understood while read-ing and then applying the appropriate strategy torepair meaning are vital for comprehension to oc-cur. Good readers monitor while reading to see ifthings make sense, and they use strategies to re-pair the meaning when things stop making sense(Duke, 2003; Pressley & Hilden, 2002). Whilesome studies support that monitoring is important(Baker, 2002; Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995), otherstudies indicate that readers often mismonitor(Baker, 1989; Baker & Brown, 1984; Kinnunen,Vauras, & Niemi, 1998). Readers have been foundto both over- and underestimate their comprehen-sion of text. So, while monitoring is important andgood readers seem to monitor successfully, effec-tive teachers realize that mismonitoring can affectmeaning for less able students, and they provideadditional support as needed so that all readerscomprehend text successfully.

    Use multiple strategy approaches. Researchershave found that teaching multiple strategies simul-taneously may be particularly powerful (Trabasso& Bouchard, 2002; National Institute of ChildHealth and Human Development, 2000; Pressley,2000).

    What every teacher needs to know about comprehension 277

  • There is very strong empirical, scientific evidence thatthe instruction of more than one strategy in a naturalcontext leads to the acquisition and use of readingcomprehension strategies and transfer to standardizedcomprehension tests. Multiple strategy instruction fa-cilitates comprehension as evidenced by performanceon tasks that involve memory, summarizing, and iden-tification of main ideas. (Trabasso & Bouchard, 2002, p. 184)

    Perhaps the most frequently used multiplestrategies approach is transactional strategy instruc-tion (TSI), created and studied by Pressley and col-leagues (Brown, Pressley, Van Meter, & Schuder,1996; Gaskins, Anderson, Pressley, Cunicelli, &Satlow, 1993). TSI teachers encourage readers tomake sense of text by using strategies that allowthem to make connections between text content andprior knowledge. Teachers and students work insmall reading groups to collaboratively make mean-ing using several teacher-identified strategies.Teachers model and explain the strategies, coachstudents in their use, and help students use themflexibly. Throughout the instruction, students aretaught to think about the usefulness of each strate-gy and to become metacognitive about their ownreading processes.

    Scaffold support. When teaching strategies toelementary-age students, teachers gradually releaseresponsibility for comprehending to students. Aneffective model that has been used by some teach-ers is the Gradual Release of Responsibility model(Pearson & Gallagher, 1983). In this model, teach-ers take all the responsibility for applying a newlyintroduced strategy by modeling, thinking aloud,demonstrating, and creating meaning. As timepasses and students have more exposure to andpractice with using the strategy, teachers scaffoldstudents by creating activities within studentsZone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978)and slowly withdrawing more and more responsi-bility. Teachers work collaboratively with the stu-dents and the strategy, giving and taking as much asnecessary to create meaning. Eventually, studentstake on more and more responsibility as they be-come more confident, knowledgeable, and capable.Finally, students are able to work independently.Teachers and students do not always progress in alinear way, but often slip back and forth betweenmore and less responsibility depending on the task,

    the text, and the strategy. While adaptations may bemade with students of different ages, teachers usethis model with students in all elementary grades.

    Make reading/writing connections visible.Teachers help students see that reading and writ-ing are parallel processes and that becoming goodwriters can help them become good readers (Kucer,2001). Composing a text can be thought of as writ-ing something that people will understand. Writingcan bring understanding about a certain topic to thewriter, who will have to be clear about the topic heor she is writing about. Meaning matters in com-prehending, and becoming a clear writer is allabout how the reader will make meaning of the textthat is being created. Recalling the earlier discus-sion of authentic purposes is important here aswell; students will likely become engaged with thetask of writing if asked to write for authentic andimportant purposes.

    Closing commentsComprehending is a complicated process, as

    we have discovered and explored in this article.Yet it is one of the most important skills for stu-dents to develop if they are to become successfuland productive adults. Comprehension instructionin schools, beginning in kindergarten, is thereforecrucial. Teachers use their knowledge and under-standings of how one learns to comprehend toinform classroom practices so they can most ef-fectively help readers develop the abilities to com-prehend text. It is hoped that the discussion in thisarticle can open a dialogue with teachers andteacher educators toward this end.

    Pardo is a doctoral candidate in Teaching,Curriculum, & Educational Policy at MichiganState University (118 #36 Erickson Hall, EastLansing, MI 48824, USA). [email protected].

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