Web Watch:
Comprehension Resources
She laughed and she cried as she read, and she exclaimed aloud in the high and echoing room: “Wow!”
Jerry Spinelli, The Library Card
| In The Library Card, author Jerry Spinelli tells the story of how a magic library card turns out to be the ticket to finding what each young character needs most at the time. This fantastic story certainly illustrates the point that good books can have an important influence on readers. Indeed, as can be seen from the excerpt above, laughter, crying, and exclamations are visible indications that the reader has constructed meaning from her interaction with the text. But what about children whose behaviors suggest that they have not done so? | Related Postings from the Archives
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Over the past 30 years, research in the area of reading comprehension has led to new understandings about the complex process of constructing meaning from text. Comprehension is a mental process that depends on prior knowledge, experience, and information in the text. It involves not only the reader and the text, but also the social context. According to Ruddell (2002), “Comprehension reflects who people are, how they relate to the world and others in it, their accumulated store of factual and intuitive knowledge, the social environment in which they are reading, and even how they feel on a given day” (p. 105). Comprehension instruction must therefore take into consideration the ways children learn, the types of interaction in which they participate, and the texts they read (McMahon & Raphael, 1997). These key factors are supported by an extensive review of research on comprehension conducted by Pearson and Fielding (1991). Based on their findings, Fielding and Pearson (1994) set forth four components that a successful program of comprehension should include:
Providing ample time for reading, defined by Fielding and Pearson (1994, p. 63) as “more time to read than the combined total allocated for learning about reading and talking or writing about what has been read” supports the old adage "practice makes perfect" by allowing students the “opportunity to orchestrate the skills and strategies that are important to proficient reading” (p. 63). It also allows for the acquisition of new knowledge. Students should also be given the chance to choose their own books within their level of ability, reread texts for fluency, and read and discuss books with peers.
Fielding and Pearson (1994) state that research shows repeatedly that comprehension can be taught and that instruction in comprehension strategies is especially effective for poor comprehenders. Quality strategy instruction should include
Comprehension strategy instruction should be embedded within repeated situations in which students read and discuss whole texts with the teacher and peers. Through peer and collaborative learning, equity, community, and access to other students’ thinking processes can be achieved. During teacher-student dialogues, the teacher should allow for student input and control and accept multiple interpretations of texts.
Reading workshop is one organizational framework that encompasses many of the components described by Fielding and Pearson (1994). The word "workshop" is used to describe a context in which children are actively engaged in reading, responding, discussing, and sharing books with the teacher and peers, reflecting what readers do in real life. During reading workshop, the teacher shares his or her own enthusiasm and excitement for books, conducts minilessons based on students’ responses to reading, and confers with individual students. Though all of these activities are designed to assist students with the construction of meaning, the crux of reading workshop is the amount of time provided for reading ‘just right’ books (Johnson, 2001, online document).
Fostering the development of children’s comprehension abilities is one of the most critical roles of an effective teacher. The purpose of this Web Watch is to provide educators with resources available on the Internet to assist in this endeavor. First I describe websites that provide information on comprehension, then sites that provide either printable resources or interactive resources.
Information Websites
The Heartland Area Education Agency – Reading Comprehension Strategies site was developed by the largest of 15 area education agencies created by the Iowa legislature to ensure equal educational opportunities for all children. It provides links to over 35 articles on reading comprehension strategies and research.
Increasing Comprehension by Activating Prior Knowledge, Vocabulary Instruction and Reading Comprehension, and Listening and Reading Comprehension are three informative articles compiled by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication.
A New Way to Teach Comprehension is an article hosted by About.com that discusses one teacher’s journey to discovering and implementing a reading workshop approach.
Teaching Children to Read is the full text of the U.S. National Reading Panel report, available on the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s website in PDF format. Chapter 4 includes a discussion of vocabulary instruction, comprehension instruction, and teacher preparation for comprehension strategy instruction.
The Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement features The Contexts of Comprehension: Information Book Read Alouds and Comprehension Acquisition. This report presents research supporting book read-alouds as a means of providing a context for scaffolding, modeling, and engaging in direct comprehension instruction using nonfiction. This context also offers students opportunities to engage in discussions designed to clarify concepts and construct meaning.
The article Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension, written by Nell K. Duke and P. David Pearson at Michigan State University (East Lansing, USA) describes effective strategies for promoting comprehension of text and characteristics of a balanced comprehension program into which such strategies can be embedded. The article also offers a tool for assessing the comprehension instruction environment in the classroom.
Websites with Printable or Interactive Resources
Ready to Print Resources for Mosaic and Strategies That Work was created by Colleen D. Gallagher, a second-grade teacher at Silver Ridge Elementary School in Silverdale, Washington, USA. This site is dedicated to the comprehension strategies discussed in Mosaic of Thought (Keene & Zimmermann, 1997) and Strategies That Work (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). Included are printable posters, strategy sheets, activities, and links to other websites on comprehension strategies.
Reading Comprehension is a wonderful resource developed by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. It includes a list of 19 activities for promoting reading comprehension. The activities are for emergent and developing readers and are available in English or Spanish.
Reading Workshop, created by Palma Sola Elementary School in Bradenton, Florida, USA, supports reading workshop in Grades 1 to 5. The site features online tutorials in reading comprehension strategies, plus reading comprehension and content area practice sheets.
Reading Workshop: Reading Is a Strategic Thinking Process is a great resource developed by Springfield Public School District #186 in Illinois, USA, provides information on reading comprehension within a reading workshop format. Two of the strategies discussed are making connections and inferring. A description of each strategy is provided, along with several video clips showing teachers working with children to demonstrate the strategy, and to provide opportunities for shared experiences and guided and independent practice.
References
Fielding, L., & Pearson, P.D. (1994). Reading comprehension: What works. Educational Leadership, 51(5), 62-68.
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Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work. York, ME: Stenhouse.
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Johnson, D. (2001, April). Web watch: Internet resources to assist teachers with struggling readers. Reading Online, 4(9). Available:
http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/webwatch/struggling/index.html
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Keene, E. & Zimmermann, S. (1997). Mosaic of thought. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
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McMahon, S., & Raphael, T. (1997). The book club connection. New York: Teachers College Press.
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Pearson, P.D., & Fielding, L. (1991). Comprehension instruction. In R. Barr, M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P.D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research: Volume II. White Plains, NY: Longman.
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Ruddell, R. (2002). Teaching children to read and write. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon
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Denise Johnson is an assistant professor of reading education at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virigina, USA. She received her Ed.D. in reading from the University of Memphis, Tennessee. She has worked as an elementary classroom teacher, a middle school reading specialist, and a Reading Recovery teacher. She now teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in literacy education and conducts research on the integration of technology into preservice and inservice education courses and within elementary classrooms. Her articles on literacy and technology have been published in a variety of journals and she is active in several professional organizations. She enjoys traveling with her family and reading to her son, Derek. Contact her by e-mail at cdjohn@wm.edu. |
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Citation: Johnson, D. (2001, December/January). Web watch: Comprehension resources. Reading Online, 5(5). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=webwatch/comprehension/index.html
Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted December 2001
© 2001 International Reading Association, Inc. ISSN 1096-1232