Understanding Reading Comprehension

Can baboons read? That is the thought-provoking question that opens this wonderfully accessible book for trainee and practising primary school teachers to fully understand the process of reading comprehension. Comprehension is an essential component of learning to read and a successful teacher of reading will have a portfolio of different strategies and approaches that take in to account that children learn to read in different ways. This book supports the development of student and practising teachers’ subject knowledge by providing detailed guidance in to the reading comprehension process, along with practical strategies and lesson ideas for use in the classroom. Drawing from educational and psychological research, coverage includes: School-based activities in every chapter An in-depth focus on the inference making process The role of vocabulary and syntax in comprehension Cognitive and meta-cognitive processes including the use of memory Advice on developing effective classroom talk with different groups of children Using different text genres and selecting texts

The ultimate aim of reading is not the process but to understand what we read and comprehension can take place at many different levels. There has been an increasing emphasis on the importance of reading comprehension in recent years but despite this there is very little written on this vital topic accessible to trainee and practicing teachers. The Handbook of Reading Comprehension presents an overview of recent findings on reading comprehension and comprehension problems in children. It provides a detailed examination of the characteristics of children who have reading comprehension difficulties, and examines ways in which comprehension can be supported and improved. It is accessibly written for students and professionals with no previous background in the psychology of reading or reading problems. This indispensable handbook asks the question ‘what is comprehension?’ The authors consider comprehension of different units of language: understanding single words, sentences, and connected prose and outline what readers (and listeners) have to do to successfully understand an extended text. This book also considers comprehension for different purposes, in particular reading for pleasure and reading to learn and explores how reader characteristics such as interest and motivation can influence the comprehension process. Different skills contribute to successful reading comprehension. These include word reading ability, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic skills, memory, and discourse level skills such as the ability to make inferences, knowledge about text structure, and metacognitive skills. The authors discuss how each one contributes to the development of reading comprehension skill and how the development of these skills (or their precursors) in pre-readers, provides the foundation for reading comprehension development. Areas covered include:- Word reading and comprehension Development of comprehension skills Comprehension difficulties Assessment Teaching for improvement Throughout the text successful experimental and classroom based interventions will be highlighted, practical tips for teachers and summary boxes detailing key points and explaining technical terms will be included in each chapter

Learning to read is one of the most important life skills teachers can help a child develop. Teaching reading is a vital part of a career in the classroom and engaging with the range of different learning styles children have is a real challenge. Trainee teachers need to learn how to address this variety of learning needs, and also meet the wider demands of the curriculum. Margaret Perkins helps students meet these challenges to become a confident, reflective teacher of reading by providing: * An in-depth explanation of phonics teaching alongside other teaching approaches, empowering trainees to choose the right approach for each individual child *Key research findings so students can apply the latest thinking to their teaching practice *School-based activities and independent learning tasks to help apply theory to practice, and develop teaching skills through self-reflection *Classroom scenarios of teacher-child interactions that demonstrate how children learn and respond to different teaching strategies.

To Understand proposes a model that incorporates all aspects of literacy instruction and describes how teachers can focus on what matters most. Keene shows that when teachers target the most essential content, they can help every student engage more deeply with texts and discover a passion for reading and learning. You'll learn to draw out students' intellectual interests and spark improvements in their literacy learning and comprehension-even among students who struggle. You'll see that teaching the Outcomes and Dimensions of Understanding can help readers exceed expectations and also help broaden your vision of their capacity and energy for learning.

In fall 1999, the Department of Education's Office of Educational Researchand Improvement (OERI) asked RAND to examine how OERI might improve thequality and relevance of the education research it funds. The RAND ReadingStudy Group (RRSG) was charged with developing a research framework toaddress the most pressing issues in literacy. RRSG focused on readingcomprehension wherein the highest priorities for research are: (1)Instruction

Radically change the way students learn from texts, extending beyond comprehension to critical reasoning and problem solving. Is your reading comprehension instruction just a pile of strategies? There is no evidence that teaching one strategy at a time, especially with pieces of text that require that readers use a variety of strategies to successfully negotiate meaning, is effective. And how can we extend comprehension beyond simple meaning? Bestselling authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nicole Law propose a new, comprehensive model of reading instruction that goes beyond teaching skills to fostering engagement and motivation. Using a structured, three-pronged approach—skill, will, and thrill—students learn to experience reading as a purposeful act and embrace struggle as a natural part of the reading process. Instruction occurs in three phases: Skill. Holistically developing skills and strategies necessary for students to comprehend text, such as monitoring, predicting, summarizing, questioning, and inferring. Will. Creating the mindsets, motivations, and habits, including goal setting and choice, necessary for students to engage fully with texts. Thrill. Fostering the thrill of comprehension, so that students share their thinking with others or use their knowledge for something else. Comprehension is the structured framework you need to empower students to comprehend text and take action in the world.

`Colin Harrison's knowledge of the research on reading processes and comprehension is encyclopaedic.... This is essential reading for all those committed to improving literacy attainment at all levels' - Professor Greg Brooks, University of Sheffield

Developing Reading Comprehension “In recent years the debate about teaching young children to read has tended to focus upon equipping them with the crucially important knowledge and skills they need to read words accurately in and out of context, that is to say, teaching them how the alphabet works for reading and spelling. While such knowledge and skills are essential, more is required for children to become literate, fluent readers who understand what they read. In short, the goal of reading is comprehension. This book scrupulously examines the obstacles to reading comprehension and exemplifies what can be done to help children overcome them. It is an important and timely contribution to securing high-quality teaching of the range of attributes children need to become fully-fledged readers.” Sir Jim Rose, CBE “The studies by Professors Charles Hulme and Maggie Snowling and their team over two decades based around the Reading Intervention Programme are the most sustained, comprehensive and rigorous research series on reading yet conducted in the UK. Their increasing focus on children who experience the most difficulty in reading is exactly where attention should be directed. This volume summarises the team’s achievements to date, and is most eagerly awaited.” Greg Brooks, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Sheffield, Member of European High Level Group of Experts on Literacy “Developing Reading Comprehension presents a landmark study from the top research team in the UK on how to improve reading comprehension. It’s an exemplary masters-level textbook written with undergraduate-level lucidity and approachability.” Colin Harrison, Emeritus Professor of Literacy Studies in Education, University of Nottingham A significant minority of children aged 7–11, despite being able to read fluently and accurately, have difficulty extracting meaning from text. This detailed guide offers three evidence-based intervention programmes, drawn from the cutting edge of educational psychology, for improving the reading skills of children in this group. It includes a definitive introduction to the characteristics of the ‘poor comprehender profile’, and explains how to monitor and assess students’ experiences and learning outcomes. With invaluable strategies for teachers, psychologists and special educational needs coordinators, the book will help professionals to support learners in their efforts to explore the full richness of language and to read with real understanding.