WHAT EVERY TEACHER NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT COMPREHENSION

Contributed by Jessy Rae D. Licaroz – Teacher III, Sta. Rosa Elementary School, Pilar

Reading comprehension is crucial in all areas of learning. The development of reading comprehension skills requires a combination of teaching, modeling and practice. A teacher has the potential to be a tool for facilitating learning about reading comprehension, as it offers the art of questioning, modeling and a medium for promoting higher order thinking skills.

Readers have individual differences. The teacher should support elementary age readers to become competent in reading comprehension. Here are some tips to be followed:

Teach decoding skills. In order to comprehend, readers must be able to read the words. Some level of autonomic decoding must be present so that short-term memory can work on comprehending. Teacher’s help pupils get to this level of autonomic decoding by providing instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics at all grade levels. While teachers in the primary grades work with phonemic awareness and phonics, teachers in the intermediate grades support pupils’ continued development of autonomic decoding through spelling, vocabulary and high frequency word activities.

Help pupils build fluency. Teachers help pupils become more fluent by engaging them in repeated readings for real purposes. Teachers also model fluent reading by reading aloud to pupils daily so that they realize what fluent reading sounds like.

Build and activate prior knowledge. Background knowledge is an important factor for creating meaning, and teachers should help pupils activate prior knowledge before reading so that information connected with concepts or topics in the text is more easily accessible during reading.

Teach vocabulary words. If there are so many words that a reader does not know, he or she will have to spend too much mental energy figuring out the unknown words and will not understand the passage as a whole. Teachers help pupils learn important vocabulary words prior to reading difficult or unfamiliar texts. When teaching vocabulary words, teachers make sure that the selected words are necessary for making meaning with the text pupils will be reading and that they help pupils connect the new words to something that they already know.

Motivate Pupils. Many individual reader factors are not within a teacher’s control. However teachers can motivate pupils by providing them with interesting words, allowing them choices in reading and writing, and helping pupils set authentic purposes for reading.

Text Structure. Understanding the reader is one important piece of the comprehension puzzle, but features of the text also influence the transaction where comprehension happens. The structure of the text- its genre, vocabulary, language, even the specific word choices works to make each text unique. Teachers help young readers understand those features so they can comprehend effectively.

Comprehending is a complicated process, as we have discovered and explored. Yet it is one of the important skills for pupils to develop if they are to become successful and productive adults.

Comprehension instruction in schools, beginning in kindergarten, is therefore crucial. Teachers use their knowledge and understanding of how one learns to comprehend to inform classroom practices so they can most effectively help readers develop the abilities to comprehend text.

References:

Pardo, Laura S. (2004) What every teacher needs to know about comprehension. Retrieve from www.learner.org