Why is Comprehension important?

Research on Reading Comprehension tells us that...

• Readers who comprehend well are also good decoders
  • Teach decoding and word recognition strategies
• Time spent reading is highly correlated with comprehension
  • Provide for lots of in-class reading, outside of class reading, independent reading
  • Encourage kids to read more, read widely - develop a passion for reading

Research Findings

Readers taught cognitive strategies make significant gains on measure of reading comprehension

National Reading Panel (2000; see References)

Question: Does text comprehension instruction improve reading achievement? Answer:

• Yes, but there have been relatively few studies conducted with children in grades K, 1, and 2.
• The NRP concluded that the instruction of cognitive strategies improves reading comprehension in readers with a range of abilities.

The National Reading Panel recommends:

• Question answering
• Comprehension monitoring
• Cooperative learning
• Graphic/semantic organizers/story maps
• Question generation
• Summarization

Causes of Reading Comprehension Failure

Kame'enui & Simmons, 1990 (See References)

• Inadequate instruction
• Insufficient exposure and practice
• Deficient word recognition skills
• Deficient memory capacity and functioning
• Significant language deficiencies
• Inadequate comprehension monitoring and self-evaluation
• Unfamiliarity with text features and task demands
• Undeveloped attentional strategies
• Inadequate cognitive development and reading experiences