comprehension TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Comprehension skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts.
a conclusion, generalization, or prediction that results from examining various details and pieces of information and connecting them with background knowledge to determine meaning; to make a logical guess
Readers must be able to make inferences within and beyond a text to draw conclusions about information or ideas not explicitly stated in the text. Students should be able to use context presented in the text, prior knowledge or experience, text features, and/or other comprehension tools to make reasonable, logical assumptions about the intended meaning in a text. For example, if a character’s reaction to looking at a school report card is to smile, students could infer that the character is pleased with his or her grades even if the author never states that explicitly.
Students should consider the context presented in a text, their prior knowledge or experience, text features, and/or other comprehension tools to make reasonable, logical assumptions about the intended meaning in a text. Evidence that justifies students’ comprehension can be any relevant details, facts, or information that help students understand what they are reading.

Research

1. Nokes, J. D. (2008). The observation/inference chart: improving student's abilities to make inferences while reading nontraditional texts: paintings, movies, historical artifacts, and other nontraditional texts are easier to understand when students are skilled in making inferences. These skills transfer to traditional texts as well. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(7), 538+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A178358714/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=842641e2

Summary: The author demonstrates how an observation/inference chart can help inexperience readers make good inferences. The author explains how to observe and make inferences from those observations, provides examples of modeling making inferences, and gives examples to support both guided practice for students and students' individual practice. Although the study was conducted on secondary students, the process can be adapted to primary classrooms.

2. Droop, M., Elsäcker, W. V., Voeten, M. J., & Verhoeven, L. (2015). Long-Term Effects of Strategic Reading Instruction in the Intermediate Elementary Grades. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 9(1), 77–102. doi:10.1080/19345747.2015.1065528

Summary: The findings of this research suggest that third and fourth grade students should first attain and enhance their knowledge of reading strategies through teacher modeling. Then, they should learn how reading strategies are used and verbalized. After these steps, students can learn to apply this knowledge when reading. The more often a student uses the strategies, the more internalized the strategies become.