English Language Arts and Reading.3.6.I

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The student is expected to

monitor comprehension and make adjustments such as re-reading, using background knowledge, asking questions, and annotating when understanding breaks down.

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.

As students prepare to read independently, instruct them to actively monitor their comprehension by using comprehension strategies that have been modeled and explicitly taught. Suggest they write questions or annotations in their reading notebook or on sticky notes.

Examples of questions:

  • How are the characters related? What did Eva do to make her sister cry?
  • Which is larger—the Moon or Earth?
  • What connections are you making to the characters or setting?
  • What do you think will happen next?

Then, during one-on-one conferencing, have students share their experience while reading. Ask students if any specific strategy helped them better understand the text.

 

Further Explanation

This assessment example requires that students recognize when their understanding breaks down while reading text. At the point comprehension stalls, students should be able to demonstrate how to use strategies that have been explicitly taught and modeled to improve their comprehension. If a student is not able to articulate appropriate strategies, the student may need additional explicit support with comprehension strategies.

interact with a text by adding notes or comments to the text in order to record significant features and/or personal commentary or reactions that may enhance one’s understanding of the text while reading
If students determine that they do not fully understand a task, it is necessary that they know how to revisit the text in a purposeful and methodical way to identify where the miscommunication with the text has occurred. If students do not adjust how they are trying to extract meaning from the text, the disconnect will only compound, causing the text to get increasingly harder to comprehend.
When students track their comprehension over time, they independently choose strategies to check for understanding. For example, students at this grade should know to ask questions while reading, such as “Why did that just happen?” and “Why did the character respond that way?” Students can clarify understanding by re-reading parts of the text they find confusing. Students should think actively about the literal meaning of the text as they read. Students should also assess whether they are making appropriate connections and drawing reasonable conclusions. Continually monitoring for understanding while reading allows students to apply focused strategies when breakdowns in understanding occur.

Research

1. Taboada, A., & Guthrie, J. T. (2006). Contributions of student questioning and prior knowledge to construction of knowledge from reading information text. Journal of Literacy Research, 38(1), 1–35. Accessed online at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/s15548430jlr3801_1

Summary: This study investigated the relationship of student-generated questions and prior knowledge with reading comprehension.  Third- and fourth-grade students posed questions that were related to their prior knowledge and reading comprehension. The results indicated that student questioning accounted for a significant amount of variance in students’ reading comprehension, after accounting for the contribution of prior knowledge.

2. Ness, M. (2011). Explicit reading comprehension instruction in elementary classrooms: teacher use of reading comprehension strategies. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25(1), 98+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A249684448/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=27f9f0d6

Summary: The purpose of this observational study was to identify the frequency of reading comprehension instruction in elementary classrooms. Additional objectives were to determine which reading comprehension instructional strategies were most employed by teacher in 20 first- through fifth-grade classrooms. Question answering, summarization, and predicting/prior knowledge were the most frequently occurring reading comprehension strategies. Implications for professional development and training are provided.