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.

Have students select a text for a specified purpose, such as for a book report or for pleasure and explain the purpose for choosing a self-selected text.

Questions to Ask:

  • What do you want to get from your reading experience with this text?
  • Why are you reading today? (self-selected text)
  • How does reading this text benefit me as a reader?
     

Further Explanation

This assessment example requires students to understand and be able to communicate the reasons they are reading a self-selected text. This understanding is acquired through experience with choosing texts that tell a story, provide facts, explain a concept, or describe an experience.

When students establish purpose for reading, they set their goal or intention for reading. They answer the question “Why am I reading this text?” For example, the purpose for reading a text might be to learn a new recipe, to be entertained, or to learn about a historical event. In assigned texts, the purpose is usually established by the teacher or any other adult: summarize a story, make a book report, or write an argumentative essay in response to a text. However, in self-selected texts students must define by themselves the specific reason(s) to read a given text.
a text that a student identifies and chooses to read for independent reading

Research

1. Donnelly, P. (2019). A new guide for guided reading: More guided, more reading. Practical Literacy, 24(1), 9–11. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A571514230/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=16fddd15

Summary: The focus of this article is guided reading, and it examines the benefits of self-selected reading in the development of reading motivation and comprehension. The authors provide a list for scaffolding complex texts. They also recommend teachers follow up on the reading of complex texts through guided, sustained discussions in order to increase the academic benefit from interpreting and reinterpreting texts. For many students, scaffolding complex texts will accelerate reading skills; self-selected sustained reading will consolidate them.

2. Daniels, E., & Steres, M. (2011). Examining the effects of a school-wide reading culture on the engagement of middle school students. Research in Middle Level Education, 35(2), 1–13. doi: 10.1080/19404476.2011.11462085

Summary:  In this study, reading is perceived as a school-wide priority. Students are allowed to select their own text and to read on their own. The study reveals it is more effective if students have access to literature at home as well.