English Language Arts and Reading.5.6.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.

Direct students to read a text that includes complex subject matter, sentence structure, syntax, and vocabulary. Remind students to use the strategies they have been taught to help comprehend a text (e.g., re-reading, asking questions, annotating). Observe students to see what adjustments they make when their comprehension breaks down.
 

Further Explanation

This assessment example requires that students recognize when their understanding breaks down while reading text. At the point comprehension stalls, students should know how to use strategies that have been explicitly taught and modeled to improve their comprehension.

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 are not fully understanding a task, it is necessary that they know how to re-approach the text in a purposeful and methodical way to identify where the miscommunication with the text has occurred. If students do not make adjustments to 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 monitor their comprehension, they independently choose strategies to check for understanding. Students should not only actively think about the literal meaning of the text as they read, but 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. doi:10.1207/s15548430jlr3801_1

Summary:  This study examine how students' questions (inquiry) and prior knowledge interconnect to construct new meaning when reading an informational text. The results of the study reinforces the concept that there is a direct alignment between how students talk about and ask questions of a text with their reading and comprehension skills.

2. Hedin, L. R., & Conderman, G. (2010). Teaching students to comprehend information text through rereading. The Reading Teacher, 63(7), 556–565. doi:10.1598/RT.63.7.3

Summary: Hedin and Conderman describe specific strategies that students can use to make meaning of the text and increase reading and writing comprehension. The study reveals strategies are successful with struggling readers. The approach uses paraphrasing and rereading to identify the placement of the main ideas, key terms and definitions. The approach also includes pronouns, appositives, or text enhancements. Charts, samples, and references are included.  

3.  Evans, B. P., & Shively, C. T. (2019). Using the Cornell Note-taking System can help eighth grade students alleviate the impact of interruptions while reading at home, Journal of Inquiry & Action in Education, 10(1). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/

Summary: As part of the study, students are taught the Cornell note-taking system. Students are required to write questions about the main ideas of the notes and answer those questions, along with writing a summary. This study shows that middle school students will be able to make the adjustment from note-taking instruction on paper to computer. Additionally, middle school students can handle using a traditional high school and college aged note-taking strategy like the Cornell system. The study found that the Cornell system can be used to alleviate the impact interruptions have on students’ working memories and comprehension.

4.  Barth, A. E., & Elleman, A. (2017). Evaluating the impact of a multistrategy inference intervention for middle-grade struggling readers. Language, Speech, & Hearing Services in Schools, 48(1), 31–41. doi: 10.1044/2016_LSHSS-16-0041

Summary: This study examines the effectiveness of multiple inference intervention strategies that were designed to increase inference-making and reading comprehension for struggling readers. The study focused on using text clues, activating and integrating prior knowledge, understanding character and author's purpose, and responding to inference questions. Details and lesson examples are available in the Appendix.