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.

Task students with establishing a purpose for reading an assigned or self-selected text and backing up their decisions with evidence such as an interest in exploring a text based on text features, title, or genre expectation. 
 

Further Explanation

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

When students establish purposes for reading, they set goals or intentions for reading. Students must answer the question “Why am I reading this text?” For example, the purpose for reading a text might be to learn a new recipe, be entertained, or learn about a historical event. In assigned texts, the purpose is usually established by the teacher or other adult: summarize a story, write a book report, or write an argumentative essay in response to a text. However, in self-selected texts, students must define for 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+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A571514230/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=16fddd15

Summary: The focus of this article is on guided reading, but it looks at the benefits of self-selected reading in the development of reading motivation and comprehension. The authors provide a list for scaffolding complex texts and 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. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ951779.pdf

Summary: In this study, middle school educational leadership identified reading as a priority. Students were given choice over what they read and time to read on their own. Student engagement increased because reading was a school priority, but creating time and space to read was meaningless for students who did not have easy access to books at home. In response, teachers amassed books and created a reading network for students. The results were increased student engagement and the belief, among students, that reading mattered.