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.

Observe students during authentic discussions about books. This can happen during whole-group read-alouds or during small-group reading instruction. Assess students’ ability to synthesize information by asking students to take information from a text and think beyond it. Prompt the student by asking questions. Student responses will vary depending on the question. Mastery will be apparent if the student uses information from the text to create a new understanding.

Examples:

  • How else would you solve the problem in this story?
  • Is there a better solution that would have made the story different?
  • Can you create an alternative ending to this story? How would it change things?
  • How has this story changed your thinking about __________ (story topic)?
Synthesizing is the process of combining multiple details and parts of a text, or even multiple texts, to form a new coherent and unified idea not explicitly stated within the text. When students synthesize information from a text, they can apply the knowledge gained from it to their lives and the world around them. In kindergarten, this may also involve students naming one new thing they learned from a text and summarizing that new understanding in their own words or illustrating their new understanding of a topic based on what they heard or read.

Research

What Works Clearinghouse. (2010). Improving reading comprehension in kindergarten through 3rd grade: practice guide summary. Washington, DC: Institute of Education Science. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/14#tab-summary

Summary: The goal of this practice guide is to offer educators specific evidence-based recommendations that address the challenge of teaching reading comprehension to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. The guide provides practical, clear information on critical topics related to teaching reading comprehension and is based on the best available evidence as judged by the authors.