Too often text comprehension is reduced to answering questions after reading or listening. Often, this involves answering questions about information that was explicitly stated in the text. However, true comprehension goes far beyond just recalling the explicit details or facts. It’s about understanding ideas in more complex ways — making connections between the written words and what we already know, believe, or have experienced in our own lives.
At its heart, comprehension is about meaning making. Students need to go beyond explicit details and learn to make inferences from early in their literacy learning progression. They need to learn to summarize, integrate, and determine the main idea. Skilled text comprehension involves understanding at multiple levels as readers integrate the information they are reading with their existing knowledge. From the beginning, text comprehension involves connecting text with lived experience and background knowledge. These connections help to make reading engaging and impactful. Without them, reading and listening can feel like tasks to finish rather than experiences to enjoy.
A Story of Change: From Reluctant Reader to Engaged Thinker
Take Bonita, a fourth-grade student who dreaded reading time. Each week, her teacher read to the class and then the students took turns answering questions. Bonita and her classmates would take turns coming to the front of the group, listen as the teacher read the question, and then point to the answer. Bonita could often find the correct answer, but she didn’t understand why her teacher did this each week. To Bonita, this routine was just one more activity to cross off her schedule each day.
Bonita’s teacher, Mrs. Wright, recently made some changes to her approach to reading. First, Mrs. Wright started planning text comprehension lessons to help students learn to use their knowledge of world and life experience while reading. To begin each lesson, Mrs. Wright led the group through an anchor activity. This activity helped activate student thinking to prepare them for reading. For example, when she wanted students to listen to describe the main character, they completed an anchor activity focused on describing the school principal. When she wanted students to read to determine how the main character’s feelings changed during the story, they completed an anchor activity focused on their own emotions and how they can change during an event (e.g., excited for a birthday party then disappointed when it doesn’t go as planned). When she wanted students to read to determine the main idea, she worked with them to determine the main idea of some short video clips she gathered. In each case, Mrs. Wright followed the anchor activity with a clear statement of the purpose for reading or listening.
In addition to changing the way she planned and implemented her group instruction, Mrs. Wright began offering choices for student reading and listening. She encouraged students to choose short stories, articles, and even picture books on a variety of topics. Bonita loved this. She was immediately drawn to a story about a young ballet dancer. The dancer wanted to be selected to dance a solo role in the Nutcracker. Bonita loved dancing. She too wanted to be in the Nutcracker one day.
When Mrs. Wright talked with Bonita about the book she was reading, she refrained from asking typical comprehension questions. Instead, she asked questions like:
- “Why do you think she wanted to be in the Nutcracker?”
- “Have you been in a ballet before?”
- “What questions would you want to ask the character?”
Bonita responded to each of Mrs. Wright’s questions pointing to parts of the book, using her communication device, and gesturing as she does in her every day interactions.
The Power of Connection
When students are invited to make meaning, to bring their experiences, emotions, and ideas into the reading process, they begin to see reading as something that is worth their time and effort. Anchoring instruction in students’ background knowledge and experience is one important place to start. Teachers can also nurture this by:
- Giving students choices in what they read.
- Asking open-ended questions that encourage reflection and connection.
- Encouraging students to share their interpretations.
- Helping students see how reading connects to their world.
Reading comprehension involves more than remembering facts. It involves understanding, connecting, and growing. When students see reading as a reflection of their own lives and interests, and a way to learn about others’, they evolve from passive readers to engaged thinkers.