Comprehension Instruction
Sharon Walpole
University of Delaware
Michael C. McKenna
Georgia Southern University
Our Goal: Build Real Literacy
The knowledge and
skills that allow all
children, from all
families, to read and
write authentic texts
for authentic
purposes
Comprehension
It’s the one thing we all agree on as the most
important goal in reading instruction
So why is it so difficult?
History of the
World Chess
Championship
In the mid-1800s there was no official champion. Three
players felt they had a legitimate claim to the title, however. One
was Paul Morphy, an American. The other two, Howard
Staunton and Adolf Anderssen, were Europeans. Morphy
challenged each and defeated Anderssen. Unfortunately,
Staunton died before a match could be arranged, and Morphy
then decided to give up chess forever!
This left the championship in doubt until the emergence of
Wilhelm Steinitz, an Austrian master. Because he defeated all
serious challengers, Steinitz is considered the first world
champion. In 1894, he lost the title to Emanuel Lasker, a
German. Lasker held it for 27 years before losing to the great
Cuban player, Jose Capablanca, in 1921. Just six years later,
Alexander Alexhine, a Russian, defeated him. Alexhine
unscrupulously chose only weak opponents, but in 1935 he
miscalculated by deciding to play Max Euwe, a young Dutch
player. Euwe beat Alexhine but lost a return match two years
later. Alexhine hung onto the title until his death in 1946.
Comprehension
Question
In what year did Capablanca lose
the title?
Mid 1800s
Mid 1800s
Morphy
Staunton
Anderssen
Mid 1800s
Morphy
Staunton
Anderssen
Mid 1800s
Quic kT ime™ and a
T IFF (LZW) dec ompres sor
are needed to s ee this pi cture.
Morphy
Staunton
Anderssen
Mid 1800s
Morphy
Anderssen
Mid 1800s
Morphy
Morphy
Anderssen
Mid 1800s
Morphy
Morphy
Anderssen
Mid 1800s
Steinitz
Morphy
Morphy
Anderssen
Mid 1800s
Steinitz
Lasker
Morphy
Morphy
Steinitz
Anderssen
Lasker
Mid 1800s
1894
Morphy
Morphy
Steinitz
Anderssen
Lasker
Lasker
Mid 1800s
1894
Capablanca
Lasker
Capablanca
1921
Lasker
Capablanca
Capablanca
1921
Alexhine
Alexhine
Lasker
Capablanca
Capablanca
1921
1927
1935
Alexhine
Alexhine
Lasker
Capablanca
Capablanca
1921
1927
1935
Euwe
Alexhine
Alexhine
Lasker
Capablanca
Capablanca
1921
Euwe
1927
1935
Alexhine
Alexhine
Lasker
Capablanca
Capablanca
1921
Euwe
Euwe
1927
1935
Alexhine
Alexhine
Alexhine
Lasker
Capablanca
Capablanca
1921
Euwe
Euwe
1927
1935
1937
Alexhine
Alexhine
Alexhine
Lasker
Capablanca
Capablanca
1921
Alexhine
Euwe
Euwe
1927
1935
1937
Alexhine
Alexhine
Alexhine
Lasker
Capablanca
Capablanca
1921
Alexhine
Euwe

Euwe
1927
1935
1937
1946
Euwe
Botvinnik
Euwe
Botvinnik
Botvinnik
•••
Spassky
Euwe
Botvinnik
•••
Spassky
Botvinnik
1972
Fischer
Euwe
Botvinnik
•••
Spassky
Fischer
Botvinnik
1972
Euwe
Botvinnik
•••
Spassky
Fischer
Fischer
Botvinnik
1972
1975
Karpov
Euwe
Botvinnik
•••
Spassky
Fischer
Karpov
Fischer
Botvinnik
1972
1975
In 1946, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) seized the
opportunity to regulate title matches. It was decided that every
three years the champion would have to play the world’s most
deserving challenger, determined by a complex play-off system.
To serve the immediate need for a world champion, an invitational
tournament was held. Max Euwe, the only former champion still
living, played but did not win.
The winner was Mikhail Botvinnik, a Russian. He was the
first of a new breed of Soviet champions, given special incentives
and training because of the propaganda value of chess. Three
years later, Botvinnik had to defend his title against a very strong
opponent – from Russia, of course! The title changed hands
several times over next few the years, but the champion was
always a Russian. Then, in 1972, an American, Bobby Fischer,
defeated champion Boris Spassky for the title. Fischer had many
complaints about how title matches should be held. When it came
time for him to defend his title against challenger Anatoly Karpov
in 1975, he refused to play and was stripped of the title.
Comprehension Questions
How many years between matches?
Who was the first Soviet champion?
Whom did Fischer beat?
Why was your comprehension so
much better the second time?
Anticipation Guide
Yes No If children successfully learn how to
decode, then comprehension will take
care of itself.
Yes No If children are reading at instructional
reading level, comprehension will take
care of itself.
Yes No If children cannot decode, then they
cannot be taught comprehension.
Yes No Teaching comprehension means
teaching a series of skills.
Today’s Goals
What is comprehension?
How do we assess it?
How might we teach it in the K-3
classroom?
How do we help teachers develop their
expertise?
How can you increase the quality of
comprehension instruction for your
reading program?
www.guilford.com
www.guilford.com
http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1465/
What is comprehension?
Comprehension is understanding what is
heard or read.
Comprehension of any text involves
creation of an integrated and
coherent representation of the text.
Comprehension may or may not lead to
memory for text or text ideas.
Schema Theory
Start with the learner, who brings prior knowledge,
perhaps in the form of schemata
• Schemata are organized, connected to one
another, and grow and change
• Schemata are influenced by new learning
• Schemata can be wholly restructured
• Schemata are both involved in comprehension and
developed as in comprehension
Anderson & Pearson, 1984
http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/literacy/ImplementALiteracyProgram/SchemaTheoryOfLearning.htm
Construction-Integration Theory
• Comprehenders process and parse linguistic
information
• That parsing activates connections in the
knowledge net
• Comprehenders must build inferences between
the language in the text and their knowledge –
that leads to creation of a macrostructure for the
text
• Successful inferences between text and
knowledge build knowledge
Kintsch, 1994
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cfs/305_html/Understanding/KintschEx.html
Defining Comprehension
Cognitive
Capacities
Motivation
Internal
Text Model
Strategy
Knowledge
Domain
Knowledge
Linguistic
Knowledge
Vocabulary
Knowledge
Text comprehension is a
very complex
combination of
extraction and
construction
Text comprehension is
constrained by
knowledge
Text comprehension is
constrained by
decoding and fluency
RAND Reading Study Group, 2002
RAND’s heuristic for thinking about
reading comprehension
Comprehension
Assessment
“Comprehension cannot be
measured . . . because it is
not a quantity of anything.”
(p. 53)
Frank Smith
Smith, 1988
Good Assessment Formats
Must extend beyond mere parroting of
information
Should assess the extent to which the
child has truly processed the content
Should be based on texts of more than a
single sentence
Should account for prior knowledge
What barriers can you see to implementing
these good assessment formats?
Two reasons to assess
comprehension
1. To assess overall comprehension
ability
2. To assess the comprehension of a
specific text.
Comprehension Assessment Formats
1. Questioning
The teacher asks the child specific questions following
reading. Answers are evaluated and quantified.
Advantages
• Scoring tends to be straightforward
• Questioning mirrors high-stakes testing formats
• Questioning may permit modeling by teacher
Drawbacks
• Question selection may skew results
• Questions may fail to target important points
• Reading dependent questions can be hard to write
3 Considerations for Questions
1. Type
2. Reading Dependency
3. Readability
3 Considerations for Questions
1. Type
2. Reading Dependency
3. Readability
Critical
Judgments
“Reading beyond the lines”
Inferential
Implicitly stated facts
“Reading between the lines”
Literal
Explicitly stated facts
“Reading the lines”
Critical
Judgments
“Reading beyond the lines”
Inferential
Implicitly stated facts
“Reading between the lines”
Literal
Explicitly stated facts
“Reading the lines”
Critical
Judgments
“Reading beyond the lines”
Inferential
Implicitly stated facts
“Reading between the lines”
Literal
Explicitly stated facts
“Reading the lines”
Pluto
The planet Pluto is currently the furthest of
the nine planets from the sun. It consists of frozen
methane and ammonia so that some scientists
have described it as a “snowball in space.”
Pluto has a surface temperature of –395ºF.
It has no gaseous atmosphere. Pluto is a dark
place, so distant that the sun appears to be no
more than a bright star.
Like earth, Pluto has one moon (Charon).
Pluto is much smaller than earth, however, and
has only a tenth of earth’s gravitational pull.
Questions about Pluto
How cold is Pluto?
Is there life on Pluto?
Should we send people to Pluto?
If Goofy can talk, why can’t Pluto?
Questions about Pluto
How cold is Pluto?
Is there life on Pluto?
Should we send people to Pluto?
If Goofy can talk, why can’t Pluto?
Questions about Pluto
How cold is Pluto?
Is there life on Pluto?
Should we send people to Pluto?
If Goofy can talk, why can’t Pluto?
Pluto
The planet Pluto is currently the furthest of
the nine planets from the sun. It consists of frozen
methane and ammonia so that some scientists
have described it as a “snowball in space.”
Pluto has a surface temperature of –395ºF.
It has no gaseous atmosphere. Pluto is a dark
place, so distant that the sun appears to be no
more than a bright star.
Like earth, Pluto has one moon (Charon).
Pluto is much smaller than earth, however, and
has only a tenth of earth’s gravitational pull.
Questions about Pluto
How cold is Pluto?
Is there life on Pluto?
Should we send people to Pluto?
If Goofy can talk, why can’t Pluto?
Questions about Pluto
How cold is Pluto?
Is there life on Pluto?
Should we send people to Pluto?
If Goofy can talk, why can’t Pluto?
3 Considerations for Questions
1. Type
2. Reading Dependency
3. Readability
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Passage Content
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Passage Content
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Q1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Passage Content
Q2
Q3
Q4
Whose picture is on the one-dollar bill?
Whose picture is on the ten-dollar bill?
In what year did Hamilton die?
Do you think someone else’s picture should be on the ten
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Q1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Passage Content
Q2
Q3
Q4
Whose picture is on the one-dollar bill?
Whose picture is on the ten-dollar bill?
In what year did Hamilton die?
Do you think someone else’s picture should be on the ten
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Q1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Passage Content
Q2
Q3
Q4
Whose picture is on the one-dollar bill?
Was Alexander Hamilton ever president?
In what year did Hamilton die?
Do you think someone else’s picture should be on the ten
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Q1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Passage Content
Q2
Q3
Q4
Whose picture is on the one-dollar bill?
Was Alexander Hamilton ever president?
In what year did Hamilton die?
Do you think someone else’s picture should be on the ten
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Q1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Passage Content
Q2
Q3
Q4
Whose picture is on the one-dollar bill?
Was Alexander Hamilton ever president?
In what year did Hamilton die?
Do you think someone else’s picture should be on the ten
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Q1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Passage Content
Q2
Q3
Q4
Whose picture is on the one-dollar bill?
Was Alexander Hamilton ever president?
In what year did Hamilton die?
Do you think someone else’s picture should be on the ten
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Q1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Passage Content
Q2
Q3
Q4
Whose picture is on the five-dollar bill?
Was Alexander Hamilton ever president?
In what year did Hamilton die?
Whose picture is on the Mexican ten-peso note?
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Q1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Passage Content
Q2
Q3
Q4
Whose picture is on the five-dollar bill?
Was Alexander Hamilton ever president?
In what year did Hamilton die?
Whose picture is on the Mexican ten-peso note?
General Emiliano Zapata
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Q1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Passage Content
Q2
Q3
Q4
Whose picture is on the five-dollar bill?
Was Alexander Hamilton ever president?
In what year did Hamilton die?
Whose picture is on the Mexican ten-peso note?
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was never
president, but his picture is on the ten-dollar
bill.
Prior Knowledge
Q1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Passage Content
Q4
Q2
Q3
Whose picture is on the five-dollar bill?
Was Alexander Hamilton ever president?
In what year did Hamilton die?
Whose picture is on the Mexican ten-peso note?
3 Considerations for Questions
1. Type
2. Reading Dependency
3 Considerations for Questions
1. Type
2. Reading Dependency
3. Readability
Comprehension Assessment Formats
2. Retelling
The teacher asks the child to recall as much as possible
about a passage that s/he has just read. The teacher may
then prompt missing details through probe questions.
Advantages
• May suggest how child has organized content
• Does not require extensive questioning
Drawbacks
• Ill-structured and hard to quantify
• Reticent students may be penalized unfairly
• Must be individually administered
Comprehension Assessment Formats
3. Cloze
The child reads a passage from which some words have
been replaced with blanks. The child attempts to use
context to infer the missing words.
Advantages
• High reliability since there are many items
• Does not require writing questions
• Can be group administered
• Accepted scoring criteria
Drawbacks
• Not recommended below grade 4 due to format
• Not sensitive to higher-level comprehension
Example of Cloze
One morning Peter woke up and looked out
the window. Snow had ___________ during
the night. It ___________ everything as far
as ___________ could see. After breakfast
___________ put on his snowsuit
___________ ran outside.
– The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
Example of Cloze
One morning Peter woke up and looked out
fallen
the window. Snow had ___________
during
the night. It ___________
covered everything as far
he
as ___________
could see. After breakfast
___________
put on his snowsuit
he
___________
and
ran outside.
– The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
Comprehension Assessment Formats
4. Maze
The child reads a passage from which some words have
been replaced with multiple-choice options. The child
must use context to choose correct the words and
proceed through the “maze.”
Advantages
• Can be given as low as grade 2
• Does not require writing questions
• Can be group administered
Drawbacks
• Hard to create
• Not sensitive to higher-level comprehension
• No accepted scoring criteria
Example of Maze
One morning Peter woke up and looked out
the window. Snow had
rusted
fallen
about
during the
covered
night. It slowly
everything as far as . . .
hurried
Comprehension Assessment Formats
5. Performance Assessment
The child reads a passage and completes a task based on
an understanding of it. For example, the child might write
a summary or follow directions to create a product.
Advantages
• Does not require writing questions
• Regarded as an authentic assessment, by some
Drawbacks
• Could be cumbersome to create
• Could be time consuming for children and teacher
• Difficult to evaluate
Comprehension Assessment Formats
6. Picture Selection
The child reads brief passages and periodically selects a
picture that reflects text content.
Advantages
• Does not require writing questions
• Can be group administered
• Used in standardized tests for young children
Drawback
• Prohibitive for a teacher to create
Example of Picture Selection
The ball is on the table.
Comprehension Assessment Formats
7. Graded Word Lists
The child reads aloud brief word lists that correspond to
grade levels. Accuracy totals are used to estimate the
child’s instructional and independent reading levels.
Advantages
• Does not require writing questions
• Quick to administer, even though individually
• Correlates well with longer measures
Drawbacks
• Does not entail real reading
• Comprehension ability indirectly measured
• Not useful for comprehension of a specific text
San Diego Quick Assessment
Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 3
Grade 4
see
play
me
at
run
go
and
look
can
here
you
come
not
with
jump
help
is
work
are
this
road
live
thank
when
bigger
how
always
night
spring
today
our
please
myself
town
early
send
wide
believe
quietly
carefully
•••
Comprehension Assessment Formats
8. Graded Sentences
The child silently reads sentences of increasing
complexity, each followed by a question. Scores are used
to estimate the child’s instructional and independent
reading levels. An adaptive system is used – each item is
determined by the child’s performance to that point.
Advantage
• Correlates well with longer measures
Drawbacks
• Cannot be teacher-constructed
• Ability to integrate across sentences not assessed
• Not useful for comprehension of a specific text
Comprehension Assessment Formats
9. Graded Passages
The child silently reads a series of passages increasing in
readability. After each passage the teacher asks several
questions or has the child retell. Performance across the
passages leads to estimates of the instructional and
independent reading levels. This system grounds the
informal reading inventory.
Advantage
• Estimates are reasonably accurate
Drawbacks
• Can be time consuming
• Questions included may be poorly framed
• Prior knowledge may mask comprehension
To what extent are these
comprehension formats
useable to Reading First
teachers? What questions
do they raise for you?
Comprehension
Monitoring
“Accomplished readers evaluate their progress
toward a goal at both micro- and macrolevels.”
(p. 97)
Peter Afflerbach
Afflerbach, 2002
Is this story making sense?
Is this story making sense?
Does this sentence
make sense?
How Can Teachers Foster SelfAssessment?
 Questioning and Student Response
 Checklists and Observation Forms
 Performance Assessments
 Portfolios
 Paper-and-Pencil Tests
Afflerbach, 2002
How Can Teachers Foster SelfAssessment?
 Questioning and Student Response
 Checklists and Observation Forms
 Performance Assessments
 Portfolios
 Paper-and-Pencil Tests
Afflerbach, 2002.
Initiate-Respond-Evaluate (IRE)
1. Teacher asks a question.
2. Student responds to the question.
3. Teacher orally evaluates the response.
Courtney
Cazden
Cazden, 1986
Example of IRE
Teacher:
Let’s see how well you understood this
paragraph. Who can tell me the main idea?
Student:
It’s about snakes and what they eat.
Teacher:
Good. Who’d like to read the next paragraph?
How Can Teachers Foster SelfAssessment?
 Questioning and Student Response
 Checklists and Observation Forms
 Performance Assessments
 Portfolios
 Paper-and-Pencil Tests
Afflerbach, 2002
Example of a Comprehension Checklist
 Before I read, I think about why I am reading.
 I often ask myself, “Does this sentence make sense?”
 I stop after each paragraph and check to see if I
understand so far.
 When something doesn’t make sense, I read it again
or keep reading to see if that helps.
 When I finish, I ask myself if I understand well enough.
How Can Teachers Foster SelfAssessment?
 Questioning and Student Response
 Checklists and Observation Forms
 Performance Assessments
 Portfolios
 Paper-and-Pencil Tests
Afflerbach, 2002
Example of a Performance Rubric
My Teacher’s
Rating
12345
12345
12345
12345
My Rating
Answers to questions at end
of the chapter
Questions I wrote for the
author
The chapter summary I
wrote
The chapter outline I
completed
12345
12345
12345
12345
How Can Teachers Foster SelfAssessment?
 Questioning and Student Response
 Checklists and Observation Forms
 Performance Assessments
 Portfolios
 Paper-and-Pencil Tests
Afflerbach, 2002
How Can Teachers Foster SelfAssessment?
 Questioning and Student Response
 Checklists and Observation Forms
 Performance Assessments
 Portfolios
 Paper-and-Pencil Tests
Afflerbach, 2002
To what extent would it be
useful to foster self
assessment strategies in
Reading First classrooms?
Now that we know what comprehension is
and how it might be assessed, we turn
attention to how it might be developed in
your classrooms. We’ll start with some
basics, and then move to more specific
research-based findings.
What Should Comprehension
Instruction Be About?
Decoding skills
Sight words
Word meanings
Wide reading
Use of prior knowledge
Strategies
Pressley, 2002
Strategies are ways of using
skills for specific purposes.
Strategies . . .
• change with the
situation;
Strategies . . .
• change with the
situation;
• must eventually be
guided by the reader,
not the teacher;
Strategies . . .
• change with the
situation;
• must eventually be
guided by the reader,
not the teacher;
• can be modeled and
taught.
Comprehension strategies
demand extensive cognitive
resources and they don’t work
for every reader or for every
teacher – look for upcoming
research into other methods for
improving comprehension,
including approaches to
questioning and to improving
reading engagement.
Sinatra, Brown & Reynolds, 2002
Explicit Instruction Model
 Present and explain the strategy.
 Model the strategy for students.
 Use the strategy collaboratively.
 Provide guided practice.
 Provide independent practice.
Duke & Pearson, 2002
To what extent are you
seeing this model in action
in your classrooms? What
barriers are you still facing?
The State of Comprehension
Instruction
Dolores Durkin (1978-1979) observed 4th
grade teachers assessing and assigning,
but not teaching comprehension
– Little evidence since then that anything has
changed, at least not on a large scale
NRP Report on Comprehension
Vocabulary
Text Comprehension
Instruction
Teacher Preparation
and
Comprehension Strategies Instruction
There is much that NRP said we DON’T
know about teaching comprehension
What are the best ways of teaching teachers?
Does comprehension strategy instruction transfer to
content learning?
Which strategies work best at which ages and
abilities?
Do effective strategies work with all genres?
But here are the NRP Findings
• Many approaches have some level of
research evidence.
• For example, stressing mental images and
mnemonics can be effective.
• But seven instructional approaches have a
clear scientific basis.
Key Instructional Approaches
1. Comprehension monitoring
2. Cooperative learning
3. Graphic and semantic organizers
(esp. those stressing text structure)
4. Question answering
5. Question generation
6. Summarization
7. Combinations of 1-6
Comprehension Monitoring
“Make them make it make sense.”
Jack Miller
Using “Fix-Up” Strategies
Using “Fix-Up” Strategies
• Rereading
Using “Fix-Up” Strategies
• Rereading
• Reading on
Using “Fix-Up” Strategies
• Rereading
• Reading on
• Reflecting
Using “Fix-Up” Strategies
•
•
•
•
Rereading
Reading on
Reflecting
Seeking outside
information
Modeling Fix-up Strategies
•
•
•
•
Rereading
Reading ahead
Reflecting
Seeking information outside the text.
All spiders are poisonous.
Of the more than 26,000
known species, all use poison
to kill their prey. Few spiders
are harmful to humans,
however.
All spiders are poisonous.
Of the more than 26,000
known species, all use poison
to kill their prey. Few spiders
are harmful to humans,
however.
Cooperative Learning
Reciprocal Teaching
Palincsar & Brown, 1984
Reciprocal Teaching
• was inspired by ReQuest.
• Helps small groups apply strategies
together.
• is by far the most thoroughly validated
approach to comprehension strategy
instruction.
Strategies in Reciprocal
Teaching
•
•
•
•
Predicting
Clarifying
Questioning
Summarizing
Stages in Preparing Students
• Teach the four key strategies.
• Model how to apply the four strategies.
• Provide practice in applying the strategies,
and gradually shift more responsibility to
the students.
A Reciprocal Teaching Lesson
Form mixed groups of 4-6
Introduce the topic.
Remind students of the strategies.
•
•
•
•
•
Predict
Read
Clarify
Question
Summarize
Appoint a “teacher” in each
group.
Post the steps for all to see.
Choose one student as the
teacher
Preview the text and
determine a stopping
point based on the
headings
Read the first section
Have the leader guide the
RT discussion
Choose a new leader and
continue to work through
the steps
How could reciprocal
teaching be integrated
into Reading First
classrooms?
Graphic and
Semantic Organizers:
Story Maps
A story map (or story grammar) is a
method of teaching children about
how narratives tend to be structured.
It involves a diagram of key events
and questions that stem from the
diagram.
The logic is that children will better
comprehend a story if they know how
stories are structured.
A story map works best with novice
readers. Better readers are able to
infer story structure on their own.
Research suggests that story maps
can be used effectively at least as early
as grade 3.
– National Reading Panel
Steps in Using a Story Map
1. Have the students read the story or
conduct a read-aloud.
2. List key events under these headings:
a. Setting
b. Goal
c. Plot
d. Ending
3. Use these events to ask questions.
4. Progress to more speculative questions.
Beck & McKeown, 1981
Example of a Story Map
Setting
Characters: Jack, his mother, the giant
Place: Jack’s home, road, giant’s castle
When and where did this story occur?
Who is the main character?
Problem
Jack must sell cow but trades for beans
Why did Jack trade?
Goal
To see if bean stalk is worth the bad trade
What did Jack do when he found the stalk?
Ending
Jack steals from giant, flees, cuts down stalk
What did Jack do in the giant’s castle?
What did the giant do?
What happened to the giant?
Was Jack a good guy or a bad guy?
Example of a Story Map
Setting
Characters: Jack, his mother, the giant
Place: Jack’s home, road, giant’s castle
When and where did this story occur?
Who is the main character?
Problem
Jack must sell cow but trades for beans
Why did Jack trade?
Goal
To see if bean stalk is worth the bad trade
What did Jack do when he found the stalk?
Ending
Jack steals from giant, flees, cuts down stalk
What did Jack do in the giant’s castle?
What did the giant do?
What happened to the giant?
Was Jack a good guy or a bad guy?
Generating Questions
Answering Questions
Question-Answer Relationships
QARs
Taffy Raphael
Teaching children to answer
questions
Question and Answer Relationships
In the Book
Right There
In your Head
Author and You
Think and Search On your own
Raphael, 1986
Although the United States did not enter World War
II until December of 1941, the war actually began in
September of 1939. World War II ended in August of
1945.
Right There
When did World War II end?
Think and Search
How long did World War II last?
Author and You
How long had the war been over when you were
born?
On Your Own
Why do you think the U.S. didn’t enter the war in
1939?
Although the United States did not enter World War
II until December of 1941, the war actually began in
September of 1939. World War II ended in August of
1945.
Right There
When did World War II end?
Think and Search
How long did World War II last?
Author and You
How long had the war been over when you were
born?
On Your Own
Why do you think the U.S. didn’t enter the war in
1939?
Although the United States did not enter World War
II until December of 1941, the war actually began in
September of 1939. World War II ended in August of
1945.
Right There
When did World War II end?
Think and Search
How long did World War II last?
Author and You
How long had the war been over when you were
born?
On Your Own
Why do you think the U.S. didn’t enter the war in
1939?
Although the United States did not enter World War
II until December of 1941, the war actually began in
September of 1939. World War II ended in August of
1945.
Right There
When did World War II end?
Think and Search
How long did World War II last?
Author and You
How long had the war been over when you were
born?
On Your Own
Why do you think the U.S. didn’t enter the war in
1939?
Although the United States did not enter World War
II until December of 1941, the war actually began in
September of 1939. World War II ended in August of
1945.
Right There
When did World War II end?
Think and Search
How long did World War II last?
Author and You
How long had the war been over when you were
born?
On Your Own
Why do you think the U.S. didn’t enter the war in
1939?
Although the United States did not enter World War
II until December of 1941, the war actually began in
September of 1939. World War II ended in August of
1945.
Right There
When did World War II end?
Think and Search
How long did World War II last?
Author and You
How long had the war been over when you were
born?
On Your Own
Why do you think the U.S. didn’t enter the war in
1939?
Summarizing
Teaching children to retell
• Start with a story map, appropriate to the
grade level
– Simple beginning, middle, end map for first
and second grade
– More complex map for third and fourth grade
• Model, model, model using the story map
to retell stories you are reading aloud or
reading in small groups
Teaching Children to Summarize
Hare and Borchardt (1984) developed procedures
for direct instruction in summarization.
Before you start to write
1. Make sure you understand the text
2. Look back and reread to check for
understanding
3. Reread a paragraph. Ask yourself what the
theme is. Find a topic sentence or write
one.
Summarizing, cont.
While you are writing
1. Collapse lists
2. Use topic sentences
3. Get rid of unnecessary details
4. Collapse paragraphs
After writing
Polish your work. Make sure that your summary
sounds natural.
To what extent do you see these single
strategies in your materials?
Combining Strategies for Readers
Combining Strategies for Teachers
Direct Explanation
Introduce the text
Introduce the strategy
– Declarative Knowledge: What strategy is to be learned and
used?
– Procedural Knowledge: How is that strategy actually employed?
– Conditional Knowledge: When and why should that strategy
should be used?
Model the strategy by thinking aloud
Help readers to practice the strategy
Read the text both to understand it and to practice the
strategy
Discuss both the text and the strategy
Duffy, 2002
Research on Direct Explanation
Initial training included:
•
•
•
Presentations on DE
Lesson plan design by teachers
Observation and feedback
Effects on students
•
•
They developed declarative, procedural, and
conditional knowledge of the strategies
The did not have better standardized
comprehension scores
Duffy et al., 1987
More DE
Second study of DE included more intensive professional
development
•
•
•
•
•
•
Presentations on DE
Lesson plan design by teachers
Observation and feedback
One on one coaching
Collaborative discussions
Videotaped model lessons
Effects on students
•
•
•
•
Students again learned about strategies
Students did use more of the basal skills
Students used and described reasoning during reading
Standardized test scores improved
What were the secrets to success?
• Teacher’s helped students realize they “needed”
the strategies
• Teachers helped students apply it immediately
• Teachers modeled the cognitive secrets
• Teachers helped students apply the strategy
repeatedly
• Teachers assessed both understanding of the
strategy and understanding of the text
• Teachers maintained focus on the strategy
Duffy, 2002
Transactional Strategies
Instruction
Organize community of readers who discuss,
interpret, and respond to texts
Before, during, and after reading, provide
• Scaffolding
• Direct explanation and guided practice of
strategies matched to the text and student
interactions
Pressley et al., 1992
Transactional Strategies
Instruction
• Teacher and children are active, sharing
their thinking, with teachers’ actions
guided by children’s reactions, in a
collaborative and social setting
• Direct explanation and careful scaffolding
of a small set of strategies across the
school day and across the elementary
years
TRIO
Goal: Teach children how to use at least two
comprehension processes to eliminate a
misunderstanding
Teach a strategy to the whole class, including
modeling and demonstration
Reteach to a small group, using different examples
Individualize one-on-one, with coaching
Use Others (including specialists and specialized
materials) if this does not work
Block, Shallert, Joy & Gain, 2002
To what extent are your reading programs
attending to these findings? What specific
goals do you have to improve upon the
comprehension instruction you are
seeing?
Read-Alouds
“[R]esearch has almost universally
supported the idea that reading
aloud to children leads to improved
reading comprehension.” (p. 144)
Smolkin & Donovan, 2002
These children are ready to acquire
comprehension strategies, but they
tend not to be proficient decoders.
So, what’s a teacher to do?
The Domino Theory
Teach children to decode first, and put
off vocabulary and comprehension
instruction until later.
“If we want children to reason their
ways through texts during a time
when they cannot yet read, then the
social context for comprehension
acquisition must be a read-aloud of
text.” (p. 144)
Smolkin & Donovan, 2002.
What kind of read-alouds
shall we have?
Two Types of Read-Alouds
1. Teacher Directed
 Planned with carefully placed questions
 IRE model employed
2. Fully Interactive Model
 Planned questions may be modified
 Teacher embeds commentary
 Flexible scaffolding provided
 Students collaboratively support one
another
“The Five-to-Seven Shift”
During this age range, children
become able to think “multidimensionally,” a requirement of
comprehension, and to reason
with others in group settings.
This argues for fully interactive
read-alouds!
Interactive read-alouds tend to
work best with information books.
– Smolkin & Donovan, 2002
In a nonfiction interactive read-aloud,
a teacher can . . .
 Link a word to its context
 Help children infer causal relationships
 Tell about how texts are structured
 Model the use of fix-up strategies
Smolkin & Donovan, 2002
In a nonfiction interactive read-aloud,
a teacher can . . .
 Link a word to its context
 Help children infer causal relationships
 Tell about how texts are structured
 Model the use of fix-up strategies
Smolkin & Donovan, 2002
T:
C:
T:
C:
C:
T:
C:
“In 1612, French explorers saw some Iroquois people
popping corn in clay pots. They would fill the pots
with hot sand, throw in some popcorn and stir it with a
stick. When the corn popped, it came to the top of the
sand and made it easy to get.”
Look at the bowl!
Okay, now it’s hot enough to add a few kernels.
What’s a kernel?
Like when you pop.
It’s a seed.
What if you, like, would you think … a popcorn seed.
Like a popcorn seed. Could you grow popcorn?
Smolkin & Donovan, 2002
T:
Oh, excellent, excellent question! Let’s read and we’ll
see if this book answers that question, and if not, we’ll
talk about it at the end.
Smolkin & Donovan, 2002
In a nonfiction interactive read-aloud,
a teacher can . . .
 Link a word to its context
 Help children infer causal relationships
 Tell about how texts are structured
 Model the use of fix-up strategies
Smolkin & Donovan, 2002
T:
C:
Alright, it hit the reef. Why did it hit the reef? Because it got . . .
(no response from children). What did it say? It said there was
A storm.
T:
Storm, right.
C:
They couldn’t see.
T:
Right, it did say that. Because they couldn’t see, and if they
were out . . .
C:
Were the people surprised?
C:
The storm blew it into the rocks.
T:
Exactly.
In a nonfiction interactive read-aloud,
a teacher can . . .
 Link a word to its context
 Help children infer causal relationships
 Tell about how texts are structured
 Model the use of fix-up strategies
Smolkin & Donovan, 2002
T: “And 1000-year-old popcorn
kernels were found in Peru that
could still be popped.” Now. This
guy is doing different . . . It’s kind
of like two stories are going on.
What is this part giving us?
Cs: (together) Information
T:
It is. And what is this doing?
C:
It is telling you.
T: It’s giving us, right, steps of
how to make the popcorn.
C: And he has a big old speech
bubble.
T: Yes, because he’s reading
about this, remember? And so his
speech bubble is him reading this
book about this (pointing to
pictures of native peoples).
In a nonfiction interactive read-aloud,
a teacher can . . .
 Link a word to its context
 Help children infer causal relationships
 Tell about how texts are structured
 Model the use of fix-up strategies
Smolkin & Donovan, 2002
T:
“Insects live on the tree, too. This big cicada just crawled out of its
brown, shell-like skin. For several years . . . (teacher pauses. The next word in
the text is ‘it’)” Let’s start back here. “Insects live on the tree, too. This big
cicada just crawled out of its brown, shell-like skin.”
C:
(interrupting) We already read this.
T:
I know, but see, sometimes if you stop, it helps [to go back] It didn’t
make sense just reading [further in the text]
To what extent are you seeing
fully interactive read alouds?
What barriers are you facing?
Rules of Thumb
Children benefit from comprehension
instruction in which they are active and
engaged learners, expected to form an
integrated and coherent understanding of
the text.
Rules of Thumb
Children benefit from comprehension instruction
in which they are explicitly taught how to use
different kinds of knowledge: text knowledge,
vocabulary knowledge, and world knowledge
Rules of Thumb
Children benefit from comprehension
instruction that is organized so that they
are explicitly taught a variety of cognitive
and metacognitive strategies.
Rules of Thumb
Children benefit from comprehension
instruction that is organized so that
teachers are continually assessing
individual students and using that
assessment to plan instruction.
Putting it all together
Before reading:
Teach individual words that will be difficult to
decode or to understand
Model a strategy that will be useful in the
day’s reading. Give declarative,
procedural, and conditional knowledge.
During reading:
Interrupt the reading at critical junctures to
support strategy use.
Engage children in discussions or written
responses.
After reading
Engage children in discussion or written
responses.
Review and evaluate the text content.
Review and evaluate strategy use.
Implementation Across Ages and Stages
Kindergarten
Read alouds and shared readings of
high-quality children’s literature
First Grade
Read alouds and shared reading of
high-quality children’s literature
Second Grade
Read alouds of high-quality
children’s literature AND reading
instruction
Read alouds of high-quality
children’s literature AND reading
instruction
Third Grade
How do we help teachers develop
their expertise?
Supporting Teachers
History
• Individual strategies taught through think
aloud approaches
• Use of gradual release of responsibility
models (modeling, scaffolded practice,
individual application)
• Introduction of multiple strategies
approaches
More Recent Work
Teachers learning to use TSI needed
– Expert models with THEIR children
– Observation and feedback from a coach
– Peer collaboration
– Scripted practice lessons
– Research reports
– Classroom materials
El-Dinary, 2002
Many Additional Struggles for
Teachers
• Differentiate between strategies and skills
– A skill is something that we do automatically
– A strategy is a set of procedures that we can
employ to solve a problem
• Differentiate between cognitive strategies
and instructional strategies
– Predicting, accessing prior knowledge, and
generating questions are cognitive strategies
– KWL is an instructional strategy
Doesn’t that sound a lot like
what we are asking Literacy
Coaches to do in all areas of
the curriculum?
Professional development cycle
Provide
support and
follow-up
Connect
research to
practice
Select
your
focus
Build
Knowledge
Building Knowledge of
Comprehension and Instruction
A resource that might help
you to build teachers’
consciousness of their
own comprehension and
strategy use.
Building Knowledge of
Comprehension and Instruction
A resource that might help
you to build teachers’
language for explaining
comprehension
strategies.
Building Knowledge of
Comprehension and Instruction
Analyze and understand
the instructional program
in your school.
Your reading program
materials
Connect Research to Practice
Observe to investigate
the extent to which
teachers are using
the resources they
have.
Connect Research to Practice
Analyze available data
to see the relationship
between instruction
and achievement.
Connect Research to Practice
Provide time for
cooperative discussion
and planning for
comprehension
instruction.
Provide Support and Follow-Up
Model comprehension
instruction in read
alouds, in wholegroup lessons, and in
small-group lessons
Provide Support and Follow-Up
Consider collecting
video-taped lessons
and arranging peer
visitations
Provide Support and Follow-Up
Design connections to
comprehension
instruction that are
appropriate for
independent work
Where are you now with regards to
comprehension instruction?
Where do you want to go?
How are you going to get there?
Back to our Model
Develop children’s phonemic awareness
Develop children’s decoding skills
Develop children’s fluency
Develop children’s vocabulary knowledge
Develop children’s comprehension strategy
knowledge
Afflerbach, P. (2002). Teaching reading self-assessment strategies. In
C.C. Block & M. Pressley (Eds.), Comprehension instruction:
Research-based best practices (pp. 96-111). New York: Guilford.
Anderson, V. (1992). A teacher development project in transactional
strategy instruction for teachers of severely reading-disabled
adolescents. Teaching and Teacher Education, 8, 391-403
Anderson, R., & Pearson, P.D. (1984). A schema-theoretic view of
basic processes in reading. In P.D. Pearson,R. Barr, M. Kamil, & P.
Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research (pp. 255-291).
New York: Longman.
Beck & McKeown, 1981). Developing questions that promote
comprehension: The story map. Language Arts, 58, 913-918.
Block, C. C., Shaller, J., Jy, J. A., & Gaine, P. (2002). Process-based
comprehension instruction. In C. C. Block & M. Pressley (Eds.),
Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices (pp. 4261). New York: Guilford Press.
Brown, R., Pressley, M., Van Meter, P., & Schuder, T. (1996). A quasiexperimental validation of transactional strategies instruction with lowachievement second-grade readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88,
18-37.
Cazden, C. (1986). Classroom discourse. In M. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of
research on teaching (3rd ed., pp. 432-462). New York: Macmillan.
Duffy, G.G. (2002). The case for direct explanation of strategies. In C. C. Block
& M. Pressley (Eds.), Comprehension instruction: Research-based best
practices (pp. 28-41). New York: Guilford Press.
Duffy, G.G., Roehler, L.R., Sivan, E., Rackliffe, G., Book, C., Meloth, M.S.,
Vavrus., L.G., Wesselman, R., Putnam, J., & Bassiri, D. (1987). Effects of
explaining the reasoning associated with using reading strategies. Reading
Research Quarterly, 22, 347-368.
Duke, N. K. & Pearson, P. D. (2002). Comprehension instruction in the primary
grades. In C.C. Block & M. Pressley (Eds.), Comprehension instruction:
Research-based best practices (pp. 247-258). New York: Guilford.
El-Dinary, P. B. (2002). Challenges of implementing transactional strategies
instruction for reading comprehension. In C.C. Block & M. Pressley (Eds.)
Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices (pp.201-215).
New York: Guilford Press.
Kintsch, W. (1994). The role of knowledge in discourse comprehesion: A
construction-integration model. In R.. Ruddell, M. R. Ruddell, & H. Singer
(Eds.), Theoretical models and Processes in Reading (4th ed). Newark, DE:
International Reading Association.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of
the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based
assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its
implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769).
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Palinscar, A.S., & Brown, A. l. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehensionfostering and monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1, 117-175.
Pearson, P.D., & Gallagher, M.C. (1983). The instruction of reading
comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8, 317-344.
Pressley, M. (2002). Comprehension strategies instruction: A turn-of-thecentury status report. In C. C. Block & M. Pressley (Eds.), Comprehension
instruction: Research-based best practices (pp. 11-27). New York: Guilford
Press.
Pressley, M., El-Dinary, P.B., Gaskins, I., Schuder, T., Bergman, J., Almasi, L.,
& Brown, R. (1992). Beyond direct explanation: Transactional instruction of
reading comprehension strategies. Elementary School Journal, 92, 511-554.
Pressley, M., and Collins Block, C. (2002). Summing up: What comprehension
instruction could be. In C.C. Block & M. Pressley (Eds.) Comprehension
instruction: Research-based best practices (pp.383-392). New York:
Guilford Press.
RAND Reading Study Group. (2002). Reading for understanding: Toward an
R&D program in reading comprehension. Santa Monica, CA: RAND
Education.
Raphael, T. (1986). Teaching question-answer relationships, revisited. Reading
Teacher, 39: 516-523.
Sinatra, G. M., Brown, K. J., & Reynolds, R. E. (2002). Implications of cognitive
resource allocation for comprehension strategies instruction. In C. C. Block
& M. Pressley (Eds.), Comprehension instruction: Research-based best
practices (pp. 62-76). New York: Guilford Press.
Smith, F. (1988). Understanding reading (4th ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Smolkin, L.B., & Donovan, C.A. (2002). “Oh, excellent, excellent question!”
Developmental differences and comprehension acquisition. In C.C. Block &
M. Pressley (Eds.), Comprehension instruction: Research-based best
practices (pp. 140-157). New York: Guilford.
Sweet, A. P., & Snow, C. E., Eds. (2003). Rethinking reading comprehension.
New York: Guilford Press.