Reading Comprehension
The major goal of reading comprehension is to help students develop the
knowledge, skills and strategies they must posses to become proficient and
independent readers who read with meaning. While reading, a student is
expected to simultaneously, mentally interact and construct meaning from
the text. What is text? Text is the term we use to refer to any form of written
language. Comic books, magazines, poems, signs, short stories, repair
manuals as well as novels are all examples of text. All readers bring their
background knowledge and experience to reading text. Those experiences
can play a huge part in comprehension. Automatic word recognition and a
well developed listening/speaking vocabulary are also factors that contribute
to increased reader comprehension. Teachers in kindergarten, grades one
and two target beginning reading skills. This includes, building a strong
sight vocabulary and decoding skills. Once good readers have identified a
word, they use this knowledge to determine whether they know the word’s
meaning- that is whether it is in their oral language vocabulary and whether
it makes sense in its context. These skills are important but if we want kids
to be able to read and make sense out of what they read they must also have
a certain amount of fluency to their reading. Researchers tell us fluency is
the bridge between word recognition and comprehension. It is because fluent
readers are able to identify words accurately and automatically, that they can
focus most of their attention on comprehension.
Two things all parents can do with their students to foster reading
comprehension are read to and with your child pointing out and discussing
new and interesting words and extend your child’s background by exposing
him/her to new experiences, contemporary issues and discussions. The
broader a child’s background knowledge and vocabulary development are
the richer will be their understanding of many kinds of text.