Developing Comprehension: a planning and monitoring tool
Learning about words - Interacting with the text - Explicitly teaching strategies for reading comprehension
This paper will support teachers and co-ordinators in developing and monitoring the
range of strategies used to develop comprehension.
On going activities
(see Understanding Comprehension 1 DfES 1310-2005 and * 3 DfES 1312-2005)
Comment
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Extensive reading
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Tracking progress through book bands
Monitoring the reading habit and range
through reading records and guided reading
records
Promote reading at home and plan paired
reading opportunities for practice in school
Provide opportunities to change books every
day
Monitoring the quality, quantity and range in
book provision
Developing the reading ethos and the
promotion of books through display and
feedback:
-peer recommendation
-book display
-regular spotlights on an author
-reading heroes
Plan for the application of learning in reading
across the curriculum
Promote the use of library and class book
collections
Plan opportunities to work with writers, book
events, reading challenges, awards, sales…
The critical role of the teacher
The model of teaching advocated by research is a
balance of direct instruction along with teacher
modelling and guided practice leading to independent
practice and autonomy.
Shared –Guided –Independent
Plan a read aloud programme
Provide story props, puppets and artefacts for
retelling stories
Teach decoding, with an emphasis on
morphology
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apply learning of phonics
provide explicit work on sight vocabulary;
teach the use of context cues and monitoring
meaning;
Vocabulary development
Application of phonic knowledge
Activities that develop word recognition
e.g. word tracker and oral thesaurus;
making a glossary to accompany a text
Interesting words chart (applying
knowledge of spelling)
Word banks
Use of dictionary, thesaurus, glossaries
Previewing vocabulary
Encourage transactional strategies
(an approach based on readers exploring texts
with their peers and their teacher)
Metacognitive awareness: helping children to
monitor their own understanding
(Click, click clunk!)
Metacognitive awareness involves ‘self-awareness’
and an ability to reflect on one’s understanding and
learning.
Modelling
Explain thinking while problem solving the
meaning of a word
Speculate about the plot, theme or a character.
Questioning
Plan probing questions
Invite children to elaborate –extend their
resonses
Support children in putting forward an alternative
point of view.
Encourage readers to ask their own ‘Why?’
questions of a text
Encourage reciprocal teaching
(teacher modelling of strategies + scaffolding for
student independence)
Pupils take turns in being group leader who predicts –
group reads – clarifies –calls for questions,
discussion, summarises.
Planned Activities
Teach self-regulated comprehension strategies (see Understanding Comprehension 1 DfES 1311-2005)
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Prior knowledge activation
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What does the title, chapter heading or
picture on the front cover make you
think of? (Collect ideas using drawings
or brief notes.)
KWL Grid
What I Know
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What I want to
find out
What I have
Learnt
Sentence starters: This reminds me
of …, It makes me think of … (key
word from the title or an artefact)
 Concept mapping or mind-mapping
to show the links between ideas
triggered by a title, artefact, word…
Construction of mental images during
reading
 Visualisation
 Drawing
 Drama
Analysing text into story grammar and
non-fiction genre components
 Text structure analysis
- story maps, story shapes,
story charts
- non-fiction skeletons and
organisers
- sequencing: poems,
narrative, non fiction,
making comparisons
 Text highlighting of key features
Question generation
 Hot seating
 Children generate layered
questions / questions at different
levels
 Talk to a writer
Statement/quote to raise discussion
Summarisation
 Skimming and oral summary
 Identifying key sentences
 Creating captions
Key information put in picture form
Prediction
Read the text a section at a time, explain
what is happening, predict what will
happen next and how it will end. Read on
and point out the explicit and implicit
evidence that supports or confounds the
predictions. Revise initial ideas and
suggest a hypothesis based on the new
evidence.
More Planned Activities
Further Strategies to Develop Comprehension
(see Understanding Comprehension 3 DfES 1312-2005)
Interpretive strategies
Character Development
 Imagining how a character might feel
 Identifying with a character
 Charting the development of a character
Feeling graph or map e.g. use unifix to create a graph that shows how emotions change at each stage of a story.
Journal entries: reader’s response or character in role
TV Interviews: prepare to interview a character then hot seat.
Drawing Characters e.g. Role on the wall, the outline of a character on the wall has things we know about a character on the inside of the outline and things
other character’s say or things we infer on the outside; or surround the drawing with phrases from the text that relate to that character.
Thought bubbles: write a thought bubble for a character at a key moment in the text when they are not actually speaking
Relationship map e.g.
fears
evidence
Giant
Hid / held breath
Jack
loves
wants to please her by bringing the bean
evidence
Relationship grid: list each character along the top and down the side. Each cell represents a relationship to be explored.
Speculation: ask questions that focus attention on actions and motives, such as Why did …? What if …?
Character emotions register: create a five-point scale of emotions for the possible range of reactions at certain specific points in the story, for example
‘mildly irritated’ to ‘incandescent with rage’. Rate the characters on this scale justifying decisions with implicit and explicit evidence from the text.
Mum
Identifying themes or information
The author’s chair: A child takes on the role of the author. Other children ask them questions about the book and the ‘author’ responds, explaining and
justifying what ‘they’ have written.
Diagrams: Identify specific information within the text and then present it in the form of a diagram, grid or flow chart.
Cartoons and story boards: Draw a strip cartoon or story board that identifies four or five main points from a story or information text.
Highlighting: Identify and highlight specific words or phrases within the text that link together to build a picture of a character, mood or setting.
Blurb: Write a blurb for the book that summarises the story or theme and will persuade people to read it, for example by using rhetorical questions or quotes.
Fact and Opinion: Focus on a particular subject, incident or character within the text. Identify facts and opinion and consider how they are woven together.
Children could create true/false cards for a game.
Looking for or challenging a consistent point of view
Genre exchange e.g. writing a story as a newspaper article, or as a letter to Mum, or a diary entry…
Story comparison charts: Read several versions of the same story, for example a traditional tale such as Cinderella. Devise a comparative chart to note the
similarities and differences between different versions.
Criteria rating: assessing parts of a story with grades e.g. 1-5 most exciting / least exciting or most likely/unlikely to happen or be true.
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Read for multiple meanings -to understand that readers can respond to texts in different ways and that it is possible to make meaning from the text in more
than one way.
Character ranking: List all the characters from a story and then rank them according to different criteria, for example most powerful to least powerful, kindest
to meanest. Discuss the differences between the rankings and ask whether different criteria give different insights .
The roles we play: Draw an outline of a character. Children then record all the different roles they play in the story, for example daughter, friend.
Illustrations: Identify and discuss any differences or additional information to be found between the text and illustrations.
Text or pictures: Give the text only or pictures only from a multi-layered picture book and ask children to tell the story or read the prose story before reading
the complete book. Discuss any changes in their perceptions and responses after they had seen the complete book.
Minor Characters: Select a key scene from a story. Retell the scene from the point of view of a minor character within it. How does this change the reader’s
perception of events?
Villains: Discuss children’s responses to the villain in a particular story. Challenge them to justify the villain’s actions. Are there any changes in their response
after this? Do they have more sympathy with the villain?
Problem solving: Stop at the point where a character faces a problem or dilemma. List alternative suggestions from the group. Consider the consequences of
each suggestion. Arrive at a group decision or prediction before moving on.
Relating texts to personal experiences
What would I do? Stop at key points in a story and ask children to imagine what they would have done themselves. Would they make the same decisions as
the main character?
The best bit…: children are asked to choose the funniest, scariest, most interesting bit of a story or non fiction text and justify their choice.
Response journals: Children keep a personal record of their thoughts as they are reading, recording questions that occur to them as well as their response to
particular characters or key events. When reading longer books the journal can be used to record their changing responses.
Comparisons Discuss similarities between texts with the same author/theme/topic. A Comparisons Chart could be used.
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