Building Comprehension of Narrative and Informational Text

Comprehension is the primary goal of reading instruction and the product of most of the instruction described in Teaching Reading the 21st Century. Virtually all of what we have stressed in the early chapters of the book—learning the basic principles of literacy such as phonemic awareness, building strong word identification, developing fluency, expanding vocabulary, and building motivation—are essential for reading comprehension.  Yet the science of reading, built through 40 years of research, has identified some specific ideas that teachers can use to build the comprehension of all students. 

 Within the classroom, the teacher has two overlapping goals. She assigns a text for students to read and wants to ensure that students understand it. At the same time, she is concerned that students grow as readers and develop the knowledge and strategies that they need to become effective readers.

 Meeting the first goal requires designing lessons that support students before and while they read, and helping them digest the new ideas upon finishing. Teaching Reading in the 21st Century offers several approaches for meeting the first goal including the scaffolded reading experience, guided reading, and close reading.

 Meeting the second goal, ensuring that students have the knowledge and skills to tackle the next text they are assigned or one they choose to read, requires teaching that builds knowledge and equips students with some thinking strategies. The research suggests that teachers should:

• Build students’ world and disciplinary knowledge.

• Build students’ knowledge of genres and text structures.

• Assist students in learning and using strategies such as self-questioning, making inferences, determining importance, summarizing and monitoring comprehension.

• Help students acquire specific strategies for reading digital text online, such as locating information, determining its veracity and integrating ideas from multiple sites. 

• Engage students in discussions so that they learn to read a text critically and closely.

The science of reading has developed a consensus about what activities will produce strong readers. Frequently teachers are buffeted by fads with with questioning strategies the key answer one year and then close reading the key next year. In Teaching Reading in the 21st we present and view of comprehension instruction that carefully summarize the research of the past 50 years focusing on the essentials.