Purpose

Because the popular media and educational policy makers often seem preoccupied with issues related to word identification, the importance of comprehension can be easily overlooked. A growing body of research suggests to us how readers construct meaning and how teachers can effectively teach students to combine their personal knowledge and experience with print information to construct meaning as they read. Instructional strategies such as activating students' background knowledge, connecting vocabulary, teaching students to recognize text structures along with the common strategies of summarizing, clarifying, questioning, predicting, and evaluating can help students become independent navigators of text. These strategies also help build engagement and motivation for reading. This course is designed to have teachers examine existing research and its pedagogical implications related to teaching vocabulary, reading comprehension, metacognition, and motivation.

Course Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the historical and theoretical foundations of reading comprehension instruction.
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• Understand major research-base theories and/or perspectives on comprehension of narrative and expository texts.
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• Recognize the many personal, cognitive, social, textual, instructional, and cultural contexts that influence reading comprehension.
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• Demonstrate familiarity with instructional methods for promoting comprehension, metacognition, and motivation.
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• Plan and implement instructional strategies for activating students' background knowledge.
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• Plan and implement instructional strategies for developing and increasing students' vocabulary knowledge.
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• Demonstrate ability to use strategies for assessing students' reading comprehension.

Course Topics

• Historical overview or important issues related to comprehension instruction (e.g. testing vs. teaching comprehension)
  • Theories of comprehension
  • Interactions among text, reader, context, task, and teacher
  • Recognizing the role of cognitive, social, cultural, and linguistic diversity
  • Role of memory in text comprehension
  • Role of prior knowledge and vocabulary in comprehension
  • Metacognition and its role in comprehension
  • Influence of text structures
  • Reader response theories
• Research on (a) comprehension strategy instruction, (b) developing metacognition, and (c) fostering motivation.
  • Instructional approaches (examples)
  • Traditional approaches (e.g., DRA, DRTA, Guided reading) for promoting comprehension
  • Explicit/transactional and Implicit instruction (e.g., Dole, et al., Duffy, Pressley)
  • Basic strategies (e.g., summarizing, main idea, inferencing, think-alouds, self-questioning and monitoring)
  • Basic methods (e.g., scaffolding, Reciprocal Teaching, Questioning-the-Author)
  • Feedback that promotes self-efficacy/volition
• Developing and connecting vocabulary
• Activating students' background knowledge
  • Comprehension assessment
  • Ongoing, formal/informal, reflective, diagnostic

Assignments

• Complete assigned readings and be prepared to discuss in class
• Apply comprehension instruction knowledge through direct teaching experiences
• Develop several comprehension lesson plans based upon current research
• Develop instructional strategies for helping students navigate both narrative and expository texts
• Develop lessons for activating students' background knowledge
• Develop lessons for developing students' vocabulary
• Develop a reflective synthesis of comprehension research in journals

Bibliography

Britton, B., & Graesser, A. (1996). Models of understanding text. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

 

Cooper, J.D. (2000). Literacy: Helping children construct meaning (4th Ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

 

Dole, J., Duffy, G., Roehler, L., & Pearson, P. (1991). Moving from the old to the new: Research on reading comprehension instruction. Review of Educational Research, 61, 239-264.

 

Dowhower, S. Supporting a strategic stance in the classroom: A comprehension framework for helping teachers help students to be strategic. The Reading Teacher, 52, 672-683.

 

Gambrell, L., Morrown, L., Neuman, S., & Pressley, M. (1999). Best practices in literacy instruction. New York: Guilford.

 

Graesser, A., Millis, K., Zwann, R. (1997). Discourse comprehension. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 163-189.

 

Guthrie, J., & Wigfield, A. (1997).Reading engagement: Motivating readers through integrated instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

 

Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension. York, ME: Stenhouse.

 

Hynds, S. (1997). On the brink: Negotiating literature and life with adolescents. Newark, NJ International Reading Association.

 

Keene, E., & Zimmermann, S. (1997). Mosaic of thought: Teaching comprehension in a reader's workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

 

Kintsch, W. (1989). Learning from text. In L. Resnick (Ed), Knowing, learning, and instruction. (pp 25-46).

 

Kintsch, W. (1998). Comprehension a paradigm for cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press.

 

Langer, J. (1995). Envisioning literature. New York: Teachers College Press.

 

Nagy, W.F. (1988). Teaching vocabulary to improve reading comprehension. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

 

Palincsar, A., Brown, A. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 117-175.

 

Pressley, M., & Woloshyn, V. ((1995). Cognitive strategy instruction that really improves children's academic performance. Cambridge, MA: Brookline.

 

Ruddell, R.B., Ruddell, M.R., Singer, H. (1994). Theoretical models and processes of reading. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

 

Taylor, B. Graves, M., & van den Broek, P., (2000). Reading for meaning: Fostering comprehension in the middle grades. New York: Teachers College Press.

 

Weaver, C. (1998) Practicing what we know. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

 

Wood, E., Woloshyn, V., & Willoughby, T. (1995). Cognitive strategy instruction for middle and high schools. Cambridge, MA: Brookline.

 

Zwann, R., Langston, M., & Graesser, A. (1995). The construction of situation models in narrative comprehension: An event-indexing model. Psychological science, 6, 292-297.