First of all, I think the word “rich” is a more appropriate word than, say, “true.” One may never have a true understating, but strong comprehension is a result from completely reading the material with hopefully some background knowledge (e.g. context). Students and teachers alike must immerse themselves in several pieces on a subject (as we have done this week) to allow an inner dialogue to play out.
Three important factors, I believe, in reading comprehension are a relevant text, intrinsic motivation, and, simply put, actually reading the darn thing! Potential readers are turned off by materials that somehow don’t grab them by title alone, subject matter, presentation style, etc. Instrinsic motivation may actually be promoted by teachers and parents, but the reader’s heart and mind must be prepared and willing to take on the possibly enjoyable task! And finally, as a freshmen English teacher, this idea of not really reading (laziness, fake reading) came to mind. We cannot comprehend what we don’t even expose to our mind.
I agree with Julie's description of three important factors in reading comprehension. As far as the text being relevant, I would say that the reader needs to be able to connect some of the material in the text to concepts and ideas that the reader is already familiar with. By this I mean that the entire text need not be of familiar context, but as long as the reader can relate some of the material to ideas the reader has some prior knowledge of, the reader's comprehension of the text will be greater. The schema theory, if you will! I also agree that if the reader is motivated to read and understand the material as best they can, than they will automatically comprehend the material to a greater degree. As far as reading the material, well, that is obvious. But I would elaborate on this point by saying that the reader needs to read the text with as full an understanding as possible. To me, this means that the reader may need to take extra steps, such as referring to a dictionary for definitions of words in the text that the reader is not familiar with, and, if need be, referring to outside materials to gain whatever background knowledge may be necessary to fully comprehend the text. In some instances, this may not be feasible, but, if possible, these extra steps would go a long way to ensuring that reader obtains comprehension of the text. By following the above steps to reading comprehension, the reader would also gain a pretty "rich" understanding of the text, I believe.
I agree that background knowledge & schema are essential for rich understanding. Our readings also bring to mind how essential the planning of instruction is. One has to keep ideas about how to help students learn both short & long term. One also has to present instruction in a variety of ways in order to reach the vast needs of students.
I think another way to gain a rich understanding of text is to do more than just read it. One has to be actively engaged with the text--questioning it, predicting what will come next, making inferences, and monitoring one's own comprehension. Vladimir Nabokov said, "One cannot read a book. One can only reread it." While I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say we can't get a deep understanding on the first read, I do think there's tremendous value in rereading, which is something most students are reluctant to do (they usually just want to get the reading over with). If we can find ways to get them back into the text, examining its structure, appreciating its details, I think they would come away with a much richer understanding.
As I refer back to the topics of the week I am led to believe that every student will have a slightly, or even, totally different understanding of any given reading based on a myriad of factors. In my subject area (S.S.)prior knowledge is imperative for a rich understanding, as well as, particular schemata. Also, some form of intrinsic motivation needs to be present, especially if the student is required to obtain the information long term. However, we as teachers are there to guide, direct, and hopefully encourage those who are facing comprehension or motivational difficulties through well planned lessons, activities, etc. The three factors that I would include as important for comprehension would be vocabulary, decoding, and a variety of teaching methods. In concurrence with Sheila, rereading does have tremendous value and most students are reluctant to put forth the extra effort to further comprehend a text.
Monica, I can't say it any better! As teachers, we are guides. We are in the room to encourage, direct or redirect, and just wait for questions. As secondary teachers particularly, we face the task of re-introducing curiosity to our students. Too often by the time they have reached high school, students have had their curiosity rewarded away or squished out of them.
I also agree that a rich understanding can come about from re-reading. However, I also think that a deeper understanding is much more likely to happen when the reader is interested in the topic, or has done previous reading/research/discussion. This means that a rich understanding cannot really be had on a topic that is totally new. Rich understanding comes with time and thought, including further reading/re-reading, investigation, and conversations.
I also agree with the other comments pertaining to reading comprehension, especially Monica's. Maybe as a Social Studies teacher, her comments really hit home. Or maybe it was because I'm a parent watching my girls read. Either way, vocabulary makes a difference, as does the ability to decode. When these are absent, it is the teacher who must come up with a variety of instructional methods to correct this missing reading link. As teachers and strong readers, if we cannot model how to read, and if we cannot find ways to show our diverse student body how much they DO already read (via song lyrics, commercials, t-shirt logos and designs, posters, games, bus routes, text messaging, etc) or how they are ready to jump into the deep end of reading because of these semi- and pre-reading abilities, then we are failing our students. Reading is not only what schooling is built on, it is what life long learning is built upon. And if we are not attempting to create life-long learners, then what are we really teaching for?
I think Sheila made an excellent point on the subject of active reading...it is amazing what a difference it makes when you can read and highlight the important points, writing down comments and questions and circling parts that are unclear and reread them. I taught a freshman reading class called Reading College Texts here at SIU last year, and it is amazing how many students come to college and have never been taught to actively read! I believe that active reading is the key to a rich understanding of any text, whether you have any background knowledge on the topic or not. While having background knowledge can help tremendously, it can hinder the reading in some ways as well - if the reading does not fit the reader's prior ideas on the topic, they may ignore or skew the information presented. While I agree with the comments suggesting that background knowledge can help comprehension, I don't believe it is always the most important factor.
Based on past experience and the readings from this week, I would say that three important factors in comprehension involve motivation, interest, and focusing on the text. Motivation and interest are up to the student, but the teacher can play a big role in fostering these things in the student. Focusing on the text is incredibly important in comprehension as well. We are all guilty of reading and getting through a paragraph or even a page and realizing we have no idea what we just read. Engaging in the text is the only way to comprehend it.
My points are also similar to the ones of most of the classmates. More specifically, in ESL, it is very important if the teacher can help the students make sense out of the context. Through a well-structured scaffolding, the reading process can be facilitated. In addition, students may also find that it's useful if the teacher leads them to start out with what they are familiar with. It is just like what David Ausubel proposed that the most important single factor influencing learner is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.
The three important factors in reading comprehension are presented as follows: 1) A text with relevant information, which can help students comprehend more about the context. 2)Especially for the ESL learners, adequate vocabulary and basic grammatical rules and sentence structures are required. 3)The content should be related to students' experience so they can be motivated to learn.
In response to Katy Newton... I agree that the student must engage the text. I would also point out, based on our readings from this week,that the text must engage the student. I might assume Katy feels the same way; there is a positive correlation between reading material that is interesting to the student and student interest in the reading material. As Dr. Glassett stated, "Bring the outside in."
The three most important factors, I beleive, in reading comprehension are: quality of instruction, self-efficacy, and the five factors of reading outlined by the National Reading Panel. I am CONCERNED about the reliance on motivation as being a heavily weighted factor in reading comprehension.
Motivation, may not lead to a life-long reader if the teacher is inable to "wean" away the student to become an independant thinker and reader. Furthermore, the authors state that motivation may significantly vary across content areas. Johnny may love to read in science class, but Mr.Jerrells will have to find reading materials (possibly picture/word books and cause/effect relationships) that Johnny will find a real sense of meaning of what happened in history and how it may affect him now.
I think that most everyone has made a strong argument for their ideas. It is hard for me to describe how a student would come to a rich understanding. I think the most important factor would be familiarity with something from the content. I have found in my own classes that when I introduce a new topic the students spend a lot of time trying to figure out vocabulary terms that they are not familiar with. They end up spending their time looking up words in a dictionary or the glossary of a text book instead of putting the reading into context and working on understanding what they are reading.
I believe the important factors for reading comprehension are intrinsic motivation, as julie says "actually reading", and reading that students can relate to in some way. In response the Chris, I think that we will all struggle with kids who just don't like our content area, and they probably won't want to read. But if somehow we can build intrinsic motivation for learning in students, they should want to read in any subject area. (Note: I am willing to refer to myself as an idealist at this point) Secondly, however simple it is, you must actually crack the spine of the book comprehend the words inside. Finally, as many have said before, students want to learn what is relavent to them. Even if it is not the entire reading, just a small part, they are more likely to read when they can relate some feeling or experience from their own lives to it.
I agree with my peers who said that prior knowledge is essential for a rich understanding, but equally important is the ability of making inferences, developing hypotheses out of these, proving those with experiments, and coming to an explanation/solution. In Dr. Wise’s class, we heard about the Learning Cycle, which is composed of exploration, introduction, application (which can be elaborated on by using the “Five E’s,” 1. engage, 2. explore, 3. explain, 4. elaborate, 5. evaluate). I can state from my student teaching experience that several of my low track students never got that far; they got stuck in the first step. The exploration part of a lesson (especially an English lesson) was what interested them most; I usually brought in hands-on material (for example, Braille sheets, stencils, and slates for creating their own “secret language for the blind” during a unit on the Helen Keller drama). However, the teacher’s introduction of the concept interested them less (they actually had to “learn”!), and some lost their focus or motivation. Finally, when it came to the application part, most of my very low performers fell back into their old scheme of: “What do you want me to write next? What is the right solution here?” – displaying their learned helplessness and reliance on the teacher. Some of my students never finished a sentence after a comma without asking me what I want them to say next. They would have liked me to dictate to them (and one actually asked me to type his essay in the computer lab!!).
Thus, I would argue that if a student is not a self-directed learner and does not possess the ability or motivation to make inferences and hypotheses to work with, this student will never come to a rich understanding. Prior knowledge alone will not help, especially since many of our third track students do not possess very much of it, since they have been underexposed throughout their educational career through the “teaching down” from the part of the teacher.
The three factors that I see most important in reading comprehension are:
1. diversity (this includes the lack of vocabulary of our low-income, single-parent household, and black minority students; as well as the teaches’ selection and adaptation of texts to the interests and abilities of their students, such as hip hop poetry for African American children),
2. goals, and
3. motivation.
Since many of my peers have already commented on motivation, I want to add some thoughts about goals. If a student has a goal (for example, to get an A in an English course) this student will be motivated to practice and learn, in order to reach this goal, and accept help in improving his or her reading abilities. Therefore: no motivation without goals! In my function as a Graduate Assistant to the Associate Chancellor of Diversity, Dr. Seymour Bryson, I had to write a research paper about student goals, so here’s some information on the different kind of goals our students can have:
A goal is an end toward which effort is directed. As quoted in Stark (“Student Goals for Colleges and Courses: A Missing Link in Assessing and Improving Academic Achievement,” 1989), “Goal-setting is the act of assessing and operationalizing short-term and intermediate action-oriented, measurable, and time-specific accomplishments that will allow an individual to actualize their governing ideas.” To understand the goals of our students, we have to be aware of a movement called “achievement goal theory,” a history of which can be found in Midgley’s work Goals, Goal Structures and Patterns of Adaptive Learning (2002).
According to Midgley, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, several researchers who investigated motivation in competence-relevant settings came to nearly mutual insights about the differences in students’ learning patterns (Ames, 1984; Dweck, 1986; Maehr, 1984; Nicholls, 1984). Out of these pioneer ideas, the achievement goal theory emerged. The researchers concentrated not only on differences in direction and strength of students’ learning engagement, but also on its quality. They noticed that students who seemingly work diligently on a task could show different quality of their investment. Thus, one can contrast learners who use learning strategies and interpret difficulties as challenge, seeing their task in a positive way, with learners who merely try to memorize material, experiencing frustration during difficulties. According to the researchers, these differences result from different motivational orientations. Here’s a definition of “achievement goals”:
This purpose – the “achievement goal” – is concerned with why a student engages in achievement-related behavior (…). Thus, the achievement goal is defined in broader terms than the specific aims that students may have, and is thought of as a comprehensive psychological “program” with “cognitive, affective, and behavioral consequences” (…) that involves “ways of thinking about oneself, one's task, and task outcomes” (Midgley 2002, 22).
There are two different goal orientations that our students can have, and they both have a different outcome regarding the learning process:
1. A mastery orientation is distinguished as perceiving learning as an end in itself, and the ultimate purpose of engaging in a learning task is mastering skills and accumulating knowledge;
2. A performance orientation is characterized as perceiving learning as a means to external purposes such as outperforming peers or pleasing the authority like parents and teachers.
Learning goals in which individuals seek to increase competence were expected to promote challenge-seeking and a mastery-oriented response to failure, regardless of ability. On the other hand, performance goals to avoid negative judgment were predicted to produce challenge-avoidance and learned helplessness in students with perceived low ability, and risk-avoidance in students with perceived high ability.
To make this a bit easier, I’ll give you two examples: a “learning goal” is when a student tries to improve her reading because she thinks that reading will help her understand things in life better, and will also improve her writing, so that she ultimately will be able to write a good job application to get the job of her dreams (this was more or less the learning goal of the only girl in my low track class). Learning goals generally produce a good outcome.
A “performance goal” is when a student says that he learns German because his ancestors were German, his parents want him to learn it, and he has to fulfill his foreign language requirement, so he took German. “Performance goals” generally have less satisfactory outcomes – basically, because the children don’t learn for their own benefit, but to make others content, for example their parents.
So, in short, the reason why our students want to learn reading (their achievement goal), is the basis for their motivation. If we assess and consider their goals, and keep in mind the diversity of our classrooms, I believe that we can improve the reading of even our lowest performers. What do you think?
I agree with what all of you have said. At-risk readers plus any student struggles to an extent on a daily basis to have a rich understanding of the text and comprehending the material. Most students come to school wanting to learn, but some have the preconception that they will not succeed and there are some teachers that just reinforce that thought for them.
With that thought in mind, I think for them to get a rich understanding would be to make it relevant for them by bringing the “outside in.” When this occurs the intrinsic motivation is increased. The three factors I think are important to comprehension are the teaching methods we use, a vocabulary taught so students will be able to incorporate it in their studying, and decoding. When it comes to teaching methods I feel that the teacher must make the classroom climate conducive to learning for all students. When we bring the “outside in” students are able to actively interact with the text. Vocabulary is important for students to understand the text. A teacher who takes the time to make vocabulary an enriched part of the lesson is promoting the lesson in a manner that students can comprehend the material. Decoding is important to all of our students but the struggling students still need more of this instruction in order to obtain the gains necessary and understanding for the advancement of their education.
"Re-introducing curiosity" is a succinct and refreshing way of putting the job of what the secondary teacher ought to remember to do. I appreciated that comment!
I agree with everyone that a rich understanding of a text is based on more than just reading or "decoding" the words on the page; a rich understanding is developed gradually in the interplay between the ideas and structures in the text and the ideas or experiences of the reader that are activated through reading, rereading, discussing, or analyzing the text further. For struggling readers, the first step will have to be to come to a basic understanding; students may need to look up unfamiliar words or concepts and re-read complicated passages in order to simply understand the most basic level of what is being said. In fact, readers at all ability levels may have to look up some words or ideas in order to gain the first level of comprehension. For example, when teaching To Kill a Mockingbird, I had to check out the meaning of some colloquial vocabulary: does anyone else know what scuppernongs and smilax are?
After the reader has established a basic comprehension or the "what the heck is she trying to say?" understanding, then she will be ready to delve into creating a deeper or richer understanding of the text beyond the words on the page. In advanced readers, there probably will not be a chronological separation between these levels of reading; the advanced reader is constantly connecting to the text and analyzing it, consciously or unconsciously, while she is actively decoding the text. The struggling reader may not be ready to do this until after she has gained the first level of basic comprehension, and will only then be prepared to think more fully about the text and unravel its threads in dicussion or in writing.
So three factors, then, that are involved in creating a rich understanding of a text include basic comprehension, which requires either the requisite vocabulary or the skills to decode unfamiliar words and ideas; life experiences that allow the reader to connect with a text and develop a deeper understanding; and motivation and patience to think carefully and reflectively about the potential meanings and intentions contained within the text.
I too agree that the three factors that are important to reading comprehension are: being able to decode the symbols (letters into words, words into sentences etc.), having background knowledge or schema to build upon, and intrinsic motiation to actually do the reading. These factors help students to gain a rich understanding of reading material. If a student has problems with basic decoding it is imperitive that accommodations be made for that student. The other two factors are irrelevant if a student is unable to decode. They will not have intrinsic motivation to read and they will not be gaining new knowledge to build upon prior knowledge. As a teacher one must know her students and understand cultural factors that may differ from her own. This will allow the teacher to guide the students in a direction that will build upon the existing knowledge and to undertand what types of motivation tools may reach the students. I believe this takes qualities that are not in the job description. These qualities include having genuine concern for students and actively seeking an understang of the students' lives and beliefs.
I agree with what everyone has mentioned. I agree with Carolee that the three most important factors are: being able to decode the symbols, having background to build upon, and intrinsic motivation to actually do the reading.
I love to read, but if I try to set down and read a book written in Russian, I am not going to get anything out of it. Some students with reading disabilities have this same problem trying to read in their native language. If one can't decode the writing then their is no way that they can comprehend what it says.
In science that the literature builds on itself, that is, it assumes that one has a working knowledge of previous content when reading the latter. If someone tries to jump into an upper level science book and start reading it from somewhere in the middle, they will have a hard time making any sense of the content, unless they already have a working knowledge of what was previously covered.
If someone is reading something that they don't care about reading, they are not going to get much from it. In order for one to get anything from the reading one must be engaged into the text. If one must have some interest in what they are reading to get anything from it.
I agree with almost everything everyone said here on this blog. Just to let you all know I have never blogged before, first time for everything. Anyway, I believe students will not always read material that they are familiar with or even interested in. For these two reasons, students need to be taught to be active readers.
Motivation to read is difficult when the subject matter is boring or difficult for the student. If the reading material is going to be followed by a set of questions to test the reader's comprehension then I am a firm believer that previewing the questions before reading will motivate the student to get through the material even if they are at first not interested. The teacher needs to be 100% familiar with the reading and maybe provide a list of difficult words before the reading assignment begins.
I agree with Erin and Sheila. Erin for using a dictionary and Sheila for emphasizing the notion of re-reading and re-reading again. I also believe that a reader needs to read with a pen or pencil in hand. This holding of a pen/pencil will actively engage the student in what they are reading by marking important portions from the text, underlining unfamiliar words and highlighting the important or interesting parts for the reader. This in turn will motivate the reader to become engaged, interested, retain and be able to comprehend what they have just read. I believe a student can gain a rich understanding of what they read if they impose these tactics listed above.
If our students do not have some form of motivation to read, they are not going to willingly jump into a text. I realize some classmates don’t believe motivation is one of the most important factors, but if something inside or outside the students does not entice them to read, we cannot make them read. Secondly, if our students do not have well-trained, knowledgeable teachers to coach them through the reading processes, our students may not be so inclined to practice and work at becoming better, active readers.
I ardently believe, as many of my classmates have already pointed out, that to promote reading comprehension, active reading in the form of multiple methods needs to occur before readers of any age or ability develop a richer understanding of the material. The current ability level of the reader will determine which components of effective comprehension instruction the teacher will focus on most with the reader. Additionally, if our students do not have the patience (as Erin mentioned) and the courage to continue reading, then our students may not persist in the challenging task of developing a more solid and thorough (i.e., rich) understanding of the topic or content presented.
It wasn’t until I returned to school for a second bachelor’s that I really learned (by being taught explicitly) how to garner a richer understanding of a text, be it poetry, fiction novels, or academic articles. One of the most challenging aspects of re-learning how to read was admitting that it took me more than a cursory or quick “read” to understand (i.e., form a meaning I could articulate) of the text. As a few of you (namely, Sheila and Kate) have already pointed out, it was the genuinely active reading and re-reading with a pencil in hand, discussing the text in class, and writing papers about the texts that contributed to my working knowledge and richer understanding. Reading isn’t easy, and if our students don’t already know reading is also rewarding, it is up to teachers as positive role models to help students believe the challenge is worth their efforts.
PS: I had a lovely swimming analogy to solidify and explain my own understanding of this week’s blog question, but I did not want to make you endure a novel-length entry, so I did not include it. If the first paragraph sounds a little kitschy, though, that’s why.
I agree that it is very important to be an active reader to gain a rich understanding. I like some of the things people have already said, like reading with a pencil in hand to highlight, underline, and take notes. As teachers, like Kate said, we can help our students by providing some reading questions in order to guide their reading. Ideally you would like for the students to be able to read for a rich understanding without the guide, but this is a skill that needs to be learned. Perhaps after using reading guides for a while, the students would improve their abilities to locate key information on their own, and the teacher would no longer need to provide the questions in advance.
Rereading is also very important. Often, texts are written in a style that is not easy to follow or is very dry. I often catch myself reading several paragraphs and having no idea what they are about. It's easy to simply continue, especially if the reading assignment is long. It is important to reread until you have come to an understanding and retained the important content, though. This requires patience, though, that most people don't possess when they are reading materials they find uninteresting. As teachers, we can help by giving reading assignments that are manageable. Remember that students get assignments in four or five other classes in addition to yours. It is better that they complete and understand a short reading than not even attempt or gloss over a lengthy reading.
There are so many factors that contribute to a student's ability to comprehend a text, but I think that motivation (including one's perception of one's self as a reader), actual ability to read the material (understanding the interrelationships of phenoms and phones etc.), drive (conation - not always intertwined with motivation) and background knowledge (Hirsch's work on cultural literacy etc is particularly relevant here) are central to comprehension. Another factor that affects a student's ability to understanding reading is the student's perception of the act of reading and her perception of herself as a reader. Competent readers know whether or not they're following the text, and a reader's ability to understand hinges on whether or not they KNOW if they're understanding. If a reader cannot self-monitor, she lacks the necessary skills read.
Motivation and conation are complicated notions that might require further research and analysis than currently available. Intrinsic motivation can be difficult to monitor in some students, but there are strategies that exist to help build it. By allowing students to investigate a text's relevance to their lives and choose material based on their own interests, teachers are building intrinsic motivation and increasing the likelihood that a student will become a life-long reader. Conation is a student's drive to finish a project (in this case, finish the reading). Some students will always finish, but other have never developed that inner sense of accomplishment by just having READ THE WHOLE THING!
PS--I just re-read the question, and I've realized that I said four factors instead of three. For the sake of this assignment, I'll group conation and motivation, but I don't actually think that they're the same thing.
It's fascinating reading all your comments. So many different points of view, and yet so much agreement. It's been really instructional reading all the comments.
As for myself, I am concerned with motivation. More specifically, finding a balance between work that the students actually like, and work that is assigned to the student.
Now the first category would seem easy. If the student is interested in a work, or if they enjoy a work, it would seem easy to get a student to read. But there is one big problem, the student is probably not reading in a way to get real "truth" from a work. They read it to enjoy the work, not to engage it. The student needs to be motivated to read the text closely.
The second motivation is just as hard, but in one way it is easier: because the student views the piece as work, at least they will be working on it. But how do we "motivate" a student to read things they do not feel relate to them. I think it comes down to relating it to the student. Show them how a piece of Shakespeare relates to their life. Give them a reason to read Fitzgerald by showing how he was talking about them. Make the work relevant. Another option is to make the work exciting. Show movies, play games with the text, and allow the students to play with the text itself.
I do believe, like many others, that three factors are motivation, decoding, and background knowledge, but I think that students need also to find the truth of a work. In this case that may be synonymous with richness, but it also means personal truth, what the student takes away form the work. They need to find what the work means to them, in the end. That's the only way they'll take anything from the work.
The idea of a rich understanding of a text involves so many different factors that three seems an inadequate number. (My classmates have identified at least three times as many "most important factors.") If I had to choose the three I considered most important, I believe I would say background knowledge, relevance to the student's life, as mentioned in the latest post, and using outside resources are of utmost importance.
When I say background knowledge, I mean having a basic understanding of the previous concepts mentioned in the text; this includes decoding and referencing. For example, when I read a comment on a literary text, many times the author will reference a theory or another author I am unfamiliar with, then build off of the principles laid out in that strain of thought. This can be frustrating if there are many unknown references because while I can gain an understanding of the point the author is trying to make, I will not fully "get" every aspect required for a rich understanding of the text.
If the lack of adequate background knowledge frustrates an avid reader like myself, I shudder to think of those who are already behind. As a classmate mentioned, those students who struggle with reading in any class have probably not understood the prior materials necessary to understand new concepts. This lack of understanding also acts as a double negative toward motivation to read the text.
Since there has been much discussion on motivation, I will only add that motivation comes from relevance to a student's life. If a student does not believe that reading serves a higher purpose, they WILL NOT read. On that same train of thought, if students are not interested in the material, even avid readers will not see the point.
The last factor, one that I believe has a huge impact on student comprehension, is using outside resources. As my classmates have mentioned, looking up unfamiliar words in either a dictionary or reference book can add not only to vocabulary, but also to developing that rich understanding about which we've been talking. However, I believe other outside resources are important.
Going back to background knowledge, I think a reader MUST stop and get that understanding before he or she can even think to fully understand a text. If there is a theory the student is unfamiliar with, he or she should at least look up the important points of the theory. If there is an author/work referenced for an extended period of the text, the student should look up that person/article and find out what makes he/she/it important to understanding.
I realize that using outside resources is time consuming (and I'll be honest, I am lax at doing this myself), but the alternative is readers who only partially understand a text or cannot garner the richest possible meaning, and that only "dumbs down" society. I believe if a student is TAUGHT to be a good reader, he or she will continue to use those methods later in life becoming a lifelong reader and, as one classmate put it, justifying what we as teachers actually DO.
Teaching science can often be difficult because of the vast new vocabulary necessary to understand the content. As a pre-reading exercise, it is necessary to introduce some of the vocabulary to the students. In addition, I want to create a word-wall that will provide opportunities for students to add words that they are unfamiliar with. The teacher is responsible for delivering instruction that aids in building connections with students' prior knowledge. This will hopefully build an interest that will motivate the students to read the resources that are provided for them. Allowing students to research topics on their own will also provide a motivation to read science content. These techniques will pave the way for a rich understanding of the readings.
23 comments:
First of all, I think the word “rich” is a more appropriate word than, say, “true.” One may never have a true understating, but strong comprehension is a result from completely reading the material with hopefully some background knowledge (e.g. context). Students and teachers alike must immerse themselves in several pieces on a subject (as we have done this week) to allow an inner dialogue to play out.
Three important factors, I believe, in reading comprehension are a relevant text, intrinsic motivation, and, simply put, actually reading the darn thing! Potential readers are turned off by materials that somehow don’t grab them by title alone, subject matter, presentation style, etc. Instrinsic motivation may actually be promoted by teachers and parents, but the reader’s heart and mind must be prepared and willing to take on the possibly enjoyable task! And finally, as a freshmen English teacher, this idea of not really reading (laziness, fake reading) came to mind. We cannot comprehend what we don’t even expose to our mind.
I agree with Julie's description of three important factors in reading comprehension. As far as the text being relevant, I would say that the reader needs to be able to connect some of the material in the text to concepts and ideas that the reader is already familiar with. By this I mean that the entire text need not be of familiar context, but as long as the reader can relate some of the material to ideas the reader has some prior knowledge of, the reader's comprehension of the text will be greater. The schema theory, if you will! I also agree that if the reader is motivated to read and understand the material as best they can, than they will automatically comprehend the material to a greater degree. As far as reading the material, well, that is obvious. But I would elaborate on this point by saying that the reader needs to read the text with as full an understanding as possible. To me, this means that the reader may need to take extra steps, such as referring to a dictionary for definitions of words in the text that the reader is not familiar with, and, if need be, referring to outside materials to gain whatever background knowledge may be necessary to fully comprehend the text. In some instances, this may not be feasible, but, if possible, these extra steps would go a long way to ensuring that reader obtains comprehension of the text. By following the above steps to reading comprehension, the reader would also gain a pretty "rich" understanding of the text, I believe.
I agree that background knowledge & schema are essential for rich understanding. Our readings also bring to mind how essential the planning of instruction is. One has to keep ideas about how to help students learn both short & long term. One also has to present instruction in a variety of ways in order to reach the vast needs of students.
I think another way to gain a rich understanding of text is to do more than just read it. One has to be actively engaged with the text--questioning it, predicting what will come next, making inferences, and monitoring one's own comprehension. Vladimir Nabokov said, "One cannot read a book. One can only reread it." While I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say we can't get a deep understanding on the first read, I do think there's tremendous value in rereading, which is something most students are reluctant to do (they usually just want to get the reading over with). If we can find ways to get them back into the text, examining its structure, appreciating its details, I think they would come away with a much richer understanding.
As I refer back to the topics of the week I am led to believe that every student will have a slightly, or even, totally different understanding of any given reading based on a myriad of factors. In my subject area (S.S.)prior knowledge is imperative for a rich understanding, as well as, particular schemata. Also, some form of intrinsic motivation needs to be present, especially if the student is required to obtain the information long term. However, we as teachers are there to guide, direct, and hopefully encourage those who are facing comprehension or motivational difficulties through well planned lessons, activities, etc.
The three factors that I would include as important for comprehension would be vocabulary, decoding, and a variety of teaching methods. In concurrence with Sheila, rereading does have tremendous value and most students are reluctant to put forth the extra effort to further comprehend a text.
Monica, I can't say it any better! As teachers, we are guides. We are in the room to encourage, direct or redirect, and just wait for questions. As secondary teachers particularly, we face the task of re-introducing curiosity to our students. Too often by the time they have reached high school, students have had their curiosity rewarded away or squished out of them.
I also agree that a rich understanding can come about from re-reading. However, I also think that a deeper understanding is much more likely to happen when the reader is interested in the topic, or has done previous reading/research/discussion. This means that a rich understanding cannot really be had on a topic that is totally new. Rich understanding comes with time and thought, including further reading/re-reading, investigation, and conversations.
I also agree with the other comments pertaining to reading comprehension, especially Monica's. Maybe as a Social Studies teacher, her comments really hit home. Or maybe it was because I'm a parent watching my girls read. Either way, vocabulary makes a difference, as does the ability to decode. When these are absent, it is the teacher who must come up with a variety of instructional methods to correct this missing reading link. As teachers and strong readers, if we cannot model how to read, and if we cannot find ways to show our diverse student body how much they DO already read (via song lyrics, commercials, t-shirt logos and designs, posters, games, bus routes, text messaging, etc) or how they are ready to jump into the deep end of reading because of these semi- and pre-reading abilities, then we are failing our students. Reading is not only what schooling is built on, it is what life long learning is built upon. And if we are not attempting to create life-long learners, then what are we really teaching for?
I think Sheila made an excellent point on the subject of active reading...it is amazing what a difference it makes when you can read and highlight the important points, writing down comments and questions and circling parts that are unclear and reread them. I taught a freshman reading class called Reading College Texts here at SIU last year, and it is amazing how many students come to college and have never been taught to actively read! I believe that active reading is the key to a rich understanding of any text, whether you have any background knowledge on the topic or not. While having background knowledge can help tremendously, it can hinder the reading in some ways as well - if the reading does not fit the reader's prior ideas on the topic, they may ignore or skew the information presented. While I agree with the comments suggesting that background knowledge can help comprehension, I don't believe it is always the most important factor.
Based on past experience and the readings from this week, I would say that three important factors in comprehension involve motivation, interest, and focusing on the text. Motivation and interest are up to the student, but the teacher can play a big role in fostering these things in the student. Focusing on the text is incredibly important in comprehension as well. We are all guilty of reading and getting through a paragraph or even a page and realizing we have no idea what we just read. Engaging in the text is the only way to comprehend it.
My points are also similar to the ones of most of the classmates. More specifically, in ESL, it is very important if the teacher can help the students make sense out of the context. Through a well-structured scaffolding, the reading process can be facilitated. In addition, students may also find that it's useful if the teacher leads them to start out with what they are familiar with. It is just like what David Ausubel proposed that the most important single factor influencing learner is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.
The three important factors in reading comprehension are presented as follows:
1) A text with relevant information, which can help students comprehend more about the context.
2)Especially for the ESL learners, adequate vocabulary and basic grammatical rules and sentence structures are required.
3)The content should be related to students' experience so they can be motivated to learn.
In response to Katy Newton... I agree that the student must engage the text. I would also point out, based on our readings from this week,that the text must engage the student. I might assume Katy feels the same way; there is a positive correlation between reading material that is interesting to the student and student interest in the reading material. As Dr. Glassett stated, "Bring the outside in."
The three most important factors, I beleive, in reading comprehension are: quality of instruction, self-efficacy, and the five factors of reading outlined by the National Reading Panel. I am CONCERNED about the reliance on motivation as being a heavily weighted factor in reading comprehension.
Motivation, may not lead to a life-long reader if the teacher is inable to "wean" away the student to become an independant thinker and reader. Furthermore, the authors state that motivation may significantly vary across content areas. Johnny may love to read in science class, but Mr.Jerrells will have to find reading materials (possibly picture/word books and cause/effect relationships) that Johnny will find a real sense of meaning of what happened in history and how it may affect him now.
I think that most everyone has made a strong argument for their ideas. It is hard for me to describe how a student would come to a rich understanding. I think the most important factor would be familiarity with something from the content. I have found in my own classes that when I introduce a new topic the students spend a lot of time trying to figure out vocabulary terms that they are not familiar with. They end up spending their time looking up words in a dictionary or the glossary of a text book instead of putting the reading into context and working on understanding what they are reading.
I believe the important factors for reading comprehension are intrinsic motivation, as julie says "actually reading", and reading that students can relate to in some way. In response the Chris, I think that we will all struggle with kids who just don't like our content area, and they probably won't want to read. But if somehow we can build intrinsic motivation for learning in students, they should want to read in any subject area. (Note: I am willing to refer to myself as an idealist at this point) Secondly, however simple it is, you must actually crack the spine of the book comprehend the words inside. Finally, as many have said before, students want to learn what is relavent to them. Even if it is not the entire reading, just a small part, they are more likely to read when they can relate some feeling or experience from their own lives to it.
I agree with my peers who said that prior knowledge is essential for a rich understanding, but equally important is the ability of making inferences, developing hypotheses out of these, proving those with experiments, and coming to an explanation/solution. In Dr. Wise’s class, we heard about the Learning Cycle, which is composed of exploration, introduction, application (which can be elaborated on by using the “Five E’s,” 1. engage, 2. explore, 3. explain, 4. elaborate, 5. evaluate). I can state from my student teaching experience that several of my low track students never got that far; they got stuck in the first step. The exploration part of a lesson (especially an English lesson) was what interested them most; I usually brought in hands-on material (for example, Braille sheets, stencils, and slates for creating their own “secret language for the blind” during a unit on the Helen Keller drama). However, the teacher’s introduction of the concept interested them less (they actually had to “learn”!), and some lost their focus or motivation. Finally, when it came to the application part, most of my very low performers fell back into their old scheme of: “What do you want me to write next? What is the right solution here?” – displaying their learned helplessness and reliance on the teacher. Some of my students never finished a sentence after a comma without asking me what I want them to say next. They would have liked me to dictate to them (and one actually asked me to type his essay in the computer lab!!).
Thus, I would argue that if a student is not a self-directed learner and does not possess the ability or motivation to make inferences and hypotheses to work with, this student will never come to a rich understanding. Prior knowledge alone will not help, especially since many of our third track students do not possess very much of it, since they have been underexposed throughout their educational career through the “teaching down” from the part of the teacher.
The three factors that I see most important in reading comprehension are:
1. diversity (this includes the lack of vocabulary of our low-income, single-parent household, and black minority students; as well as the teaches’ selection and adaptation of texts to the interests and abilities of their students, such as hip hop poetry for African American children),
2. goals, and
3. motivation.
Since many of my peers have already commented on motivation, I want to add some thoughts about goals. If a student has a goal (for example, to get an A in an English course) this student will be motivated to practice and learn, in order to reach this goal, and accept help in improving his or her reading abilities. Therefore: no motivation without goals! In my function as a Graduate Assistant to the Associate Chancellor of Diversity, Dr. Seymour Bryson, I had to write a research paper about student goals, so here’s some information on the different kind of goals our students can have:
A goal is an end toward which effort is directed. As quoted in Stark (“Student Goals for Colleges and Courses: A Missing Link in Assessing and Improving Academic Achievement,” 1989), “Goal-setting is the act of assessing and operationalizing short-term and intermediate action-oriented, measurable, and time-specific accomplishments that will allow an individual to actualize their governing ideas.” To understand the goals of our students, we have to be aware of a movement called “achievement goal theory,” a history of which can be found in Midgley’s work Goals, Goal Structures and Patterns of Adaptive Learning (2002).
According to Midgley, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, several researchers who investigated motivation in competence-relevant settings came to nearly mutual insights about the differences in students’ learning patterns (Ames, 1984; Dweck, 1986; Maehr, 1984; Nicholls, 1984). Out of these pioneer ideas, the achievement goal theory emerged. The researchers concentrated not only on differences in direction and strength of students’ learning engagement, but also on its quality. They noticed that students who seemingly work diligently on a task could show different quality of their investment. Thus, one can contrast learners who use learning strategies and interpret difficulties as challenge, seeing their task in a positive way, with learners who merely try to memorize material, experiencing frustration during difficulties. According to the researchers, these differences result from different motivational orientations. Here’s a definition of “achievement goals”:
This purpose – the “achievement goal” – is concerned with why a student engages in achievement-related behavior (…). Thus, the achievement goal is defined in broader terms than the specific aims that students may have, and is thought of as a comprehensive psychological “program” with “cognitive, affective, and behavioral consequences” (…) that involves “ways of thinking about oneself, one's task, and task outcomes” (Midgley 2002, 22).
There are two different goal orientations that our students can have, and they both have a different outcome regarding the learning process:
1. A mastery orientation is distinguished as perceiving learning as an end in itself, and the ultimate purpose of engaging in a learning task is mastering skills and accumulating knowledge;
2. A performance orientation is characterized as perceiving learning as a means to external purposes such as outperforming peers or pleasing the authority like parents and teachers.
Learning goals in which individuals seek to increase competence were expected to promote challenge-seeking and a mastery-oriented response to failure, regardless of ability. On the other hand, performance goals to avoid negative judgment were predicted to produce challenge-avoidance and learned helplessness in students with perceived low ability, and risk-avoidance in students with perceived high ability.
To make this a bit easier, I’ll give you two examples: a “learning goal” is when a student tries to improve her reading because she thinks that reading will help her understand things in life better, and will also improve her writing, so that she ultimately will be able to write a good job application to get the job of her dreams (this was more or less the learning goal of the only girl in my low track class). Learning goals generally produce a good outcome.
A “performance goal” is when a student says that he learns German because his ancestors were German, his parents want him to learn it, and he has to fulfill his foreign language requirement, so he took German. “Performance goals” generally have less satisfactory outcomes – basically, because the children don’t learn for their own benefit, but to make others content, for example their parents.
So, in short, the reason why our students want to learn reading (their achievement goal), is the basis for their motivation. If we assess and consider their goals, and keep in mind the diversity of our classrooms, I believe that we can improve the reading of even our lowest performers. What do you think?
Dr. Christina Voss
I agree with what all of you have said. At-risk readers plus any student struggles to an extent on a daily basis to have a rich understanding of the text and comprehending the material. Most students come to school wanting to learn, but some have the preconception that they will not succeed and there are some teachers that just reinforce that thought for them.
With that thought in mind, I think for them to get a rich understanding would be to make it relevant for them by bringing the “outside in.” When this occurs the intrinsic motivation is increased. The three factors I think are important to comprehension are the teaching methods we use, a vocabulary taught so students will be able to incorporate it in their studying, and decoding. When it comes to teaching methods I feel that the teacher must make the classroom climate conducive to learning for all students. When we bring the “outside in” students are able to actively interact with the text. Vocabulary is important for students to understand the text. A teacher who takes the time to make vocabulary an enriched part of the lesson is promoting the lesson in a manner that students can comprehend the material. Decoding is important to all of our students but the struggling students still need more of this instruction in order to obtain the gains necessary and understanding for the advancement of their education.
"Re-introducing curiosity" is a succinct and refreshing way of putting the job of what the secondary teacher ought to remember to do. I appreciated that comment!
I agree with everyone that a rich understanding of a text is based on more than just reading or "decoding" the words on the page; a rich understanding is developed gradually in the interplay between the ideas and structures in the text and the ideas or experiences of the reader that are activated through reading, rereading, discussing, or analyzing the text further. For struggling readers, the first step will have to be to come to a basic understanding; students may need to look up unfamiliar words or concepts and re-read complicated passages in order to simply understand the most basic level of what is being said. In fact, readers at all ability levels may have to look up some words or ideas in order to gain the first level of comprehension. For example, when teaching To Kill a Mockingbird, I had to check out the meaning of some colloquial vocabulary: does anyone else know what scuppernongs and smilax are?
After the reader has established a basic comprehension or the "what the heck is she trying to say?" understanding, then she will be ready to delve into creating a deeper or richer understanding of the text beyond the words on the page. In advanced readers, there probably will not be a chronological separation between these levels of reading; the advanced reader is constantly connecting to the text and analyzing it, consciously or unconsciously, while she is actively decoding the text. The struggling reader may not be ready to do this until after she has gained the first level of basic comprehension, and will only then be prepared to think more fully about the text and unravel its threads in dicussion or in writing.
So three factors, then, that are involved in creating a rich understanding of a text include basic comprehension, which requires either the requisite vocabulary or the skills to decode unfamiliar words and ideas; life experiences that allow the reader to connect with a text and develop a deeper understanding; and motivation and patience to think carefully and reflectively about the potential meanings and intentions contained within the text.
I too agree that the three factors that are important to reading comprehension are: being able to decode the symbols (letters into words, words into sentences etc.), having background knowledge or schema to build upon, and intrinsic motiation to actually do the reading.
These factors help students to gain a rich understanding of reading material. If a student has problems with basic decoding it is imperitive that accommodations be made for that student. The other two factors are irrelevant if a student is unable to decode. They will not have intrinsic motivation to read and they will not be gaining new knowledge to build upon prior knowledge.
As a teacher one must know her students and understand cultural factors that may differ from her own. This will allow the teacher to guide the students in a direction that will build upon the existing knowledge and to undertand what types of motivation tools may reach the students. I believe this takes qualities that are not in the job description. These qualities include having genuine concern for students and actively seeking an understang of the students' lives and beliefs.
I agree with what everyone has mentioned. I agree with Carolee that the three most important factors are: being able to decode the symbols, having background to build upon, and intrinsic motivation to actually do the reading.
I love to read, but if I try to set down and read a book written in Russian, I am not going to get anything out of it. Some students with reading disabilities have this same problem trying to read in their native language. If one can't decode the writing then their is no way that they can comprehend what it says.
In science that the literature builds on itself, that is, it assumes that one has a working knowledge of previous content when reading the latter. If someone tries to jump into an upper level science book and start reading it from somewhere in the middle, they will have a hard time making any sense of the content, unless they already have a working knowledge of what was previously covered.
If someone is reading something that they don't care about reading, they are not going to get much from it. In order for one to get anything from the reading one must be engaged into the text. If one must have some interest in what they are reading to get anything from it.
I agree with almost everything everyone said here on this blog. Just to let you all know I have never blogged before, first time for everything. Anyway, I believe students will not always read material that they are familiar with or even interested in. For these two reasons, students need to be taught to be active readers.
Motivation to read is difficult when the subject matter is boring or difficult for the student. If the reading material is going to be followed by a set of questions to test the reader's comprehension then I am a firm believer that previewing the questions before reading will motivate the student to get through the material even if they are at first not interested. The teacher needs to be 100% familiar with the reading and maybe provide a list of difficult words before the reading assignment begins.
I agree with Erin and Sheila. Erin for using a dictionary and Sheila for emphasizing the notion of re-reading and re-reading again. I also believe that a reader needs to read with a pen or pencil in hand. This holding of a pen/pencil will actively engage the student in what they are reading by marking important portions from the text, underlining unfamiliar words and highlighting the important or interesting parts for the reader. This in turn will motivate the reader to become engaged, interested, retain and be able to comprehend what they have just read. I believe a student can gain a rich understanding of what they read if they impose these tactics listed above.
If our students do not have some form of motivation to read, they are not going to willingly jump into a text. I realize some classmates don’t believe motivation is one of the most important factors, but if something inside or outside the students does not entice them to read, we cannot make them read. Secondly, if our students do not have well-trained, knowledgeable teachers to coach them through the reading processes, our students may not be so inclined to practice and work at becoming better, active readers.
I ardently believe, as many of my classmates have already pointed out, that to promote reading comprehension, active reading in the form of multiple methods needs to occur before readers of any age or ability develop a richer understanding of the material. The current ability level of the reader will determine which components of effective comprehension instruction the teacher will focus on most with the reader. Additionally, if our students do not have the patience (as Erin mentioned) and the courage to continue reading, then our students may not persist in the challenging task of developing a more solid and thorough (i.e., rich) understanding of the topic or content presented.
It wasn’t until I returned to school for a second bachelor’s that I really learned (by being taught explicitly) how to garner a richer understanding of a text, be it poetry, fiction novels, or academic articles. One of the most challenging aspects of re-learning how to read was admitting that it took me more than a cursory or quick “read” to understand (i.e., form a meaning I could articulate) of the text. As a few of you (namely, Sheila and Kate) have already pointed out, it was the genuinely active reading and re-reading with a pencil in hand, discussing the text in class, and writing papers about the texts that contributed to my working knowledge and richer understanding. Reading isn’t easy, and if our students don’t already know reading is also rewarding, it is up to teachers as positive role models to help students believe the challenge is worth their efforts.
PS: I had a lovely swimming analogy to solidify and explain my own understanding of this week’s blog question, but I did not want to make you endure a novel-length entry, so I did not include it. If the first paragraph sounds a little kitschy, though, that’s why.
I agree that it is very important to be an active reader to gain a rich understanding. I like some of the things people have already said, like reading with a pencil in hand to highlight, underline, and take notes. As teachers, like Kate said, we can help our students by providing some reading questions in order to guide their reading. Ideally you would like for the students to be able to read for a rich understanding without the guide, but this is a skill that needs to be learned. Perhaps after using reading guides for a while, the students would improve their abilities to locate key information on their own, and the teacher would no longer need to provide the questions in advance.
Rereading is also very important. Often, texts are written in a style that is not easy to follow or is very dry. I often catch myself reading several paragraphs and having no idea what they are about. It's easy to simply continue, especially if the reading assignment is long. It is important to reread until you have come to an understanding and retained the important content, though. This requires patience, though, that most people don't possess when they are reading materials they find uninteresting. As teachers, we can help by giving reading assignments that are manageable. Remember that students get assignments in four or five other classes in addition to yours. It is better that they complete and understand a short reading than not even attempt or gloss over a lengthy reading.
There are so many factors that contribute to a student's ability to comprehend a text, but I think that motivation (including one's perception of one's self as a reader), actual ability to read the material (understanding the interrelationships of phenoms and phones etc.), drive (conation - not always intertwined with motivation) and background knowledge (Hirsch's work on cultural literacy etc is particularly relevant here) are central to comprehension. Another factor that affects a student's ability to understanding reading is the student's perception of the act of reading and her perception of herself as a reader. Competent readers know whether or not they're following the text, and a reader's ability to understand hinges on whether or not they KNOW if they're understanding. If a reader cannot self-monitor, she lacks the necessary skills read.
Motivation and conation are complicated notions that might require further research and analysis than currently available. Intrinsic motivation can be difficult to monitor in some students, but there are strategies that exist to help build it. By allowing students to investigate a text's relevance to their lives and choose material based on their own interests, teachers are building intrinsic motivation and increasing the likelihood that a student will become a life-long reader. Conation is a student's drive to finish a project (in this case, finish the reading). Some students will always finish, but other have never developed that inner sense of accomplishment by just having READ THE WHOLE THING!
PS--I just re-read the question, and I've realized that I said four factors instead of three. For the sake of this assignment, I'll group conation and motivation, but I don't actually think that they're the same thing.
It's fascinating reading all your comments. So many different points of view, and yet so much agreement. It's been really instructional reading all the comments.
As for myself, I am concerned with motivation. More specifically, finding a balance between work that the students actually like, and work that is assigned to the student.
Now the first category would seem easy. If the student is interested in a work, or if they enjoy a work, it would seem easy to get a student to read. But there is one big problem, the student is probably not reading in a way to get real "truth" from a work. They read it to enjoy the work, not to engage it. The student needs to be motivated to read the text closely.
The second motivation is just as hard, but in one way it is easier: because the student views the piece as work, at least they will be working on it. But how do we "motivate" a student to read things they do not feel relate to them. I think it comes down to relating it to the student. Show them how a piece of Shakespeare relates to their life. Give them a reason to read Fitzgerald by showing how he was talking about them. Make the work relevant. Another option is to make the work exciting. Show movies, play games with the text, and allow the students to play with the text itself.
I do believe, like many others, that three factors are motivation, decoding, and background knowledge, but I think that students need also to find the truth of a work. In this case that may be synonymous with richness, but it also means personal truth, what the student takes away form the work. They need to find what the work means to them, in the end. That's the only way they'll take anything from the work.
The idea of a rich understanding of a text involves so many different factors that three seems an inadequate number. (My classmates have identified at least three times as many "most important factors.") If I had to choose the three I considered most important, I believe I would say background knowledge, relevance to the student's life, as mentioned in the latest post, and using outside resources are of utmost importance.
When I say background knowledge, I mean having a basic understanding of the previous concepts mentioned in the text; this includes decoding and referencing. For example, when I read a comment on a literary text, many times the author will reference a theory or another author I am unfamiliar with, then build off of the principles laid out in that strain of thought. This can be frustrating if there are many unknown references because while I can gain an understanding of the point the author is trying to make, I will not fully "get" every aspect required for a rich understanding of the text.
If the lack of adequate background knowledge frustrates an avid reader like myself, I shudder to think of those who are already behind. As a classmate mentioned, those students who struggle with reading in any class have probably not understood the prior materials necessary to understand new concepts. This lack of understanding also acts as a double negative toward motivation to read the text.
Since there has been much discussion on motivation, I will only add that motivation comes from relevance to a student's life. If a student does not believe that reading serves a higher purpose, they WILL NOT read. On that same train of thought, if students are not interested in the material, even avid readers will not see the point.
The last factor, one that I believe has a huge impact on student comprehension, is using outside resources. As my classmates have mentioned, looking up unfamiliar words in either a dictionary or reference book can add not only to vocabulary, but also to developing that rich understanding about which we've been talking. However, I believe other outside resources are important.
Going back to background knowledge, I think a reader MUST stop and get that understanding before he or she can even think to fully understand a text. If there is a theory the student is unfamiliar with, he or she should at least look up the important points of the theory. If there is an author/work referenced for an extended period of the text, the student should look up that person/article and find out what makes he/she/it important to understanding.
I realize that using outside resources is time consuming (and I'll be honest, I am lax at doing this myself), but the alternative is readers who only partially understand a text or cannot garner the richest possible meaning, and that only "dumbs down" society. I believe if a student is TAUGHT to be a good reader, he or she will continue to use those methods later in life becoming a lifelong reader and, as one classmate put it, justifying what we as teachers actually DO.
Teaching science can often be difficult because of the vast new vocabulary necessary to understand the content. As a pre-reading exercise, it is necessary to introduce some of the vocabulary to the students. In addition, I want to create a word-wall that will provide opportunities for students to add words that they are unfamiliar with.
The teacher is responsible for delivering instruction that aids in building connections with students' prior knowledge. This will hopefully build an interest that will motivate the students to read the resources that are provided for them. Allowing students to research topics on their own will also provide a motivation to read science content.
These techniques will pave the way for a rich understanding of the readings.
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