Comprehension

Secondary Strategies

Never forget, you are working with a teenager.

Brain of a Female Adolescent

Brain of a Male Adolescent

Two Types of Struggling Readers Encountered in High Schools:

RESISTIVE READERS: They can read but choose not to.

WORD CALLERS: They can decode the words but don’t understand or remember what they’ve read.

What do good readers do?

They use existing knowledge to make sense of new information.

They ask questions about the text before, during, and after reading.

They draw inferences from the text.

You are an expert reader. What do you do to make sense of text?

What do good readers do?

They monitor their comprehension.They use “fix-up” strategies when

meaning breaks down.They determine what is important.They synthesize information to create

new thinking.

Text becomes inaccessible when students:

Don’t have the comprehension strategies necessary to unlock meaning.

Don’t have sufficient background knowledge.

Don’t recognize organizational patterns. Lack purpose.

Reading instruction must continue

after elementary school and middle school.

Handout

Background Knowledge

Background Knowledge

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Text Sources:

1. Principles of DC and AC Circuits, George J. Angerbauer, p. 461

2. “An experiment with liquid helium to study fluid flow” CHAOS – Making a New Science, James Gleick, p. 203

3. Sewing – Individuals with a background in sewing readily interpret this passage.

4. Washing clothes – If you had not read these directions on a sign in a Laundromat, you may have had difficulty comprehending that these are the directions for washing clothes.

Background information or prior knowledge and vocabulary are critically important to the comprehension of text.

Background information or prior knowledge and vocabulary are critically important to the comprehension of text.

Purpose is everything!

It determines:What is important in the textWhat is rememberedWhat comprehension strategy

the reader uses to enhance meaning

Handout

The HouseThe House

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When students read difficult text without a purpose, they express the following complaints:

I don’t care about the topic.

I can’t relate to

the topic.

I daydream and my

mind wanders.

I can’t stay

focused.I just say the words so I can be

done.I get

bored!

Handout

Coding TextCoding Text

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Literate Conversations:

Good readers constantly question the text. By asking themselves questions as they read, they assume responsibility for the learning and improve comprehension in four ways:

by interacting with the text. by motivating themselves to read. by clarifying information in the text. by inferring beyond the literal meaning.

References: Cris Tovani’s