Importance Of Comprehension: The Heart Of Reading

Comprehension is known as the heart of reading. It consists of several parts such as predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing, which play an important role in comprehension. Students who use multiple strategies when approaching a text are more likely to stop to look up a challenging word, reread and monitor their own comprehension. As opposed to the strategies that good readers use, many struggling readers do not approach a text with this frame of mind. Instead, struggling readers need to be taught comprehension strategies, through modeling, group work and using reciprocal teaching methods, such as picture walks. As stated in the Core “ A critical challenge in comprehension is that many students particularly struggling students not only fail to understand

Student’s learning is scaffolded through three elements declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge. Students are shown strategies such as predicting, by learning about the strategy, the steps to implement it and using it across multiple contexts. This approach is beneficial to struggling students as the responsibility shifts from teacher to student. In addition to scaffolding, the Core outlines a variety of methods which reinforce good comprehension strategies, such as using prediction worksheets, CROWD prompting, cooperative learning and read aloud methods. Cooperative learning is a strategy I would implement in my own classroom. As stated “ In cooperative learning students work together as partners or in small groups on a clearly defined task, such as helping each other learn, choose and apply comprehension strategies” ( Honig, Diamond & Gutlohn, 2013, pp.614). This can be done in different ways, such as group work or pairing students of lower levels with higher levels. The student who reads at a higher level can give the student who reads at a lower level feedback, which can increase reading comprehension and effective strategy