By Dr. Grant - GMU

1. Comprehension Development
Reading the word and the world-
Freire & Macedo
R. Grant

2. Defining Comprehension
Think-pair-share:
How do you define comprehension?
 Think about it for a moment.
 Share your thoughts with a peer.
 Now, share your definition and your
neighbor’s with the class.

3. Critical Pedagogy, Literacy and
Understanding
Reading does not consist merely of
decoding the written word or language;
rather, it is preceded by and intertwined
with knowledge of the world.
Reading always involves critical perception,
interpretation, and rewriting of what is read.
(Freire & Macedo, 1987)

4. Defining Reading
Comprehension
Comprehension is a creative, multifaceted
process in which students engage with the
text (Tierney, 1990)
Comprehension is the process whereby the
reader constructs meaning by interacting
with the text (Anderson & Pearson, 1984)

5. Theories about Comprehension
Behaviorist
Cognitive
Scheme
Reader Response
Critical Literacy
Sociocultural
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

6. Factors influencing
comprehension-the reader
The reader- the background knowledge that
readers bring to the reading process
influences how they understand the text as
well as the strategies they use while reading

7. Factors influencing
comprehension- text and purpose
The text being read- the author’s ideas, the
words used to express those ideas, and how
the ideas are organized and presented affect
comprehension
Readers vary the way they read according
to their purpose

8. Subprocesses of Comprehension
Microprocesses focus on fluency, the ability
to read quickly, smoothly, and with
expression
Integrative processes deal with the semantic
and syntactic connections and relationships
among sentences

9. Subprocesses of Comprehension
Macroprocesses relate to the big picture–
the entire text
 Components of macroprocesses
 Recognizing the structure of text
 Selecting the most important information to
remember

10. Subprocesses of Comprehension
Elaborative processes are used by students
to activate their background knowledge and
make connections with the text they are
reading or listening to
 3 types of connections
 Text-to-self
 Text-to-world
 Text-to-text

11. Subprocesses of Comprehension
Metacognitive processes is students’
conscious awareness of their thinking
 Elements of metacognitive processing
 Awareness
 Monitoring
 Fix-up strategies

12. Levels of Comprehension
Literal Focus on identifying
main ideas & details,
sequencing events, &
noticing cause-effect
relationships
Inferential Reading between the
lines to make inferences
or draw conclusions
Evaluative Go beyond the text &
think more deeply

13. Basic Goals of Reading
To enable the learner to gain understanding
of the world and of themselves
To develop appreciations and interests
To help the learner to find solutions to their
personal and group problems
To develop strategies to support
independent understanding and thinking

14. Teachers’ Role
To support comprehension teachers need to:
 Activate students’ prior knowledge
 Guide students’ reading of a text
 Foster active and engaged reading
 Reinforce concepts gleaned from the text
reading
 Encourage careful/critical thinking
 Pursue inquiry on different topics