For Educators

Children in kindergarten through third grade are learning the skills that will enable them to understand what they read, remember what they read, and communicate with others about what they read.  Here are a few highlights from scientifically based research on text comprehension instruction.

• Comprehension strategy instruction can begin in the primary grades. Teachers should emphasize comprehension from the beginning rather than waiting until students have mastered "the basics" of reading.
• Text comprehension can be improved by instruction that helps readers use specific comprehension strategies. Those strategies include monitoring comprehension, using graphic and semantic organizers, answering questions, generating questions, recognizing story structure, and summarizing.
• Students can be taught to use comprehension strategies. Effective comprehension strategy instruction should be explicit, or direct (through direct explanation, modeling, guided practice, and help with application of a strategy).

Click here to learn more about instructional techniques.

Last updated: Sunday, 26-Jul-2009 18:50:57 EDT