Reading Teaching Reading Comprehension
1 Context Clues The use of context clues to help recognize words that are familiar in
speech but not in print. Context clues also key the meaning of an unfamiliar word by directly defining the word, providing an appositive, or
comparing or contrasting the word with a known word. 2 Structure Clues
Structural analysis as a word recognizing skill, can also be used as an aid in discovering meanings of unknown words. Knowing meanings of
common affixes and combining them with meanings of familiar root words can help the learners determine the meanings of many new words.
3 Analogies and Word Lines Analogies compare two similar relationships and thereby bolster word
knowledge. Educators may teach analogies by displaying examples of categories, relationships, and analogies, asking and guiding questions
about the examples, allowing students to discuss the questions and applying the ideas that emerge.
Whereas, the use of word lines is to show the relationships among words, just as they use number lines for numbers.
4 Dictionary Use The dictionary is an excellent source to use in discovering meanings of
unfamiliar words, particulary for determining the appropriate meanings of words that have multiple definitions or specific, technical definitions.
b Sentences
The students may find complicated sentences that are difficult to understand, so they need to know ways to attack them, or derive their meaning. Reseach
has shown that systematic instruction in sentence comprehension increases reading comprehension. The students will understand the material better when
the syntax is like their oral language patterns.
c Paragraphs
Paragraphs are groups of sentences that serve a particular within a whole selection or passage. They may be organized around a main idea or topic.
Understand the paragraphs’ functions, the paragraphs’ general organization, and the paragraphs’ relationships between the sentences in a paragraph is
important to reading comprehension.
d Whole Selections
The understanding of the whole selections depends upon understanding the smaller units Burns, 1984.
3 Levels of Comprehension
Burns 1984: 177 states that it is possible to understand materials on a number of different levels. In fact, the students need to achieve higher levels of
reading comprehension to become informed and effective citizens. According to Burns 1984, there are four levels of reading comprehension.
a Literal reading comprehension
At this level, the reader is simply “reading the lines.” Literal comprehension is to take ideas and detail notes that are directly stated. The task of the reader
is to locate and identify information that is explicitly stated by the author.
b Interpretative reading comprehension
At the inferential level, the reader is “reading between the lines.” The reader
takes the information gained at the literal levels and draws conclusions, makes inferences, and predicts outcomes based on the explicit information
supplied by the author. In other words, in this level, the learner is expected to discover conclusion from what is written and find main ideas and cause
and effect relationship when the factors are not stated.
c Critical reading comprehension
Critical reading is to read for information. At this level, the reader may apply external information such as background experience, cultural values
and personal values. The reader’s major task at this level is to pass a personal judgement on the text and to form and express an opinion. In order
to do this, the reader must attend to the meanings both stated and implied by the author as well as all the information gained at the “Literal” and
“Inferential” levels. Therefore, the reader must attend to both denotative and connotative meaning in order to critically evaluate a text.
d Creative reading comprehension
Creative reading is to read beyond the lines. It enables the reader to use the printed matter to solve problems, make judgements regarding the actions of
characters, and draw a conclusion about what they would have done.