COMPREHENSION  SKILLSWHAT IS COMPREHENSION?

Hello, everyone! This week we are going to focus on building comprehension skills. Comprehension is an essential skill in all areas of life. Without being conscious of it, we use these skills almost daily. Our ability to look at an object and decipher what it is counts as comprehension. If we see someone with a knitted brow and narrowed eyes, we may interpret that the person is angry. In this course we are concerned with the interpretation of written discourse. This skill is tested on both Paper 1 and Paper 2 of the examination.

Comprehension is the act of constructing meaning from a text. The reader must play an active role in constructing meaning and this role includes the abilities summarised below.

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[naviga:li]an interaction between word identification, knowledge and comprehension skills[/naviga:li]

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[naviga:li]filtering, organising, interpreting and generating relationships with incoming information[/naviga:li]

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[naviga:li]using reasoning – drawing conclusions about the relationships between or among bits of information that are not explicitly stated. It requires relating background knowledge to what is read or applying knowledge about text structure to aid comprehension.[/naviga:li]

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Comprehension occurs on many levels and these have been well documented in Bloom’s Taxonomy. These levels may be collapsed into three essential levels. These are:

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[naviga:li]Literal level – at this level the answers are clearly stated.[/naviga:li]

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Example: the name or age of someone mentioned in the passage.

Example: the name or age of someone mentioned in the passage.

What are comprehension skills?

What are comprehension skills?

¦  They are the strategies a reader uses to construct meaning and retrieve information from a text.

¦  They are cognitive processes which can be broken into steps and taught explicitly.

As with all skills,you can becomeproficient at reading comprehension ifyou practise. Some skills,such as phonics and word recognition, wouldhave been acquiredat the primary level. Many studentsare able to recognise and pronounce words but have difficulty understanding a text. Thatis because they are not able to understand (the meaning of) the words takentogether and see therelationshipamong ideas. Goodcomprehension skills enable students to:

As with all skills,

you can become

proficient at reading comprehension if

you practise. Some skills,

such as phonics and word recognition, would

have been acquired

at the primary level. Many students

are able to recognise and pronounce words but have difficulty understanding a text. That

is because they are not able to understand (the meaning of) the words taken

together and see the

relationship

among ideas. Good

comprehension skills enable students to:

¦  Decipher the content

of the text

¦  Make inferences

¦  Use context clues

to determine word

meanings

¦  Make predictions about outcomes

¦  Gain insight into

the writer’s intention