Sometimes when I read, the words just flow through me. The meaning doesn’t go in. Comprehension isn’t passive: it takes effort to extract the meaning. If I’m reading for a purpose, or if I’m reading something I’m really interested in, comprehension is easier. If it’s dull and I don’t care, it’s much harder. I wonder whether this the problem for some of my students: they are reading, but the words just flow through them.
I’m thinking about this because the DfE has recently published training materials on teaching reading for secondary school teachers. It’s a good start, but it’s too superficial and abstract to have much impact in the classroom. So, using the DfE materials as a framework, I thought I’d share some strategies that have worked for me in the past, starting with teaching reading comprehension.
| Strategy | In the Classroom |
| Activate prior knowledge | “I already know….” List three things you know about the topic in this text. If your students genuinely can’t do this, they probably don’t know enough to comprehend the text. |
| Predict | “I predict…” Ask your students to make predictions about what’s going to be in the text. Do this at the start, based on images and the title and at suitable points in the text, such as at the end of a paragraph. |
| Ask questions | “I wonder….” Tell your students to ask a question about the text. For example, “I wonder why the bats in the text have chosen a bridge to live under instead of a cave?” You don’t need the answers – asking the question improves comprehension. |
| Clarify | “In other words…” Ask your students to explain to each other what they have just read in their own words. |
| Visualise | “I can see….” After reading a text, ask your students to visualise the scene in the text. |
You can’t expect your students to use these strategies without explicitly teaching each one (probably over several weeks). They need to understand what you mean and practise it quite a lot. The intention is that they begin to do this automatically – and there is evidence to suggest they will – though it’s not totally clear how much practice it takes (for an enjoyable academic spat about this, see here).
My final Big Idea about comprehension is that these strategies are useful, but they are not sufficient. In fact, once students use them automatically (let’s say half a term of practice), there is very little value in spending any more time on them. The big improvements to comprehension come from knowledge around the topic. Lower attaining readers might benefit from a refresher now and then, but don’t teach them less knowledge to make time for it.
Further Reading
There is a tonne on this. Here are just a few:
Reading for Learning 