Presented at the Tennessee Reading Association Conference, this presentation looks at the essence of Comprehension and how we can teach comprehension strategies as tools for students to use.

1. Just What Does It
Mean To Make
Sense?
Keith Pruitt, Ed.S.
Words of Wisdom Educational
Consulting
www.woweducationalconsulting.com

2. What
Is
Comprehension?

3. Some Popular Definitions
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text. This
understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how
they trigger knowledge outside the text. --Wikipedia
Simply put, reading comprehension is the act of understanding what you are reading.
While the definition can be simply stated the act is not simple to teach, learn or
practice. Reading comprehension is an intentional, active, interactive process that
occurs before, during and after a person reads a particular piece of writing.
--Joelle Brummitt-Yale, K12 Reader
As defined by Partnership for Reading (2005), Reading comprehension is understanding
a text that is read, or the process of "constructing meaning" from a text.
Comprehension is a "construction process" because it involves all of the elements of the
reading process working together as a text is read to create a representation of the text
in the reader's mind.

4. To What Degree is this Input
Comprehensible?
regards situation Mark
strong us
Lincoln station
assassination word? Thus
1. Can I understand each
carton
style language at the word level.
comprehension is available partition
2. But can one make sense of this as a text?

5. In regards to the assassination of
Lincoln, Mark was reading a book while
sitting on a carton at the train station.
He had a strong feeling from the
language of the author that he felt the
President’s style of governing had
disturbed many people. His
unwillingness to partition off the south
had enabled us to heal as a nation.
Otherwise, the situation could have
ended very differently.
Has the dynamic of comprehension changed?

6. What is the level of Understanding
Here?
“A related observation about the F distribution
is that it is positively skewed, not symmetric as
are z and t. This is because F is always
positive: It is the ratio of variances, both of
which are positive, so F itself must be positive.
There is no left-hand tail of F because the F
distribution ends abruptly at 0.”
Russell T. Hurlburt (2003). Comprehending Behavioral Statistics. Thomson: Australia, p. 336.
Who Moved My Cheese?

7. Can You Read This?
fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was
rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan
mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it
dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the
olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the
rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll
raed it whotuit a pboerlm.. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid
deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was
ipmorantt!
Now again we have changed the
traditional rules of comprehension.

8. Jamika’s Story
What is Involved In Comprehension?
What Does it Mean to Understand?
•Making Sense of text based on author’s
intention and message.
•Understanding how the words interplay
to relay a message.
•To exercise intellectual muscle
•To connect with a text in a meaningful
way

9. …strategic readers are more active readers
and that active readers both retain more and
are more likely to apply what they remember
in new contexts. --Mosaic of Thought, 2nd Edition (2007)
Keene & Zimmermann
To create strategic readers the
teacher must first create readers
who can make sense of reading
text. This is done by putting tools
in their belt.

10. How Can I Help Students to Make
Sense of Texts?
By thinking in terms of
Comprehension Strategies, a
teacher can focus on the
necessary tools for
comprehension.

11. The new student had long
dark hair and a chiseled chin.
Making Connections

12. Use Think Aloud to Model Make Connections
I am thinking this character
reminds me of an uncle of mine
who farmed out in South
Dakota.

13. Now ask students to make connections.
In your writing journal, please
tell me what character in
Sarah, Tall and Plain, you most
relate to and why?

14. Asking Questions

15. Have students ask each other questions
Why do you think
the little boy is
being silly with
Sally?

16. What questions would you have about these pictures and this
story?
Picture Walks are a great
opportunity for children to
pose questions?

17. Bloom’s
Taxonomy
New Old
Framework Framework

18. How Does This
Transform the type of
questioning done in
the classroom?

19. Who is the story about? Jack and Jill
What did they do?
Why did they go up the hill
to fetch a pail of water?
How do you know that was
where the well was?
So let me ask another
question, why would
anyone put a well on top of
a hill?

20. Creating a Visual Image
Tell a partner what visual images are created with the following reading.
The snow covered peaks grew larger on the
horizon as we approached the last two miles of
our long journey. The slopes would be packed
with powder and the hordes taking advantage
of an early season. We had awaited this
getaway all summer; now the time was here
and we were anxious to take to the lifts.

21. Now Let’s Put This in Reverse and
Create Words from an Image.
Tell your partner a story based on the picture you see.

22. In this presentation we have but
touched briefly on the idea of what
it really means to make sense of
text and some methods.
Keene & Zimmermann, Mosaic of
Thought
Keene, To Understand
Harvey & Goudvis, Comprehension
Toolkit

23. Thank You
Keith Pruitt, Ed.S.
Words of Wisdom Educational
Consulting
www.woweducationalconsulting.com