Reading Development: Comprehension

Question 1

Levels of Comprehension

Answer 1

1. Literal comprehension - Readers understand the facts from the text.

*Identifying the stated main idea
*Recalling details
*Identifying point of view

2. Inferential comprehension - Readers can infer or understand parts of what has been read without it being stated explicitly.

*Drawing conclusions
*Inferring cause-and-effect relationships
*Determining morals, lessons, and themes
*Making predictions

3. Evaluative comprehension - Readers evaluate or analyze the text through questioning.

*Analyzing character development
*Evaluating word choice
*Detecting faulty reasoning
*Explaining point of view

Question 2

realia

Answer 2

actual items that represent vocabulary words

Question 3

Metacognition

Answer 3

thinking about one’s own thinking

Metacognition often comes up on exams. It’s commonly associated with ensuring students are actively engaged and monitoring their comprehension of the content.

Question 4

semantics

Answer 4

which refers to the meaning of words and phrases

Question 5

semantic relationships to know:

Answer 5

Synonyms

Antonyms

Homonyms

Analogies

Question 6

Synonyms

Answer 6

different words that have the same or a similar meaning

• big/large

Question 7

Antonyms

Answer 7

words that have opposite meanings

• tall/short

Question 8

Homonyms

Answer 8

words that share the same spelling or pronunciation, but have different meanings (homographs and homophones are 2 kinds of homonyms)

Homographs - words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings
* bass (a deep sound) / bass (a fish)

Homophones - words that are pronounced the same, but have different meanings
* four (the number) / for (as in, “I got this for you”)

Question 9

Analogies

Answer 9

compare two things that are usually thought of as different but have something in common

• hand is to glove as foot is to sock
• cold is to hot as wet is to dry

Question 10

Tiers of Vocabulary

Answer 10

Tier1: basic vocabulary Ex. Ball, shoe

Tier 2: high frequency academic words: will encounter in multiple content areas Ex. Describe, explain, analyze

Tier 3: low frequency, domain specific-academic words specific to a particular content area Ex. Photosynthesis, square root, politics, economy

Question 11

Denotative word meaning

Answer 11

Beyond literal

Question 12

Connotative word meaning

Answer 12

Implying or suggesting something in addition to what’s explicit ex. Strong, tough, sturdy, hard

Question 13

utility

Answer 13

The frequency with which a word will be encountered

Question 14

Word Consciousness

Answer 14

approaches vocabulary instruction by encouraging student interest in unfamiliar words and new words that can be used to replace familiar ones

Question 15

etymology

Answer 15

tudying and discussing word origins

Question 16

Qualitative measures

Answer 16

Aspects of a text that can only be measured by a reader. These include the complexity of:
* meaning or purpose
* structure
* language conventionality and clarity
* knowledge demands

Question 17

Quantitative measures

Answer 17

Aspects of a text that are too hard for a reader to measure. These are typically measured by computer software. These include the complexity of:
* word length
* frequency of difficult words
* sentence length
* text cohesion

Question 18

Reader and task considerations

Answer 18

Aspects of reading a text that relate to the reader or the reader’s purpose in reading the text. These considerations are determined and measured by teachers based on their professional judgement, knowledge of their students, and knowledge of the subject:

Reader considerations include:
* motivation
* knowledge
* experiences

Task considerations include:
* the complexity of the assignment related to the reading
* questions asked about the reading