All You Need To Teach Comprehension 10+

Exploring Comprehension
C o m p r e h e n si o n is proble m solv i n g
Many students can read words, but they struggle to comprehend. They may be skilled at decoding
words, but lack strategies and thinking processes which enable them to understand texts. Ensuring
that all students understand what they read and view is critical to their ongoing success at school
and beyond.
Teaching for comprehension occurs every time we read or view a text. To comprehend, we take to
the text our beliefs, perceptions, experiences and ability to problem solve. Without these, the text’s
meaning or message may be lost. To comprehend, we must make links to and from the text to our
experiences and ask ourselves questions about what we are reading or viewing. Comprehending is
an ongoing process of assimilating new information into our existing understandings.
I use the term ‘teaching for comprehension’ rather than ‘teaching comprehension’, because
comprehension is a cognitive process involving the personal thoughts, ideas and experiences
of a reader, and a repertoire of strategies or problem solving options which help him or her to
understand and move beyond the author’s message. It is not a series of isolated skills to be learned
and mastered. With every text read or viewed, a reader adds to his or her personal thoughts, ideas
and experiences. Texts therefore contribute to shaping the people we become, and continuing to
extend knowledge is an essential part of the comprehension process.
As our experiences change, our understandings also change. For example, I first read To Kill a
Mockingbird at high school, and at the time it helped me decontextualise the world; it introduced
things beyond my own experience and helped shape my perceptions of the world. Thirty years later
I read it again. This time I had my experiences and memories that continue to shape and reshape my
understandings of life. I pondered Harper Lee’s powerful words and knew that the meaning of these
words and this text would stay with me always. I imagined what it would have been like to bear
witness to these events, placing myself as best I could in all the characters’ shoes. I wondered about
their lives, their feelings and how I would feel and act in their situations. As I did this, I was better
able to interpret their actions and views. Adjusting my thinking throughout this text was vital to my
comprehension.
With this in mind, we must consider the diversity of learners within classrooms. Some students bring
to a text a rich array of experiences, language, books and general knowledge. They have many
experiences upon which to draw and many sources to connect to and from the text. Others do not
have the same bank of experiences to anchor their knowledge. We must provide the anchors all
students need for problem solving to occur.
T each i n g for co m p r e h e n si o n
Comprehension is a complex process for teachers of reading. We can all read a text and take away
a literal interpretation of the author’s message, but deeper comprehension occurs when the reader
moves beyond this level of understanding to assimilate the text into his or her own thinking. Only
then can higher levels of comprehension occur, and texts become more memorable and more
meaningful to the reader.
We must teach students to think about their thinking; to strategise the best way to understand
what is read and viewed. Students must learn to activate prior knowledge before reading, as
recalling what you already know provides an anchor for new information. On imaginary texts,
recalling similar themes, plots, text types and characters provides something familiar to anchor
new experiences. On non-literary texts, recalling information about the topic, text type and theme
provides an anchor for new information. Re-reading is also an important part of comprehending
texts and building fluency and success.
We must teach for a range of problem solving strategies, using them flexibly and together on all
texts for deep and successful comprehension. Comprehension strategies should never be used in
isolation, as no one strategy on its own will enable a reader to fully understand a text.
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