6.4: Improving Comprehension

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Page ID: 74313

Mickey Losinski
Kansas State University via New Prairie Press/Kansas State University Libraries

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Comprehension

Reading comprehension is obviously the end goal for all reading instruction. However, reliable and valid measures of reading comprehension have remained elusive to the field. Take for example the proliferation of motivational reading programs like Accelerated Reader™ or Reading Counts™. These programs ask students to read books on a certain lack style and take comprehension quizzes from those books. However the quizzes for these books have not been tested or validated making them no better than typical teacher made tests. Regardless, teachers continue to use these measures and programs as a means to both determine the students grade and their progress within reading, neither of which are recommended. Instruction in comprehension can take many forms including graphic organizers and strategy instruction (Pullen & Cash, 2011).