Monitoring Comprehension
Monitoring Comprehension
Monitoring Comprehension
Students who are good at monitoring their comprehension knows when they understand what they read and when they do
not. They have strategies to "fix" problems in their understanding as the problems arise. Research shows that instruction,
even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension.
Comprehension monitoring instruction teaches students to:
Be aware of what they do understand
Identify what they do not understand
Use appropriate strategies to resolve problems in comprehension
Metacognition
Metacognition can be defined as "thinking about thinking." Good readers use metacognitive strategies to think about and
have control over their reading. Before reading, they might clarify their purpose for reading and preview the text. During
reading, they might monitor their understanding, adjusting their reading speed to fit the difficulty of the text and "fixing" any
comprehension problems they have. After reading, they check their understanding of what they read.
Students may use several comprehension monitoring strategies:
Identify where the difficulty occurs
"I don't understand the second paragraph on page 76."
Identify what the difficulty is
"I don't get what the author means when she says, 'Arriving in America was a milestone in my grandmother's life.'"
Restate the difficult sentence or passage in their own words
"Oh, so the author means that coming to America was a very important event in her grandmother's life."
Look back through the text
"The author talked about Mr. McBride in Chapter 2, but I don't remember much about him. Maybe if I reread that chapter, I
can figure out why he's acting this way now."
Look forward in the text for information that might help them to resolve the difficulty
"The text says, 'The groundwater may form a stream or pond or create a wetland. People can also bring groundwater to the
surface.' Hmm, I don't understand how people can do that… Oh, the next section is called 'Wells.' I'll read this section to see
if it tells how they do it."
Answering questions
Questions can be effective because they:
Give students a purpose for reading
Focus students' attention on what they are to learn
Help students to think actively as they read
Encourage students to monitor their comprehension
Help students to review content and relate what they have learned to what they already know
The Question-Answer Relationship strategy (QAR) encourages students to learn how to answer questions better. Students
are asked to indicate whether the information they used to answer questions about the text was textually explicit information
(information that was directly stated in the text), textually implicit information (information that was implied in the text), or
information entirely from the student's own background knowledge.
There are four different types of questions:
"Right There"
Questions found right in the text that ask students to find the one right answer located in one place as a word or a sentence
in the passage.
Example: Who is Frog's friend? Answer: Toad
"Think and Search"
Questions based on the recall of facts that can be found directly in the text. Answers are typically found in more than one
place, thus requiring students to "think" and "search" through the passage to find the answer.
Example: Why was Frog sad? Answer: His friend was leaving.
"Author and You"
Questions require students to use what they already know, with what they have learned from reading the text. Student's
must understand the text and relate it to their prior knowledge before answering the question.
Example: How do think Frog felt when he found Toad? Answer: I think that Frog felt happy because he had not seen Toad
in a long time. I feel happy when I get to see my friend who lives far away.
"On Your Own"
Questions are answered based on a students prior knowledge and experiences. Reading the text may not be helpful to
them when answering this type of question.
Example: How would you feel if your best friend moved away? Answer: I would feel very sad if my best friend moved away
because I would miss her.
Generating questions
By generating questions, students become aware of whether they can answer the questions and if they understand what
they are reading. Students learn to ask themselves questions that require them to combine information from different
segments of text. For example, students can be taught to ask main idea questions that relate to important information in a
text.
Summarizing
Summarizing requires students to determine what is important in what they are reading and to put it into their own words.
Instruction in summarizing helps students:
Identify or generate main ideas
Connect the main or central ideas
Eliminate unnecessary information
Remember what they read
It teaches students to re-read a sentence, read ahead to clarify, and/or look for context clues to make sense of
what they read.
It slows down the reading process and allows students to monitor their understanding of a text.
2. Introduce the assigned text and discuss the purpose of the Think-Aloud strategy. Develop the set of questions
to support thinking aloud (see examples below).
3. Give students opportunities to practice the technique, and offer structured feedback to students.
4. Read the selected passage aloud as the students read the same text silently. At certain points stop and "
think="" aloud"="" the="" answers="" to="" some="" of="" pre-selected="" questions.
5. Demonstrate how good readers monitor their understanding by rereading a sentence, reading ahead to clarify,
and/or looking for context clues. Students then learn to offer answers to the questions as the teacher leads the
think-aloud.
Examples
Language Arts
Several examples of how teachers can use think alouds to point out connections between prior experiences and
stories, and relationships between a story and a larger concept are provided in this article.
This website explores the use of the think aloud strategy with poetry.
Differentiated instruction
for Second Language Learners, students of varying reading skill, and younger learners
Have students do think-alouds in large or small groups; teacher and other students monitor and help.
Ask students do think-alouds individually, and then compare with others. Students can write their own
commentary.
Complete, or have students complete, think-alouds orally, in writing, on an overhead, with Post-it notes, or in a
journal.