This research study* lists five types of “comprehenders” in a typical classroom. By analyzing which particular type your students might be, you can gain insight into how to help them improve their understanding of text.
- Good Comprehender (33%)
- Non-Risk Taker (19%) fails to go beyond the text to develop a concept
- Non-Integrator (12%) develops a new hypothesis for each segment, never relating to previous learning
- Schema-Imposer (10%) top-down processor holds on to initial hypothesis despite incoming information
- Storyteller (8%) draws far more on experience than on information in the text
In my 30 years as a reading specialist, I have found this research study to be fairly accurate and quite useful. I think the most challenging types of comprehenders are the Non-Risk Taker and the Non-Integrator. Both the Schema-Imposer and the Storyteller are at least trying to do what good readers do: integrate the information that they read with some sort of prior knowledge.
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* Wade, Susanne E., Current Research in Reading Comprehension, Using Think-Alouds to Assess Comprehension, The Reading Teacher. March, 1990.
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