Prior knowledge is MORE IMPORTANT than main idea, supporting details, cause/effect, predicting, clarifying, questioning, summarizing.--all skills that most reading teachers teach daily.

This research study* describes five types of “comprehenders” in a typical reading class. By analyzing which particular type your students might be, you can gain insight into how to help them improve their understanding of text.

Imagine for a moment…American classrooms full of students who can read their textbooks fluently, with teachers happily educating students in the subjects they enjoy teaching and not worrying about how to adapt the content to large number of students who cannot read at grade level. It CAN happen!

I have spent much of my life as a model… of reading comprehension. An advocate of classroom read-alouds, I discovered early that I could help to improve reading comprehension skills with little preparation on my part—by simply analyzing out loud how I comprehend text while I read aloud to the class. Here is a list of prompts to keep in mind.