comprehension TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Comprehension skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts.

Task students with working in pairs to read a text together and chart their thinking and synthesis.

An anchor chart might include the following:
This reminds me of . . .
What I read in this book is like . . .
Something similar know, have read about, or experienced is . . .
I have experienced this when . . .
At first, I was thinking . . .
While I was reading I was thinking . . .
While I was reading I was also thinking . . .
The more I read thought . . .
After reading my thinking changed to . . .
 

Further Explanation

This assessment requires students to determine the key ideas in a text and combine those details to form a new coherent and unified idea not explicitly stated in the text. Students are able to apply the knowledge gained from the text to their lives and the world around them.

Once students have determined the key ideas in a text, they can combine details and parts of a text or even multiple texts to form a new coherent and unified idea not explicitly stated in the source material. When students can synthesize information from a text or across texts, they are able to apply the knowledge gained from it to their lives and the world around them. For example, students who synthesize several viewpoints presented on an issue will be able to look at the issue in different ways and be better able to consider solutions.

Research

1. Ferlazzo, L. (2017, November 20). Response: Using questions that 'position students as meaning makers.' [Opinion Classroom Q & A]. Education Week Teacher. Retrieved from blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2017/11/response_using_questions_that_position_students_as_meaning-makers.html

Summary: This is one blog in a series of five that focuses on using questions to engage students in the teaching and learning process. One of the general outcomes of the questioning process is to promote students to think deeply by analyzing, comparing, and synthesizing information instead of writing a static account of facts or information. Students are encouraged to ask questions, and teachers are provided specific strategies to improve their own questioning skills. The questioning is both formal and informal. 

2. Hedin, L. R., & Conderman, G. (2010). Teaching students to comprehend information text through rereading. The Reading Teacher, 63(7), 556–565. doi:10.1598/RT.63.7.3

Summary: Hedin and Conderman describe specific strategies that students can use to make meaning of the text and increase reading and writing comprehension. The study shows that these strategies are successful with struggling readers. The approach uses paraphrasing and rereading to identify the placement of the main ideas, key terms, and definitions. The approach also includes pronouns, appositives, or text enhancements. Charts, samples, and references are included.