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Teaching Comprehension: The Comprehension Process Approach
Cathy Collins Block, Texas Christian University

ISBN-10: 0205324479
ISBN-13: 9780205324477

Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
Copyright: 2004
Format: Paper; 264 pp
Published: 09/11/2003

Suggested retail price: $81.60
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Teaching Comprehension is unparalleled to any other text in its coverage of how to teach reading comprehension to students of all ages.

Renowned scholar Cathy Collins Block takes on the challenging task of providing what every student needs to know about teaching comprehension, in a concise manner. This text is packed with innovative lessons and approaches based on the latest developments in research-based practices. Designed to suit the reader’s individual needs, each chapter ends with a complete lesson plan that can be implemented in classrooms with a wide range of student reading ability levels.

  • Presents the “Thinking Process Approach” to comprehension instruction through highly effective, research-based lessons.
  • Provides in-depth treatment of literal comprehension processes, inference, imagery, metacognition, and non-fictional texts. The text teaches higher-level comprehension processes based on what students need to fully understand more than ten distinct genres (Chs. 5-12).
  • Addresses the comprehension needs of “Generation Y” students, the roles and responsibilities of teachers and students, and curriculum and instructional activities, featuring specific actions that teachers can take to capture the attention of a new generation of students.
  • Describes new methods of empowering students throughout the text to advance their own comprehension abilities.
  • An entire chapter is dedicated to new assessment tools that diagnose and prescribe student's comprehension needs and accomplishments (Ch. 10). These assessment tools have been successfully tested in more than 2,000 classrooms throughout the United States and Canada.
  • Heavy emphasis throughout the text on how to use technology to improve comprehension instruction to meet the needs of the 21st Century classroom. Rather than merely listing Web site addresses, the text integrates discussion of strategies for using technology into the text.
  • Includes selections of current children's and adolescent literature as well as many examples of non-fiction selections covering grades K-12.
  • Covers comprehension needs at each stage of students' intellectual development.
  • Contains vivid graphics that thematically recur within chapters and to guide students' reading throughout the text and demonstrate how to use graphics effectively to teach comprehension.

Each chapter begins with “Chapter Overview” and concludes with “In Summary,” “Reflecting on What You Have Learned,” and “To Read More About...”

Preface.

I. THE NEW RESPONSIBILITY OF TEACHERS, CURRICULUM AND STUDENTS IN THE COMPREHENSION PROCESS APPROACH.

1. The Responsibilities for Teachers in the Comprehension Process.

What Responsibilities Do Teachers Bear?

Goals: Teacher Responsibilities in Teaching Comprehension.

Goal 1: Giving Choices During Scaffolding, and Performing Pivotal Point Scaffolding to Avoid the Slight Rejection Phenomenon.

Goal 2: One-to-One Conferences Are Changed to Discovery Discussions.

Goal 3: Avoid Merely Giving Instructions by “Tilling a Text,” “Showing, and Storytelling.”

Goal 4: Leadership Is Given to Students When You Assume the Role of Contributor Instead of Initiator.

Goals 5: Seek a Deep Understanding with Respondent-Centered and Questions and the Power of Three.

2. The Responsibilities That Curriculum Plays in the Comprehension Process.

Why Do We Need to Differentiate Comprehension Instruction?

Strand 1 Lessons: Teaching Students to Interrelate Two Comprehension Processes Before They Read a Specific Text.

How Can You Teach Students to Interrelate Comprehension Processes?

Strand 2 Lessons: Time to Live Within Books—Authors Say to Students: “Strand 2 Lessons Provide More Time to Take Our Stories and Make Them Your Own.”

Strand 3 Lessons: Students Choose What They Want to Learn About Reading—Teachers Say to Students: “The Goal of These Lessons Is to Hear What You Want to Learn to Comprehend.”

3. The Role Students Play in Comprehension Development: Their Voices, Choices, and Hoists Strengthen Their Competence.

The Role Students Play in Comprehension Development.

Increasing the Power of Children’s Voice.

Choice.

Increasing Children’s Ability to Hoist.

Lesson 5: Teaching Students To Reflect on Their Abilities to Improve Their Comprehension.

II. DOMAINS OF COMPREHENSION AND HOW TO TEACH THEM.

4. Crafting Accurate Literal Understandings.

Crafting Accurate Literal Understandings.

Crafting Literal Understanding at the Sentence Level.

Crafting Accurate Understanding at the Paragraph Level.

Attending to Authors Writing Styles.

Establishing a Purpose.

Instead of Building Background, Teach Students How to Let Background Build.

Instead of “Finding the Main Idea” Teach Students How Main Ideas Find Them.

Instead of Reading to Identify Memorable Character Traits and Events.

Literal Understanding of an Entire Text.

Inter-Textual Literal Understanding.

Increasing Students Memory and Retention.

5. Developing Inferential, Predictive, and Interpretive Comprehension.

Theories Relative to Inferencing, Predicting, and Interpreting.

Why Inferencing, Predicting, and Interpreting Is So Difficult for Children?

Teaching Inference Instruction in Hypothesis Testing.

Instruction Through Verifying and Supplying Knowledge Structures.

Teaching Macrostructures to Students.

6. Imagery: Looking Within, and Up and Away Without Moving Too Far Afield of the Text.

Research Concerning Imagery.

Teaching Imagery Through Deepening Domain Knowledge Structures.

Teaching Imagery by Inducing and Invoking Images.

Teaching Imagery Through Poetry and Art.

7. Metacognition: Catch-Up Processes and Applying Comprehension in Personalized Settings.

Theoretical Background.

Teaching the First Domain of Metacognition: Controlling Thoughts During Reading.

Teaching Domain Two of Metacognition: Developing Text Sensitivity.

Teaching Domain Three of Metacognitive Thinking: Increasing Knowledge of One’s Goals.

Learning Catch-Up Processes.

Assessing Metacognition.

III. TEACHING AND ASSESSING CPA LESSONS ACROSS CURRICULUM, MEDIA AND CULTURES.

8. Comprehension Instruction Is Not Generic: It’s Genre Specific.

Why Is Comprehension Instruction Genre Specific.

How Can We Begin to Teach Genre Specific Comprehension?

Teaching Children to Fall In Love with Non-Fiction.

Teaching Historical, Historical Fiction, Historical Autobiography/Biography, and Social Science Genres.

Teaching the Math Genre.

Teaching the Scientific Genre.

Teaching the Fine Arts.

9. Technological Comprehension and Reading Culturally Sensitive Contexts.

Differences in Comprehending Technology Versus Print.

How to Teach Students to Comprehend When Using Technology.

Reading Culturally Dominated Texts.

How to Increase Students’ Comprehension of Culturally-Sensitive Texts.

10. Assessment of Comprehension.

Theoretical Background.

New Assessments.

Closing.

Teaching Comprehension: The Comprehension Process Approach is unparalleled to any other text in its coverage of how to teach comprehension to students of all ages.

Renowned scholar Cathy Collins Block takes on the challenging task of providing what every student needs to know about teaching comprehension, in a concise manner. This text is packed with innovative lessons and approaches based on the latest developments in research-based practices. Designed to suit one's needs, each chapter ends with a complete lesson plan that can be implemented in classrooms with a wide range of student reading ability levels.

Features

  • Presents the “Thinking Process Approach” to comprehension instruction through highly effective, research-based lessons.
  • Provides in-depth treatment of literal comprehension processes, inference, imagery, metacognition, and non-fictional texts. The text teaches higher-level comprehension processes based on what students need to fully understand more than ten distinct genres (Chs. 5-12).
  • Addresses the comprehension needs of “Generation Y” students, the roles and responsibilities of teachers and students; and curriculum and instructional activities, featuring specific actions that teachers can take to capture the attention of a new generation of students.
  • Describes new methods of empowering students throughout the text, which advance their own comprehension abilities.
  • An entire chapter is dedicated to new assessment tools that diagnose and prescribe student's comprehension needs and accomplishments (Ch. 10). These assessment tools have been successfully tested in more than 2,000 classrooms throughout the United States and Canada.
  • Heavy emphasis throughout the text on how to use technology to improve comprehension instruction to meet the needs of the 21st century classroom. Rather than merely listing Web site addresses, the text integrates discussion of strategies for using technology into the text.
  • Includes selections of current, children's and adolescent literature as well as many examples of non-fiction selections covering grades K-12.
  • Covers comprehension needs at each stage of students' intellectual development.
  • Contains vivid graphics that thematically recur within chapters and easily guide students' reading throughout the text and demonstrate how to use graphics effectively to teach comprehension.

View a Sample Chapter PDF:

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