Reading Comprehension

Think-Pair-Share/Group Work:
- In pairs/groups, learners discuss the importance of prediction in real life situations (e.g., If in a picture, somebody is dressed in all black, what does it imply?) and link it with its role in enhancing reading comprehension.
- Learners listen to a simple but interesting texts read aloud to them and try to make logical predictions at the beginning, middle, and end of the text (fiction). Learners support their predictions with evidence from the text.
- In mixed ability reading groups (of not more than five members), learners work collaboratively under their group leaders to read other interesting texts. At breaking points (created by the teacher or the group leaders), learners predict, review and re-predict the story till they come to an end.
- Learners support their predictions with evidence from the text.
- Groups choose delegates to present their work to the class. Learners are encouraged to value and accept every member's role.
- Learners critically critique/peer review each group's presentation.
- Model how to fill the prediction forms and ask learners to fill the forms at the beginning, middle and end of the texts (showing their initial predictions, the revised as well as the refined ones).
- Learners work collaboratively to use titles, illustrations, bold print, italics, headings, subheadings and other text features to predict non-fiction texts.
- Leadership roles should be assigned to both male and female members.
Group Work/Collaborative Learning: Learners use KWL, DRTA and chunking strategies to
interpret advanced texts.
Know, Want-to-know, and Learned (KWL)
- Learners work in mixed gender and mixed ability groups to brainstorm what they know and want to know about titles of given texts.
- Learners fill the K and W columns of the KWL sheet with information from the brainstorming exercise. (Points under W should be stated in a question form)
- Learners read the text and then in groups, fill their L column with what they have learned about the topic. The groups present what they have on their KWL sheets to the class explaining what happened at each stage of the reading.
- (E.g., At the beginning, we knew ... about the topic and we wanted to know... about it.
- Now we have learnt that....... are.........).
Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA)/Chunking:
- Breaking texts into smaller parts for easier reading and comprehension of learners.
- Using probing questions, learners' background knowledge about the title of a text is activated and they predict what the text will be about.
- At the reading stage, learners read the text in small sections (a paragraph, a page, etc.).
- At the end of each chunk, questions are asked and if learners cannot answer correctly, they are directed to re-read portions of the text, which are related to the answer.
- Learners are left to work in pairs to locate the answer.
Additional Metacognitive Practices:
- Learners read text and use text markers (metacognitive markers) to indicate, in the margin of the text, their impressions about parts of the text [e.g., This is important, confusing, surprising, funny, etc.]
- Learners use a second reading to circle/write down two (or at most three) unknown words and try to find their meanings in context.
- Learners finally read the text and underline ideas in the text that relate to other texts, their personal lives, or some experience elsewhere in the world.
- Learners read and re-read portions of given texts to answer comprehension questions based on the text.
- Learners can be encouraged to create mental pictures of what is read and use them to aid their understanding of the text as they answer different levels of comprehension questions (that are based on the text).
- Learners work in groups to apply their knowledge of metacognitive strategies like KWL, DRA and DRTA/Chunking of texts to enhance their comprehension of the given texts.
- Groups share their work with the class and critique one another's work.
Teaching and Learning Resources:
- A collection of texts from social media:
- Passages across the various subject areas (on themes that learners can find interesting).
- Books or articles from social media, newspapers, magazines, etc., speeches from personalities, etc.
- A variety of texts for practising prediction, using KWL, DRA, DRTA/Chunking strategies
- Biographies and short stories on interesting topics
- Prediction sheets (Anchor Charts)
- Videos on reading
- Skits/short plays
Assessment (1.2.1.AS.2). The document marks these depth-of-knowledge levels for this indicator: Level 2 Skills of conceptual understanding; Level 3 Strategic reasoning; Level 4 Extended critical thinking and reasoning.