MINI-LESSON: COMPREHENSION MONITORING

Effective readers monitor their own comprehension. As participants become increasingly independent and read increasingly more difficult text, monitoring for meaning becomes more and more important. Participants need to realize that to be competent, they must become actively involved and monitor their comprehension as they read.

One of the fundamental themes underlying instruction in the Reading Workshops has been reading for meaning. The focus has been on meta-comprehension or self-awareness and control of the comprehension process. Some of the basic meta-comprehension strategies already stressed include asking questions and predicting consequences before reading, checking and monitoring during reading and the application of appropriate "fix-up" strategies when comprehension fails. Another important focus has been inferring word meanings from context.

Box 23 (also Appendix E) contains a list of comprehension monitoring "fix-up" strategies that may be presented on chart paper or duplicated for participants as a reference to place in their duotangs. These are very similar to the "fix-up" strategies emphasized in dealing with word meanings. The "fix-up" strategies may also be modeled as "think-alouds" by the instructor as comprehension difficulties are encountered in the remaining Reading Workshops in which comprehending informational text is the focus.

1. Read on to make it clearer.
   
   
2. Reread carefully to make it clearer.
   
   
3. Look again at the title, pictures and headings.
   
   
4. Ask yourself questions.
   
   
5. Put ideas into your own words as you go along.
   
   
6. Picture the ideas while you read.
   
   
7. Relate ideas to your personal experience.
   
   
8. Ask someone to clarify things.

Some participants may benefit from a more structured approach to comprehension monitoring and begin to keep tallies of their comprehension difficulties. Appendix E contains a comprehension monitoring worksheet that requires participants to keep a tally of their reading comprehension difficulties. As shown in Box 25, which is a brief excerpt of the appended chart, participants write down the page number and the paragraph in which they encounter difficulty, identify their reading problem and try to name and implement a "fix-up" strategy. These may be discussed after reading in the "Say Something" groups, with salient points or examples being shared with the group as a whole.