Reading for Comprehension

Have you ever gone through a difficult reading and realised that you grasped nothing? I am sure we all occasionally come across such readings that are frustratingly difficult to understand. In today’s post, we will look into strategies that can make such difficult readings more bearable.

As per a research published by Harris-Stowe State University, there are four strategies that we can utilise to maximise reading comprehension. They are:

Questioning Strategy

Text-structure Based Strategy

Paragraph Restatement Strategy

Self-instruction Based Strategy

Questioning Strategy:

The idea behind this strategy is to become an active reader by constantly asking questions about what you read. You must write questions before, during and after a reading, and try your best to find answers to these questions. But the idea is not as simple as just writing random questions and answers. You must ask questions that help you dig deeper into the reading.

Avoid questions that can be answered with one or two words, or questions that can be answered simply by referring to a sentence in the reading; i.e., avoid yes or no, filling in the blanks, and define the term type questions. Definition type questions may be fine if you are completely new to the subject and are asking questions before you start reading. But you should try to frame questions that are more general and require you to compile information from different parts of the text to answer. Sometimes you may even form questions that require extra research to answer. Asking such general questions encourages you to dig deeper into the topic and maximise comprehension.

Now that we know what kind of questions to ask, let’s focus on how to form these questions. As I mentioned before, you have to ask questions before, during and after a reading. Before you do a reading, you can ask questions based on the many sub-headings or bolded terms within the text. You could ask why the teacher recommended the specific reading to you in the current module, or how this reading relates to the previous reading you did. It can be tempting to consider everything in a reading to be important, but there is no point in highlighting the entire reading as important. Having questions before reading helps you weed out unnecessary information and makes sure that you only use the paragraph restatement strategy on information that are relevant.

Even if you ask questions based on subheadings and module objectives, it is likely that more questions will arise in your mind while you read. Note down these questions as they arise and see if they answered the questions within the reading itself. Differentiate between answered questions, unanswered questions, and unnecessary questions. Unanswered questions provide scope for future research, and you must look up answers to deepen your understanding. Unnecessary questions would be those questions that are not directly related to your purpose of reading the material. For example, when researching about lions, don’t read about sheep. You must be strategic about what questions you ask because finding answers to them will take up your time.

It is likely that you will have more questions once you complete a reading. In fact, most researchers have observed this to be the case. Some of these questions may be answered by re-reading the material, but other questions may require external research. The end goal of the questioning method is to maximise comprehension by making sure you remain an active reader and ensure that you dig deeper into the topic.

Text-Structure Based Strategy:

Text structure based strategy works because every text has two or more of the following structures:

Comparison

Cause and effect

Problem and solution

Sequence

Description

By: Kausalai (Kay) Wijekumar, Andrea L. Beerwinkle

Good readers can identify these elements and use it to figure out the most important information in a text. Simply put, if an information falls within any of the 5 particular structure, it’s likely to be important.

Usually text structure based strategy is taught separately from other strategies. But this is usually when it is taught to younger students. Adults need not have that restriction.

As a first step, students are taught background knowledge on what they are about to read. This includes teaching definitions and providing interesting context on what they are about to read.

The next step is to skim the content of the text, including headings, main body, images and any other information made available. Once you are done with skimming, focus on one specific structure you wish to identify.

Once you have a structure in mind, focus on identifying the structure within the textbook. For example, while reading a book like Harry Potter, you may have a question like, “How did Harry’s parents die?” This is a cause-and-effect type structure and reading the book will tell you that the cause of their death was Voldemort.

Students are better of focusing on cause-effect, problem-solution and comparison type structures because description and sequence are usually very obvious within a text and do not require specific attention. Some teacher’s advice students to write C next to a cause and E next to an effect. You could use similar acronyms for other structures as well.

You can find a more comprehensive writing on how to use text structure based strategy here.

Paragraph Restatement:

Paragraph restatement is exactly what it sounds like. You read a paragraph and restate the main idea of the paragraph in your own words. A typical exercise of paragraph restatement works as follows:

First, you need to select a reading. Usually, when this method is taught to kids, there are lined spaces after each paragraph of the reading. Students are supposed to identify the most important person or event in the paragraph they just read and write it down on the lines below. Questioning strategy could be used to guide this strategy. Ask yourself questions based on the 5 w’s (who, what, where, how, when), like the Harry Potter question we discussed above.

Next step is to condense your notes to express the idea in as few words as possible. Students are then asked to elaborate on the notes they make and explain the paragraphs. It’s important to remember to make notes in your own words. Do not copy what’s there in the reading. The purpose behind the condensation is to create verbal cues that the student can use to recollect the actual content of the paragraph.

As a last step, they give students readings without lined spaces after each paragraph. Students are then taught to take notes on a separate sheet of paper.   

Self-instruction Strategy:

The idea behind self instruction strategy is to verbalise what you are trying to do in order to regulate behaviour. The concept of self-instruction is easier to understand within the context of automation of skills, which we had previously discussed here. Consider the example of learning to drive a car. If you are not driving a gear-less car, you have to actively keep a checklist in your mind to remember what gear to shift to each time you speed up or slow down. You will also need to familiarise yourself with the mechanisms of the clutch, break, and accelerator. This process becomes more and more automated with practise. If you use self-instruction during your driving practice, the act of verbalising the mental checklist (like what gear you are on or what feet the break is near) will support and aid the automation process. It guides your action and reinforces the skill. So, by verbally speaking out the process, the automation of the skill becomes faster because it is reinforced better. Studies have proven that verbalising is more effective compared to going through a mental checklist.

But we should note that the purpose of self-instruction is to serve as a support for automation and a guidance for your behaviour. As you become more proficient in the skill and eventually reach automation, the verbalisation should proportionally decrease. As you may remember, automation itself means the act does not place any load on your cognition. You can perform an automated act without consciously thinking about it. But if you are actively verbalising your actions, it means you are consciously thinking about it. Therefore, at the level of automation, self-instruction may negate the benefits of automation. It is a tool only useful for beginners and in situations where you wish to regulate your behaviour.

That said, we have also discussed that there are certain skills that can never be automated. Like looking at the side-view mirror for traffic before shifting lanes. You may automate the practise of actually looking at the mirror, but you won’t be able automate your decision making on whether or not to shift lanes. This is because the decision depends on you actively considering the situation. Automation of the decision would mean shifting lanes without consideration of other vehicles on the other lane, which would inevitably lead to an accident. I believe reading is such a skill that cannot be automated. Each reading is different and requires a different perspective. Therefore, self-instruction can guide your behaviour while reading.

But this should not be taken to mean that reading the material out load would amount to self-instruction. It’s more about guiding yourself through the reading. One particular research categorised self-instruction into 6 basic forms. They are:

1. Problem definition—defining the nature and demands of a task.

2. Focusing attention/planning—attending to task and generating plans.

3. Strategy related—engaging and using a strategy.

4. Self-evaluation—error detection and correction.

5. Coping—dealing with difficulties/failures.

6. Self-reinforcement—rewarding oneself.

Chapter 5 – Self-Regulation among Students with LD and ADHD

Self-instruction/self-talk can be useful for any of these 6 purposes. When you do a reading, you can ask yourself if the part you are reading is relevant to the purpose you set. If you think the part is relevant, reason out loud how it is relevant. In one study, they set a clown box next to students while they were doing a task. The students who used temptation inhibition quotes like “I will not look at Mr Clown” were able to maintain their attention on the task at hand significantly more compared to other groups in the study. Thus, self-instruction helps you keep your mind in the game and stay focused. Similarly, coping and self-reinforcements are ideas commonly promoted for endurance training. Telling yourself positive thoughts helps you endure the difficult training better.

It is important that you speak out what you think when using this strategy, and the speech should be behaviour regulatory in nature. Any random mutter will not do the trick. One study found that there is a difference in quality in the outward speech of impulsive students and reflective students. The impulsive students had more inaudible, immature, self-stimulatory content in their speech, while reflective students had more outer-directed and self-regulatory speech. Use the 6 forms as a guide to your self-regulatory speech.

Conclusion and Some Caveats:

The combined use of all these strategies is found to have the maximum effect on reading comprehension. That said, there are a few more things you should keep in mind.

Note that the paragraph restatement strategy requires you to take notes, which is something we discussed as not being effective in a previous article. I believe this article brings more clarity to the issue. Note taking is not effective as a memorisation technique. Making notes will not guarantee information retention. But the purpose of paragraph restatement is to encourage comprehension, not retention. This is essentially a debate between memorisation and understanding. Select a strategy based on your learning goal. Taking notes can be a time-consuming task and it may not be feasible if you are under time constraint. But if your goal is to understand the material as best as you can, it would be better to use paragraph restatement in the initial learning stages and then rely on active recall to further solidify your memory.

Similarly, paragraph restatement strategy can be very time-consuming. It may not always be prudent to make notes after every single paragraph, especially if the reading contains too much redundancy. It may be appropriate to adapt it to your particular reading and maybe make restatements of an entire chapter or the whole reading.

Closely linked to the previous point, there is a tradeoff between speed and comprehension when it comes to reading. Using speed reading techniques will require sacrifice of comprehension, while maximising comprehension results in a sacrifice of speed. You will need to adjust your strategy as per your goal. It should be easier to speed through a reading on a subject you are already familiar with, but speeding through a reading you know very little about may not be advisable.

Reference List:

1. Joseph M. Sencibaugh, Ph.D, “META-ANALYSIS OF READING COMPREHENSION INTERVENTIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES: STRATEGIES AND IMPLICATIONS”, Harris-Stowe State University.
2. Gloria E. Miller(1987), “THE INFLUENCE OF SELF-INSTRUCTION ON THE COMPREHENSION MONITORING PERFORMANCE OF AVERAGE AND ABOVE AVERAGE READERS”, Journal of Reading Behavior.
3. JENKINS & HELIOTIS, et al (1987), “Improving Reading Comprehension by Using Paragraph Restatements”,The Council for Exceptional Children.
4. Reid, Harris et all (2012), “Self-Regulation among Students with LD and ADHD”
5. Bernice Y. L. Wong (1985), “Self-Questioning Instructional Research: A Review”, Review of Educational Research
6. Jenkins, J. R., Heliotis, J. D., Stein, M. L., & Haynes, M. C. (1987). Improving reading comprehension by using paragraph restatements. Exceptional Children, 54(1), 54–59.