Are They Helping Teachers Teach Comprehension ?

The report describes the last In a series of three studies whose purpose is to learn what is done with comprehension instruction in three settings: classrooms, basal reader manuals, and reading methodology textbooks. To find out whether authors of the methods books treat comprehension instruction with sufficient frequency and specificity as to be helpful to both teachers and prospective teachers, eight textbooks were read. The eight, all with 1983 or 1984 copyright dates, included the best sellers on the assumption that they are likely to be the most influential. Findings were similar to what was reported for the prior studies of classrooms and bàsal manuals in the sense that specific descriptions of comprehension instruction were either scarce or totally missing. A second similar finding was confusion between comprehension instruction and comprehension assessment. Possible reasons for what was (and was not) found in the examined materials are cited. Reading Methodology Textbooks 2 Reading Methodology Textbooks: Are They Helping Teachers Teach Comprehension? I know that I don't do enough with comprehension instruction. Since suggestions for teaching comprehension in my basal reader manual are both scarce and brief, is there something I can read that will help me offer more and better comprehension instruction? There is no doubt but that the request just quoted exemplifies the most common question asked of me at conferences and in letters. While it seems logical to assume that one source of precise guidance for teaching comprehension is textbooks on reading methodology, findings in the study to be reported here hardly support that assumption. Before the results of a thorough analysis of eight recent elementary methods textbooks are described, data from two earlier studies of classrooms and teaching manuals will be reviewed, as they explain why requests from teachers like the one quoted above are common. Since comprehension instruction was also the focus of these two studies, it might be helpful—perhaps even necessary—to explain how that instruction is defined. Because of what was found in the methods textbooks, it is also necessary to make distinctions among the responsibilities of teachers insofar as comprehension is concerned. The diagram in Figure 1 provides a setting for the explanation of distinctions that Reading Methodology Textbooks 3 follows, which only highlights what is relevant for the report of the methods textbook study. Insert Figure 1 about here. Comprehension; Teachers 1 Responsibilities As Figure 1 shows, teachers' responsibilities have been divided into three categories. The one called "facilitating comprehension" includes activating, or adding to, what children know about the world that is relevant for comprehending a given selection. The significance of background information for comprehending has received widespread attention in recent years in the framework of schema theory. A second responsibility of teachers, assessing or testing comprehension, is directed toward finding out what was comprehended. The means used to determine what children acquired from reading a selection varies but, in classrooms, often takes the form of asking questions. Whereas testing comprehension is concerned with the product of reading, it is the process of reading that is the concern of comprehension instruction. The difference means that while the aim of teaching comprehension is to have a positive effect on children's mental activities as they work their way through a piece of text, the aim of testing comprehension is to make a judgment about the outcome of those activities.