Monday, October 24, 2011

Reading Comprehension Instruction

I have recently read: Berkeley, S., Scruggs, T. E., & Mastropieri, M. A. (2010).  Reading comprehension instruction for students with learning disabilities, 1995-2006: A meta-analysis. Remedial and Special Education, 31(6),  423-436.


This was interesting because the researchers synthesised findings of a large body of work on the effectiveness of reading comprehension interventions that included nearly 2000 participants overall. They looked at three types of treatments: text enhancements, cognitive strategies, and behavioural treatments.


Text enhancements include: highlighting, discussing illustrations, using embedded questioning, explicit skills training, using repeated readings and vocabulary instruction.


Cognitive strategies include: summarising, activating background knowledge, & inferencing.


Behavioural treatments include: goal setting, self-monitoring, self-questioning, self-relection.
(N.B. some examples in these categories are my own examples).


They concluded that by systematically employing virtually any or all of these techniques is likely to enhance reading comprehension.

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