Comprehension of Skill Development Strategies
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Apr 3, 2024
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Comprehension of Skill Development Strategies
Jenna Hassett
American College of Education
LIT5193: Integrating Secondary Literacy and ELA Concepts
Dr. Keith Higa
October 21, 2022
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Introduction
In an English language arts class, comprehension is one of the most fundamental concepts that all students must be familiar with in order to succeed. When students become skilled readers, they are able to make inferences during the comprehension process. Inference occurs when students combine prior knowledge with evidence from the text to reach a conclusion. The relationship between comprehension and the ability to infer is strong, with inferences leading to higher levels of understanding a text (Cain and Oakhill, 2001). In this assignment, the educator will be exploring strategies used to teach inferences by looking at research, examples of the skill being taught, and evaluating the strategies based on their effectiveness to support students in developing the skill. Comprehension of Skill Development Strategies
Making inferences while reading must be taught in direct ways, as well as indirect ways. While inference is one type of comprehension skill, it is incorporated into most reading strategies
and lessons. For example, a lesson might be focused on finding the theme of the text after the reading is completed, but making inferences throughout will help guide students to finding a theme. One strategy that has been shown to help students infer information is modeling. When teachers model a skill or strategy, they are demonstrating their thought process while interacting with the text. Modeling provides students with the thoughts and actions that will lead them to being successful with a particular skill or concept (Shunck, 2003). Modeling the process of inferring information typically involves the teacher thinking aloud and pausing to ask questions. For example, a question while reading might be “Why do we think the character made this decision? What other factors might have led them to this decision?” The answers to the questions
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are not directly stated in the text, but rather students are using what they know about the character, the text itself, and prior knowledge and experiences to determine an answer. Another strategy to teach students how to make inferences is designing well-crafted questions for them to answer before, during, and after reading. One method of this involves using
Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning to determine the level and order of questions asked. With this method, the teacher should be asking a combination of lower and higher level questions, with the
majority of questions being the latter (Tofade, Elsner, and Haines, 2013). For example, the teacher might ask students to describe the setting of the text, which is a lower level question because the information is directly stated in the text and students are demonstrating their ability to understand. Then the teacher might ask students how the setting has impacted the main character’s lifestyle. This is a higher level question because the answer is not directly stated and requires students to think critically about the text. A third strategy that supports students in making inferences is building background knowledge before reading a text. The process of building background knowledge looks different depending on the class and teacher. Before reading a text, the teacher might show a video that gives insight on the time period when the text is taking place, they might read a shorter mentor text on the same topic, or explore vocabulary that will be seen in the text in order to increase student understanding. As previously mentioned, making inferences relies on what students already know. Therefore, if students are going into a text or lesson with more background knowledge, they will be able to make more inferences and think more critically about the text. Exploring Teaching Inferences via The Internet
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Video
Use of Modeling
Use of Well-Crafted
Questions
Use of Building
Background
Video #1
The educator does not sit down and model making inferences. However, they do give a lot of examples and model their thought process in making inferences. In this video, the educator asks students prior to reading why authors write stories where students have to infer (higher-level question).
The educator does not discuss specific ways of building background knowledge, but they do discuss how we use inferences in everyday life. Video #2
The educator takes the time to model making inferences using the “I do, we do, you do” strategy to
walk students through their thoughts and actions leading to success. Before reading, the educator gives students a list of example questions to ask while reading, which can be applied to any text (e.g “what do I already know about this topic?”)
The educator is discussing
a lesson where they are teaching students what an inference is. Therefore, students are practicing using simple pictures and concepts where they do not need to learn background info. Video #3 The teacher models their process of making inferences by reading a book and pausing throughout to think deeper
about the text. While modeling, the teacher is asking higher-
level questions for students to think about while reading.
The educator does give some background knowledge of the novel and what is happening in the book. They also go over examples of inferences made in real world situations. Conclusion
In each of the videos, the educators are incorporating each of the strategies to some degree. When looking at the use of modeling for each video, video #1 did the least amount of modeling, but this might have been because the video is more geared towards teachers and the creator might have assumed that teachers watching already model lessons in their classroom. Videos #2 and #3 specifically focus on the modeling process for a good portion of the video and emphasize the importance of modeling. The use of well-crafted questions is also seen in all three
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of the videos. In videos #1 and #2, the educators give students example questions to ask themselves while reading, which can be applied to any text. Video #3 includes the teacher modeling questions that are specific to the text that they are reading (e.g. “How does the structure of the text affect the tone?”). When it comes to building background knowledge, the educators taught students about the concept of inference beforehand, but only video #3 gave students some information that is specific to the text. Based on the videos and research, I have concluded that modeling is a crucial step in teaching students how to make inferences. This is due to the fact that most research gives praise to the results of modeling and two of the three videos emphasized modeling the process of inferring information. Creating well-crafted questions can be done in different ways; one being giving students lists of questions that they can reference for any text and the other being questions that are specific to the text students are reading. In my own experience, I have had more luck with specific questions because sometimes vague questions can be difficult for students to answer, but I think the more vague questions can be a good extension for students who grasp the concept of inferences easily. Lastly, building background knowledge seems to be the least used or referenced strategy, which tells me that it should be utilized for struggling readers, ELL students, and when students struggle to make inferences.
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References
Cain, K., Oakhill, J. V., Barnes, M. A., & Bryant, P. E. (2001). Comprehension skill, inference-
making ability, and their relation to knowledge. Memory & cognition
, 29
(6), 850-859.
Schunk, D. H. (2003). Self-efficacy for reading and writing: Influence of modeling, goal setting, and self-evaluation. Reading &Writing Quarterly
, 19
(2), 159-172.
Tofade, T., Elsner, J., & Haines, S. T. (2013). Best practice strategies for effective use of questions as a teaching tool. American journal of pharmaceutical education
, 77
(7).
Teaching Intentionally. (2022). How to introduce and teach inference in middle school [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaN8SbDTUeU
5thGradeOasis. (2022). HOW TO TEACH MAKING INFERENCES IN 5TH GRADE/ INFERENCES /TEACH 5TH GRADE [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vBJUJ6hZ1Y
Powell, J. (2019). Reading strategy: making inferences
[Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXp44l1Al10
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