https://www.sec-ed.co.uk/content/best-practice/every-teacher-is-a-teacher-of-literacy-literacy-practice-across-the-curriculum/

https://isn.education/articles/open/all-teachers-are-literacy-teachers

- The purpose of reading is to understand and recall the information conveyed by the author. For middle school students, reading with a purpose helps direct information towards a goal and focuses their attention (Sandhu, 2019).

- Example: In a middle school history class, students engage in pre-reading by previewing a text on the Civil War, making predictions about its content. During reading, they actively think about the text, make connections, and ask questions. After reading, they review and discuss the key events and analyze the impact of the Civil War.

Citation:

Sandhu, R. (2019). What is Reading? - Definition & Process - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com. Study.com. https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-reading-definition-process.html

1. The Simple View of Reading (SVR)

One of the most foundational and widely cited models is the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986). This model posits that reading comprehension is the product of two core components:

• Decoding (D): The ability to translate printed words into spoken language. This includes skills like phonological awareness, phonics, and sight word recognition. Without the ability to accurately and fluently decode the words on the page, a reader cannot access their meaning.

• Language Comprehension (LC): The ability to understand spoken language. This is a broad category that includes vocabulary, grammar, background knowledge, and the ability to make inferences and understand sentence structure (Hoover & Gough, 1990).

The model is often expressed as an equation: Reading Comprehension (RC) = Decoding (D) x Language Comprehension (LC). This relationship highlights that a deficit in either area will significantly impair comprehension. As students get older, the relative importance of language comprehension increases (Lonigan, Burgess, & Schatschneider, 2018).

2. Strategic and Active Reading

Beyond the foundational skills of the SVR, effective comprehension of academic texts requires a strategic and active approach. This involves a metacognitive process of "thinking about thinking" (Reading Rockets).

• Previewing/Skimming: Before diving into the details, a reader should survey the text to get a general overview. This includes reading the title, abstract, introduction, headings, and conclusion. This helps to create a mental map of the article's structure and main argument (Ohio Wesleyan University).

• Questioning: Generating questions before and during reading helps to create a purpose and focus attention on key information. A common technique, like the SQ3R method (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review), encourages turning headings into questions to guide the reading process (Robinson, 1970).

• Connecting to Prior Knowledge: Good readers actively link new information to what they already know. This "provides a framework for any new information they read" (Read Naturally). Scholarly articles, in particular, assume a level of background knowledge, so a strong foundation is crucial for making sense of the content (McNamara et al., 2011).

• Making Inferences and Visualizing: Comprehension often requires "reading between the lines." Readers must draw on their prior knowledge and contextual clues to infer information that is not explicitly stated. Additionally, visualizing the concepts and creating mental images can improve recall (Pressley, 1977).

• Summarizing and Monitoring: The ability to summarize the main ideas in one's own words is a key indicator of comprehension. Throughout the process, effective readers monitor their understanding and use fix-up strategies (like rereading or looking up a word) when a breakdown in comprehension occurs.

3. Critical Reading

For scholarly journals, comprehension must also be critical. This means not just understanding what the author says, but also evaluating the validity and implications of their claims.

• Evaluating the Argument: Critical readers identify the author's thesis, the evidence provided to support it, and the logical links between them (Cleveland State University). They ask questions about the methodology, potential biases, and the limitations of the study.

• Analyzing Textual Features: This involves examining how the author presents information. This includes evaluating figures, tables, and the use of language to see if the data supports the conclusions (Pennsylvania State University).

• Synthesizing Information: Critical readers connect the findings of one article to other research in the field. This helps to determine how the new information fits into the broader scholarly conversation and whether it confirms, refutes, or extends existing knowledge.

These components—from the foundational skills of decoding and language comprehension to the active strategies of critical reading—are all interdependent and necessary for achieving effective comprehension of scholarly works.

Citations:

References

• Cleveland State University. (n.d.). A Guide to Critical Reading.

• Gough, P. B., & Tunmer, W. E. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7(1), 6-10.

• Hoover, W. A., & Gough, P. B. (1990). The simple view of reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2(2), 127-160.

• Lonigan, C. J., Burgess, S. R., & Schatschneider, C. (2018). Reading development from preschool through Grade 3. In The Oxford Handbook of Reading: The Development of Reading, The Oxford Handbook of Reading. Oxford University Press.

• McNamara, D. S., Ozuru, Y., & Floyd, R. G. (2011). Comprehension. In Reading research quarterly, 46(3), 226-248.

• Ohio Wesleyan University. (n.d.). Reading Strategies.

• Pennsylvania State University. (n.d.). Critical Reading.

• Pressley, M. (1977). Children's use of imagery from an imagery-based memory skill: a comparison of a training study with a review of the literature. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 1(1), 1-19.

• Read Naturally. (n.d.). Connecting to Prior Knowledge.

• Reading Rockets. (n.d.). Comprehension Strategies.

• Robinson, F. P. (1970). Effective Study. Harper & Row.

This article showcases ways in which we as teachers can help our students constructively understanding literacy better.

The Supersix:

Making Connections, Predicting, Questioning, Monitoring, Visualising and Summarising . . . better known as the ‘Super Six’! The ‘Super Six’ are strategies which can be used to teach the skill of comprehension.

Many of you may already incorporate these into your reading and listening/talking programs, but just in case you have not.

Specifically, making connections argues that learners make personal connections from the text with something in their own life-text to self, or text to another text-text tot text. Predicting argues that learners use information from graphics, text and experiences to anticipate what will be read/viewed/heard and to actively adjust comprehension while reading/viewing/listening. Now questioning states that learners pose and answer questions that clarify meaning and promote deeper understanding of the text. Monitoring argues that learners stop and think about the text and know what to do when meaning is disrupted. On the other hand, visualizing tells us that learners create a mental image from a text read/viewed/heard. Visualizing brings a text to life and engages one's imagination thus using all of the senses. Finally, Summarizing occurs when learners identify and accumulate the most important ideas and restate them in their own words.

Clifford Sanders