Martin Luther King
...gaining meaning from text, which is the purpose of reading. The act of comprehending text involves a person's ability to know and use strategies before, during, and after reading to successfully understand what is being read. Many adolescents struggle with reading comprehension, and many teachers are unaware of how to deal with this type of situation. However, there are many strategies that can be used to teach adolescents to comprehend what they read. Although there are many different, effective comprehension strategies, it is a challenge for a teacher to find one that works for the individual case at hand.
Comprehension is an important ability for adolescents to possess because of the large amount of text that students must read in content-areas. Most textbook-based instruction assumes that students can read and derive meaning from the text. A reader has text comprehension only when he or she is able to understand how the reading material is structured. In order for a student to construct meaning from text structures such as a narrative or expository, effective reading comprehension strategies are needed. For struggling adolescent readers, the goal of reading comprehension instruction is to teach them when and how to use effective strategies (Pressley, 2001, p.1-19).
Comprehension-monitoring strategies should be used before, during, and after reading so that they can repair the comprehension problems and understand text. Before reading, students should learn how to activate their background knowledge in connection with the topic to be read (Tovani, 2000, p.109). Also, students should be taught key vocabulary related to the topic and they should know the purpose for reading beforehand. The students should be given a strategy for helping them to preview and think about the text so that they have a sense of the content to be read. During...
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