VELS Level 3 – Comprehension of Complex Texts
Reading without comprehension is simply word calling. Effective comprehenders not only make sense of the text, but are also able to use the information it contains. They are able to think thoughtfully or deeply and to make personal connections as they analyse and question what they are reading, hearing, and seeing.
According to Trehearne and Doctrow, comprehension, “involves what the reader knows as well as the nature of the text itself. It involves the type of text to be read; narrative, expository, poetry, etc. It involves the purpose for reading.” (Rasinski et al. 2000, 1)
Successful readers respond to texts in a sophisticated way and they can read more complex and diverse texts. They:
- automatise and use effective strategies for processing texts
- access more complex texts for a variety of purposes.
Degrees of meaning have increased from literal, to inferential and evaluative comprehension. Literal meaning is the who, what, why, where, when, which and how of a text. Inferential is where readers infer about ideas before or earlier than the context of the text, the cause and effect of events within the text, possible changes to circumstances, the targeted audience of a text, information about characters and main ideas presented within the text.
Evaluative comprehension is where readers judge the content of a text by comparing it with external criteria – where it agrees with what is generally known or expected – and with personal criteria. Successful readers can make sense of:
- messages that are complex in their intent
- a broad range of print and multimedia texts
- texts that are generally longer.
Level 3 standard - Reading
The aspects of the Level 3 standard for the Reading dimension of the VELS English domain that focus on comprehension have been identified with bold text.
At Level 3 of the English domain of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) students read and respond to an increasing range of imaginative and informative texts with some unfamiliar ideas and information, vocabulary and textual features. They interpret the main ideas and purpose of texts. They make inferences from imaginative text about plot and setting and about characters’ qualities, motives and actions. They infer meaning from material presented in informative texts. They identify how language is used to represent information, characters, people, places and events in different ways including identification of some simple symbolic meanings and stereotypes. They use several strategies to locate, select and record key information from texts.
Factors that affect reading comprehension
The following information is sourced from Chapter 2. Reading Comprehension: Strategies That Work, Miriam P, Trehearne, Roz Doctorow.
According to research by Chall, Jacobs and Baldwin, many students, especially those who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, become less effective readers as they move from the early to the middle years of schooling (1990).
In other words, there is a slump in their reading beginning around the fourth grade and often increasing as they progress through secondary school. To understand the causes of the “fourth-grade slump,” it is important to examine the factors that affect reading comprehension in general.
Key factors that influence reading comprehension are:
- students’ reading attitudes (motivation and interests)
- time truly engaged in reading
- vocabulary and world knowledge
- fluency
- type of text or genre
Students’ reading attitudes
Attitudes strongly influence motivation and affect achievement in reading. Students who see themselves as readers have positive attitudes towards reading. They are motivated to read and they read for a variety of purposes including enjoyment, to escape, obtain new information, gain an understanding of issues, or learn about themselves.. These students also set goals for their reading and are engaged with texts.
Some students however, have the attitude or belief that reading is more about word calling than making meaning. Other students may know how to read effectively but choose not to. Students with poor attitudes toward reading will usually read only when they have to. Due to their lack of reading experience and practice, they will typically find it difficult to comprehend complex texts beyond a literal level.
Time truly engaged in reading
In an extensive study of independent reading, Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding (1988) investigated a broad array of activities and their relationship to reading achievement and growth in reading. They found that the amount of time students spent in independent reading was the best predictor of improvement of reading achievement between Years 2 and 5.
Stanovich (1986) found that students who are able to read generally read more. As they read, they become better readers, improve their vocabularies, and enhance their knowledge of the language structure. Reluctant readers tend to struggle, read very little and fall further and further behind. Stanovich calls this the Matthew Effect, and it is a likely contributing factor to the “fourth-grade slump.”
However, Routman (2002, 84), provides a caution, stating that, “not all students automatically improve their reading just because we give them time to read. If students are reading mostly difficult books, if they don’t understand what they read, if no one is monitoring their progress, not much changes.”
Vocabulary and world knowledge
Typically texts read by students beyond the foundational years of schooling, tend to contain words and ideas that are beyond the students’ own language and knowledge of the world. Jeanne Chall found that although students’ language seemed to be sufficient for the texts encountered in the first years of schooling, students were not prepared for the greater number of abstract, technical, and literary words encountered in texts in subsequent year levels.
The language gap is yet another suggested contributing factor to the “fourth-grade slump” and the, “chief cause of the achievement gap between socioeconomic groups” (Hirsch 2003, 10).
Fluency
Fluent readers read smoothly, without hesitation and with expression. Generally, this allows them to focus on meaning making, or comprehension. To be able to understand what they read, students first need to be able to decode the words on the page. The goal is to have students develop the capacity to have automatic word recognition, known as automaticity, in order to help them become good comprehenders.
“Word-recognition skills must be developed to the point of fluency if comprehension benefits are to be maximized.” (Pressley 2001).
Reading fluently and at a rate appropriate for the text enables effective readers to gain meaning from what they are reading. When readers focus on the mechanics of reading and read word by word, their comprehension is limited. They are often so concerned with saying all the words correctly that they lose track of what the words mean.
“If decoding does not happen quickly, the decoded material will be forgotten before it is understood” (Hirsch 2003, 12).
Fluent readers incorporate a variety of reading strategies to understand what they are reading. Students with strong vocabulary and background knowledge more easily use syntax (grammar) and semantics (meaning) to help them figure out the words and read fluently. Phrasing and reading the punctuation also support comprehension.
Additionally, fluent readers adjust the rate of their reading based on their purpose for reading, the form of text, and their interest in and background knowledge about the text. However, some students read too quickly, which can lessen comprehension.
Type of text or genre
By learning to recognise the structures of different types of texts, students will be better able to comprehend what they are reading. At some point around the fourth grade there is an abrupt move from reading and writing mainly narrative texts to reading and writing expository texts. As students advance through the grades, expository text plays an increasing role in their learning.
The “fourth-grade slump” has been attributed, at least in part, to students not having enough exposure to expository text during the third grade. Topics must be compelling enough that both teachers and students want to talk about what they read.
Professional learning
The English Continuum includes a variety of learning and teaching strategies. How could you adapt these strategies to support your students’ comprehension?
You will need to select strategies which best support:
- literal comprehension: where a reader asks questions that allow them to identify the who, what, why, where, when, which and how of a text
- inferential comprehension: where the questions ask readers to infer about ideas before or earlier than the context of the text, cause and effect of events within the text, possible changes to circumstances (what would happen if?), the targeted audience of a text, information about characters and main ideas presented within the text
- evaluative comprehension: where the questions asks the readers to judge the content of a text by comparing it with external criteria, (where it agrees with what is generally known or expected), and with personal criteria.
The English Continuum for learning and teaching strategies is available online.
English Continuum examples: Students’ reading attitudes
Reading - Text Level Knowledge: Scaffolding Learning From 2.75
Students describe how reading helps them and is a useful activity. For example, to discover what other people are thinking, and to teach new ideas efficiently.
In reaponding with emotion, atudents are supported to ask themselves:
- How did I feel while reading the story?
- Why did I feel that way? What made me feel that way?
- How would I like to change the text so that it was more interesting?
English Continuum examples: Time truly engaged in reading
This includes reading for understanding and self-monitoring.
Reading - Text Level Knowledge: Scaffolding Learning From 2.75
Students describe their reading plan. For example, when reading a text, they decide the likely topic; suggest words, phrases and ideas that the text might say and questions the text might answer; say what actions they might use while reading; say how they will keep track of key ideas as they read; and say what they might do if what they read does not make sense.
Students identify key actions used while reading such as:
- I made a mind picture of each sentence
- I said other words for some of the words
- I said sentences in my own words
- I combined ideas across sentences
- I visualised a paragraph then say what it said.
English Continuum examples: Vocabulary and world knowledge
Reading – Word Level Knowledge: Scaffolding Learning From 2.75
Students work out the meanings of unfamiliar words in less redundant contexts where components of the meaning are developed across three or more paragraphs.
When students suggest synonyms for words, they review the synonyms for key words in the text to:
- use them meaningfully in sentences
- explain what they mean, in their own words
- suggest opposites.
When analysing categories of words, students identify groups of words such as:
- words for describing how things move, run, hop, jump, circled, flying, launched, floated
- words for telling someone off; scolded, said sharply, looked sternly
- words for a religious ceremony; altar, spirit, prayers, ancestors, gave thanks
- words for being impatient; noisily gulped, almost knocked over.
Students are encouraged to consider the effect of these words on the reader, and to consider why the author used them.
English Continuum examples: Fluency
Reading - Word Level Knowledge: Scaffolding Learning From 2.25
Students describe the actions they use to read two- and three-syllable words. For example, they might read a two-syllable word either by analogy or by recoding and blending syllables and then de-stressing one vowel.
Readers can use what they know about some words to read or comprehend novel or unfamiliar words, for example, a student who has not seen the written word ‘plain’ before but who can read ‘train’ can identify the shared letter cluster (‘ain’) and the sound associated with ‘ain’ in “train” to read ‘plain’.
English Continuum examples: Type of text or genre
Reading - Text Level Knowledge: Scaffolding Learning From 2.75
Students decide the purposes of factual texts, for example, to tell them how to do something, to teach new ideas and to link the purpose with the action they might take after reading the text, such as answer questions or do a series of actions.
English Continuum examples: Extending content knowledge
Coral Islands (PDF - 15Kb) – download this PDF to support the below teaching and learning strategy.
Students develop their own research questions, based on the text content. For example:
- Where do the different colours and shapes of the coral come from?
- Is there evidence that different coral polyps eat different types of food that cause the different colours?
- Many coral reefs around the world are threatened by modern technology and pollution. How could we make the water on and around the reefs less polluted for the polyps?
- Could special minerals or food that would help the polyps to become healthier be dissolved in the water around the Great Barrier Reef?
- Would it be possible to breed polyps that could withstand the poisons and pollution that are killing the polyps?
Related materials
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