The PRIMALS Compendium of Teaching Resources

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Literacy Compendium Kit

E NG LISH L E S S O N PL A NS F I LI P I N O LESSO N P LAN S LI T ER AC Y ST R AT EGIES

Reader-Text Interaction

Comprehension Monitoring
The creation of meaning in reading Described in this guide is
results from the interaction between the Comprehension Monitoring,
reader and the text. Comprehension a metacognitive strategy
can vary based on text and question that teaches readers to
types. Higher order cognitive skills, evaluate and regulate their
including the ability to make inferences understanding of text.

INTERACTION
READER-TEXT
and to plan and organize information,
contribute to comprehension of more
complex text and question types and
are important components of reading.
Teachers guide reader-text interactions
through instructional strategies that
they use and reading guidance that
they provide.

Table of Contents:

Background/Research Base 2
Purpose/Benefits 4
Description/Procedure 4
How Teachers Can Make
the Strategy Work 7
Applications Across
the Curriculum 7
 Reader-Text Interaction

Comprehension
Monitoring

Background / Research Base

Comprehension strategies are conscious plans —

sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of
text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps stu-
dents become purposeful, active readers who are in
control of their own reading comprehension.

Comprehension strategies include: aspects of metacognition in reading

summarizing, inferring, visualizing,
predicting, and other strategies.
However, knowing how to use these
strategies is not enough. Readers
also need to know when and where
to use these strategies – and this
is referred to as metacognition
(Gunning, 2013).
Metacognition has been defined
as knowledge or cognition that
takes as its object or regulates
any aspect of cognitive endeavor
(Flavell, 1981; cited in Casanave,
1988, p. 287). The four major
are: knowing oneself as a learner,
regulating, checking, and repairing
(Baker & Brown, 1984; McNeil, 1987;
cited in Gunning, 2013).
Comprehension monitoring is the
ongoing activity of evaluating and
regulating one’s understanding
of written (or spoken) text (Baker
& Brown, 1984). Beyond basic
decoding, it constitutes a cluster
of essential skills that underlie
successful reading (Casanave,
1988, p. 283). Paris & Myers (1981)
defined comprehension monitoring,

2 The PRIMALS Compendium of Teaching Resources | LITERACY STRATEGY GUIDES

as “one kind of activity under
the umbrella of metacognition,
consisting of any behaviors that
allow readers to judge whether
comprehension is taking place and
help them decide whether and
how to take compensatory action
when necessary. These behaviors
include the ability to evaluate one's
current level of understanding,
to plan how to remedy a
comprehension problem, and to
regulate comprehension and fix-up
strategies” (Casanave, 1988, p. 288).
Effective learners rely on these
skills as they read. They question
and elaborate their own knowledge
and the content of the text; they
test their understanding in a
variety of ways; they "debug"
when something signals that they
misunderstood (Palincsar & Brown,
1984). These strategies are also
referred to “fix-up” strategies.
According to Baker and Brown
(1984, cited in Casanave, 1988),
effective and strategic readers
adopt these metacognitive activities:
a. clarifying the purposes of
reading, that is, understanding
both the explicit and implicit
task demands;
b. identifying the important
aspects of a message;
c. focusing attention on the
major content rather than
trivia;
d. monitoring ongoing activities
to determine whether
comprehension is occurring;
e. engaging in self-questioning to
determine whether goals are
being achieved; and,

f. taking corrective action when

Comprehension monitoring
failures in comprehension are
instruction thus, teaches students detected. (p. 288)
to:

• Be aware of what they do

understand
• Identify what they do not
understand
• Use appropriate strategies
to resolve problems in
comprehension (Adler, n.d.).

Baker and Brown (1984) further

note that effective readers are
aware of and have a degree of
control over their cognitive activities
when they read that they possess
well-developed metacognitive skills
(cited in Casanave, 1988, p. 288).

Reader-Text Interaction | Comprehension Monitoring 3

 Purpose / Benefits
Monitoring comprehension
strategies benefit readers of all
ages. Numerous studies have
stated that early readers are
capable of self-monitoring and
self-correcting while reading
(Pratt & Urbanowski, 2016).
In fact, Clay’s (1993) work with
struggling students in first grade
focused on teaching them to
use multiple cueing systems
(graphophonic, syntactic, and
semantic cues) to inform their
reading and problem-solve
reading miscues.
Hence, readers should be
explicitly taught how to practice
and apply monitoring strategies
so they problem-solve their own
reading (Pratt & Urbanowski,
2016). In using fix-up strategies
in reading, students can self-
correct and self-monitor their
reading.
4 The PRIMALS Compendium of Teaching Resources | LITERACY STRATEGY GUIDES
Description / Procedure
Instruction in metacognitive strategies
should be done explicitly. During
each part of the lesson, the teacher
should model the cognitive processes
involved (see Table 1). For instance,
the teacher may model how he or she
recalls prior knowledge, sets a purpose,
decides on a reading strategy, executes
the strategy, monitors for meaning,
organizes information, takes corrective
action when necessary, and applies
knowledge gained from reading.
Teachers need to recognize that
readers may have comprehension
difficulties due to any of these causes:
• Words may be unknown or may be
unfamiliar
• Concepts are unknown
• Punctuation is misread
• Words or phrases are given the
wrong emphasis
• Paragaph organization is difficult to
follow.
• Pronouns and antecedent
relationships are confused.
Relationships among ideas are
unclear.
• Relationships among paragraphs
and sections are not established.
• The reader becomes lost in details.
Key ideas are misinterpreted.
• The reader has inadequate prior
knowledge, or a conflict exists
between that knowledge and the
text (Gunning, 2013, p. 344).
Helping readers recognize the cause of
their reading difficulty is a first step in
comprehension instruction. Teachers
can guide students in using repair or self-
correcting strategies (Gunning, 2013).

Table 1. Some metacognitive strategies an and when to use them

STRATEGY DESCRIPTION WHEN USED

Slowing reading rate Reads at a pace With difficult, complex, and/or

that allows deeper confusing text
concentration
Pausing Stops momentarily and To figure out a word or
thinks. expression or to figure out
what might be done to resolve
confusion.
Reading aloud Deliberately reads To achieve greater focus or
aloud (or in a whisper) overcome distraction
to self
Jumping over Deliberately skips a Decides a word or phrase is
word or phrase unimportant or hopes that
further reading will clarify
meaning
Looking back Checks back to To obtain information lost from
locate a forgotten or working memory or information
misunderstood piece of overlooked on the first pass
information through text
Rereading Reprocesses a portion To obtain meaning not
of text absorbed on first pass through
text or to clarify meaning
Paraphrasing Puts text in own words To translate a difficult passage
into easier-to-understand
language
Using text aids Looks at illustrations, To resolve confusion or obtain
maps, charts, graphs, added input
and other non-text
elements
Using references Consults a glossary, To check an unknown word
dictionary, or concept or obtain needed
encyclopedia, or other information to resolve
reference work confusion
Reading an easier Uses an easier-to-read With target text that is too
version or less complex version complex or confusing

Reader-Text Interaction | Comprehension Monitoring 5

 EXAMPLES OF THE STRATEGY
Monitoring Strategy 1:
Teaching Repair or Fix-up Strategies
During each part of the lesson, the
teacher should model the cognitive
processes involved. Teachers can ask
students to refer to an Anchor Chart as
they read. (See Anchor Chart on Fix-up
strategies below)
Monitoring
& Fix-Up
Strategies
What do you do when you
do not understand what you
are reading, the text does
not make sense, or your mind
wanders when reading?
• Explore words and vocabulary
that you do not understand.
• Reread to clear up difficult text.
• Ask new questions about the text.
• Make new connections, and if you
can't, figure out why.
• Look for clues to help with
understanding.
• Replace words you dont' know
with words that make sense.
• Read aloud.
• Sound out words.
• Look at text features (pictures,
graphs, bold, italic).
• Change your reading rate.
• Think about what was read and
retell.
6 The PRIMALS Compendium of Teaching Resources | LITERACY STRATEGY GUIDES
Monitoring Strategy 2:
Click and Clunk
In Click and Clunk, reading is compared
to driving a car: When everything is
going smoothly, the car is clicking along.
When the car hits a pothole, there is a
clunk. Clicks are portions of the text
that are easy to understand. Clunks are
problem portions. As students read,
they may list down clunks on a chart or
bookmark, or place a sticky note next
to the confusing element and go back
to this portion later (Gunning, 2013, p.
347). Click and Clunk is a useful way to
motivate students to become involved
in monitoring for meaning.
Monitoring Strategy 3:
Think Aloud
As comprehension strategies are
taught explicitly, teachers can guide
students as they think aloud while
reading. In a think-aloud, readers tell
what is going on in their minds as they
read. Teachers can ask these process
questions to help students clarify their
understanding (Gunning, 2013, p. 348).
• What happened in the story?
(fiction)
• What were the main things the
author told you? (nonfiction)
• What were you thinking about as you
read the selection?
• Were there any confusing parts?
• What did you do when you came to a
confusing part?
• What did you do to help yourself
understand the selection?
• Did you make any pictures in your
mind while you were reading?
• Did you ask yourself any questions
as you read? If so, what did you ask
yourself?
How Teachers Can Make The Strategy Work

To promote the use of monitoring and repair

strategies during reading, teachers need to
remind students about these strategies from
time to time. Students should also learn
to take note of difficulties they have while
reading text and these difficulties may be
discussed as post-reading activities.

For English language learners, teachers References

need to use these monitoring prompts in
discussion groups. Metacognitive strategies
Adler, C. R. (n.d) Seven strategies to
may be used throughout the literacy lesson. teach students text Comprehension.
An Anchor Chart can also be created for this. Retrieved from http://readingrockets.
org/article/seven-strategies-teach-
An example is shown below. students-text-comprehension on 24
January 2019.

Thinking and Reading

BEFORE READING
What does the selection seem to be about?
What do I already know about this subject?
What do I want to learn or find out?
Why am I reading this?
WHILE READING
What am I learning or finding out?
Is the selection making sense?
If I’m having trouble understanding the
selection, what can I do?
AFTER READING
What have I learned or found out?
How does what I read fit in with what I know?
What questions do I still have?
Casanave, C. (1988). Comprehension
monitoring in ESL reading: A neglected
essential. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 22, No.
2, 283-302.
Gill, S. (2008). The comprehension matrix:
A tool for designing comprehension
instruction. The Reading Teacher, 62,
2, 106113.
Gunning, T. (2013). Creating Literacy
Instruction for all Readers. Boston:
Pearson Education.
Ness, M. & Kenny, M. (2016). Improving the
quality of think-alouds. The Reading
Teacher, 69, 4, 453-460.

Applications Across The Curriculum

Pratt, S. & Ubanowski, M. (2016). Teaching
early readers to self-monitor and
Explicit strategy instruction in English self-correct. The Reading Teacher, 69,
Language Arts must be planned for in the 5, 559-567.
curriculum. The school can teach all of the
comprehension strategies in all the grades
at the same level using varying levels of text
difficulty in English Language Arts. Schools
may also focus on 3 to 4 strategies at a time
(Zimmerman, 2007, in Gunning, 2013, p. 348).

Other content area teachers may be made

aware of what strategies are taught. In this
way, content area teachers can reinforce the
use of the strategies in their own classes.

Reader-Text Interaction | Comprehension Monitoring 7