Deck 7: Comprehension: Theory and Strategies

Question 1

Juan has played soccer but has never played football. Football was not a popular sport where he grew up. Despite excellent word recognition skills, Juan, who generally has little difficulty comprehending selections, is unable to answer most of the questions about a boy who leads his team to the state football championship. What seems to be the main source of Juan?s difficulty?

A) Juan focuses on pronouncing the words correctly and so fails to read for meaning.
B) Juan has little interest in the story because he cannot identify with the main character.
C) Juan lacks adequate comprehension strategies.
D) Juan has limited background knowledge for understanding the story.

Answer 1

Juan has limited background knowledge for understanding the story.

Question 2

The most important factor in comprehension is

A) clarity of the selection.
B) length and word count of the selection.
C) quality of questions asked about the selection.
D) reader?s background knowledge about the topic of the selection.

Answer 2

reader?s background knowledge about the topic of the selection.

Question 3

Which of the following is an organizational strategy?

A) setting purposes
B) making predictions
C) constructing the main idea
D) creating images

Answer 3

constructing the main idea

Question 4

According to research, the most effective organizational strategy for comprehension is

A) selecting or constructing the main idea.
B) comprehending the main idea.
C) summarizing.
D) determining the importance of information.

Question 5

Which of the following is a preparational strategy?

A) summarizing key ideas
B) activating prior knowledge
C) noting relevant details
D) seeking main ideas

Question 6

Which of the following is an elaboration of the meaning of the word invention?

A) learning the correct pronunciation of invention
B) judging the importance of several inventions
C) saying invention and its meaning repeatedly so as not to forget it
D) carefully noting the spelling of invention

Question 7

Which technique is especially designed for students having difficulty with inferences?

A) reciprocal teaching
B) QAR
C) monitoring
D) imaging

Question 8

Dual coding refers to the process of

A) translating from a second language to one?s first language.
B) both saying and writing answers.
C) putting text information into one?s own words.
D) mentally representing a text in both words and images.

Question 9

Which elaboration strategy works with concrete ideas as students learn to picture concepts in their minds?

A) imaging
B) macro-cloze
C) making inferences
D) QAR

Question 10

Rereading, slow reading, and pausing during a confusing paragraph are examples of

A) checking.
B) regulating.
C) repairing.
D) summarizing.

Question 11

Reciprocal teaching includes the following:

A) inferring, confirming, evaluating, repairing.
B) visualizing, setting goals, repairing, answering.
C) predicting, questioning, clarifying, summarizing.
D) evaluating, confirming, imaging, comprehending.

Question 12

Which of the following methods focuses on content rather than strategy, occurs during reading rather than after reading, and uses a series of queries and moves?

A) QTA
B) QAR
C) reciprocal teaching
D) ReQuest

Question 13

In what ways can we define comprehension?

Question 14

How are schema theory and situational (mental) model theory used in the teaching of comprehension?

Question 15

What are the steps in teaching a comprehension strategy?

Question 16

What are the preparational strategies for improving reading comprehension, and what role do they play in the comprehension process?

Question 17

What are the organizational strategies for improving reading comprehension, and what role do they play in the comprehension process?

Question 18

What are the elaborative strategies for improving reading comprehension, and what role do they play in the comprehension process?

Question 19

How would you use the six steps for teaching a comprehension strategy to teach imaging?

Question 20

What is ReQuest and how is it used?

Question 21

What are the metacognitive strategies for improving reading comprehension, and what role do they play in the comprehension process?

Question 22

What special comprehension strategies do bilingual readers use? How might you make use of those strategies in teaching a group of English Language Learners (ELLs)?

Question 23

Compare the methods used in Reciprocal Teaching and Questioning the Author.