Comprehension as a process, not a product

Many agree that comprehension is the main goal of reading; finding meaning in the text and interpreting the message that the author is communicating is the ultimate purpose of reading. If this is the ultimate purpose of reading, we must be good at it in order for us to have any motivation to read. Now the question remains, how do you become successful at reading comprehension?
Throughout this course, I have come to learn that comprehension of a text is a complex process, not a product of simply reading the words. Beers explains in her text that although many educators and students believe that comprehension is complete after you are done reading the text, meaning can still be derived from the words through a variety of strategies. Many educators carry the misconception that comprehension is a product rather than a process and allow this misconception to guide their instruction. Traditional reading instruction includes assigning a text, having students read the text, and then answer questions about the text to assess understanding. New theories and ideas have emerged, however, that have introduced effective changes to how educators teach reading.

If we choose to look at reading comprehension as a process rather than a product, we are forced to examine our traditional methods and revolutionize them. If we understand that comprehension continues after we are finished reading and we can continue to expand our understaning as we re-read, we can implement various strategies that allow students to understand this as well. As Kylene Beers says so succinctly, "[J]ust closing a book doesn't close off the thinking that shapes our understanding of a text" (139).

The following is a list of practical post-reading strategies taken from Beers that help students extend the meaning of the text.
1. Semanticdifferential and likert scales: helps students compare and contrast characters and form opinions and values based on evidence from the text.
2. Somebody Wanted But So: helps students summarize a text in an organized manner.
3. Retellings: helps students orally summarize the text based on setting, characters, conflicts, etc. in an organized manner.
4. Text reformation or story recycling: helps students reformat a story in a different but familiar pattern.
5. It Says-I Say: helps students see how to think through an inferencing graphic organizer.
6. Sketch to Stretch: helps students interpret the story in their own way through symbolic sketches and written explanations.
7. Save the Last Word for Me: helps students participate in small groups through the sharing of passages that each student wrote down on notecards (quotes, words, etc.).
8. Most Important Word: helps students determine the main points of the text through their exploration for the most important word or words in a text and provide justification.

These strategies allow students to think beyond the text and explore their understanding of the text more deeply. Some strategies work better for different types of texts and there are many more strategies avaiable if these strategies are not proving effective in your particular classroom. I recommend the Reading: Post Phase website. Check it out for more strategies and graphic organizers that can be effectively utilized during this last phase of reading.