RUNNING HEAD​: READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES FOR 10TH GRADE ELA 1

Conquering Literal Reading Comprehension: Reading Comprehension Strategies For 10th Grade ELA

Grace Arias

Manhattan College
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Abstract

One 10th grade English Language Arts class in the Academy of Mount Saint Ursula was

observed and examined in depth. Through many observations, it was clear that students lacked

skills in reading comprehension. Although there are many layers in understanding and teaching

reading comprehension, students struggled most intensely with literal reading comprehension.

When my cooperating teacher, Ms. Masick asked direct questions on the essay “Self-reliance” by

Ralph Waldo Emerson, students looked confused and didn’t know how to find the answer

directly from the text. Students lacked the ability to look back into the text and find answers

throughout the beginning, middle and end of the story as well as understanding “facts” that are

not explicitly stated in the text. For this reason, I have proposed a plan to help students with

literal reading retention which includes identifying explicit information from any text.

Understanding what you are reading is an important skill and it is beneficial to students when

future texts become more difficult and complex. I have developed a plan that includes a strategy

with different components that will help students independently and cooperatively comprehend

class-reading material. It also lets the teacher know what works for students versus what

techniques may not be as useful. One component of the high-five reading comprehension

strategy was chosen for this research. My goal here is to be able to get students to comprehend

this technique enough so that they are able to independently and consistently pull effective

evidence from the text throughout their entire educational experience. Although this plan was not

able to be implemented into the classroom, I was able to take the several observations I made in

Ms. Masick class to choose a lesson that will best fit the students I saw struggling the most.

What was the problem ?

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When students do not learn how to effectively comprehend a text, they lack reading

fluency that involves processing a text, using a text to their benefit and understanding its overall

meaning. In this case, reading comprehension requires students to recall basic concepts and this

is the foundation for rich academic reading which is essential for any learning experience. Being

able to identify crucial points that the author is making impacts a students college readiness, and

their overall interest in doing any type of reading. This skill must be embedded in the early

education of a student's English language arts experience. However, this fundamental skill is

quickly overlooked when it relies on how well a student is able to master decoding a text. Like

many other skills, if you skip step one, every other step seems extremely difficult and this is why

reading can feel so daunting for students. Several girls in Ms. Masick’s class expressed these

same feelings of frustration to me. In this 10th grade class, students’ reading comprehension

issues led to other problems such as a lack of concentration. This makes the act of getting

through class reading material more tedious, especially when students are unable to answer

concrete questions in class and for homework.

What did the teacher know ?

The students in this Catholic all-girl school in the Bronx were observed once a week for

three consecutive weeks. The Academy of Mount Saint Ursula emphasizes college readiness

through arts, service and technology. The majority of students are Hispanic and African

American. Ms.Masick’s 10th grade class was made up of about twenty five girls and this group

of students particularly struggled with ELA or acquired learning difficulties. I observed one 11th

grade honors class one time, and this made it evident how this 10th grade class performed poorly

on homework and quizzes. They also struggled with participation and staying on task during
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partner work. During my first day in the classroom, I initially observed that students generally

had trouble answering Ms.Masick’s comprehension questions on Edgar Allen’s Poe “The

Raven”. Students struggled even more drastically in the next coming weeks during the

transcendental unit by reading “Self-reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Students were not able

to answer the following questions:​“Who is the speaker in this section?”,“Where does the author

say that trusting oneself is important?”,“Which sentence defines the term ‘youthful’?”​At first I

thought maybe the texts were too easy for them, but it was clear that when the classroom became

silent and I saw students’ facial expressions and wandering eyes, it seemed as though they likely

did not understand what was going on in the text. During partner work in the classroom, I asked

a student seated near me if she understood Ms.Masick’s questions. She responded by saying that

she didn’t understand the text because it was “boring” and couldn’t find the answer in the text.

Another student joined the conversation and said she did not understand the main ideas or the

purpose of the text, so Ms.Masick’s questions were confusing and made her “think too much.”

The root of the problem was that students did not have techniques embedded in their mind to

point to evidence in the text. The class as a whole could not engage in the text because they did

not acquire conscious strategies to assist them in unpacking the text. It was clear that if students

did not understand Poe’s more concrete text, they would not effectively answer questions on

Emerson’s very abstract literature. Going beyond that, if they cannot answer the “right there”

questions from either text, they will undoubtedly struggle with answering inferential questions.

From this point on, it became evident to me that a question I desired to focus on is: how can I

help students improve reading comprehension by identifying explicit evidence?

What Had Others Found?

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Reading comprehension is essential for all students, as reading is a fundamental aspect of

literacy in expanding one’s knowledge and greater sense of what is going on in the world. In

high school, students need to master reading comprehension in order to enhance cognitive

processes that will benefit their future careers. Multiple factors may influence the achievement of

students’ reading comprehension and it is proven that educators need to instruct reading

comprehension strategies as an active process that students are consciously using. In a study

conducted by ​Ondokuz Mayis ​he states that, “Students have not developed the habit of

systematically using learning strategies to achieve better academic results…there is evidence of

student’s poor ability to interpret and transfer information which are linked to reading skills,

when they are not provided with concrete reading comprehension strategies…” (Mayis, 2013).

This study was conducted in a 9th grade class and there was dramatic increase in effective

reading comprehension when teachers offered several strategies to students such as the

“participation strategy” (students engage in self-learning by actively participating in class

discussion and attempting to answer at least one question by the teacher by using their

background knowledge) and the “planning strategy” (students express or write down what they

are struggling to understand or a question and get clarification from a peer or a teacher) (Mayis,

2013). After several of these strategies were implemented, students had an easier time decoding

the surface level information of the text. This study emphasized thorough assistance from the

teacher and actively offered different strategies in order to develop and achieve this competence.

The students in this study needed a structured set of strategies that they can look back on to use

both independently and cooperatively. This is what my 10th grade students lacked; being able to

understand and recall the “facts” of the story because they acquired no techniques to help them
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do this automatically. This explains the long moments of silence after Ms.Masick asked

text-dependent questions.

Although there are many popular reading comprehension techniques, some are more or

less suitable for students depending on their skills and needs. It is important to offer students

multiple techniques so that they have several opportunities to lean on a strategy that works for

them best. A study done by Daniela Medina and Mercedes Nagamine stated 8 components of

efficient reading comprehension training, and the very first step emphasized the importance of

selecting strategies well. This first step stated, “Strategies should be selected in accordance with

the needs of students. Instead of using one strategy, a few different but interrelated strategies

should be instructed. Instead of teaching only simple or only difficult strategies, both of them

should be given in combination” (​Medina, D., & Nagamine, M. 2019)​. This study concluded that

after a 10th grade teacher performed intense lessons by teaching students three strategies

(skimming-scanning, summarizing, semantic mapping) their reading comprehension post-test

scores skyrocketed. It demonstrated that 74% of students in the group re-used one of the

strategies in a future lesson. Additionally, 81% of students used one of these strategies after

moving on to 11th grade and they generally felt that they had a better understanding of a text

after using a specific technique from the previous year (Medina, D., & Nagamine, M. 2019).

Despite the fact that studies could not conclude if one strategy helped students more rather than

another strategy, these results agree with Medina and Nagamine’s results in saying that students

are better able to comprehend a text when given sold strategies. Not only did test scores increase

after specific strategy instruction, but students showed more frequent signs of self-monitoring

which helped them store this information in order to guide them and “... be transferable to future
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possible tasks…” (Medina, D., & Nagamine, M. 2019). The limitations of this study were that

most groups were done with students who were English Language Learners. However, the

increase in performance and comprehension from a group of students who struggle with the

English language can imply that these techniques will be easier to grasp for students who have

already mastered the language.

When students do not acquire strategies to assist them with comprehending a text, it

affects their engagement level with the reading, as well as how actively they use the information

to answer text-dependent questions. The teacher plays a major role in this because it requires

them to directly instruct and model techniques for students. After students examine, use and

reflect the given techniques, it is crucial that teachers ask text-dependent questions that force

students to engage with at least one strategy. In another study, Kellie Molden offers a five step

direct instruction process that consists of “first explain what is the strategy, then demonstrate

how to use the strategy, guide the students being placing in groups to create responses, allow

practice by applying the strategy to actual text, and finally reflect on how the strategy worked.”

(​Molden, K. 2007).​ ​The researchers found that this direct instruction worked best when it was

followed by problem-posing questions about the text. This ensures that students are going

beyond the simple memorization or one-time use of technique, but putting it into action by

answering pondering questions such as, “What is the text about/How do we know? What are the

structures and features of the text? How does the text depict age, gender and/or cultural groups?

Who is allowed to speak/Who is quoted?” (​Molden, K. 2007)​ , while simultaneously using at

least one strategy. The use of direct instruction followed by thought-provoking questions that

involve the use of concrete evidence from the text allows the reader to further their meaningful
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literacy (​Molden, K. 2007)​. Although no conclusions were made in this study, it emphasizes the

goal of teaching reading comprehension, which is to enable readers to fluently create their own

personal connections and engagements with the text. Molden describes it as the “road to literacy”

and this encapsulates how reading comprehension is not a cookie cutter experience, and students

must be given multiple opportunities to listen to questions that challenge how they understand

the text.

What was the Plan?

After observing the students for a few days and communicating with Ms.Masick over

email, I composed a plan that I intended to implement. The high-five reading comprehension

resonated with me because it allowed students to become aware of different reading strategies

such as activating prior knowledge, “right now” questions, analyzing text structure, visuzalation

and summarizing. I chose one strategy to focus on and start the first plan; “right there question”.

My plan is to work with students on this one strategy throughout a 5-week period so that they

master it in a way that they use it anytime they are reading. By seeing students once a week for 5

weeks, my goal is to do mini-exercises with them in hopes of getting them to understand these

questions and how to effectively answer and think about them through their independent and

academic reading.

During week one, I will prepare students to get ready to read by asking them questions

that are unrelated to the text ​ (“Why do you want to learn to read?”, “What do you do when you

read?”)​ in order to make reading a conscious decision-making process. This will get students to

learn how to answer questions directly as well as make reading a meaningful process that they

actively need to be engaged in. Students will be able to create their goals for before reading,
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during reading and after reading to instill this process in their minds. During week two, I will ask

students before reading questions:​ “What does the introduction say about the author?”, “What is

the historical context of this time?” ​These questions encapsulate “right there questions” which

ask student questions that aim for intentional answers coming directly from the text. Students

will be asked to be looking at the page or section that allows them to answer the questions.

During week three, students will practice answering during-reading questions: ​“What does the

text say about a person defining themselves in a society?” “What does self-reliance mean?”​ I

will refer back to week two by asking students to practice physically pointing to sentences in the

text. Not only will this pinpoint information that is important, but it will show them how to go

back to the text and actually highlight answers. I will monitor student’s written responses During

week four I will ask students additional during-reading questions such as,​ “Is there a connection

between self-reliance and business, travelling and religion?” “How does the author define

‘genius’?” ​This week students will write down their evidence again, however, I will also ask

students to share their evidence out loud in order to engage in conversation and hear responses

from other peers. During week five I will refer back to week three and four by asking students to

look back at the evidence they highlighted in order to answer several questions: ​“What does the

author think about enjoying time alone?” “What line of the final paragraph exemplifies the

author’s message?”​ Students will be asked to turn and share their evidence with their partner.

All students will be asked to share their partners' response in order to establish a collaborative

discussion. If I find that this strategy works, then I can gradually introduce the next strategies

that are incorporated in the high five reading comprehension techniques.

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References

Mayis, O. (2013). The Effect of Cognitive and Compensation Strategy Instruction on Reading

Comprehension Skill.​. Ondokuz Mayis ​University Journal of Education, 32(2),

369-384

Molden, K. (2007). Critical Literacy, the Right Answer for the Reading Classroom: Strategies to

Move beyond Comprehension for Reading Improvement. ​Reading Improvement,​

44​(1), 50–56.

Medina, D., & Nagamine, M. (2019). Autonomous Learning Strategies in the Reading

Comprehension of High School Students. Propósitos y Representaciones, 7(2),

134-159.