COMPREHENSION AID

OBJECTIVE

Identify types of comprehension

aids and prepare your own
comprehension aid
COMPREHENSION AID

1. Graphic Organizers
2. Direct Reading
3. SQ3R
4. The Dictionary
5. The Encyclopedia
6. The Atlas, etc.
(1) GRAPHIC AND SEMANTIC
ORGANIZER
 Illustrates concepts and relationship between concepts in
a text or using diagrams
 Also known: maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or
clusters
 Graphic organizers can:
 Help students focus on text structure differences between
fiction and nonfiction as they read
 Provide students with tools they can use to examine and show
relationships in a text
 Help students write well-organized summaries of a text
EXAMPLES OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
1. Venn- Diagrams
To compare an contrast information
 Ex. Comparing two Dr. Seuss books

2. Storyboard/Chain of Events
To order or sequence events within a
text
Ex. Listing of steps for brushing your
teeth
EXAMPLES OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
3. Story Map
 To chart the story structure; can be organized to fiction and
nonfiction text structures
 Ex. Defining characters, setting, events, problem, resolution
in a fiction story; however in a nonfiction story, main idea
and details would be identified

4. Cause/Effect
 To illustrate the cause and effect told within a text
 Ex. Staying in the sun too long may lead to painful sunburn
(2) DIRECTED READING ACTIVITY(DRA,
BETTS, 1946)

 Provide students with instructional support before,

during and after reading.
 Teacher takes an active role as he/she prepares students
to read the text by pre-teaching important vocabulary,
eliciting prior knowledge, teaching students how to use a
specific reading skill, and providing a purpose for
reading
 During reading, the teacher asks individual students
questions about the text to monitor their comprehension
 After reading, teacher engages students in a discussion
focus on the purpose for reading, and follow up activities
PURPOSE OF DRA
 Teachers word identification skills
 Elicits student’s prior knowledge of the topic of
the text
 Teaches specific reading skills

 Set a purpose for reading

 Encourages students to monitor their

comprehension while they are reading
(3) SQ3R
 A reading comprehension method named for its five
steps;
1. Survey
2. Question
3. Read
4. Recite
5. Review

 Introduced by Francis P. Robinson (1946 book Effective

Study)
1.) SURVEY (BEFORE CLASS)
 Not more than 10-25 minutes
 Purpose: get general idea of what is going to be about,
what kind of information the author gives, how many sub-
topics the information is broken down into, and how much
time you will have to spend reading it:
 Chapter Title
 Introduction
 Objectives
 Vocabulary
 Summary
 Review Questions
 Boldface headings
 Graphic and their accompanying captions
2. QUESTION (BEFORE CLASS)
 Turn each boldfaced heading into a question by
using one of the following words: who, what,
when, where, why, or how
 Reason for creating question – to set the purpose
of reading the material in more details
 When you are reading to find the answer to a
specific question, you are reading actively
3.) READ (AFTER CLASS)
 Actively read the section of the text accompanying the
heading for an answer to the questions you asked in step
2.
 Answer will usually be made up of the main idea(s) or
the paragraph(s) and the supporting details.
 Read the section to find the answer.

 The purpose of reading is to find the answer to your

question.
4.) RECITE (AFTER CLASS)
 Recite the answer to each question to yourself
 Put the answer into your own words, or rephrase the
author’s words.
 Be sure to recall the answer, not just recognize the
information as correct.
 Write the questions in your notebook along with a few
key words or phrases to summarize the answer.
 Purpose: to help you think and understand what you have
read.
5.) REVIEW (BEFORE NEXT CLASS)
 To review, cover the answers and ask yourself
the questions
 If you can’t answer, look at your notes and test
yourself again.
 Once you are sure, you know and understand the
question and answer, check it off.
 Purpose: Help you prepare for the eventual test.
(4) THE DICTIONARY
Decoding the Dictionary
1. Decide when to use the dictionary
a) Before looking up, see if you can guess the meaning based
on the context
b) Identify the word’s part of speech, if you can, to help you
guess the meaning
c) Look for prefixes and suffixes or root words that point to the
meaning
d) If you are still confuses, that is the time to take out the
dictionary
CONTINUED… THE DICTIONARY
2. Decide which type of dictionary to use. Online
dictionaries have that advantage of being free portable and
easily accessible
 Different types of dictionaries:
a) Learner Dictionaries – use simple vocabulary; limited number
of definitions; not the best choice for advance English students
b) Bilingual Dictionaries – allow to see English definitions &
translation of word into different language; this type can make it
more difficult to remember the word later
c) Native English Dictionaries – give more definition of a word,
but not all are created equal.
Choose a dictionary based on you variety of English (ex. American vs
British) that includes links to other forms of the word, example
sentences of word use, and synonyms and antonyms.
CONTINUED… THE DICTIONARY
3. Understand how dictionary is organized
 Online dictionaries allow you to type the word into a search
bar to find an entry
 You will also find its part of speech, its pronunciation, and
one or more definitions
 Each definition usually include sample sentence to determine
whether that definition matches how the word is used in the
text you are reading
4. Determine which definition is the correct definition
 Identifyfirst the part of speech appropriate for the word
based on the context
 Look for word combinations that may appear in your text
CONTINUED… THE DICTIONARY
Ex. “The static electricity causes Jenny’s hair to stand and end,”
(function as adjective)

stat∙ic
adj. Also, ‘stat∙i∙cal
1. of or relating to objects or forces at rest or in balance or
equilibrium.
2. Showing little change:
a static relationship.
3. Lacking movement or liveliness:
a novel that has nothing but static characters
4. (of electricity) not flowing or [before a noun] moving through a
substance:
His hair stood on end from the static electricity
(5) THE ENCYCLOPEDIA
 A book or set of books giving information on many
subjects or on many aspects of one subject and typically
arranged alphabetically
 A reference work or compendium providing summaries
of knowledge either from all branches or from a
particular field or discipline
 Encyclopaedias are divided into articles or entries that
are often arranged alphabetically by article name an
sometime by thematic categories
CONTINUED… THE ENCYCLOPEDIA
 Use to find information about a person, place or thing
 Articles here are usually longer and contain more
information than a Dictionary
 Encyclopedias are a great place to start to find
information about a topic you know nothing about, but
are not usually accepted as a source for students (ex.
Wikipedia)
TYPES OF ENCYCLOPEDIA
1. General Encyclopedia – data from all branches of knowledge:
 World Book
 Encyclopedia Britannica
 Encyclopedia Americana
 Collier’s
 Funk and Wagnalls

2. Subject Specific Encyclopedia – specialized and narrows

information down to a specific topic
3. Various subjects and subject-specific encyclopedia
 Art – The Dictionary of Art – 34 volumes, 41,000 entries
 Folklore – An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music and Art
 History – Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and
Rome
(6) ALMANAC
(ALMANACK/ALMANACH)
 An annual publication listing a set of
events forthcoming in the next year.
 Includes information like weather
forecasts, farmers’ planting dates, tide
tables, and other tabular data often
arranged according to calendar
ALMANAC VS CALENDAR
 Almanac – a book of table listing nautical,
astronomical, astrological, or other events for the
year, sometimes but not essentially, containing
historical and statistical information
 Calendar – any system by which time is divided
into days, weeks, months and years
OTHER COMPREHENSION AIDS
 Atlas – a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of
maps of Earth or a region of Earth.
 Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but
today many atlases are in multimedia formats.
 Thesaurus – or synonym dictionary, a reference work
for finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words
 Used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea;
to find the word (s) by which idea may be most fitly and aptly
expressed