Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies

The proposed project will develop a program consisting of seven comprehensive, multi-media modules for teaching reading comprehension strategies to elementary students, with an emphasis on making the instruction particularly appropriate for urban classrooms in which many students may be struggling readers. Each module will have three major components: (1) A CD-ROM to train teachers to teach a specific reading comprehension strategy. (2) A packet of printed material to provide teachers with everything needed to teach the strategy using a cutting-edge combination of "direct explanation of strategies" and "transactional strategies instruction," two research-based approaches. Particular emphasis will be put on motivating students and giving them the self-confidence and resolve that will make them life-long strategic readers. (3) A website to explain the nature of reading comprehension strategies, give an overview of how each strategy is taught, and give teachers who are working with the strategies a means to share their experiences. The instructional modules will be tested with both fourth and fifth grade students in an urban school district. Comprehension strategies taught in the seven instructional modules are: Using prior knowledge, Making inferences, Questioning, Predicting, Using text structure, Summarizing, and Monitoring.