READING COMPREHENSION: THEORIES AND STRATEGIES

INTRODUCTION
The main purpose for reading is to comprehend the ideas in the material. Without comprehension, reading would be empty and meaningless. In our practicum, we have all witnessed cases where students are capable of reading the words, but face much difficulty in expressing their comprehension of the main ideas. An example of this occurrence was a second grade boy named Reggie who loved to read but had difficulty in comprehending what he read. Reggie would eagerly read to an audience since he had a solid grasp of phonemic awareness (sounding out words) and social discourse (reading with expression). When tested by the Reading Specialist, Reggie was placed in a relatively low level reading group. This was due to his inability to demonstrate comprehension of the reading material. This was shocking to the teacher, as he appeared to be a strong reader.
As Students, we need to have an understanding of the theories behind reading comprehension, as well as a working knowledge of some important strategies that can be used in the classroom to increase reading comprehension. In this paper, we are going to focus on three important theories on reading comprehension: the Schema Theory; Mental Models, and the Propositional Theory, and four categories of strategies to improve reading comprehension based on these theories: Preparational, Organizational, Elaboration, and Monitoring.
THEORY
Gunning (2006) identifies three main theories of reading comprehension. These theories are Schema Theory, Mental Models, and Proposition Theory.
Schema Theory
Gunning (2006) defines a schema as the organized knowledge that one already has about people, places, things, and events. Kitao (2003) says the schema theory involves an interaction between the reader’s own knowledge and the text, which results in comprehension. This schema, as Gunning defined, can be very broad, such a schema for natural disasters, or more narrow, such as a schema for a hurricane. Each schema is "filed" in an individual compartment and stored there. In attempting to comprehend reading materials, students can relate this new information to the existing information they have compartmentalized in their minds, adding it to these "files" for future use. Based on the Schema Theory, depending on how extensive their "files" become, their degree of reading comprehension may vary.
Mental Model Theory
Another major theory we would like to discuss is the Mental Model. This model can be thought of as a mind movie created in one's head, based on the reading content. Gunning gives a detailed description of this process, stating that a mental model is constructed most often when a student is reading fiction. The reader focuses in on the main character and creates a mental model of the circumstances in which the character finds him or herself. The mental model is re-constructed or updated to reflect the new circumstances as the situation changes, but the items important to the main character are kept in the foreground according to Gunning, (2006).
Perkins (22005) identifies that sometimes misconceptions about important concepts reflect misleading mental models of the topic itself or the subject matter within which it sits. There are, however, interventions the teacher can do to help the reader to stay on track and create a more accurate picture. One suggestion is for the teachers to ask the students to disclose their mental models of the topics in question, through analogy, discussion, picturing, and other ways. This information gives the teacher insight on the student's knowledge gaps and misconceptions, therefore allowing them to help students reconstruct a more accurate picture.
Proposition Theory
The final explanation of comprehension we would like to discuss is the Propositional Theory. This involves the reader constructing a main idea or macrostructure as they process the text. These main ideas are organized in a hierarchical fashion with the most important things given the highest priority to be memorized (Gunning, 2006).
STRATEGY
Katims (2001) stated that learning strategies are techniques, or routines that enable students to learn to solve problems and complete tasks independently. A strategy is an individual’s approach to a task. Gunning (2006) identifies four main types of comprehension strategies, which include Preparational, Organizational, Elaboration and Monitoring.
Preparational
Gunning (2006) describes Preparational strategy as those that activate prior knowledge about a particular topic. This method is used to get students thinking about the topic they are about to work on. It is much easier to retain knowledge about a subject when the student is familiar with the subject area.
Gunning (2006) identifies predicting as a type of Preparational strategy which involves previewing parts of the text to be read. The portions of text, which are helpful in previewing, can be pictures, titles, or the cover of the book. As the students are thinking about what will happen based on their knowledge of the subject and the book, they focus their thoughts on the assignment to come, which leads to better comprehension.
Organizational
Gunning (2006) describes Organizational strategies as the process of selecting important details and building relationships from them. These strategies include: identifying the main idea and topic sentences, classifying information, deciding which information is relevant, sequencing and summarizing. Each of these strategies is complex and methods for improving them need to be taught starting from basic ideas and gradually getting more difficult. Summarizing, in particular, has been identified as a difficult skill to develop.
Elaboration
Gunning (2006) refers to elaboration strategy as an additional processing of the text, by the reader, which may increase comprehension. It involves forming connections between the text and the reader’s background knowledge of the subject. Making inferences, picturing images and asking questions are all types of elaboration strategies.
Huffman (2000) identifies K-W-L as an elaboration strategy, which connects background knowledge to the topic to be addressed. K-W-L is an acronym for the three steps of the procedure: describing what we Know, what we Want to know, and what we Learned. The first two steps are completed before the project has begun, to assess background information, and the third step is completed afterward to make the connections.
Monitoring
Gunning (2006) defines monitoring strategy as being aware of one’s own mental process when reading. Monitoring is an advanced technique that involves a great deal of independent thinking. Monitoring occurs when a reader is aware that they do not understand what was just read. The act of monitoring is knowing how to go back and find a way to gain understanding of the topic. Monitoring is knowing when to use the three other types of reading comprehension strategies.



CONCLUSIONS
According to the Proposition theory, the student is forming a mental model in their mind as they are forming the macrostructure. Forming a schema is the most basic comprehension tool used by students. As they become more advanced, they can build on their base of schemas and create mental models throughout the reading. The most complex comprehension tool is forming a series of propositions, which are constantly updated throughout the text.
The four types of strategies previously discussed can be seen as more independent of each other than the theories, although a student is not able to apply the most complex strategy until they have a base of the more simplistic strategies. Preparational strategies happen before the actual reading takes place, and are incorporated in the Schema theory. Organizational strategies take place during and after the text is read. These strategies are based on both the Mental Model theory and the Proposition Theory. Elaboration strategies can take place before, during and after reading, and therefore, are dependent on all three major comprehension theories. Monitoring strategies are the most complex and involve mostly the Propositional theory. These strategies should take place primarily as the reading is taking place.








REFERENCES
Armstrong, Thomas. (2004). Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. Chapter 6
Gunning, Thomas G. (2006). Creating Reading Instruction for All Children. Chapter 6.
Huffman, Lois E. (2000). Spotlighting Specifics by Combining Focus Questions With K-W-L. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Issue 6, 470-471.
Katims, David S. (2001. Improving the Reading Comprehension of Middle School Students in Inclusive Classrooms. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Issue 2, 116-124.
Kitao, Kathleen S. (2003. Textual Schemata and English Language Learning. Cross Currents, Issue 3, 147-155.
Perkins, D.N. (2005). Educating for Insight. Educational Leadership. Issue 2, 4-9.

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