The BIG SIX: Comprehension & Oral Language

Comprehension 

At the end of Scarborough’s tightly woven reading rope, we see skilled reading. The “fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension.”  Foundational word-reading and bridging skills alone are not sufficient for building skilled readers. We have encountered students who have poor reading comprehension despite strong decoding and reading fluency. So what is comprehension and how do we teach it?

According to Scarborough’s Reading Rope language comprehension consists of multiple sub-skills including background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge. 

Just as Scarborough’s Reading Rope symbolizes, language comprehension should not be taught in isolation or after students are fluent readers. Rather it should be taught concurrently with word recognition and language comprehension instruction should begin early. Research supports a simultaneous, rather than sequential, model of reading instruction. Along with the development of phonological awareness, print concepts, and alphabet knowledge, young learners begin to develop their oral language comprehension. Through connected text readings, classroom discussions, and storytelling activities learners can begin to build many language comprehension sub-skills. 

As readers become more proficient, comprehension skills become more complex. Moreover, we read fiction and non fiction texts differently. Research has examined the impact of text structure instruction and understanding genre. For instance, with regard to understanding fiction stories, studies show that learners benefit from instruction in story elements and common structures.  Whereas, teaching text structures and features has foster reading comprehension development for informational text.

Oral Language

In this series of blog posts on The Big Six, I have purposely saved Oral Language for last. Each of these key elements are important to build proficient readers. Scarborough’s Reading Rope helps us to visualize the process of teaching these skills concurrently, they are all entangled and dependent on one another. Oral language lays the foundation for students to develop reading and writing skills and its presence in reading instruction supports the learner as reading tasks become more complex. In other words, oral language is a key part of all instruction, whether the focus is phonics, semantics, or sight recognition. 

The first way to focus on oral language is to engage in frequent meaningful discussions with your class. However, not only should oral language be part of daily instruction. It should be directly taught using a gradual release of responsibility. Initially, younger students may practice the skills of speaking to be understood and listening to understand. Educators can help students develop these skills by setting shared expectations for discussions, helping to restate or clarify what students are saying, or asking follow up questions.