Comprehension/Decoding

There are many different elements of literacy that work together to form the process of learning how to read. Overall, I think students who have skills in decoding are much more likely to comprehend text than those who have limited development in phonics. When students spend all their time trying to decipher the words on a page, they do not concentrate on comprehending the overall message of the passage. Often times struggling students must read text very slowly in order to recognize each word that is unfamiliar to them. Their fluency is often very under-developed, and as a result, they cannot fully comprehend their reading. Other students, however, do not seem to have this problem. “Word-Callers” might be very good at word recognition but lack all understanding of the story. For this reason, it is difficult to determine the precise relationship between comprehension decoding. The National Reading Panel concluded that phonics instruction is indeed important, but they could not find significant data to support the connection between phonics and comprehension (p. 23). I think further research needs to be done on this subject to clarify this important relationship.

I think there are a variety of methods to teach decoding and comprehension skills in the classroom. Sometimes they can be taught together, while other times it might be necessary to use separate lessons. For example, teachers could use guided reading groups to practice how to decode consonant digraphs. They could read a trade book that focuses on this skill and then discuss the story throughout the length of the lesson. Through this discussion, the teacher could gain a very good understanding of both students’ comprehension and word recognition skills. I think this type of reading instruction happens quite often in classrooms.

Teachers could use different instructional approaches by changing the grouping of the students as they practice the two skills. Comprehension can often be taught in whole group settings. Teachers can use a read aloud to assess students’ understanding of their story, or they could also work individually on activities that build comprehension. To work on decoding skills, students might work one-on-one with a teacher or they could work in small groups. These skills can be taught in a variety of ways.