Through the lens of an ABC book, we explore the various concepts and strategies relating to the development of reading comprehension. As Sharon Vaughn (2023) notes, we cannot teach comprehension. Comprehension is instead the culmination of all other interventions relating to reading, and is the ultimate goal. We need to ensure that students have a strong foundation in phonics, decoding, morphology, and fluency so that they can achieve good reading comprehension. This became exceptionally clear to me in the course of writing this ABC book. So many different skills and instructional approaches can support and develop comprehension, and we must balance all of these in our teaching. All of the skills associated with reading support and scaffold reading comprehension.
References
Coyne, M. D., & Loftus-Rattan, S. M. (2022). Structured literacy interventions for vocabulary. In Structured literacy interventions: Teaching students with reading difficulties, grades K-6. Edited by L. Spear-Swerling. The Guilford Press.
Flanigan, K., & Hayes, L. (2023). Literacy intervention in the middle grades: Word learning, comprehension, and strategy instruction, grades 4-8. The Guilford Press.
Vaughn, S. (2023). The science of reading comprehension: Effective reading comprehension instruction. International Dyslexia Association Georgia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1LHkGXfRdw
Wanzek, J., Al Otaiba, S. D., & McMaster, K. L. (2019). Intensive Reading Interventions for the Elementary Grades. Guilford Publications.
Young, C., Paige, D., & Rasinski, T. V. (2022). Artfully Teaching the Science of Reading. Routledge.