Comprehension

** Comprehension ** is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand what they are reading, they are not really reading. Good readers have a purpose for reading. They may read to find out how to use a food processor, read a guidebook to gather information about national parks, read a textbook to satisfy the requirements of a course, read a magazine for entertainment, or read a classic novel to experience the pleasures of great literature. Good readers also think actively while they read. To make sense of what they read, good readers engage in a complicated process. Using their experiences and knowledge of the world, their knowledge of vocabulary and language structure, and their knowledge of reading strategies (or plans), good readers make sense of the text and know how to get the most out of it. They know when they have problems with understanding and how to resolve these problems as they occur.

**Marzano's Higher Level Questioning Literacy Prompts:** Use these questions during small group to help increase student understanding of the text.  **Q****uestion Answer Relationship**: Raphael created Question-Answer Relationships as a way to help students realize that the answers they seek are related to the type of question that is asked; it encourages them to be strategic about their search for answers based on an awareness of what different types of questions look for. Even more important is understanding where the answer will come from. Use the following links to gain a better understanding of how to use QAR. [] (research) [] []

**Into the Books:** A reading comprehension resource for K-4 students and teachers, focusing on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. []

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 * The Neverending Tale**: It is a choose-your-own-path adventure story, like you might read in a book, but you can add to the tale. Whatever you add will become part of the tale, anything you can think of.