Thinking through text comprehension II: Analysis of verbal and investigative repertoires.

Abstract

Reading comprehension can be considered a complex human performance involving two integrated repertoires: a verbal repertoire and an investigative (generative) repertoire. This paper describes an analysis of these repertoires in terms which can ultimately inform the design of programs to teach them, using the analysis and design of Headsprout ® Reading Comprehension as an example.

Thinking through text comprehension III: The programing of verbal and investigative repertoires.

“…One place where they overlap is in derivedmeaning (vocabulary) comprehension. As noted elsewhere (Layng et al, 2011;Sota et al, 2011), vocabulary is critical to a verbal repertoire. Though some vocabulary is directly taught, many words are learned through reading text (Bloom, 2002).…”

“…The current paper describes the programing process involved for establishing reading comprehension. This instructional design process is informed by the approach described by Layng as the learners' vocabulary (Layng et al, 2011;Sota et al, 2011). The literature on reading comprehension has identified building a core vocabulary as essential for reading comprehension (e.g., Tannenbaum, Torgesen, & Wagner, 2006).…”

“…Note that the target word is a non-word. This deliberate choice forces learners to use the process taught rather than rely on already established occasion-behavior pairs (see Sota et al, 2011).…”

“…Our first step in designing a strategy for answering inferential comprehension questions was to analyze the concept of inferential questions (see Sota et al, 2011). Questions that are designated as inferential have the following critical attributes:…”

“…First, it makes the programing of coordinated concepts clearer and more efficient. In the case of an inferential question, its coordinate concept is a factual or literal question, described by Sota et al (2011). Literal and inferential questions are coordinate concepts.…”