READING AND THE COMMON CORE

Our instruction in reading will begin to shift.  Common core ELA standards expect students to “Read like a detective and write like an investigative reporter.”  In order to do that, students must be able to comprehend a variety of genres and text.

Comprehension is defined as “intentional thinking during which meaning is constructed through interactions between the text and the reader”  (Harris & Hodges,1995). 

We know that reading comprehension is influenced by two factors:

1. Amount of engaged reading, and
2. Level of prior knowledge.

As teachers plan for every child’s core instruction, they need to include:

1. time for a good quantity of engaged reading,
2. the opportunity for student choice,
3. a variety of interesting books,
4. time for collaboration with peers, and
5. time for reading in the content areas that include all of the above.

Of these five, the research tells us that the one that has the greatest impact on comprehension is number 3, the variety of interesting tests, followed closely by student choice.