Scientifically-Based Conclusions About Comprehension Instruction

• Fluency instruction leads to gains in comprehension.
• Repeated reading of the same texts is an effective means of increasing fluency for normal readers through grade four and for students with reading problems throughout high school.
• Engaging students in identifying the big ideas in a text and in graphically depicting the relationships among these ideas improves their recall and comprehension of text.
• Engaging students in elaborative questioning improves their comprehension of text read during instruction and their comprehension of new text read independently.
• Teaching students to self-question while reading text enhances their understanding of the text used in the instruction and improves their comprehension of new text.
• Learning to paraphrase a text, identify the gist of a text, and identify and integrate the big ideas in a text enhance recall and the understanding of new text.
• The explicitness with which teachers teach comprehension strategies makes a difference in learner outcomes, especially for low-achieving students.
• Integrating strategy instruction into content domains requires a balance between the priority of instructing for reading comprehension and the priority of teaching the content area itself.
• A knowledge of text structure fosters comprehension.

Adapted from Catherine E. Snow, Reading for understanding: Toward a research and development program in reading comprehension. Rand Reading Study Group Report, 2002, pp. 30-43.