| name | reading-comprehension |
| description | Strategies for constructing meaning from text, monitoring understanding, and repairing comprehension breakdowns. Covers before-during-after reading framework, seven evidence-based comprehension strategies (activating prior knowledge, questioning, visualizing, inferring, determining importance, summarizing, monitoring/fix-up), text structure recognition (narrative and expository), schema theory, close reading protocols, and the gradual release of responsibility instructional model. Use when teaching comprehension strategies, analyzing reader difficulties, planning text-based instruction, or building meaning from complex texts. |
| type | skill |
| category | reading |
| status | stable |
| origin | tibsfox |
| modified | false |
| first_seen | "2026-04-12T00:00:00.000Z" |
| first_path | examples/skills/reading/reading-comprehension/SKILL.md |
| superseded_by | null |
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is the construction of meaning through the interaction between reader, text, and context (RAND Reading Study Group, 2002). It is not a passive reception of information but an active, strategic process in which the reader builds a mental model of the text's content, monitors that model for coherence, and repairs it when meaning breaks down. This skill covers the cognitive strategies that proficient readers use, the text structures that organize information, and the instructional frameworks that teach comprehension explicitly.
Agent affinity: rosenblatt (reader response, transactional theory), austen (close reading, narrative intelligence), clay (early literacy, monitoring)
Concept IDs: read-main-idea-details, read-inferencing, read-text-structure, read-summarizing, read-monitoring-comprehension
The Proficient Reader's Toolkit
Research on expert readers (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995; Duke & Pearson, 2002) identifies seven strategies that proficient readers deploy automatically. Developing readers must learn these strategies explicitly and practice them until they become habitual.
Strategy 1 -- Activating Prior Knowledge
Before and during reading, proficient readers connect what they are reading to what they already know. Schema theory (Anderson & Pearson, 1984) explains this: knowledge is organized in schemas (mental frameworks), and comprehension occurs when new information is integrated into existing schemas.
Application. Before reading, ask: "What do I already know about this topic?" During reading: "How does this connect to something I've read or experienced before?" When prior knowledge conflicts with the text: "Do I need to revise what I thought I knew?"
Danger. Prior knowledge can also interfere with comprehension when the reader's existing schema is inaccurate. The reader must be willing to revise beliefs in light of evidence from the text.
Strategy 2 -- Questioning
Proficient readers generate questions before, during, and after reading:
| Timing | Question types | Purpose |
|---|
| Before | "What will this be about?" "What do I want to learn?" | Set purpose, activate curiosity |
| During | "Why did the character do that?" "What does this term mean?" | Monitor understanding, deepen engagement |
| After | "What was the main idea?" "How does this change what I think?" | Consolidate understanding, evaluate significance |
"What color was the hat?" is a literal recall question. "Why did the author choose to describe the hat in this scene?" is an inferential question that drives deeper comprehension. Teaching students to ask thick questions (requiring synthesis, inference, evaluation) rather than thin questions (requiring only recall) improves comprehension significantly (Taboada & Guthrie, 2006).
