The Context of Comprehension

We enter the teachers’ lounge at Woodmere School, where Mrs. Stephens and Ms. Kelly are asking Mrs. Forester, the reading teacher, for advice in developing an effective program in reading comprehension. Mrs. Stephens describes the comprehension ability of each of her students. She is confident that she accurately diagnosed her students as either good comprehenders or poor comprehenders. To do so she administered a test and interpreted the results. Ms. Kelly administered the same test but she is not as comfortable as her colleague in categorizing her readers’ abilities. THE CONTEXT OF COMPREHENSION Jerome A. Niles and Lorry A. Harris COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, VIRGINIA POL YTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY, BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA We enter the teachers' lounge at Woodmere School, where Mrs. Stephens and Ms. Kelly are asking Mrs. Forester, the reading teacher, for advice in developing an effective program in reading comprehension. Mrs. Stephens describes the comprehension ability of each of her students. She is confident that she accurately diagnosed her students as either good comprehenders or poor comprehenders. To do so she administered a test and interpreted the results. Ms. Kelly administered the same test but she is not as comfortable as her colleague in categorizing her readers' abilities. Ms. Kelly, in an apologetic tone, explains to the reading teacher that several of her students did poorly on the test, but perform well in group discussion. She mentions that the lowest scoring student in her class is able to retell satisfactorily the contents of a story he has read on fishing. Ms. Kelly adds that she is particularly puzzled by two of her students who did well on the test yet contribute very little when asked questions in their small reading group discussions. After listening attentively, the reading teacher pauses for a moment. Her task is to find a way to reinforce and extend Ms. Kelly's intuitive notions about assessing reading comprehension, and simultaneously, to get Mrs. Stephens to realize that the test she gave is only one piece in the diagnostic puzzle she is constructing. The reading teacher's task and the purpose of this paper is to inform or remind teachers that the comprehension product they elicit from their readers such as answers to questions or retelling a story is a very sensitive entity. It is chameleon-like in nature and it may change depending on the environment in which it is produced. In other words the context creating the comprehension product must be considered if the teacher is going to make the most sense out of the reader's responses and formulate an accurate diagnosis.