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# The Reading Comprehension Blueprint

Get the essential knowledge and practical tools needed to help every student become a proficient reader—and build a strong foundation for school success!

We’re giving away 3 FREE copies of The Reading Comprehension Blueprint! Three attendees will be selected at random and emailed after the webinar. Submit your questions to increase your chances!

## Helping Students Make Meaning from Text

### THE Reading Comprehension BLUEPRINT

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## Comprehension Check-Up! Time to Extract & Construct Meaning

**Nancy Hennessy, M.Ed.**  
**May, 2020**  
Comprehension is one of the most complex behaviors our students engage in daily. It involves a range of language and cognitive processes that students must master to make sense of written text. Multiple factors influence extracting and constructing meaning including the reader, text, task and the context. Comprehension processes are necessary to create comprehension products.

### Complex & Complicated

- **Antonio, first grade**  
  *Velvetine Rabbit*  
  What do you think this means: “When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

- **Kayla, third grade**  
  *Mystery of the Tattooed Mummy*  
  Why were the archaeologists surprised when they discovered the mummy?

- **Matt, fifth grade**  
  *Tuck Everlasting*  
  Would you want to be immortal? Why or why not?

- **Lily, ninth grade**  
  *Animal Farm*  
  In what ways, does this fable serve as a condemnation of Soviet Communism?

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*Comprehension is a complex task that involves a range of language and cognitive processes and skills that students must master in order to make sense of written text.* Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007; Oakhill & Cain, 2007; Swanson, Howard, & Sáez, 2006

## LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION

- **BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE**
- **SKILLED READING**:  
  - **VOCABULARY** fluent execution and coordination of text comprehension and word recognition.
  - **LITERACY/PRINT KNOWLEDGE**
  - **PRINTED WORD RECOGNITION**
  - **PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS**
  - **DECODING**
  - **SIGHT RECOGNITION**

### Levels of Language Processing…
**Cain & Oakhill, 2007**

**Words & Sentences**
- **Background Knowledge**
- **Text Phrases**  
  • Density
  • Structure
  • Vocabulary
  • Cohesive ties & connectives

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The student’s ability to extract and construct, then demonstrate understanding (product) depends on their access to and implementation of specific processes and skills. This is influenced by the nature of the text, task, context and by what the reader has acquired and can access.

### Respond to the following questions based on your reading of Tuck Everlasting.

## Constructing Comprehension

| Language Comprehension | Instructional Components |
| --- | --- |
| Background Knowledge | Background Knowledge |
| Vocabulary | Vocabulary |
| Language Structures | Sentence Comprehension |
| Verbal reasoning | Levels of Understanding (e.g. inference) |
| Literacy Knowledge | Print awareness, text structures |

## The Reading Comprehension Blueprint

- An evidence based master plan that addresses both process and product demands.
- Organizes and scaffolds the teacher's preparation of a text for varied purposes.
- Calls for the use of evidence based strategies and activities.
- Allows for flexibility based on text, the student and context.

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## Informed Instructional Framework

| Intentional Instruction | Incidental on Purpose Instruction | Intentional Independent Word Learning Strategies Instruction |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Word Choice | Principals of Instruction | Instructional Routines |
| Processing & Practice Activities | Structured Point of Contact Teaching | Using the Dictionary |
| Word Consciousness | Structured Teacher-Student Talk | Using Context Clues |
| Purposeful Activities | Structured Shared Reading | Using Morphemic Analysis |
| Word Consciousness | Structured Independent Reading | Word Consciousness |

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**The Blueprint**  
Designed to support the educator as he/she uses their knowledge to identify learning goals, set purpose, organize instruction, select instructional activities, and monitor students' progress.

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6/3/20  
It involves a range of language and cognitive processes that students must master to make sense of written text. Multiple factors influence extracting and constructing meaning including the reader, text, task and the context. Informed instructional