39
across genres. Therefore, the reading strategies discussed earlier in the article should be
practiced, consolidated and expanded on as a student progresses through school.
“Growing readers must
learn to read on the lines, between the lines, and beyond the
lines.
Reading will involve literal, interpretive, and inferential
comprehension as it
deepens in complexity”
11
. As students get more advanced, they’ll learn concepts such as
transferring knowledge to new contexts and understanding an author’s viewpoint,
purpose, and intended audience. And when they acquire those skills, they’ll be able to
critically analyze messages and information in a range of
literacy modes for various
purposes.
Recommendations for teachers to support the progression of reading
comprehension:
•
Make sure your students spend significant amounts
of time reading engaging
texts.
•
Select texts for students which support authentic learning. These could include
topic-based or interest-based texts.
•
Give students access to a range of texts in various genres (multimodal,
print-
based, images, animations, graphic representations, video, audio, diagrams/charts,
newspapers/magazines, fiction, non-fiction).
•
Identify and discuss vocabulary from rich texts with your students.
•
Give your students time to talk to each other about the texts they have read and
listened to.
•
Give students time to write and reflect on their reading.
11
Wikipedia. 2010.
Extensive Reading
. Available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Extensive_Reading,
accessed April 26, 2011.
