SKILLED COMPREHENSION AND ITS DEVELOPMENT THROUGH INSTRUCTION

This article addresses the myth that children will be able to comprehe nd a text simply because they can decode words in it. Evidence is prov ided to support the claim that developing readers benefit hom explicit teaching of comprehension strategies via direct explanation and model ing of strategies. Transactional strategies in which readers interact with text and with each other are more effective in improving reading comprehension than reciprocal teaching, which involves less explicit i nstruction by the teacher. Classroom observation studies show that ins ufficient attention is directed to comprehension, which needs to be ta ught and not just monitored.