What Is Reading Comprehension? A Guide for Educators

Some students breeze through a social studies chapter or decipher a math word problem easily, while others struggle to understand them. These children may not have difficulty with the subject matter, but instead struggle to attach meaning to what they’re reading. In other words, they lack the critical reading comprehension skills or the ability to decode words and understand them. Strong reading comprehension isn’t something students develop innately; they must systematically build decoding skills, vocabulary knowledge, background knowledge, and critical thinking skills to succeed as they progress to more academically challenging work.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss the role of reading comprehension and how educators can help students build reading comprehension skills that will prepare them for academic learning.

Reading Comprehension’s Meaning

Reading comprehension refers to the ability to understand and make meaning from what has been read. Strong readers use their background knowledge, decoding skills, vocabulary, and critical thinking strategies to construct meaning from a text. 

A critical component of the reading process, reading comprehension requires students to use their prior knowledge and experience, in conjunction with their understanding of vocabulary and language, to derive meaning from a text. As they read, they learn how to think critically and assess their knowledge as they progress from one paragraph to the next. 

Reading comprehension itself is the application of multiple skill components and is the primary goal of reading. The skills needed for reading comprehension can be broken down with the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough’s Reading Rope. According to Philip Gough and William Tunmer’s (1986) Simple View of Reading (SVR), reading comprehension is achieved through the combination of two skills: word recognition and language comprehension. As the equation shows, neither of these concepts is sufficient on its own. If students fail to understand one-half of the equation, they may not be able to read proficiently. 

The Simple View of Reading

Struggling with any of these subcomponents can lead to difficulty with reading comprehension.

Why Is Reading Comprehension Important?

In the United States, up to 20% of adults lack the skills to comprehend everyday texts, putting them at risk for limited employment, lower wages, and higher poverty rates. There are several reasons why adults struggle with developing reading comprehension. Some individuals may have undiagnosed learning differences, while others may have experienced interruptions in learning at the age when literacy instruction typically begins. Others may not have received evidence-based instruction that identified or addressed their literacy gaps. Multilingual students who came to the United States as immigrants speaking another language face even more challenges in acquiring English proficiency. 

According to a recent study, a strong positive correlation exists between students’ reading proficiency and their overall academic performance. Students with higher reading comprehension skills generally showed better academic outcomes in language arts, social studies, and science. However, those with poor reading skills had difficulty mastering subject-area concepts, leading to lower educational achievement and decreased motivation. 

Students need reading comprehension to master science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects. They must read well enough to follow multistep lab experiments. If they’re unable to decipher the meaning, their experiments will fail. Science textbooks also include specialized vocabulary words such as “photosynthesis” or “molecule.” Students with weak reading comprehension may struggle to decode science words and connect them to relevant concepts or processes. In math, students must understand directions like “round to the nearest hundredth.” Weak reading comprehension skills can cause students to provide incorrect answers, even if they have strong numerical and mathematical reasoning skills.

Low reading comprehension doesn’t just hurt students in one grade level; it hinders them as they progress through each subsequent grade level.

• Middle and high school students fall behind in general and subject-area classes.

• Students struggle to stay motivated and engaged as they encounter increasingly complex texts.

• Reading gaps persist into adulthood, limiting students’ academic and career choices after graduation. 

The Key Components of Reading Comprehension

Science of reading research shows that reading follows a progression, and students must be taught skills explicitly and systematically. Decoding and word recognition play a significant role in early reading development, serving as the bridge between spoken and written language. Students can recognize words once they’ve mastered phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition. As students grasp phoneme manipulation (blending), letter-sound correspondences, and irregular words, they gradually move from sounding out text to automatically recognizing words. This progression leads to fluent reading, allowing students to free up their mental energy for reading comprehension and deeper learning. 

Decoding and Word Recognition

Word recognition consists of phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition. Decoding refers to the process of linking printed words or letters on the page to their spoken equivalents. After readers have repeatedly practiced certain words and letter-sound correspondences, they can recognize them immediately without sounding out each word. Automatic word recognition is ultimately the goal, which leads to fluent reading and allows students to focus on reading to learn as opposed to learning to read. This science of reading-aligned approach differs from balanced literacy, which encourages students to rely on pictures for context clues or to guess at words.

Vocabulary Development

A key part of the transition from learning to read to reading to learn is the ability to decode and understand different words. By building a strong vocabulary, students gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. Teachers can incorporate vocabulary instruction into their curriculum through explicit vocabulary lessons, practicing conversations, or integrating vocabulary into other subjects. 

Background Knowledge

Each student comes to the classroom with different background knowledge, informed by their interests, communities, and culture. Decades of research have shown students with relevant background knowledge comprehend texts more easily, make richer connections, and are better able to infer meaning, especially as texts become more complex. By implementing lessons based on the science of reading, teachers can provide highly effective and equitable literacy instruction.

Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions

Many readers don’t realize authors expect them to make meaning of what is happening (and what might happen) based on clues in the text and their own experiences. When students use context clues to figure out what is happening, they are making inferences and drawing conclusions. Inferential thinking is a critical reading skill essential for comprehending both fiction and nonfiction. Strategic readers can draw conclusions and support these with evidence from the text, or from their own experiences.

Monitoring Understanding (Metacognition)

Metacognition is defined as “thinking about thinking,” and asks students to be active assessors of their own learning. According to the Center for Teaching (CFT) at Vanderbilt University, “Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner.” Rather than passively receiving instructions from a teacher, students can employ metacognitive approaches to identify which skills are challenging for them and how they might adjust their approach to become more successful. 

Reading Comprehension

The final pillar of literacy, reading comprehension, ties word recognition and language comprehension skills together. It marks the point at which students not only understand what they read, but can apply that understanding to other ideas and concepts. 

How To Improve Reading Comprehension Skills in Students

There are several approaches teachers can use in the classroom to accelerate literacy learning. These instructional strategies can help specifically build reading comprehension skills.

• Focus on vocabulary instruction. Teachers can reinforce vocabulary after finishing a read-aloud with activities and word play. For example, they could ask students to build a sentence using the newly introduced vocabulary words. Or, they could have students provide the vocabulary word that matches a specific picture. These activities target students’ receptive and expressive language skills.

• Model think-alouds while reading. Reading aloud is one of the initial ways teachers introduce reading skills to young children. However, older students also benefit from watching educators think aloud while reading. For instance, a teacher might read a challenging vocabulary word aloud, model stumbling across that word, and share their thought process. After brainstorming possibilities, they can then encourage students to look up the word’s meaning. 

• Make comprehension checks. Comprehension checks are short assessments that check student knowledge by asking them questions related to a text. In a whole-class setting, teachers can check in with students after they’ve read aloud or independently, asking them questions like, “Why do you think the main character was sad at the end of the story?” or “What is the first stage of a butterfly’s life cycle?” Teachers can also ask yes/no questions or have students think about their answers in small groups.

• Ask scaffolded questions. Scaffolding is the process of adding instructional supports for students to help them answer a question. Teachers can ask scaffolded questions to build reading comprehension, especially if students are having difficulty following a complex text. Teachers can introduce scaffolding before, during, and after reading. The Ohio Department of Education provides several examples of ways teachers can use scaffolding throughout reading instruction.

• Use engaging texts. “Engaging texts” are passages or books designed to capture and hold a reader’s attention and interest. These texts typically connect with students on an emotional or intellectual level by asking them to draw upon their personal experiences. Teachers can use read-alouds, small-group discussions, or digital tools to get students thinking about a conflict or main idea in a story. Teachers can ask learners to make predictions about what might happen next, or ask students to connect what a character might be experiencing with experiences in their own lives.

How Lexia Supports Reading Comprehension Development

Lexia® Core5® Reading is an Adaptive Blended Learning program for students in grades pre-K–5 that accelerates the development of literacy skills for students of all abilities, helping them make the critical shift from learning to read to reading to learn. The solution’s scope and sequence supports both foundational and advanced literacy skills, including reading comprehension.

The goal of the comprehension strand of Core5 is to develop students’ active reading skills, promote their language and knowledge development, and support their engagement with texts. 

• Early comprehension activities aim to build a student’s language comprehension skills and print awareness through listening activities and modeled readings. As students listen to stories, they learn about key literary features, such as title, main idea, and key details. This gives students a framework for future reading comprehension.

• Once students master word-reading skills, they learn to associate decodable words and phrases with pictures, reinforcing comprehension at the word level.  Students then learn about the components of a sentence by asking questions, such as “Who is the sentence about?” These activities encourage students to engage with language as they apply critical thinking skills.

• Each text is followed by questions and tasks designed to reinforce comprehension, allowing students and teachers to check for understanding. For example, students learn how to draw on evidence from the text to support their own conclusions, connect information across texts, and apply background knowledge in varied reading contexts. Students must consistently reflect on the meaning of what they are reading, and revisit previous texts to complete the activities.

While some students may struggle with all of the pillars of reading, not every student needs remediation in each strand. Core5 adapts to each student’s needs, allowing them to move to more challenging material once they’ve mastered a skill. Teachers are empowered to differentiate instruction for each student using data powered by Lexia’s Assessment Without Testing® technology. This keeps students engaged and allows them to move on when they’re ready.

When used with fidelity, Core5 has been proven to help students make significant learning gains. 

• More than 50% of students reached their end-of-year benchmark, regardless of their starting skill level, and almost 10% reached the benchmark for the next grade level. 

• Among students one grade behind, 41% closed the reading gap and reached their grade-level benchmark, while an additional 53% progressed to working on on-grade-level material by year’s end.

• Students who started two or more grades behind made exceptional strides, with 40% reducing their risk for reading failure by reaching grade-level skills, and 53% gaining two or more grade levels of skills in just one year.

Lexia® currently has more than 20 studies that have been published in independent, peer-reviewed journals and meet the standards of evidence required under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Independent review organizations have also reviewed Core5’s efficacy. Core5 received a “Strong” rating—the highest ranking available—from ESSA Tiers of Evidence, and the National Center on Intensive Interventions (NCII) reported positive effects favoring Lexia users instead of nonusers in all reviewed studies.

When students understand what they read, that’s when deeper learning occurs. Strengthen literacy outcomes with Lexia’s proven solutions for building reading comprehension skills.