CALT Reading Comprehension 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: According to the Simple View of Reading, reading comprehension is the product of:
- Phonological awareness plus vocabulary
- Decoding multiplied by language comprehension (Correct answer)
- Fluency plus background knowledge
- Phonics instruction plus reading practice
Correct answer: Decoding multiplied by language comprehension
The Simple View of Reading proposes that Reading Comprehension equals Decoding multiplied by Language Comprehension, meaning both components are necessary for proficient reading.
The Simple View of Reading proposed by Gough and Tunmer in 1986 states that Reading Comprehension equals Decoding multiplied by Language Comprehension. This multiplicative relationship means that if either component is zero, reading comprehension is zero. Students with dyslexia typically have strong language comprehension but weak decoding. The Simple View has strong empirical support and guides assessment and intervention planning.
Question 2: A student who can decode words accurately but cannot understand what they read most likely has a deficit in:
- Phonological processing
- Language comprehension (Correct answer)
- Fluency
- Phonemic awareness
Correct answer: Language comprehension
When decoding is adequate but comprehension fails, the deficit lies in the language comprehension component, which may involve vocabulary, background knowledge, inference-making, or text structure knowledge.
According to the Simple View of Reading, a student with accurate decoding but poor comprehension has a specific weakness in the language comprehension component. This may involve limited vocabulary, poor background knowledge, weak inference skills, or oral language comprehension deficits. This profile requires instruction focused on language comprehension strategies rather than phonics.
Question 3: Reciprocal teaching involves students taking turns leading discussions using four strategies: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and:
- Visualizing
- Predicting (Correct answer)
- Evaluating
- Connecting
Correct answer: Predicting
The four strategies of reciprocal teaching are summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting, which is a collaborative comprehension strategy with strong research support.
Reciprocal Teaching developed by Palincsar and Brown in 1984 is a collaborative reading comprehension instructional strategy in which students and teacher take turns leading dialogue using four comprehension strategies: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. This approach has strong research support for improving reading comprehension in struggling readers.
Question 4: For students with dyslexia who struggle with reading fluency, reading comprehension can be supported by:
- Requiring the student to read silently only
- Using audiobooks and text-to-speech tools to bypass decoding demands while building comprehension (Correct answer)
- Eliminating all comprehension instruction until fluency is mastered
- Reducing vocabulary instruction
Correct answer: Using audiobooks and text-to-speech tools to bypass decoding demands while building comprehension
Providing audio support removes the bottleneck of slow decoding so the student can access and build language comprehension skills while fluency develops through separate interventions.
Students with dyslexia often have strong language comprehension but are limited by slow, effortful decoding that drains working memory. Providing audiobooks or text-to-speech tools allows these students to access grade-level content, build vocabulary and background knowledge, and develop comprehension strategies without the bottleneck of decoding.
Question 5: The strategy of text structure awareness helps readers comprehend informational text by:
- Memorizing the table of contents
- Identifying the organizational pattern such as compare-contrast or cause-effect to predict content organization (Correct answer)
- Reading only the first and last paragraphs
- Skipping subheadings
Correct answer: Identifying the organizational pattern such as compare-contrast or cause-effect to predict content organization
Teaching students to recognize common informational text structures helps them predict how information is organized and use that framework to improve recall and comprehension.
Informational texts follow predictable organizational patterns: description, sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect, and problem-solution. When students learn to identify these structures and use signal words, they can better predict how information will be presented and recall information more effectively. Text structure instruction is a research-based comprehension strategy particularly beneficial for students with language-based learning disabilities.
Question 6: Building background knowledge before reading a text primarily supports comprehension by:
- Making the text easier to decode
- Providing the conceptual and vocabulary foundation needed to construct meaning from the text (Correct answer)
- Reducing reading time
- Eliminating the need for decoding skills
Correct answer: Providing the conceptual and vocabulary foundation needed to construct meaning from the text
Background knowledge provides the conceptual schema and vocabulary context needed to make inferences, connect ideas, and construct meaning from text.
Background knowledge is a powerful predictor of reading comprehension because it provides the conceptual schema into which new information can be integrated, enables faster vocabulary acquisition, and supports inference-making. Research demonstrates that knowledge gaps are a major driver of the reading comprehension gap. Pre-teaching key vocabulary and concepts before reading significantly improves comprehension.
CALT Reading Comprehension 2
According to the Simple View of Reading, reading comprehension is the product of: