Reading and Reading comprehension

It is important to clarify that when we are talking about construction of meaning

we are talking about reading comprehension. In relation to this more specific term

Rudell, defines reading comprehension as “a process in which the reader

constructs meaning while, or after, interacting with text through the combination of

prior knowledge and previous experience, information in text, the stance he or she

takes in relationship to the text, and immediate remembered or anticipated social

interactions and communication” (Rudell, 1993, p.) in addition Goodman also

states that, comprehending is “the process of making sense of written language”

comprehension “is the resulting meaning” (Goodman, 1996, p109). Thus, when I

am saying that this research experience was made with the purpose of getting

more understanding on students’ reading comprehension processes to identify

what was causing their poor performance at reading tasks, I am saying that I

wanted to understand better my students’ processes when making sense of

different kind of texts, to ameliorate their resulting meanings (performance at

comprehension tasks).

I consider that the clearer it is for teachers the process students go through

when building meaning, the easiest it will be for them to implement reading

instructional practices that promotes autonomous readers. The teacher does not

need advice, but understanding of the particular children they have, what they are

finding easy and difficult, and understanding of reading and how children must

learn to read Smith (1997). In this train of thought, Peña (2009) supports these

statements with her study on the understanding of the process of construction of

meaning of her 42 eight graders at a public school in Bogotá, Colombia.

As she considers reading as a powerful Socio – Cultural and intellectual

activity, her study addressed the question how do readers construct meaning of

written texts when working in small groups? Considering the large classes that

public teachers must handle at public schools (42 students), group work is a good

strategy used for teachers to master the class. Hence, she observed students

interactions during group reading tasks, she gathered data through audio

recordings, conferences and field notes and she described the way how students

build meaning through their interaction among them and with the texts. Therefore,

it is observable how the process of construction of meaning is not the same for all

of the settings and it is mandatory for teacher then, to start by understanding how it

works for their particular students. The results of the study showed that meaning

does not only depend on the reader and the text but also the interactions among

individuals and their context. Peña concluded that the construction of meaning is a

social phenomenon rather than an individual mental exercise and that students’

background plays a very important role that can take readers to work on various

draft meanings before they come up with a final version.

Furthermore, Peña’s study based on her particular group of students invites us

to integrate speaking tasks to support pupils in their reading comprehension

process, and advises us also to build meaning using students’ lifestyles’, nets and

contexts, raising their cultural awareness contrasting theirs with others. Although,

findings are relevant mainly in context like hers, we could use them as a way to

explore and find what work for our students in terms of reading comprehension.

Something that calls my attention also from her research experience was her

assertion that “We urge a renewed conception of reading for the reader not for the

tester. We need to generate reading environments that contribute to individual and

social growth” (Peña, 2009, p.23). In schools, sometimes we give too much

importance to students’ results and scores, but in the long run what matters is what

we can help students achieve by themselves towards understanding, rather than

giving them a temporary training with short term results. Moreover if students are

actively involved in teachers’ interventions, we may see improvement on

performance as a partial consequence of it.

As I mention before, I read several studies in the field of reading and reading

comprehension to clarify my thoughts about my specific group of third graders. I

found among some others, another very useful study. This time, and with the

purpose of providing insights into the specific nature of the literacy practices, the

texts used and the particular ways in which the teachers and learners made sense

of these texts, Valencia (2006) examined how the students in two public secondary

schools in Colombia were learning to read in English and what the teaches

understand by doing “reading” and ‘”reading comprehension”.

The researcher observed and audio recorded four English lessons with tenth

graders in the first public school, and eighth graders in the second one. She also

conducted some semi structured interviews with the teachers and the schools’

coordinators. Valencia found that reading in these literacy practices were activities

focused on vocabulary, translation and grammar. Students learnt to read words

and phrases identifying grammar structures and translating lexical items. Even

academic coordinators considered that students needed to develop this skill for

instrumental purposes in higher education, and especially for passing the ICFES

exam. Due to the fact that in public schools students cannot afford books teachers

adapted texts from North American publications for students and then they gave

them photocopies. The relevance of this study is the conclusion the researcher

came at. She stated that the implementation of more pedagogical innovations in

public schools was necessary and also that teachers should be provided with

opportunities to reflect on the immediate teaching / learning context in their schools

and on their relation with the wider policy context.

Once more we can see, how important it is to observe and find out which are

our students’ needs to plan accordingly. Teachers in these two schools based

reading practices on vocabulary and grammar issues rather than on students’

construction of meaning. They were focused on the ICFES exam but they were not

training students to make sense of the texts beyond recognizing vocabulary and

grammar structures. Unfortunately the study does not show how students were

building meaning through translation, vocabulary and grammar and it did not show

any intervention done afterwards either.

As I been mentioning understanding on where our students are at in regards

reading comprehension should help teachers to modify and implement teaching

practices that support and guide students to overcome their lacks in learning.

Otherwise, this new understanding would not have any purpose. This help or

support offered by the teacher to assists students in their learning process is

known in teaching as scaffolding.