Reading Comprehension Strategies: How to Activate

Background Knowledge

Presented By:

Tri Ilma Septiana

What is Comprehension?

• Literally, based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2001:369) the meaning of comprehension can be defined as “the ability to understand something”.

• Tierney (1990) pointed out that comprehension as a creative or complex process in which children engage with and think about the text.

• Judith Irwin (1991) defined comprehension as a reader’s process of using “prior knowledge” experience and the author’s text to construct meaning that’s useful to that reader for a specific purpose.

• Successful reading the Reader & the Text.

What Is Comprehension Strategies?

• Comprehension strategies are thoughtful behaviors that readers use to facilitate their understanding. (Afflerbach, Pearson & Paris, 2008).

• Readers apply these strategies to deepen their understanding, determine whether they’re comprehending successfully, and solve problems as they arise.

• Some comprehension strategies are as follows: Activating background

knowledgePredicting

Connecting Questioning

Determining importance Repairing

Drawing Inference Setting a purpose

Evaluating Summarizing

Monitoring Visualizing

The significance of activating background knowledge

• Gail E. Tompkins (2011:202) emphasized that while reading, reader must activate background knowledge and think about what they’re reading; they apply cognitive and metacognitive strategies.

• Van Den Broek & Kremer (2000) also stressed that the comprehension process is started when readers activate their background knowledge and it develops as they read aloud or listen and then respond to it. Readers construct a “mental picture” or representation of the text through the comprehension text.

How to activate background knowledge?

• Background knowledge is influenced by reader world knowledge and literary knowledge.

Football

• World knowledge includes “World Cup”, “Sport Industry”, “Ball”, “Scored”, “Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi”, and “Fanatic Supporter”.

• Literary knowledge includes knowing the rule of football (2 x 45 minutes, 11 players) and recognize some technical term of football (free kick, penalty, handball, goal, and offside).

Reading Activities• To activate background knowledge while reading, readers can

create K-W-L chart. Through these activities, readers thinks about the topic before they begin reading, use vocabulary related to the topic, call up relevant information, and get interested in reading text.

• The example of KWL chart:

Name: …………………………………….. Date:………………………………………

Topic: ………………………………………………………………….………………….

What I Know What I Wonder What I Learned

K W L

PROCEDURE OF K-W-L 1. Create a K-W-L chart. Readers create a large chart which consists of

three columns on carton or whiteboard and label every column with K for “What I Know”, W for “What I Wonder”, and L for “What I learned”.

2. Complete the K column. At the first time, readers can stimulate their prior knowledge by writing some information relate to the topic before reading. Readers can write everything they know about the topic.

3. Complete the W column. In the middle column, readers can write some questions that they wonder to find out from the text. By asking some questions before they read a text also support their comprehension.

4. Complete the L column. At the end, readers reflects on what they have learned, and record all information In the L column. Furthermore, to obtain deeper comprehension, a reader can share and discuss his/her chart with another readers.

Example of K-W-L

Name: Tri Ilma Date: March 6, 2014.

Topic: OWL

What I Know What I Wonder What I Learned

Nocturnal Big eyes Fly, have wings Eat mice or snake Symbol of

education Trendy in girl’s

fashion (i.e. bag jewelry, ring and necklets)

Where do owl live? Do owls have

families? Can owl really carry

the mails? Do owl eat mice or

snake? How do they see in

the dark?

Owl live everywhere except Antarctica and Greenland.

A group of owl is known as “Parliament”.

Eat their prey whole, and the poo out what they can’t digest (i.e. bones & fur) as pellets.

They use echo to communicate and eat mammals but some also eat insects or fish.

K W L