7.3 Comprehension Strategies and Text Structures

Comprehension as a Structured Language Skill

Reading comprehension is not a single strategy called "trying harder." Within ALTA Domain 2, objectives 2.F.5–2.F.8 and 2.F.11 require CALT candidates to identify comprehension terminology, describe instructional techniques, demonstrate the progression of comprehension from words to sentences to paragraphs, identify common text structures, and explain the connection between oral reading fluency and comprehension.

This cluster sits on Scarborough's rope and the Simple View of Reading: once word recognition is underway, language comprehension—vocabulary, syntax, background knowledge, and verbal reasoning—determines how much meaning a reader can build. MSLE therapists therefore teach comprehension with the same explicitness they bring to phonics, while never assuming strategy work can replace decoding for students who still cannot read the words.

Quick frame: Comprehension grows from accurate word meanings → sentence propositions → paragraph/discourse models. Text structure and fluency are tools that make that climb efficient. If fluency is laborious, working memory is spent on word reading and meaning collapses.

Comprehension Terms You Must Identify (2.F.5)

Objective 2.F.5 expects fluent use of comprehension metalanguage. Know what each process is and what evidence looks like in student performance.

Exam items often contrast literal (explicitly stated) versus inferential comprehension. A student who answers only "right there" questions may need explicit inference instruction—not more independent silent reading.

Instructional Strategies and Metacognitive Techniques (2.F.6)

Objective 2.F.6 focuses on strategies that engage metacognition—thinking about one's own understanding—and other techniques for teaching comprehension.

Strategies with strong MSLE fit

1. KWL charts (Know / Want to know / Learned): Activate prior knowledge, set purpose, and consolidate after reading. Especially useful before informational text.
2. Graphic organizers: Story maps for narrative; Venn diagrams for compare/contrast; cause-effect chains; problem-solution frames. Organizers externalize structure so working memory is not overloaded.
3. Questioning ourselves while reading: Teach students to pause and ask Does this make sense? and What is the author saying here?
4. Annotating: Underlining key claims, starring evidence, writing margin gist notes—with scaffolds for students whose handwriting or spelling is weak (sticky notes, oral annotation first, partner scribe).
5. Reciprocal teaching roles: Predicting, questioning, clarifying, summarizing—rotated with heavy modeling before independence.
6. Think-alouds: Therapist models inference or repair in real time, then gradually releases responsibility.
7. Sentence-level comprehension drills: Paraphrase a complex sentence; identify who did what to whom; match pronouns to antecedents—bridging syntax (2.E) into comprehension.
8. Vocabulary pre-teaching and during-reading support: Front-load critical words, then revisit them in context (ties to 2.F.1/2.F.3).

Explicit gradual-release pattern

• I do: Therapist reads a short passage, thinks aloud an inference, and records it on an organizer.
• We do: Choral or partner reading with shared annotation and guided questions.
• You do: Student applies the same strategy on a controlled text at an appropriate readability level.

For students with dyslexia, controlled text matters: comprehension strategy lessons fail when the passage is packed with untaught decoding patterns. Choose or rewrite text so word recognition is manageable while language demands remain appropriately challenging.

Progression of Comprehension Skills: Words → Sentences → Paragraphs (2.F.7)

Objective 2.F.7 requires you to demonstrate that comprehension is hierarchical and cumulative.

Level 1 — Words

Readers must access accurate meanings for critical vocabulary (including morphology-based guesses for unfamiliar words). Without word meanings, higher processes have nothing to operate on. Therapy implication: never skip vocabulary for "strategy time."

Level 2 — Sentences

Readers integrate words into propositions using syntax: Who did what? When? Under what conditions? Complex sentences with relative clauses, passives, or multiple modifiers require the syntactic competencies from 2.E. A useful probe: ask the student to paraphrase one sentence at a time before discussing the whole paragraph.

Level 3 — Paragraphs and extended text

Readers link sentences into a coherent mental model: main idea, supporting details, referents across sentences (this result, these findings), and logical relations (cause, contrast, sequence). Summarizing and analyzing live primarily at this level.

Clinical progression example

Passage topic: a short informational paragraph about pollination.

1. Pre-teach pollen, transfer, nectar.
2. Read sentence 1; student retells in own words.
3. Read sentence 2; identify causal link signaled by because.
4. Complete a cause-effect organizer for the paragraph.
5. Produce a two-sentence oral summary, then write it with a frame.

Skipping straight from decoding practice to open-ended "What's the main idea of the chapter?" questions leaves intermediate levels unsupported—especially for language-impaired students.

Text Structures (2.F.8)

Text structure is the organizational pattern authors use to arrange ideas. Objective 2.F.8 asks you to identify structures such as chronological/sequence, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and description. Teaching structure improves both comprehension and written expression (written genres deepen further in 2.G).

How to teach structure explicitly

• Preview: "This article will compare two habitats—listen for contrast words."
• During reading: Highlight signal words in one color; record ideas on the matching organizer.
• After reading: Retell using the structure's frame (Both… / But… / So…).
• Transfer to writing: Student composes a paragraph that follows the same structure with a frame, then with fading support.

Students with language disabilities often miss signal words and treat every text as a loose list of facts. Making structure visible is a high-leverage intervention that also supports summarizing (2.F.5).

Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension (2.F.11)

Objective 2.F.11 addresses the connection between oral reading fluency and comprehension. Fluency is typically described as accuracy, rate, and prosody. When word reading is slow or inaccurate:

• Working memory is consumed by decoding
• Fewer cognitive resources remain for inference, monitoring, and integration
• Prosody suffers, so phrasing no longer reflects syntactic units
• Comprehension—and motivation—decline

Conversely, fluency without language comprehension still fails (a student can read quickly and understand little). The CALT must hold both truths:

1. Improve decoding and automaticity so fluency can develop (links to 2.B and Domain 5 automaticity objectives).
2. Build language comprehension (vocabulary, syntax, strategies, background knowledge) so fluent reading yields meaning.

Therapy implications

• Use repeated reading, echo reading, and phrased reading on controlled text to build fluency and point out punctuation/prosody cues from 2.E.3.
• Check comprehension after fluency practice; do not assume speed equals understanding.
• If a student reads accurately but slowly, target automaticity; if the student is fast but inaccurate, prioritize accuracy first.
• If fluency measures look adequate yet comprehension is weak, investigate semantics, syntax, background knowledge, and pragmatic/inferential skills rather than adding more speed drills alone.

Integrating 2.F Comprehension Objectives in Assessment Thinking

When reviewing a student's profile:

• Weak word reading + weak comprehension → prioritize structured literacy for decoding while keeping oral language rich through read-alouds.
• Adequate word reading + weak comprehension → emphasize vocabulary, syntax, strategies, and text structure (this section's heart).
• Adequate silent comprehension but weak oral reading fluency → address automaticity and prosody; confirm anxiety or performance factors.
• Strong literal answers, weak inferential answers → teach inference routines with think-alouds and text-clue evidence.

On the ALTA exam, choose answers that keep comprehension language-based, explicit, and cumulative, and that recognize fluency as a bridge—not a substitute—for meaning.