IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION
READING
The process of getting the meaning from
the book and bringing meaning into it.
Knowing the author’s viewpoint and
merging this with the reader’s point of view
to make the whole reading material
understandable.
 Bottom-up Processing
- The process of forming meaning about the
text
 Top-down Processing
- If the reader must first use his prior
knowledge or background experiences to
understand the author’s viewpoint
- This is also called schema reading
 Schemata
- All knowledge the reader has stocked or
stored in his memory since the time he was
conceived.
- An abstract representation of this old
knowledge in his mind is called schema
 It is believed that the reader has schematic
representations of people, things, places,
events, animals, and occasions in his mind.
When he reads, he recalls or activates these
schemata or stored knowledge. An
understanding of the reading materials will
result if the reader has the schemata that
matches the information in the text.
 Therefore, to understand the printed
symbols in the book, the reader has to bring
his wealth of vivid concepts into the pages
of the book.
 Concept
- The condensed form of experience that
takes a definite form in one’s mind.
 Comprehension
- The process of constructing meaning with
the use of some clues in the text and of the
schemata or background knowledge of the
reader about the text
 Since the reader always consults his
schemata to understand the text, he can
say that this is one strong indicator of his
reading ability. It is logical therefore to state
that poor schemata result in poor reading
ability.
2 Psychological Processes of Reading
1. Perception
2. Sensation
- Awareness of something due to the
stimulation of the sense organs.
- When one reads, he makes the eye
movements of stopping or fixation of the
eyes, interfixation or stopping of the eyes
from one point to another, return sweep or
sweeping of the eyes from the end of the
line to the beginning of the next line; and
regression or backward or right to left
movement in a reverse direction.
In understanding the text, the reader goes
through these levels of thinking:
Level 1 – Literal Comprehension
The ideas and meanings formed by the
reader at this level are directly stated in the
selection. These ideas are elicited by questions
beginning with What, When, Where, Who, Which.
Level 2 – Interpretative Comprehension
The reader forms ideas or meanings
indirectly or implicitly stated in the selection.
Unlike the first level, these ideas cannot be
pinpointed in the text, because these are merely
his inferences or guesses about the selection. But
the kind of inferences he makes reveals the quality
of interpretation he has about the text. The ideas
he forms in this level are usually elicited by
questions beginning with Why and How.
Level 3 – Critical Analysis or Critical Evaluation
This level requires the reader to evaluate or
weigh the facts, events, character’s viewpoints,
then make judgments about the worth of these
and the effectiveness of the way they are
presented in the selection.
Level 4 – Application and Reaction
This refers to the integration of ideas with
previous experiences so that new insights and
understanding may result. This level is also called
“reading beyond the lines,” because the meanings
or ideas derived from the story are to be practiced
or incorporated in real-life situations.
Level 5 – Creative Thinking
This is the highest level of understanding.
Through this he creates new ideas or new ways of
expression with the use of whatever understanding
he got of the text.
3 Higher Levels of Comprehension
1. Inferential or Interpretative Comprehension
- Occurs when the reader tries to understand
the text by linking this with this personal
knowledge or previous experiences.
2. Critical Comprehension
- Let’s the student comprehend the selection
by making him analyse, compare and
contrast people, ideas, things about the
selection with the help of his schemata or
stock knowledge so that he can form
judgments or decisions on the soundness,
truthfulness, fitness or significance of
persons and things in the text.
3. Creative Thinking
- Requires the reader to produce or invent
something new based on his understanding
of the material.
IMPORTANCE OF CRITICAL AND CREATIVE
THINKING
 Critical
- Comes from the Greek term krinein
meaning to judge or to listen.
- The reader criticizes a reading material by
forming a judgment or evaluation about it.
 In the student’s early life, he encountered
authority figures who handed him myths,
values, and folk wisdom, which he totally
believed and made a part of his life. He has
to evaluate or judge which of these are
applicable for his here-and-now kind of life.
If he does not think critically, he will not
make any attempt to “change social
structures or to press for collective social
actions”.
 Creative reading
- A kind of reading that requires the reader to
produce new ideas, new insights, and new
products through the extensive use of his
imagination, flow of ideas, ability to see
relationships between his own peculiar
background experiences and his reading
activities, and ability to determine direct
and indirect comparison.
 He learns to judge or evaluate what he
reads by the use of his skills of comparison
and synthesis – comparison to see the
relationships among the parts of a
paragraph, to know the connections
between cause and effect, and to establish
relationships among time, space, and place.
 With the use of the knowledge he derives
from these learning skills, he creates his
own interpretations, his own combinations,
his own anticipation of the outcome, or his
own synthesis of ideas.
 Creative reading helps the reader develop
his own taste in literature. In other words, it
gives him the power to discriminate and
appreciate the different forms of literature,
such as short stories, essays, plays, poetry,
among others.
Ways to Appreciate a Literary Piece:
1. Interpreting the story orally
- Chamber theatre, speech choir, jazz chant,
readers’ theatre, storytelling, dramatic
reading, dramatic monologue.
2. Dramatizing the selection
- Pantomiming, role playing, staging a play
3. Writing something about the selection
- Writing poems or stories about the play or
story, writing a sequel to the selection,
writing the ending of the story
4. Presenting the selection through graphics
- Drawing, colouring, painting, sketching, cut-
outs, folding, handicrafts
KINDS OF READING
1. Skimming
- The easiest and fastest kind of reading
- If a reader skims the reading material, he
just reads the sign posts or clues in the
selection such as the headings and the topic
sentences.
- As he passes over the text swiftly to get an
overview of the selection, he skips those
that are not interesting to him.
2. Scanning
- When the reader’s purpose is to locate a
particular information in the text, he resorts
to this kind of reading
- He does this by browsing over the pages
and giving a quick look over them
- To find the target of his eyes easily, he must
first identify the key words or important
phrases related to this particular
information
3. Idea Reading
- This is to get the main idea of the material
- This involves 3 psychological processes –
Sensation, Perception, and Comprehension.
- Sensation & perception occur almost
simultaneously, so idea reading means
making quick decisions regarding the
significance of the clues in the selection,
and this happens only if the reader rapidly
associates these new clues with his past
knowledge.
4. Exploratory Reading
- This is done when the reader wants to know
how the whole selection is presented.
- Examples are: essays, long articles in
magazines, and short stories.
5. Analytic Reading
- A careful examination of each work to
identify word relationship
- This kind of reading is most needed in
activities that require a lot of inquisitive
thinking like reading mathematical
theorems and scientific formulae.
6. Critical Reading
- This makes the reader weigh facts,
information, or ideas presented in the
selection, so that he, too, can form
judgments or conclusions about them.
7. Narcotic Reading
- This is done by a person who wants to get
rid of his everyday troubles, depressions,
frustrations, problems, through reading
magazines, stories, novels, essays and
others.
- He considers the reading materials as
having a narcotic effect like a drug or opium
that dulls the senses and makes one
unconscious or unaware of realities in life
8. Extensive Reading
- If the reader spends his leisure time by
reading any kind of material that is
interesting to him
9. Intensive Reading
- Doing serious reading of books, periodicals,
and other library materials for research
work or a report
10. Developmental Reading
a. Reading readiness in the nursery and
kindergarten level
b. Beginning reading in Grades 1 and 2
c. Rapid growth in Grades 3 and 4
d. Refinement and wide reading in
intermediate, high school, and tertiary level
PATHWAYS TO BETTER READING
1. Know the Essentials of Reading
- To know the essentials of reading, one must
know the tangible and intangible factors
affecting reading:
A. TANGIBLE FACTORS
a. Good eyesight, good hearing, and good
general health
b. Physical Environment – proper lighting,
ventilation, quiet room, comfortable
furniture
c. Legibility, format, and readability of the
material
C. Current Events – 20%
(Magazines, newspapers for general
information)
D. Spiritual Readings – 10%
(Religious books, pamphlets, and hand-outs
for moral and spiritual upliftment)
A schedule of reading for one hour (60
minutes) may be distributed this way:
30 minutes – academic reading
12 minutes – recreational reading
12 minutes – periodical reading
6 minutes – spiritual reading
This schedule, depending on the amount of
time one spends in reading, is flexible. The best
reading diet however, is one that requires a person
to read good reading materials for 15 minutes
daily.

B. INTANGIBLE FACTORS
a. Proper frame of mind – positive thinking
b. Will to learn from one’s reading – self-
motivation, self-discipline, self-
confidence, clear purpose, and
concentration

2. Learn to Read a Difficult Book

- To learn to read a difficult reading material
is to concentrate on getting the main core
or idea of the author, not on every difficult
expression one encounters in his reading
act
- He must go on reading continuously
without giving much attention to the
unfamiliar or difficult words in the book.

3. Maintain a Reading Diet

- A good reading diet must consist of the
following:
A. Academic or Professional Readings – 50 %
(School texts, periodicals, and journals for
academic fulfilment)
B. Recreational Readings – 20 %
(Fiction or nonfiction for personal
enjoyment)
 EXERCISES
EXERCISE 1
Direction: Identify the word or phrase referred to EXERCISE 3
by the following words. To challenge yourself, do Direction: Compare and contrast the following:
not look back at the previous pages.
1. Bottom-up processing vs. top-down
_______1. The lowest level of comprehension processing
_______2. The cause of eye movement during the __________________________________________
reading act
__________________________________________
_______3. One factor that determines flexibility of
schedule __________________________________________
_______4. One cause of poor decoding or __________________________________________
comprehension __________________________________________
_______5. A kind of reading done during leisure
time 2. Schema vs. Schemata
_______6. The best reading diet __________________________________________
_______7. Amount of time spent for periodical
__________________________________________
readings
_______8. Amount of time spent for academic __________________________________________
readings __________________________________________
_______9. A kind of reading that involves several __________________________________________
stages
_______10. Becoming aware of something 3. Scanning vs. skimming
_______11. Giving meaning to what you have __________________________________________
experienced
__________________________________________
_______12. A part of the eye first hit by the light
from printed matter __________________________________________
_______13. Reading that requires production of __________________________________________
new ideas and new methods of __________________________________________
expression
_______14. The fastest kind of reading 4. Critical Reading vs. Creative Reading
_______15. A reading that has an effect similar to __________________________________________
drugs
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
EXERCISE 2 __________________________________________
Direction: Number these words according to their
order of occurrence in the reading process.
5. New knowledge vs. old knowledge
____ Cerebral cortex ____ Chemical changes __________________________________________
____ Optic nerves ____ Eye movements __________________________________________
____ Perception ____ Midbrain __________________________________________
____ Schemata ____ Impulses __________________________________________
____ Nerve currents ____ Light __________________________________________
 EXERCISE 4
Direction: Answer each question concisely.
1. What makes one understand the material
he is reading?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
2. How long does the schemata been in the
reader’s brain?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
3. How does one improve or increase his
schemata?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
4. Why should a person aspire to enrich his
schemata?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
5. Is schemata an indicator of intelligence?
Why? Why not?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
6. Should critical thinking be stressed in the
college level? Reason out.
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
7. Is it right to concentrate the development
of higher levels of thinking only in college?
Prove your answer.
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
8. Do you agree that there will be no
perception if there is no sensation? Reason
out.
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
9. Should lower levels of thinking always
precede higher levels of thinking? Why?
Why not?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
10. How can you become an intelligent reader?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
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