TEACHING & ASSESSING TOPIC 1

READING LITERACY Theoretical Models of Reading

LEARNER’S GUIDE

THE NATURE AND PROCESS OF READING: THE BEHAVIORIST VIEW

Text on the Slide Notes
At the end of the session, you should be able to:
• Use key concepts and details of the traditional, cognitive, and
metacognitive views of reading to analyze and reflect on how
the processes of reading affect their interpretation of the text
• examine one’s approach to teaching reading both in the
classroom and the online modality of learning

The Nature and Process of Reading: The Behaviorist View

Behaviorist psychology
• This school of thought posited that reading is an act of “habit
formation,” where there is a repeated association of a stimulus
with a response, and that response system of humans can be
acquired through automatic conditioning process
• Sensory capabilities are considered important in the traditional
view.
• Perception comes through letter and word recognition
processes.

Reading is initiated by the visual stimulus, the text. Reading is viewed

to be a sequential process (i.e. grapho-phonemic, phonemic, syllabic,
morphemic, word, and sentence levels) where the basics of phonics
and decoding must be mastered first.
 Text on the Slide Notes
• Intensive practice, drills, rote learning are strategies that
bottom-up approach consider to be effective in the reading
process.
• Word recognition is attained through constant oral practice.

• Bottom-Up theorists include Rudolph Flesch (1955, developed

the Flesch - Kincaid Readability Statistics)
• Philip B. Gough (1985, advocated the simple view of reading)
• David LaBerge and Jay Samuels (advocated the automatic
information process and fluency in reading).

Application in the classroom

• Enhancing decoding skills
• Read Alout
• Grammatical rules

THE NATURE AND PROCESS OF READING: THE COGNITIVE VIEW

Text on the Slide Notes
The Nature and Process of Reading: Cognitive View
• Top-Down approach in reading
• Reader is active
• “Top” is represented by the reader, and the “down” is
represented by the text.
• Comprehension is not dictated by the text rather through a
systematic web of knowledge by the readers.

• Reading is a “psycholinguistic guessing game.” Goodman (1971)

• Psycho
• Linguistic
• Guessing
• game

• The cognitive psychology, which started from the publication of

Miller’s “Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two” in 1959, is
said to have opened a new era in reading (Samuels, 2006).
• Frank Smith - Informational Processing, Short Term Memory,
Long Term Memory

TOPIC 1: Theoretical Models of Reading Page 2 of 9

 Text on the Slide Notes
Mental representation
• This mental representation is incessantly adjusting as the
readers continue their journey in reading.
• to connect one part of the text to other parts of the text and to
the reader’s background knowledge
• Automatic

Classroom application
• Determining the genre of the text first
• Previewing a text by skimming and ask where the story takes
place
• Encouraging the students to create a mental image

THE NATURE AND PROCESS OF READING: THE METACOGNITIVE VIEW

Text on the Slide Notes
The Nature and Process of Reading: Metacognitive View
• Paradigm shift
• Metacognition refers to how readers think about their own
thinking
• Attention is now drawn to how skilled readers think and how
they control and monitor tneir way of thinking
• It emphasizes the strategies used by successful readers such as
planning, monitoring, and evaluating

Reading comprehension is a complex and multifaceted ability that

involves the reader’s orchestration of a number of skills and strategies
when thoughtfully and critically interacting with written text (Van
Kraayenoord, 2010).

• Flavell coined the term metacognition stating that it is the

“cognition about cognitive phenomena” (Flavell, 1979, p. 906).
• Metacognition has two dimensions: (a) metacognitive
knowledge and (b) metacognitive regulation.

Metacognitive knowledge is defined readers’ ability to know about

their own cognitive processes, and its subcomponents are declarative,
procedural, and conditional knowledge.
• Declarative knowledge is factual knowledge (“knowing what”).
• Procedural knowledge is “knowing how,”
• Conditional knowledge is “knowing when and why” to
apply declarative and procedural knowledge.

TOPIC 1: Theoretical Models of Reading Page 3 of 9

 Text on the Slide Notes
Metacognitive regulation refers to the authentic events in which the
readers engage to facilitate learning and memory, and it is broken
down into component activities of planning, monitoring, and
evaluating.

Classroom application
• Strategy training
• Teachers as facilitators of learning
• Techniques like mnemonics, image mnemonics, thinking
journals, think aloud, reflective questions, note-taking on the
margins of the page, and highlighting lines and passages while
reading

CONSTRUCTION-INTEGRATION
Text on the Slide Notes
At the end of the session, you should be able to:
• apply the theory of Construction-Integration (C-I) in the
teaching of reading and in determining the levels of
comprehension (i.e., literal, inferential, evaluative, critical);
• determine the author’s purpose, draw inferences from the
text;
• determine text structure;
• write questions that reflect literal, inferential, evaluative, and
critical questions; and
• write a reflection paper on how they can integrate the theory
with their lessons on reading.

CONSTRUCTION-INTEGRATION
Hybrid model describes the interplay between top-down and
bottom-up processes in comprehension. Word meanings are
stimulated, propositions are formed, and inferences and
elaborations are produced without regard to the discourse context.
However, a network of interconnected items is created in this
manner, which can be incorporated into a coherent structure
through a spreading activation process (Kintsch, 1988).

TWO PROCESSES ARE IMPORTANT IN UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT.

Construction and Integration

TOPIC 1: Theoretical Models of Reading Page 4 of 9

 Text on the Slide Notes
CONSTRUCTION
Micro Textbase (Level 1)
Construction phase involves lower-level processes such as prior
knowledge and experiences, retrieving words meanings, examining
the surface and grammatical structure of the printed text

Taken from Reutzel (2014) Why theoretical knowledge is important

INTEGRATION
Situation Model (Level 1)
People create a mental representation of what the text is about in
terms of people, objects, locati ons, and events

MERGING (LEVEL 2)
merging text with word knowledge
new knowledge with old knowledge

TOPIC 1: Theoretical Models of Reading Page 5 of 9

LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION PROCESSES
Text on the Slide Notes
CI invokes more sophisticated comprehension instruction to
address multiple
LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION PROCESSES.

Levels of Comprehension:
Literal, Inferential, Evaluative, Critical

LITERAL LEVEL
Retrieval of information as related by the author.
The skills needed for this level are noting factual data, sequence,
chronology, and enumeration.
The abilities which refer to the literal level are :
• Knowledge of word meanings.
• Recalling of ideas directly stated or paraphrased in own word
• Understanding of grammatical clue subject, verb, pronoun,
conjunction and so forth.
• Recalling of main idea explicitly stated.
• Knowledge of sequence of information presented in the text.

Examples of A question to lead you to determine the literal

information of the text:
What is the name of the text?
What is the name of the main character?
Where did the main character live?
Name the brother of x character?

INFERENTIAL LEVEL
The reader in this level can explain what the text means: the
meaning is drawn from the literally stated ideas.
Readers derive meaning by
• identifying implicit relationships (relationships not directly
stated) such as cause and effect, sequence-time relationships,
comparisons, classifications, and generalizations
• predicting probable future outcomes or actions
• inferring an author’s unstated meaning by drawing conclusions
based on specific facts, events, images, patterns or symbols
found in selected readings
• inferring the main idea of a selection when it is not explicitly
stated
• identifying unstated reasons for actions or beliefs based on
explicitly stated information (clues)

TOPIC 1: Theoretical Models of Reading Page 6 of 9

 Text on the Slide Notes
Retrieved from https://mtsac.instructure.com/courses/56468/pages/levels-of-
comprehension

Examples of a question to lead you to infer:

How did… feel?
Why did ... act that way?”
What was the main idea…..?
How would you explain…?
What do you think could have happened next…?
Explain why the characters acted in the way that they did…
What do you think………………….means?
How would the story have changed if………?
What were the motives behind……?

EVALUATIVE LEVEL
At this level, the reader can now understand ideas and/or information
well enough to analyze, judge and critique information and ideas.
The reader can:
• judge whether the information used by the author to support
a conclusion is accurate and/or credible and explain why
he/she believes this is so
• evaluate between conclusions that are based on facts and
those that are based on opinions and prove why he/she
believes this is so
• decide on a stance on issues and situations and
argue/prove/justify why his/her stance is correct
Examples of a question to lead you to evaluate:
Suggest a better reason for…..
What is your opinion of……?
Do you think ---- is a good or bad thing….
What changes would you recommend…why?
Judge the value of….. why do you think this?
How would you feel if…..?
How effective are…?
How did you feel about…..?
What would you have done in that situation?
Do you agree with the character’s behaviour in a particular situation?
What is the text trying to make you believe/think?

CRITICAL LEVEL
At this level, the readers learn to evaluate and judge the information
and the writer’s use of language for guiding the reader’s
interpretation; noting evidence of the writer’s bias, his qualifications,
his point of view, intent and truthfulness.
The abilities which refer to the critical level are:
• Reacting to information in a text indicating its meaning to the
reader.
• Analyzing and evaluating the quality of written information in
terms of some standards.

TOPIC 1: Theoretical Models of Reading Page 7 of 9

 Text on the Slide Notes
Examples of a question to lead you to critique:
Did the author tell a good story - why or why not?
Did the author use descriptive words? or plain flat language?
Did they make you SEE the scenes they wrote in your mind because
they were so descriptive?
Has the author shown any prejudices or made any assumptions
about………..?
Do you agree with the author’s point of view on a particular topic?
What kind of person wrote this text?
Why would the author write this particular

Required Exercises:
• Worksheet 1: Processes of Reading
• Worksheet 2: Theories of Reading
• Worksheet 3: Writing Literal, Inferential, Evaluative, and Critical
Questions
• Worksheet 4: Reflection paper
Optional Exercises
• Worksheet 5: Determining author's main purpose
• Worksheet 6: Making inferences

List of Learning Materials

1. Learner’s Guide (LG)
2. Required exercises:
2.1 Worksheet 1: Processes of Reading
2.2 Worksheet 2: Theories of Reading
2.3 Worksheet 3: Writing Literal, Inferential, Evaluative, and Critical Questions
2.4 Worksheet 4: Reflection paper
3. Optional Exercises
3.1 Worksheet 5: Determining author's main purpose
3.2 Worksheet 6: Making inferences
4. Recorded video lectures
3.1 01_Behaviorist View
3.2 02_Cognitive View
3.3 03_MetacogntiveView
3.4 04_Construction-Integration Model
3.5 05_Levels of Comprehension Processes
5. Transcription of video lectures

References
Anderson, R. (1994). “Role of the reader’s schema in comprehension, learning, and memory.” In Ruddell, Ruddell, and
Singer 1994, 469–82.
Anderson, D. (2005). What is reading? What is the best way to teach reading? Retrieved from
https://colombianmythsandlegends.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/8/3/12838633/reading_literacy.pdf on January 15,
2021.
Bao, L. & Redish, E. F. (2006). Model analysis: Representing and assessing the dynamics of student learning. Physical
Review Special Topics 2: 010103-1 – 010103-16.
TOPIC 1: Theoretical Models of Reading Page 8 of 9
Dole, J. A. Duffy, G. G., Roehler, L. R., and Pearson, D. D. (1991). Moving from the old to the new: research on reading
comprehension instruction. Review of Educational Research 61
Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive developmental inquiry. American
Psychologist, 34(10), 906-911.
Hook, P. E. & Jones, S. D. 2002. The importance of automaticity and fluency for efficient reading comprehension.
International Dyslexia Association Quarterly Newsletter, Perspectives. Winter, 2002, vol. 28:1, pages 9-14.
Available at: http://www.resourceroom.net/readspell/2002_automaticity.asp
Kendeou, P., van den Broek, P., Helder, A., & Karlsson, J. (2014). A Cognitive View of Reading Comprehension:
Implications for Reading Difficulties. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 29(1), 10-16.
https://doi.org/10.1111/ldrp.12025
Kuhn, D. & Dean, D. (2004). A bridge between cognitive psychology and educational practice. Theory into Practice, 43(4),
268-273.
Omaggio, M. A. 1993. Teaching language in context. Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Pardede, P. (2008). A review of reading theories and its implication to the teaching of reading. Retrieved
from https://parlindunganpardede.wordpress.com/articles/language-teaching/a-review-on-reading-theories-and-
its-implication-to-the-teaching-of-reading/
Samuels, J. (2006). Looking background: Reflections on a career of reading. Retrieved from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/s15548430jlr3803 on January 15, 2021.
Van Kraayenoord, C. 2010. The role of metacognition in reading comprehension. In Focal points of the research and
development of pedagogically-psychological perspectives, ed. H. Trolldenier, W. Lenhard, and P. Marx, 277–302.
Gottingen: Hogrefe.

TOPIC 1: Theoretical Models of Reading Page 9 of 9