Question 1: Difference between Assessing and Teaching Reading Comprehension

Assessing Reading Comprehension: Assessing reading comprehension involves evaluating a reader’s understanding of a text. This process is focused on gauging the reader’s ability to extract meaning, make inferences, and synthesize information from the text they have read. Assessment methods might include various types of questions (multiple-choice, short answer, essay), performance tasks, and even discussions to gauge a reader’s understanding of the text’s content, structure, and underlying ideas. The goal of assessment is to measure the reader’s proficiency in comprehending and interpreting written material.

Teaching Reading Comprehension: Teaching reading comprehension, on the other hand, is a pedagogical process that aims to improve a reader’s ability to understand, analyze, and interpret written texts. It involves equipping readers with a range of strategies and skills that help them navigate and extract meaning from diverse types of texts. Effective teaching of reading comprehension involves strategies such as activating prior knowledge, making predictions, asking questions, making connections, summarizing, visualizing, and monitoring one’s own understanding. The goal of teaching is to enhance the reader’s ability to engage with and understand a variety of texts, thereby fostering lifelong reading skills.

Question 2: Think Aloud Method and Comprehension Skills in the Video

The think aloud method is a cognitive strategy where a reader vocalizes their thoughts and thought processes while reading a text. This technique allows others to understand how the reader interacts with the text, including how they comprehend, infer, question, and analyze as they read.

In the context of the provided video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi7RfnlkTL4), the instructor is likely using the think aloud method to demonstrate and teach comprehension skills and strategies to her students. Unfortunately, I’m unable to watch or listen to the video, but I can provide a general idea of the comprehension skills and strategies that a teacher might attempt to teach using the think aloud method:

1. Activating Prior Knowledge: The teacher might discuss how she connects the content of the text to her existing knowledge and experiences.
2. Making Predictions: The teacher could demonstrate how she uses clues from the text to make educated guesses about what might happen next.
3. Inferring: The instructor might show how she reads between the lines to understand implied meanings or draw conclusions not explicitly stated in the text.
4. Questioning: The teacher could model asking questions about the text, both to clarify her understanding and to stimulate critical thinking.
5. Visualizing: The instructor might describe how she creates mental images based on the text to enhance understanding and engagement.
6. Summarizing: The teacher might verbalize how she distills the main ideas and important details from the text into a concise summary.
7. Monitoring Comprehension: The instructor could demonstrate how she checks her understanding as she reads, adjusting her approach if something doesn’t make sense.
8. Making Connections: The teacher might share how she relates the text to her personal experiences, other texts, or the world at large.
9. Identifying Text Structures: The instructor could point out how she recognizes patterns in text organization (e.g., cause and effect, problem and solution) to aid comprehension.

By demonstrating these comprehension skills and strategies through the think aloud method, the teacher aims to make her thought processes transparent to her students, helping them learn and apply effective reading comprehension techniques on their own.