Review book by Danielle S. Mcnamara about Reading Comprehension Strategy (Theories, Intervantios, Technologies)

 

TITLE : READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGY  ( THEORIES, INTERVANTIONS, TECHNOLOGIES)

WRITTEN BY DANIELLE S. MCNAMARA

This book discusses the complexity of reading comprehension and the various levels and components that involved to reading comprehension. It highlights the effortless mastery of reading skills by proficient adult readers, who navigate through graphemes, phonemes, morphemes, syntactic composition, and deep comprehension effortlessly at a rate of 250 to 400 words per minute. However, it acknowledges that comprehension can become challenging when there are breakdowns at any level, requiring the implementation of deliberate strategies.

The importance of teaching and acquiring reading strategies is emphasized, especially for deep comprehension of technical expository texts. The passage argues that many adults, even skilled readers, may struggle with deep comprehension, as evidenced by experiments on college students' learning gains from reading technical content.

Three arguments support the claim that reading strategies are crucial for skilled readers: the challenge of comprehension calibration, the illusion of comprehension among shallow readers, and the difficulty in comprehending technical texts. The passage suggests that acquisition of better reading strategies is a lifelong mission and addresses concerns about cognitive overhead in applying these strategies.

The chapter is divided into three sections:

• 1.     a definition and clarification of reading comprehension strategy,
• 2.     a contrast between three theoretical frameworks for investigating comprehension,
• 3.     and the identification of challenges researchers face when moving from theory.

Key Points:

1. Proficient adult readers effortlessly navigate through various levels of reading comprehension.

2. Reading strategies are crucial for handling breakdowns in comprehension.

3. Deep comprehension of technical texts poses a challenge for many skilled readers. 

4. Acquiring better reading strategies is considered a lifelong mission.

5. The chapter discusses theoretical frameworks and challenges in comprehension research.