Are you afraid of becoming a teacher? you could teach English online but first who is a teacher? are there any professional or personal characteristics to being a teacher? if so, then what are the roles and functions of a teacher in a classroom, the school and in the community?

Comprehension

The suggested procedure for each comprehension lesson is generally divided into five stages. It is for this reason that this piece of writing will discuss in detail the five stages in teaching comprehension. This paper will also make a distinction between teaching comprehension and testing comprehension. The last task of this academic essay will be to identify and discuss the types of questions in comprehension.

Monitoring comprehension is the first stage (Mikpit 2019). “The teacher must be aware of what the learner is reading whether they understand the concept of what they are reading. Are they having trouble with phonics and word use? Do they understand the purpose of what they are reading?” All these questions are essential for the teacher to smoothly teach comprehension. For example, if a learner is using bad reading habits like reading word by word, the teacher has to correct this as it distorts the entire message or the writers’ viewpoint.

According to Castano (2008), “It is always important to monitor what your learner is reading because then you are able to see if they are making the progress they need to be making and there is need to make sure to identify what they do understand as well as what they do not understand.”Ellis (2000) adds that the teacher has to make sure to use appropriate strategies to ensure the learner’s reading comprehension is on track and right on grade level.

Meta-cognition defined as ‘thinking about thinking,’ “good readers use meta-cognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading, (Mikpit (2019). This means that the learners need to know why are they are reading what whatever material which has been given to them and during reading it is important to make sure the learner is understanding and comprehending what the material they are reading.

According to Digest Association (2018), Graphic and Semantic Organizers play another role in teaching comprehension. “Graphic organizers show the reader concepts and relationships between the meaning in a text or the use of diagrams,” (Digest Association 2018). For example, maps, webs, graphs, and charts and these help visual learners. Graphic organizers help readers to be able to focus on concepts and relate to real life situations. They allow learners to be able to identify the differences in what they are reading, for example, the difference between fiction and nonfiction.

Samuel and Jackson (1987), states that “answering questions gives learners a purpose and reason for reading.”Correct Answers give learners motivation to keep reading, it allows them to think about what they are reading, allow the teacher to know if learners comprehend what they are learning. When asking questions it helps learners review what they have learned and they are able to answer questions better with practice.

Summarizing is the fifth stage. The last technique is to summarize the material read. Research has indicated that the ability to summarize enhances comprehension. Block and Pressley defined summarize as “the ability to delete irrelevant details, combine similar ideas, condense main ideas, and connect major themes into concise statements that capture the purpose of a reading for the reader.” A learner making use of the other four strategies will find it easier to summarize the material. They can summarize the material in the form of diagrams, either visually or in writing.

Asking learners to write summaries of what they have read sounds like you're requiring them to do a lot of work , but you can emphasize that these summaries can reduce how much time they spend studying, or cramming, for a test. Essentially, these summaries can be homework. They can also help learners prepare for class discussions and oral presentations.

Many of these tips can be summarized in one word practice. Yes, learners can succeed at improving reading comprehension skills by practicing how to ask and answer questions while they’re reading, taking notes, setting goals, writing summaries of what they have read and more. Be honest with them about the fact that improving reading comprehension skills is a lot of hard work. Nevertheless, it’s worth it if they want to possess a useful skill for school and for life beyond it. When a teacher asks learners to summarize, it allows them to think what is important is what isn't. Graves (1994) stipulates that “summarizing allows learners to put what they read into their own words and by doing this it allows them to have a better chance of remembering what they just read.” When summarizing they are able to focus on the main ideas and it allows them to eliminate what is not important.

There comes a difference between teaching comprehension and testing comprehension although these two are in some ways slightly similar. According to Wendy (2006), “teaching comprehension focuses on equipping learners with a set of comprehension skills to assist them in understanding texts thoroughly while testing comprehension involves asking a series of questions in order to ascertain learners' understanding of the text.” The difference mainly between these two is that in teaching comprehension, much of the work is done by the teacher while in testing comprehension much work is done by the learners. For example, a teacher explains what comprehension is, what is involved such as skimming or scanning then asks the learners to read a certain paragraph or passage for them to comprehend or understand. Then in testing comprehension, the teacher gives an exercise to the learners for them to answer based on the passage they have just read.

Comprehension like any other has its own questions such as factual, inference, sequencing, true or false, cause and effect, before and after, vocabulary in context and applied vocabulary.

The most straight forward type of question, such questions focus on obvious details from the passage. The learners are required to simply find these obvious details to answer BUT they have to be careful not to lift and take only what is necessary. Examples: What did Ethan bring to class? Where was Julian in the afternoon?

Inference, these questions are less direct compared to factual questions, they require the learners to think like detectives and look for clues instead of obvious answers in the text,” (Frank 1984). For instance, looking at the phrase “the sun was directly above their heads”, the learner should be able to deduce that it was noon time. Examples: Why did Kyle help the old man? Which phrase tells you that Keith was angry?

According to Hogue (2008)‘sequencing, ‘this type of question requires learners to figure out the order in which events happened in a story. However, this question is not asking which event APPEARED first. An event that appeared in the first paragraph may not have happened first. Sequence shows the chronological order of events - what happened first, second, and sometimes more. Note that the sequence is not the same as the order of events presented in the paragraph or passage. For example, the passage could start talking about what happened last, and then jump back to the beginning.

True or false is another set of questions.“These questions, learners have to identify whether a given statement is entirely true or if a false detail is given and the learners are to provide evidence to prove why the statement is true - by finding the original sentence or false by finding the false detail.” Find that detail and write the answer in a way that matches if true or contrasts (if false) with the statement.

Cause and effect these questions are asking the learners to identify the cause (what made something happen) and effects (what happened as a result of the cause). A useful tip is to write “because” on top of the Cause column and “so” in the effect column. When the two are strung together, it helps them to understand the question requirement more clearly.

Before / after questions require learners to make comparisons and identify a given detail in the statement which changed over time,” (Foster 1997). Once again, do not confuse this with events that appeared first (appearing first doesn’t necessarily mean that it happened first).

According to Robert (1997), Vocabulary in context questions are basically testing the learners’ vocabulary. However, do not forget that many words have multiple meanings. Identify the correct usage of the words based on the way they are used in the passage (that’s why it’s called “in context”).Examples: Which word/ phrase has the opposite meaning as…? Find the words that have similar meanings to the following word.

Applied vocabulary is another set of questions in comprehension. Tompkins (2010) state that “In contrast to vocabulary in context questions, these questions are usually tougher as it requires the learners to analyze and use their own words to describe a situation or characters accurately.” For examples- how would you describe the atmosphere in the classroom when the teacher stepped in? Example tense, relaxed or how would you describe Mr. Augusts’ character in the passage? (Example. serious, friendly)

In conclusion, Schools need to teach reading comprehension strategies to make learners life-long readers. Using these seven core reading comprehension strategies and the resources featured, will help learners to better understand what they are reading and develop an appreciation for literature in the classroom. Give them a try and let me know how they work for you.

REFERENCES

Ellis, R (2000). Language Teaching Research, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Foster, P (1997). Language Teaching Research, Free Press, London.

Graves, D (1994). A Fresh Look At Writing, Heinmahn, Portsmouth.

Hogue, A (2008). Writing Academic English, Pearson Longman, New York.

Robert, J (1997). Composition – Rhetoric: Backgrounds, Petersburg University Press, Petersburg.

Tompkins, G (2010). LiteracyIn Middle Grades, Pearson Press, Boston.