Reading Comprehension (Expository Texts)
The comprehension of expository text is more difficult for virtually all students. Exposition usually deals with less familiar content and involves more complex and varied structures (e.g., compare and contrast, cause and effect).
Expository Text. Broadly defined, expository text is factual. Its primary purpose is to inform, explain, or persuade. Examples of expository texts are textbooks, biographies and autobiographies, newspapers, diaries, journals, magazines, brochures, and catalogues.
Further Websites
http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/early_middle/engl_teach_read_view_comprehension.pdf - this site contains a list and elaboration of many comprehension strategies providing practical examples of ways each strategy can be implemented within the classroom.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/52251/ - this site provides an outline of how to teach expository text structures and includes graphic organisers that can be used to organise ideas.
In my classroom
When teaching students how to comprehend expository texts I will teach them how to:
Expository Text. Broadly defined, expository text is factual. Its primary purpose is to inform, explain, or persuade. Examples of expository texts are textbooks, biographies and autobiographies, newspapers, diaries, journals, magazines, brochures, and catalogues.
Further Websites
http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/early_middle/engl_teach_read_view_comprehension.pdf - this site contains a list and elaboration of many comprehension strategies providing practical examples of ways each strategy can be implemented within the classroom.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/52251/ - this site provides an outline of how to teach expository text structures and includes graphic organisers that can be used to organise ideas.
In my classroom
When teaching students how to comprehend expository texts I will teach them how to:
- Chunk information in a text by grouping related ideas and concepts
- Summarize important information in a text by grouping related ideas and concepts
- Integrate information in a text with existing knowledge
- Apply information in a text to real-world situations
- Interpret and construct graphics such as charts, tables, and figures
- Synthesise information from different texts
- Develop presentations about the text