Reading comprehension is what brings the reader and text together. It is the bridge between sounding out letters that form words to understanding what those formations and arrangements mean. When a young child learns the letters of the alphabet, and their corresponding sounds, manipulating and blending these sounds forms what is known as reading. However, when a child simply reads a text, but has no understanding of the meaning of the words he had just read, effective reading is not in place. In the book Reading for Understanding, we see reading comprehension explained in the following manner: “The RRSG began its thinking by defining the term reading comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.” (Executive Summary xiii) To fully understand a text, one needs to follow some important steps. Just reading a book is not enough. Readers require a proficiency in phonics instruction, vocabulary, and fluency; they must also utilize all and any prior background knowledge and experiences, and lastly readers must have a purpose for their reading. Learning to understand what one reads involves a lot of hard work, it is an interactive, complex process that involves the reader, and the text.
One of the most basic abilities needed for comprehending a text is phonic instruction. When a student looks at the words in a text and deciphers their sounds, blending and manipulating them into words and sentences, phonics instruction is put into practice . “Phonics instruction teaches children the relationship between the letters (graphemes) of written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language.“ National Institute for Literacy (12) When this relationship is not fully grasped in the primary grades, comprehension in the later stages is crucially impaired. When a reader is spending their time struggling to ‘sound out’ a word, comprehension is put, most likely...