My Students Won’t Read! Part Two: The Three Levels of Reading Comprehension

Before I was able to create any shift in my students’ attitude toward reading, I had to understand what they experienced when confronted with unfamiliar texts. It dawned on me that I had once been in a similar predicament.
After completing my undergraduate coursework in mathematics, I thought it would be cool to return to school and study “something fun” such as literature. I naively entered a graduate program in English and signed up for a couple of graduate seminars. The reading was heavy, but I enjoyed it. I’ll never forget coming to class all prepared (so I thought) to “talk about” Wieland, the first novel of the semester. I had rehearsed its complicated story line, itemized its characters, and carefully determined the book’s theme. However, the ensuing discussion left me in the dust. Only much later did I realize what had happened. My classmates were discussing the book from all three levels of comprehension whereas I was stuck at Level One.
The Three Levels
1. Literal comprehension: what does it say?
This is the skeletal starting point, consisting of a text’s main idea (or thesis or theme) and major supporting details. It answers the overt WHO, WHAT, WHERE, and WHEN questions. Yet even literal comprehension is challenging if the text contains difficult vocabulary or if the reader is unfamiliar with the subject matter. Most of our students are at (or still struggling with) this level of reading comprehension.
2. Interpretive comprehension: what does it mean?
Here we ask HOW and WHY the text is organized the way it is. We must consider the author’s tone, bias, inferences, audience, and purpose. Since these are usually implicit rather than explicit, they require a more sophisticated understanding.
3. Critical analysis: what is our evaluation?
Only after moving through the first two levels can we decide what the text means to us individually and as a community of readers. Do we agree with the author? Do we approve of the manner of presentation? Will it move us to action of any kind?
Decision Time for the Professor
Given these three levels of reading comprehension—and the fact that moving up the scale is no simple matter—instructors must make choices. First, what level of comprehension is necessary? Will literal comprehension be sufficient? This will vary from discipline to discipline. In a basic anatomy class, it is probably sufficient for students to learn the various body parts and their functions. Nurses don’t need to ponder very deeply whether or not the organs of the human body might be arranged in a more optimal manner. (Surgeons and bio-engineers, however, will certainly do so.) Wherever bias is possible, as in the social sciences, level one comprehension will not be sufficient.
Instructors must also have a clear understanding of the purpose of their reading assignments. It is not enough to ask students to read the textbook simply because this is customary. Here then are some questions for reflection: Will the textbook provide information that students will not receive in lecture? Is it intended to reinforce what students hear in lecture? Or is it intended to introduce lecture material? The answers to these questions will determine whether a textbook is really needed and, if so, how it ought to be used. If the textbook is one that students will want to keep as a lifelong reference book, there is very good reason for wanting them to develop extreme familiarity with it. How to do so will be the topic of Part Three, our final installment.

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Source--Patrick Wall, English/Reading Instructor, San Joaquin Delta Community College