Monitoring Comprehension
Notice the difference between decoding words and actually understanding them — recognise when you've read the words but not grasped the meaning, and do something about it
What a learner can do afterwards
- comprehension monitoring research
- Metacognitive Monitoring in Reading Comprehension (MDPI 2024)
The lesson
You can read every word on a page perfectly and still not know what it means. Saying the words right is called decoding. Knowing what they mean is a different job, and good readers check both.
Ben reads a paragraph about how bees make honey. He says every word right, but when he stops, he cannot say what the paragraph was about. Ben notices this and reads it again, slower. Now it makes sense.
If something doesn't make sense, don't just keep going. Stop, go back, and read it again. You can also ask someone what a tricky word means.
Reading or hearing the words is not the same as understanding them, so check yourself and fix it when you're lost.
Watch it
Where it sits
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.