S8 E10: Comprehension is an outcome, with Sharon Vaughn

Dr. Sharon Vaughn, award-winning researcher and multi-published author, who has advised on literacy across 30 states and 10 different countries, joins Susan Lambert on this episode. She digs into how we can build reading comprehension rather than teach it, and what it means for comprehension to be a learning outcome rather than a skill. She and Susan touch on how to ask the right comprehension questions, how to ensure coherency in teaching background knowledge, and where it's easy to go wrong—with knowledge building and with the Science of Reading as a whole. Listeners will walk away with a deeper understanding of which skills lead to comprehension and how to avoid strategy overload.

Show notes:

• What Works Clearinghouse: Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4—9
• Website: meadowscenter.org

Quotes:

“Comprehension is an outcome, and it's based on being able to read words accurately, know what they mean, have adequate background knowledge, and also being able to make inferences.” —Sharon Vaughn, Ph.D.

“I've seen things go awry. Good things get interpreted incorrectly. The Science of Reading has that potential … where people could take that and sort of start creating their own meaning about what it means and start downloading that in districts and schools in ways that are counterproductive.” —Sharon Vaughn, Ph.D.

“If you look at the early studies from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, they really were the building blocks for phonemic awareness and phonics and the way in which we have identified the foundation skills as being essential. We act like the Science of Reading is something new, and we've been building this for decades.” —Sharon Vaughn, Ph.D.

Episode timestamps*
02:00: What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide
04:00: Reading Comprehension: What it is and what it isn’t
09:00: How could we mess up background knowledge?
13:00: The relationship between vocabulary and knowledge building
21:00: Word knowledge and world knowledge, especially in the upper grades
24:00: Strategy of asking and answering questions
26:00: Text matters
27:00: Integrating stretch text
31:00: Collaborative strategic reading
39:00: Project PACT

*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute