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  • Reading Comprehension

What We've Learned About Reading Comprehension and Effective Instruction

Nancy Hennessy, M.Ed.
A circular graphic illustrating a heuristic for thinking about comprehension from Catherine Snow in 2002, with sociocultural and context influences surrounding text, activity and reader.
An illustration of the heuristic with the three elements explained. Element one: Text Demands (text composition with vocabulary choice, sentence structure, text structure and features) and Text Content (implied background knowledge). Element two: the activity consisting of purpose (acquisition and application of knowledge) and activities (varied levels of understanding). And element three: Reader Characteristics made up of language comprehension and knowledge (word meaning, sentence meaning, text structure knowledge), cognitive capacities (attention, memory) and motivation (purpose, attitudes, and interests).

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