Breaking Down Verbal Reasoning for Reading Comprehension
We explore how to help students use verbal reasoning when analyzing a text to improve comprehension and build knowledge.
We explore how to help students use verbal reasoning when analyzing a text to improve comprehension and build knowledge.
What the Research Says
After exploring several aspects of reading comprehension, like vocabulary and sentence analysis, we close our series by looking at strategies for teaching verbal reasoning.
Verbal reasoning is the mental process of making sense of what we read and what is implied, even if the author hasn’t explicitly stated it. According to education experts, it involves following meaning through logically connected ideas (logical coherence), reading between the lines (inference), and understanding non-literal language (figurative language) (Fisher, Frey, Lapp, 2022). Besides enhancing a student’s comprehension of a text, it has other benefits, including:
- Improving critical thinking
- Understanding figurative language and idioms
- Equipping the student to tackle complex concepts
- Making connections to prior knowledge
- Improving communication skills
- Being able to make inferences
Verbal reasoning is a universal skill fundamental for grasping complex information, engaging in meaningful discussions, and drawing logical conclusions. Developing it requires students to understand their own thought processes and to be intentional about knowledge-building.
Because verbal reasoning is a collection of invisible processes, unique to the individual, tutoring plays an important role in helping to externalize those thought processes and ensure students have the tools they need to think well and deeply about what they read.
Why Verbal Reasoning Should Be a Part of Reading Intervention
One of the reasons why a reading intervention environment is an ideal place to develop verbal reasoning is that it is a highly personalized skill. Existing knowledge on the topic, cultural background, and the student’s comfort level in expressing themselves vary widely. Tutoring is also a safe and private place for struggling students to talk through their thinking, externalizing a process that is typically done silently.
English language learners often struggle with idioms and figurative language that don’t translate well into their native language and rely heavily on cultural background knowledge. A one-on-one reading intervention setting provides an encouraging setting to build knowledge that varies from student to student.
Hoot Reading’s Approach to Verbal Reasoning Instruction
Hoot tutors choose a grade-level text that is appropriately challenging, using what they know about the student to find an engaging topic. Sophisticated verbal reasoning requires some background knowledge, so the tutor can provide support when needed.
The page above is from the book, “Breakthroughs in Planet and Comet Research,” by our partners at Lerner Publishing. Tutors note places within the text where they are aware of their own thinking – these are natural places to prompt students to do the same.
A Hoot tutor will:
Model verbal reasoning and thinking using sentence stems.
The tutor pre-reads the text and determines if some concepts or terms must be explained before reading with the student. In this passage, NASA is concerned that objects in the solar system could get contaminated by microbes. The tutor ensures the student knows what “contaminate” means or explains it with examples. The tutor and student can discuss and come up with a definition for unfamiliar words. Prompts can help clarify meaning: “As I read that sentence, I remembered that microbes can sometimes make people sick. What do you know about microbes?”
Generate Opportunities for the student to share their thinking, with support.
Prompt discussion with appropriate questions that go beyond the text.
Asking students to make predictions encourages them to think beyond what is explicitly written, while inferring requires them to draw on their existing knowledge. Tutors can ask, “What kind of ‘possibilities for contamination’ do you think NASA is looking for? Where could that contamination come from?”
Have the student talk through their own thinking and reasoning.
Tutors model and externalize their reasoning by using sentence stems. For example, they could say, “I didn’t know that NASA assembled spacecraft parts in a clean room. When we read this part, I thought of where else a clean room might be used, like a hospital.” Tutors encourage students to follow their lead and explain their thought processes as they analyze the text.
Providing all the knowledge, vocabulary, and experience necessary to understand everything a student reads is impossible. However, we can equip them with the skills and strategies for strong reasoning and reading comprehension in academic and daily reading.
Interested in how Hoot Reading provides full-spectrum structured literacy tutoring? Contact us to find out more.