ABSTRACT
Children are taught to read so that they can understand what is in text. Thus, most of what matters in reading instruction matters because ultimately it affects whether the student develops into a reader who can comprehend what is in text. Reading instruction is effective in stimulating student comprehension abilities to the extent that it stimulates students to process texts as good readers do. It is important to understand what those processes are, and thus, the first major section of this chapter is devoted to coverage of the ideas and research on effective comprehension that seems most relevant to consider in making recommendations about comprehension instruction. The discussion in the second section on instruction is explicitly informed by the review of effective comprehension in the first section.
