Reading Comprehension Instruction (RCI)

This course focuses on the research and exemplary practices that help students acquire strongreading comprehension skills. It provides participants with a synthesis of the research base onreading comprehension instruction and vocabulary development. Participants examine, discuss, and evaluate the appropriate application of a range of instructional strategies from explicit to implicit teaching of comprehension skills. Strategies are presented for increasing student comprehension of both narrative and expository texts' including content area textbooks. In addition, approaches are presented to help students monitor their own comprehension and apply appropriate 'fix-up' strategies when comprehension is not achieved. Practice in using these instructional strategies and examples of student work are embedded in each unit. This course is appropriate for all K-12 teachers who need to help increase their students' comprehension of text, whether that text is a literature selection or a subject area textbook.