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Comprehension [Grades K-12]
Comprehension is the structured, comprehensive, three-pronged approach—skill, will, and thrill—you need to empower students to comprehend text and take action in the world.
- Grade Level: PreK-12
- ISBN: 9781071812839
- Published By: Corwin
- Series: Corwin Literacy
- Year: 2020
- Page Count: 208
- Publication date: September 15, 2020
Price: $40.95
Description
Radically change the way students learn from texts, extending beyond comprehension to critical reasoning and problem solving.
Is your reading comprehension instruction just a pile of strategies? There is no evidence that teaching one strategy at a time, especially with pieces of text that require that readers use a variety of strategies to successfully negotiate meaning, is effective. And how can we extend comprehension beyond simple meaning?
Bestselling authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nicole Law propose a new, comprehensive model of reading instruction that goes beyond teaching skills to fostering engagement and motivation. Using a structured, three-pronged approach—skill, will, and thrill—students learn to experience reading as a purposeful act and embrace struggle as a natural part of the reading process. Instruction occurs in three phases:
- Skill. Holistically developing skills and strategies necessary for students to comprehend text, such as monitoring, predicting, summarizing, questioning, and inferring.
- Will. Creating the mindsets, motivations, and habits, including goal setting and choice, necessary for students to engage fully with texts.
- Thrill. Fostering the thrill of comprehension, so that students share their thinking with others or use their knowledge for something else.
Author(s)

Douglas Fisher
Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Doug was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He is the recipient of an International Reading Association William S. Grey citation of merit and an Exemplary Leader award from the Conference on English Leadership of NCTE. He has published numerous articles on teaching and learning as well as books such as The Teacher Clarity Playbook, PLC+, Visible Learning for Literacy, Comprehension: The Skill, Will, and Thrill of Reading, How Tutoring Works, and How Learning Works. Doug loves being an educator and hopes to share that passion with others.

Nancy Frey

Nicole Law
Nicole Law, PhD, served as a curriculum coordinator for English language learners, cultural responsivity, AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination), district equity, and mathematics and science instruction in the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township in Indianapolis, Indiana. In this position, Nicole created multilayered and multifaceted professional learning for teachers and administrators covering all aspects of directed programs and curricular areas. In 2008, Nicole received the National Milken Award from the state of Indiana. Prior to her leadership role, Nicole was a science teacher, administrator, and a building principal. She has an MED in elementary administration and supervision from Butler University and a PhD from Indiana State University. Nicole is the co-author of Collective Equity and Comprehension: The Skill, Will, and Thrill of Reading.
Table of Contents
List of Videos
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Point of Comprehension Is Not Comprehension
But What Is Reading?
Teaching Students to Comprehend
Skilled Readers or Strategic Readers
Constrained and Unconstrained Skills
Is Comprehension Enough?
Chapter 2: Skill in Reading Comprehension
Skill in Reading Comprehension
Background Knowledge in Reading
The Sounds of Language
Phonics: Sound and Print
Fluency in Reading
Vocabulary in Reading
Comprehension Strategy Instruction
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Will in Reading Comprehension
Will in Reading Comprehension
Dispositions That Underpin Learning
Creating the Classroom Conditions for Will to Flourish
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Thrill in Reading Comprehension
Thrill in Reading Comprehension
The Right and the Responsibility of Criticism
Reading Through a Critical Literacy Lens
Goal Setting Through Student-Generated Questions
Taking Action
Chapter 5: Tools for Reading Comprehension Instruction
Texts as Tools for Fostering Comprehension
Text Readability and Text Complexity
The Special Cast of Digital Texts
Texts in Primary Grades
Tasks as Tools for Fostering Comprehension
An Instructional Framework That Works
Conclusion
References
Index
Reviews
"Fisher, Frey, and Law take components of effective reading instruction—skills, engagement, relevance—and show teachers how to focus their work in a meaningful way. Plenty of rich, classroom examples from all grade levels illustrate that this work is for everyone!"Lynn Angus Ramos
DeKalb County School District
"Comprehension inspires me to take action! I want to be deliberate in my selection of texts for students, in my conversations with them, in my questioning, and in my listening to them. We all need to better understand what can make or break a student’s motivation: whether it’s the skill, will, or thrill! I want to make book lovers out of my students, and not just create answerers of uninspiring questions with me expecting the same verbiage year after year. Thank you for fueling the fire to go out and do better by students, especially in this era where often we speed through things for task completion."Hilda Martinez
NBCT
This text contributes to the important debate about knowledge-rich curricula and the role that comprehension plays in an era dominated by smart devices and search engines. The authors elucidate the enduring importance of deep reading as an apprenticeship into ways of thinking and knowing that cultivates what Professor Maryanne Wolf calls cognitive patience: the gateway to contemplative thought, critical analysis, analogic reasoning, and empathy."
"Comprehension challenges the view of teachers as facilitators of literacy activities and begins to demonstrate how teachers can be knowledge builders who break the vicious cycle where students most in need of high-quality reading and writing opportunities end up getting the least. It is particularly relevant for teachers who are working with students that are reading to learn. It illuminates (psychological) variables that can promote a love of reading or contribute to reading avoidance and signals actions that teachers can take to foster a culture of deep reading.Peter Nielsen
This text contributes to the important debate about knowledge-rich curricula and the role that comprehension plays in an era dominated by smart devices and search engines. The authors elucidate the enduring importance of deep reading as an apprenticeship into ways of thinking and knowing that cultivates what Professor Maryanne Wolf calls cognitive patience: the gateway to contemplative thought, critical analysis, analogic reasoning, and empathy."
Department of Education, South Australia
"In their new book, Comprehension: The Skill, Will and Thrill of Reading, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nicole Law challenge teachers to rethink the meaning of comprehension with its emphasis on “what and how” instead of offering students opportunities to think about the “when and why.” The authors explain the thrill of comprehension, showing how reading can shape our identities, how we think about ourselves and others, how we view the world, and ultimately why we take social action. Carefully, this groundbreaking book guides readers into rethinking and re-imagining strategy application, with an emphasis on quantitative measures of readability over the nuances that qualitative measures reveal. Our re-imagining journey continues as the authors discuss the skills young readers practice to develop fluency and automaticity and those such as vocabulary and background knowledge that continue to grow over a lifetime. Using examples from primary grades through high school, they discuss the teaching of comprehension and students’ reactions to the practice that emerges from instruction. They explain the importance of will—student agency—and its relationship to developing literate minds through thinking, questioning, discussing, and problem solving. This is a seminal book that you will read again and again no matter what grade you teach."Laura Robb
For Instructors
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Related Professional Learning
Related WebinarsRelated Resources
- 3 Aspects of Comprehension Instruction [In the News]
- Access to companion resources is available with the purchase of this book.
- Create-Abilities Podcast: Improving Reading Comprehension with Dr. Douglas Fisher [Podcast]
- Direct Instruction in Early Reading [In the News]
- Dr. Douglas Fisher and Dr. Nancy Frey: Texts and Text Complexity [Podcast]
- Introduction to Comprehension [Lessons and strategies]
- The Skill, Will, and Thrill of Comprehending Content Area Texts [In the News]
- The Skill, Will, and Thrill of Reading Comprehension [In the News]
- The Skill, Will, and Thrill of Reading Comprehension [In the News]
- The Sounds of Language [Lessons and strategies]