Defining Comprehension

A student’s academic progress is profoundly shaped by the ability to understand what is read.
Students who cannot understand what they read are not likely to acquire the skills necessary to
participate in the 21st century workforce. Comprehension means understanding text: spoken,
written and/or visual. Comprehension is an active and complex process which:

 includes the act of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning from text
 enables readers to derive meaning from text when they engage in intentional, problem
solving and thinking processes
 is a lived and institutionally situated social, cultural and intellectual practice that is
much more than a semantic element of making meaning.
When readers read or view a text they can understand it on different levels. Deep comprehension
occurs when all levels have been considered. One way to conduct this literature analysis is using
a system called the Levels of Comprehension. There are six levels: literal, inferential,
appreciative, critique, evaluative, and essential.

Literal Comprehension

Literal comprehension occurs at the surface level when a reader/viewer acknowledges what they
can see and hear. The details are stated and clear for anyone to identify. Literal comprehension is
often referred to as ‘on the page’ or ‘right there’ comprehension. This is the simplest form of
comprehension.

When a literary reader comprehends at this level, he or she can recall/repeat what the text says:
the things that are actually stated in the text. Readers can identify and/or
recall relevant information explicitly stated in the reading selection by:

 identifying a statement or sentence that best indicates the main idea of the selection
 identifying directly-stated facts (e.g., important research data)
 identifying details such as key words, phrases or sentences that explicitly state important
information
 identifying directly-stated opinions

Inferential comprehension

Inferential comprehension requires the reader/viewer to draw on their prior knowledge of

a topic and identify relevant text clues (words, images, sounds) to make an inference. Inferential
comprehension is often referred to as ‘between the lines’ or ‘think and search’ comprehension.

At this level, a literary reader can explain what the text means: the meaning is drawn from the
literally stated ideas. If the text says that Sally got into her new sports car, one can infer that
Sally likes to be sporty and has money to spend on a car.
Readers use information stated in the text as clues to determine what is not stated, but implied.
Readers derive meaning by

 identifying implicit relationships (relationships not directly stated) such as cause and effect,
sequence-time relationships, comparisons, classifications and generalizations
 predicting probable future outcomes or actions
 inferring an author’s unstated meaning by drawing conclusions based on specific facts,
events, images, patterns or symbols found in selected readings
 inferring the main idea of a selection when it is not explicitly stated
 identifying unstated reasons for actions or beliefs based on explicitly stated information
(clues)

Appreciative Level
Appreciative level requires readers to comprehend author’s point of view, purpose, tone, and etc.
based on clues in the text. This could be applied to determine author’s purpose, message and etc.
for whole text or parts of texts, like a statement, quotes, reasons, examples, scenarios author may
have included.
At this level, readers are able to reach conclusions about:

 the author’s motivation or purpose for writing a passage based on evidence in the
selection
 the author’s hidden values and assumptions based on evidence/clues in the text
 why the author included certain statements, quotes, reasons based on evidence in the text
(what the hidden message is behind these)
 author’s tone based on evidence in the text

Critique Comprehension

Critique comprehension allows readers to response to text based on the authors use of language;
react to the author’s ideas, his values, imagery, style and execution
At this level, readers are able to reach conclusions about:

 the author’s use of language, style of writing, execution of the text, or the author’s ideas
in the text.
 Recognize the value of the authors use of language and descriptions, images, style and
values of story concepts, look at the authors work of writing the story - did they tell a
good story - why or why not? Did the author use descriptive words? or plain flat
language? Did they make you SEE the scenes they wrote in your mind because they were
so descriptive?

This is where readers JUDGE the author and how well they wrote the story.

Evaluative comprehension
 Evaluative comprehension requires the reader to move beyond the text to consider what
they think and believe in relation to the message in the text. It is at this point that readers/viewers
are required to justify their opinions, argue for a particular viewpoint, critically analyze the
content and determine the position of the author. Evaluative comprehension is often referred to
as ‘beyond the text’ and includes ‘big picture’ comprehension. Often there is no right or wrong
answer but rather justification for thinking in a particular way.

At this level, readers understand ideas and/or information well enough to analyze, judge and
critique information and ideas. They are also able to explain and support judgement clearly.
From the term evaluate, the readers are able to justify a stance. they can set standards, rate, test,
select and choose, decide, weigh according to, and etc. They can also…

 judge whether the information used by the author to support a conclusion is accurate and/or
credible and explain why you believe this is so
 evaluate between conclusions that are based on facts and those that are based on opinions
and prove why you believe this is so
 decide on a stance on issues and situations and argue/prove/justify why your stance is
correct

Example of a question to lead you to evaluate: Who was to blame for Little Red Riding Hood's
troubles? Why do you think so?

Essential Comprehension
This is more of reading beyond the text. Its responding to text based on what is drawn from the
entire text, by looking at the big ideas and themes from the text and connecting it to world view
brought by the text.
At this level, readers consider an issue that is addressed in the story “outside” of the story. Bring
the concepts of the story to the world today.
At this level, a reader may:
 find quote/s from text or possibly outside sources that demonstrates and support
statements – link the concepts of the story to the world today and situations happening
today (or that could happen).

ACTIVITY: INDIVIDUAL TASK.

This is a test of your knowledge on the lesson and a test of your Assessment writing skill. Using
the literature below, write at least 5 questions each along the different levels of comprehension.
You shall be rated on the following criteria

Completeness of Test Items (10)

Suitability of the items in their categories (10)
Construction of Test stem and choices (20)

As a group of frogs was traveling through the woods, two of them fell into a deep pit. When the
other frogs crowded around the pit and saw how deep it was, they told the two frogs that there
was no hope left for them.

However, the two frogs decided to ignore what the others were saying and they proceeded to try
and jump out of the pit.
Despite their efforts, the group of frogs at the top of the pit were still saying that they should just
give up. That they would never make it out.

Eventually, one of the frogs took heed to what the others were saying and he gave up, falling
down to his death. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Again, the crowd of
frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die.

He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, “Did you
not hear us?”
The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire
time.