Wide reading. Because “vocabulary is often acquired indirectly through reading, encourage wide reading in
varied subject matter areas” (McShane, 2005, p. 64). McShane maintains that this wide reading must be done with
text that is at the students’ appropriate reading level. A key ingredient for students to be able to know the meanings
of words and comprehend the material, notes McShane (2005), is for students to have adequate background
knowledge related to the type of material presented in a text. In regards to background knowledge and experience,
Curtis and Kruidenier (2005) reveal a useful point by saying, “we should not assume that ABE students will have welldeveloped vocabularies just because they are older and more experienced. After a certain point, vocabulary growth
seems to depend on reading ability” (p. 8).
The fourth major component of reading is comprehension. The following strategies will ensure that students
are reading for meaning.
Comprehension
Question-generating. National Institute for Literacy (2007) gives several strategies to improve reading
comprehension. One strategy the article mentions is generating questions. The article states that “good readers ask
questions before, during, and after reading” (p. 20). Gunning (2004) and Vacca and Vacca (2002) recommend that
before reading, students use headings to make predictions about what the text might be about. Gunning suggests
activating students’ prior knowledge before reading by asking students questions about the topic of the text.
Question-answering. Especially helpful for GED test questions, McShane (2005), National Institute for
Literacy (2007), and Vacca and Vacca (2002) recommend question-answering as another comprehension strategy.
National Institute for Literacy (2007) says this strategy will aid students in their ability to answer questions. The
article explains that instructors need to show students how to answer questions when the answer is stated explicitly
in the text; when an answer can be given by synthesizing information from various parts of the text; when an answer
requires the student to synthesize various information as well as use his or her own prior knowledge and
experiences; and when the answer will come only from the student’s prior knowledge and experiences, with the text
only helping to inform the reader.
Comprehension monitoring. A third comprehension strategy offered by National Institute for Literacy (2007)
is comprehension monitoring. “Expert readers monitor their comprehension as they read by continuously identifying
when they do and when they do not comprehend the information, ideas, and other messages contained in the text”
(p. 22). Because comprehension monitoring is a mental process, teachers can model how they monitor their
comprehension by “verbalizing their own strategies as they read a text passage” (p. 22). McShane proposes the
strategy of restating as a way to monitor comprehension. With restatin