Comprehension Monitoring, memory, and study strategies of Good and Poor Readers

Comprehension and memory skills of fourth grade good and poor readers were compared in two studies. Their ability to monitor comprehension of difficult and anomalous information was measured in three ways; by spontaneous self-corrections during oral reading, by directed underlining of incomprehensible words and phrases, and by study behaviors. Poor readers engaged in significantly less monitoring on all three measures and this was correlated with poorer comprehension and recall scores. An additional metacognitive measure of perceived reading strategy effectiveness indicated that poor readers are often unaware of the negative influences of some strategies. The patterns of responses on the multiple measures suggest that poor readers may adopt decoding rather than meaning comprehension goals during reading and they are less accurate in applying monitoring skills towards resolving comprehension failures.