From Watching and Reading to Comprehending

Students can recall every scene of a film, name its techniques and list its themes, yet still not understand the work as a whole. From Watching and Reading to Comprehending argues that the problem lies in how comprehension is taught. Too often it is checked after the fact rather than helped while students watch and read. The book treats comprehension as the result of a process that can be taught, and it introduces the Comprehension Companion to support that process.The Companion draws on cognitive load theory and on the view that learning is built with others. It breaks comprehension into teachable skills: placing what students recall, seeing the work whole, mapping its structure, reading how it was made, moving from features to meaning, weighing evidence, interpreting, bringing ideas together, recognising values, judging, questioning, investigating, comparing readings and revising. Graphic organisers displayed beside the screen or page show how understanding is built from the evidence of a scene, and matching slides do the same in classrooms without an app. Learning booklets are designed to give students the language they need before asking for independent work.