Instructional Tendencies in the Teaching of Reading Comprehension A Portrait of Practice in the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Database

Using videos from 63 teachers in grades 4–8 who were part of the Measures of Effective Teaching study, we identified five tendencies in the teaching of reading comprehension that can inform future work on the design and implementation of reading instruction. The five tendencies are: (1) Instruction is generally text-centric, but dominated by instructional vignettes; (2) Text talk is common, but is dominated by teacher-facilitated questioning; (3) Instruction is intentional and explicit, but at a cost; (4) Instruction is strategy-centric, but not necessarily strategic; and (5) Knowledge-building is underemphasized during classroom textual interactions. This study addresses the need for more current understanding of the state of instructional practices in reading comprehension.