How does setting a purpose support reading comprehension?
As discussed in Row and Smith (2005), students who read with a purpose tend to comprehend what they read better than those who have no purpose. This result may occur because the students are attending to the material rather than just decoding words. Purpose-setting activities can help students activate their existing background knowledge about the topic of the material. Providing specific purposes avoids presenting students with the insurmountable task of remembering everything they read and allows them to know whether they are reading to determine main ideas, locate details, understand vocabulary terms, or meet some other well-defined goals. As a result, they can apply themselves to a specific, manageable task.
