Four Levels of Comprehension

When it comes to education and retention, there are four noted levels of comprehension. The four levels are Literal, which is what is actually stated, Interpretive or Inferential, which is what is implied, Applied or Evaluative, which is when what was meant by what was stated is actually applied to concepts or ideas that go beyond what was discussed, and the final level, Appreciative, which is .

There are four levels of comprehension. These include literal, inferential, evaluative, and appreciative. Teachers evaluate student responses to reading questions based on these four levels of comprehension. The first, literal, is the simplest and consists of facts that were clearly stated in the reading. Literal understanding is understanding the who, what, when, where of the story and other objective facts. Inferential comprehension builds on stated facts and reveals whether or not the student is able to interpret the facts. In other words, inferential comprehension identifies whether or not the student can read between the lines, or answer the why, what if, and how questions related to the story. Evaluative comprehension shows an understanding of facts and opinions including bias and assumptions which are used to make comparison of works and conclusion as well as to relate what they have learned to real-life experiences. Appreciative comprehension is more abstract and is based on a deeper understanding and even emotional reactions to the authors language, ideas, imagery, and values.A breakdown of the four levels of comprehension is available at http://www.mtsac.edu/instruction/learning/lac/pdf/reading/4level.pdf. Literal comprehension is an understanding of facts that were in the text such as data, specifics, dates, setting, and certain traits. A student has a strong inferential comprehension of the literature if he or she is able to use the facts in the text to make predictions on other possible actions from the characters or predictions on events that may occur in certain circumstances. Inferential comprehension is half based on facts from the story and half based on reader comprehension. The reader must understand what was implied rather than stated and make educated guesses based on prior knowledge. A student has a strong evaluative comprehension if he or she can what is factual and make solid opinions based on the facts. In addition, the student must evaluate cause and effect relationships in the story. Evaluative comprehension is more based on reader interpretation than on the text. Appreciative comprehension is subjective; it is half based on the text of the story, approximately half based on the reader's reaction and a small amount based on the author's purpose.