Decoding without comprehension is valueless, like digestion without nutrition

According to Mary Jo McGee Brown, all too often students faithfully read every word of an assignment but do not understand it because they are unable to make meaningful connections between words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. These students can decode the text, but they cannot read it; that is, they know what letters a words say, but not what they mean.
Comprehension assumes the ability to decode but reading in any meaningful sense of the term ultimately involves the ability to interpret and apply what is decoded. “Decoding” without comprehension is valueless, like digestion without nutrition.