A student comes to Tovani (author) and tells her that her reading has become worse and she has become slower. The student states: "I have to slow down because everything you are asking us to do requires me to think"-Lisa, varsity cheerleader and honor student (pg 51). It wasn't too long ago when I am I bet a few of you, would race through our texts because we didn't want to be the last one with our nose in the book. We didn't want people to think that we were slow readers. Even though we were able to speed race our eyes along every line didn't necessarily mean that we absorbed any of the material. It also didn't help that I never saw the purpose in reading until I found a book that I could fall inside of. My junior year in high school I would lock myself away in my bedroom and read the Harry Potter books until my parents found it necessary for me to come downstairs and to socialize with the real world. I finally found my purpose to read, which was to get away from the hustle and bustle of the real world and to enter a dimension where I was not required to be or do anything.
In high school students are told to read but they aren't always told the purpose behind the reading. When reading a text for the first time without a purpose, people tend to pay attention to the plot, the action. Now let's say that you assign a novel for the students to read and after they are done reading you ask them to go back and reread to find how the main character changed throughout the story. Rarely will a student go back and reread the novel; therefore the student will go off of their memory. But the student was primarily paying attention to the plot not the main character. If we were to go back and tell the students the purpose for reading the novel they will be able to present a better supportive paper. "When we share a clear instructional purpose, we give our students a lens through which to read the piece"-Tovani (pg 58). For us we are are able to form purposes to read a certain text but for young readers they may have not formed these purposes yet. By assisting them through forming a more limited scope we are allowing them to comprehend the novel through a particular perspective verse the student trying to memorize everything in the book and eventually giving up with regards to the plethora of information. By giving them the purposes now we are allowing them to comprehend the material better and forming confidence that will later allow them to form their own purposes. Once they are able to form their own purposes they will be the ones tracking a particular character through a book, or asking themselves if they agree with Darwin's explanation of natural selection. We are forming a foundation so that one day they can take the reigns and ask the questions.
When reading your post I began to think of my daughter and her summer reading assignment. her class is to read "The Great Gatsby" by the end of the summer and answer questions and discuss when they get back to school in August. She does not have a real meaningful purpose except to fulfill the teachers/class requirements. Everytime she picks up the book she puts it back down and claims she can't get into it. I have thought of renting a movie based on that era to get her to ask quesions about and want to read the book. I will talk to her about asking questions to help complete her assigned reading. I think she will enjoy the book so I just need to work at getting her to think about it a little more.
ReplyDeleteWhat questions would you suggest I use to start this conversation?
I don't know if you would be interested but this book also has another book titled: I read it but I don't get it. The authors name is Cris Tovani. I really found her book to be an easy read, full of examples, explanations, and ideas on how to work with these issues.
ReplyDeleteI can see that not having a meaningful purpose would make it hard she may be trying to memorize everything which I remember being extremely draining.
Could the teacher possibly send you an idea of what she is looking for?
The idea of watching a movie about that era may be a great idea.
The author talks about finding what she is having difficulty with is it the lack of background information, vocabulary, difficult concepts.
Determining Possible Purposes:
(Picking one of these may help her)
1) Look for interesting details that could have multiple meanings. Ask yourself, "Why did the author add that detail?"
2) Ask questions about the title and subtitles. Try to figure out how the title and subtitle are connected to the piece.
3) Ask questions about the piece.As you read, record the questions and keep them in the back of your mind. Look for the answers as you read. If you don't find the answers, ask the questions the next day in class.(So maybe keep these for the first day of class. This may impress the teacher with her asking questions.)
4) Look for the author's opinion. Compare his or her opinion with your own. Does the author agree or disagree with you?
5) Read a piece to learn new information. Is there anything in the reading that helps you understand the topic better? (so maybe newspaper articles that have to do with that time, I might be wrong but I think the Great Gatsby had to do with the 1920s, if so there are a lot of events that took place in that time ie great depression, boot legging, inhibition law for alcohol, etc)
6) Make a connection to the piece. Does the piece remind you of an experience, a movie, or information you already know? Does the connection help you relate to a person or situation? Use information you have about the topic to connect more personally to the piece.
7) Who is the author? Do you know anything about the author and his or her style of writing? Is he or she politically conservative or liberal? What you know about the author might help you anticipate what is coming in the reading.
These are the ideas that she has in this chapter about forming a purpose. I hope these help. Let me know if you would like for me to see a format on how to set up a double entry diary for the book so that she may ask questions and form connections with the text. If it is easier my email is mthienel87@gmail.com
I think explaining the purpose of reading something is very important. We need to express to the kids what the purpose is.
ReplyDeleteExactly. The author did mention how some teachers view it as giving the answers away to the students since they will only be reading the text for the particular purpose/question. But I just see it as guidelines and clearly laying out what you want the student to walk away with knowing.
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