My Roots of Learning About Comprehension and Understanding Content Teaching
The author talks about her struggle to find out how students could decode a text but are unable to comprehend. She found that she had to make the students more aware of their thinking process. She also saw the necessity in teaching them how to properly highlight important words/phrases in a given text and how to take concise notes. She came up with her thinking strategies through analyzing the process that "good readers" use to better understand what is lacking when others read a given text. She found the following to be the essential "thinking strategies used by proficient readers and writers:
1) Activating background knowledge and making connections between new and known information.
2) Self-questioning the text to clarify ambiguity and deepen understanding.
3) Drawing inferences from the text using background knowledge and clues from the text.
4) Determining importance in text to separate details from main ideas.
5) Employing fix-up strategies to repair confusion.
6) Using sensory images to enhance comprehension and visualize reading.
7) Synthesizing and extending thinking.
From number 1 I can see a strong connection to Gee's Theory where background knowledge equals primary Discourse and new and known information would be secondary Discourse(s). Number 2 shows the thrive for further understanding of a secondary Discourse towards mastery and from there onto literacy. Number 3 shows how you can use your primary Discourse to better understand a secondary Discourse and by finding clues one is learning/creating tools to master a secondary Discourse. Number 4 talks about comprehending and mastering the understanding of any given text. Number 6 uses multiple approaches to comprehending a text through sensory images and visual aid. With number 7, synthesizing and extending thinking is the mastery of comprehension and what is seen in the Academic Literacy Model.
Number 5, on the other hand, has to do with fix-up strategies which are used to repair confusion. A fix up strategy as quoted from the text: "is any strategy used by a reader to help get unstuck when the text becomes confusing." This is what I believe defines a "good reader". A "good reader" to me is someone who can properly analyze a text and who is not afraid to ask questions. Asking questions is something that I have found to be a problem in the classroom. For example, I taught a lesson on punnett squares for a science class. I would start by going over a few examples on the board and would then ask the students if they understood. I saw a few students acknowledge and yet I would continue to scan the class for perplexed faces. Once I noticed these students I would do a more detailed example and would continue until students were able to walk me through the steps and there were no more confused faces. Noticing that students feel uncomfortable asking questions in front of their peers, I have found a discrete way to go about this so that no individual student is pointed out. I have also found that by doing this students become more comfortable and are therefore more likely to ask questions free from embarrassment. All in all I think a huge crutial point is promoting students to ask questions so that they may in turn become "good readers" and come to a better understanding of texts in general.
Megan, I'm not sure that I agree with how you relate the reading skills to Gee's theory. The reading skills listed are derived from cognitive studies of expert readers, and the assumption is that kids will read better if we just directly teach them how to do them. I'm not sure that such instruction is enough, especially in light of your experiences with science classes (both yours as an undergraduate and later as a substitute teacher). It seems that interest and connection, and perhaps identity, and just as important as cognitive processes. Is it possible that we learn the cognitive processes in ways that are not directly teachable?
ReplyDeletePenny-
DeleteI don't necessarily believe that it is that cut and dry. I believe that they author is giving them tools but not the answer. In the book she approaches a student that finds a connection to a character in a book that also has a younger brother. The author/teacher then asks questions to allow the student to go further and to see more of a meaningful connection. As the student thinks he comes to the understanding that the mother in the story is not abusive but is clearly wanting the help from the older brother. He then goes on to state that he hasn't heard of a father being in their life so that would mean that the older brother is the man of the household and therefore has a lot of responsibilities. So the teacher isn't telling them that a=b, but she is asking them to explain a by relating it to themselves. As a teacher she is unable to make that connection for them this is a process that each student has to learn on their own.
Furthermore, the author stated in chapter one that helping students with comprehension is not something that is going to happen over night. She acknowledges this obstacle and shows ways that each content area can enhance their students comprehension. Also in chapter three she finds that every content area approaches a text in different ways. From here she slows down the translation of the text for the teachers by giving them a difficult text so that they may see their step by step decoding process so that they may take note and present it to their students.
I believe that in chapter 2 she is clearly just giving a diagram that will allow the students to slow down in their reading and really start to think about what is going on in the text.
I agree with you that asking questions does seem to be an issue in the classrooms. Kids are too afraid to ask questions and even as an adult, I can admit to that as well! You're right that being a good reader doesn't include just good fluency, but also a good understanding of the text.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't able to ask questions besides "Can I go to the bathroom", until my years in undergrad.
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