The readings today really made me evalute my own reading strateties. First, I was suprised not only how often I used the strategies the texts discussed, but how often I saw them used in the classroom. It was exciting for me. I was really able to understand the reading, because I could apply it to my experiences. For example, the Text described the reading process in five stages, Prereading, Reading, Responding, Exploring, and Applying. I have seen my teacher relate the readings to her life, and that of her students. I have seen her make predictions and apply stratigeies to help the children understand what they are reading. The children are always given time to respond to the text in both discussion and writing (or drawing). Then the children will work with the text to explore it, and then complete projects to apply what they have learned. It was exciting and rewarding to read the text and be able to connect it to what I have seen.
The text also helped me learn a great deal about comprehension and how to help readers who struggle with it. For example, I thought that comprehension was simply understand what one read. I never thought how background knolwedge or making inferences or motivation could influence comprehension. I have always wanted to do good in school, and have been very motivated in all areas, so I was suprised to see how this has helped me comprehend what I was learning. I took motivation for granite. It was intresting to see how teachers can influence students, espically in regards to motivation. The text pointed out how attitiude and community along with instruction are all ways that teachers can influence students positively, and encourage them to learn, makeing them successful at comprehending. The text really made it apparent that comprehending goes beyond relaying what the text says, but really understanding and working with the text to make it meaningful.
Finally, the Proflies in Comprehension text was very intresting. It made me aware of the differences in children and how they interperate the text. The article made me realize how children may appear to not understand what they are reading, but in reality they just do not know how to answer. I was excited to read the stratigies on how to help the different profiles acheive comprehenshion. These strategies seem helpful not only for the different proflies, but for all children in learning comprehension.
In all these ways, the texts have helped me understand more about comprehension and how to help children learn to the best of their ability.
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Katie-
ReplyDeleteI think you did a really nice job summarizing the articles. I definitely agree with you, though, about how it was so eye-opening to read about comprehension and how it is more than just understanding what the words mean. It is relating to the text, and also reflecting on it so that is much more personable to the reader. I truly think that as a young learner, this was why I struggled. I always had difficulty on the reading portions of the MEAP test, the ACT, and the SAT. I truly believe after reading this article that it is because I was always reading on those tests strictly for the words that were printed in front of me and to try to answer the questions. Whenever I read, it never felt like it applied to my life in any way. I have learned that even though it is hard to effectively comprehend every text that you read, it is important to reflect on what you have read and not just read it for what is there if you truly want to grasp and comprehend it. As teachers, we need to remember that for our students and try to effectively involved in the text. This is why I will continuously try to differentiate my instruction so that students are seeing a different side to literature very frequently.