Creating Graphic organizers really helped me learn about the reading. First of all, it made me evaluate what was really important to write down. This caused me to look over all the information and evaluate its importance. To determine this, I had to see how each part connected with the others, and how significant it was in regards to the topic. I feel that I learned alot from doing several chapters at once, specifically Chapters 7 and 8 in Tompkins. They each delt with teaching comprehension, but one chapter delt with the reader, and the other detailed the text and how it impacts comprehension. Creating graphic orgainizers for these chapters at the same time really helped me compare and contrast these chapters in my head. I was able to make connections in how I organized the chapters, making it obvious how they are connected, and how one impacts the other.
As far as the reading go, I was very intrested in them. I felt like none of them were totally new information, but they presented information I knew in a way that I had never thought about before. For example, I had never realized how helpful it was to understanding headings or bolded text. I realized that I use both of these to help me understand and comprehend what I am reading, but I never thought about it before. This reading made it apparent to me what I do to understand what I read. This will make me a more effective teacher, because I will be aware of what I do, and be able to relate this information to my students.
I was amazed at what I learned from the Gibbons chapter. The different stratigies that people use to understand what they read are all based on personal knowledge or cultral knowledge. I feel like I knew this, but had never thought of it. This puts an English Language Learner at a great disadvantage. Not only do they have to struggle with the language, but they have not had the experiences they are reading about, and cannot relate to what they are reading. It is difficult to understand not because they are unable to comprehend, but because it is not relevant to them at all. This made me realize how important it is to challenge ELL students, and provide them with many MANY activities to supplement reading. I found the different activities in the book to be very helpful and useful.
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Katie-
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the Gibbons chapter and how it made you see things in such a new light than before. I had always thought that people interpreted texts in their own way, but I never realized how much someone's culture or family background would influence a text as well. You are right, this puts ELLs at a MAJOR disadvantage when it comes to interpreting text. I have actually seen this first-hand inside and outside my classroom. In my CT's classroom we have 1 ESL student from China that has a little bit of trouble interpreting texts that contain things that may not be in his country. Outside of the classroom I struggle as I tutor South Korean students because there are many components of our culuture that they just don't understand, as well as much of the slang that we use being impossible for them to understand without further explanation. I think as teachers it is very important for us to constantly assess these students and their progress and differentiate our instruction to try to cater to these individuals so that they are able to keep up with those who are understanding at a normal level.