Holly's Week 8 Post (Sorry, it would not let me comment on Allison's)

The readings for this week also made me more aware of comprehension processes of my own and of students in my classroom.  I completely feel the same as Allison about the reading processes from Tompkins, chapter 2; when I read for enjoyment and I choose what I read, I only go to stage 2 of the reading process (Pre-reading and reading).  Once in a while I will talk with others about the book I read if they also read the same book, but commonly I just stop at stage 2.  When I read for school, I often have to use 4 or all 5 of the reading processes (pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, and applying).  When I read for school, I take notes, write blogs or summaries of the readings, and apply what I have learned to written essays. 

I use a variety of the comprehension strategies from Tompkins, chapter 8 also.  When I read anything, I go back and reread small parts of the text if I feel confused or like I missed something.  This helps me fill in the gap so I know what the text is trying to get across.  For school readings it is more difficult for me to make connections than it is when I read for enjoyment.   In some of my classes, we only read from large, boring/dry textbooks that are hard to personally connect to, but I relate the material to past classes or information from previous lectures.  Readings in my teaching classes often interest me, so that helps me stay focused on the reading.  Discussing these readings in our teaching classes helps me to further my understanding of them or different interpretations of them.  I connect the readings to my past experiences and to what I experience in placement.  When I read for pleasure, I also visualize and create a movie-like image in my mind.  By doing this, I also connect the text to other texts with similar themes, characters, or plots.  I frequently relate the text to movies also since I enjoy watching movies in my free time.  When making predictions about what will come next in the text, I picture that happening in my head and may visualize multiple scenarios, but choose the one that seems to fit the best based on the part of the text that was just read.  For many school readings that are in textbooks I cannot visualize or predict what is next, but I take notes of what seems important and connect the readings to other classes or what is going on in my community, nation, or the world.

Unlike Allison, I see a small group of students that are read aloud to by the MT.  The MT reads a book aloud to about ten students that are in the “lower level” reading group.  During the reading, the MT asks simple comprehension questions that are explicitly from the text for the “literalists” that think all answers are in the text, but these students have difficulty answering other questions if they cannot find it in the book.  After reading the book, the students have a “discussion” that is really a recitation, but everyone gets to participate.  Usually the MT will ask a question that has no right or wrong answer so the students feel more comfortable answering in front of the class and the MT has them go around the circle to answer aloud with their thoughts.  The students seem to favor questions that they can relate the text to prior knowledge or experiences because it feels more personal and interesting to them. 

The last time I was at my placement we tried a trial run of a real discussion.  First, we talked about what a discussion is and set up some ground rules like: listen by looking at the speaker and not talking, share your ideas, you can agree or disagree with each other but regardless you should be kind and respectful.  I noticed that some of the students shared characteristics that matched many of the profiles of comprehension.  I think I need to observe the student responses more so I can get a better understanding of their particular profile.  After that one time, it is hard to tell, but I noticed a lot of the students used background knowledge to answer questions along with some information from the text.  This sounds like a “quiz contestant,” but I will have to watch their “discussions” more closely to try to figure out what each student’s comprehension profile is.

As stated in Tompkins chapter 8, teachers need to understand that the comprehension process involves both reader and text factors.  The readers should be motivated by the teacher in a safe feeling environment so they are more comfortable.  My class seems to be comfortable in their small reading group, but usually asks questions in a recitation form (I-R-E, Initiate, Respond, and Evaluate).  In Applegate’s article, it explains that this method creates “missed opportunities for teachers to model for their students the true nature of reading.”  I want to try to encourage the students to be engaged in a discussion that has questions that they need to justify their answers and can see multiple perspectives by listening to other students viewpoints.   I agree with Allison’s idea, from the Gregory article about the making of mind movies to help comprehend text.  After the MT reads aloud and asks questions, they use white boards to practice writing their ideas.  In addition to this, students could draw what they imagined in their head when listening to the text or draw their favorite part of the book and have a discussion about the book and their drawings of the best part.  I will keep all of these great ideas in mind when doing my language arts lesson and will carry them with me into my internship year and further teaching.