Saturday, February 23, 2013
Reading Comprehension Processes
I am in a Kindergarten classroom so the reading that helped me the most in learning about the reading behaviors of the learners in my classroom would be Kindergarteners Can Do It Too. I really liked how Mrs. Hope explained visualization to her classroom. I thought that explaining to the students that when visualizing a story it is like making mind movies I thought was really creative and also a really simplified explanation of what they were thinking about while visualizing. I liked how she would read them a few pages and have them explain what they were seeing in their mind movies and also have them draw out what they were thinking. I think visualization is such a huge part of reading because as students begin to move away from picture books they need to be able to visualize what is happening in chapter books in order to fully comprehend everything that is going on in the story. I also liked how this Kindergarten teacher had the students do I wonders while they were reading. I feel like most of the time, my teacher asks the questions and students answer but from reading this I see that Kindergarten students have the ability to question the text which helps them interact with the text in a meaningful way. What I learned from this article is that my class can do so much more than I thought they could. Young students can visualize, ask questions, make connections, and infer when interacting with texts. Even the article says that most people would assume that these things are all associated with students who are older, but seen in Mrs. Hope's classroom with a lot of explicit instruction even young students will be able to understand and interpret text. I learned that it is also very important to use visual cues when doing this process with young students like hand signals and charts written out for students to look at. I think this is really interesting to me especially because I am in a Kindergarten classroom because I was able to see that students are able to do way more while reading a story than I thought. It is especially interesting to me because I will be teaching my lesson next week to my students and so it makes me begin to think if I could do more with my students and maybe have them ask the questions as opposed to me asking them all.
I also was very interested in the article by Applegate where I was able to read about different kinds of readers. The categories they put readers into was really interesting to me because I have never seen anything like this. I realized I have always been a literalist while reading. I never really dug that deep into the text and I always think that I will be able to find the answer to questions right from the text. If someone had asked me a question about a fact about the text, like the reading said about which sibling was older, if I didn't know I would most likely think I missed that fact while I was reading and would go back to look for what I missed. I've always struggled think about an overall theme of the story and things like that. I realized that for all different types of readers there are strategies teachers can do to assist their students to fully comprehend the text you are reading in the classroom.
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Leanne, I also really enjoyed Kindergartners Can Do It, Too! I really liked the strategies that Mrs. Hope used. For example, I thought the way she had students respond by holding up their hands in different ways was very interesting, and I also liked how she refers to visualization as mind movies! I agree with you when you say it is a simplified way to understand the meaning of visualization. Since I have been placed in a sixth grade classroom, I do not see many of these techniques, however I do not think they would hurt. I could really see sixth graders doing something very similar to this, and it being beneficial for them too!
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading Profiles in comprehension, I had a hard time identifying what kind of reader I was at first. However, I do think that I am a “Literalist” as well. For example, if I am reading a book and stumble over something that I do not understand, my first reaction is to flip back a few pages and see what I missed. I instantly think that I must have read over something instead of it not being there. However, from previous classes I have learned to read a bit differently. TE 348 taught me to look at children’s books completely different. I now know how important it is to select the right book and to have multiple genres available in your classroom. I learned how much illustrations can tell you and even how certain word choices can affect the overall tone of the book. From TE 448, I learned how to look deeply into texts and question the author’s authority. Both classes have taught me new ways to read and view children’s literature.
When I was younger, I think I would have classified myself as a “Quiz Contestant” reader because I always wanted to provide the “correct” answer to the teacher, however I would not always have evidence from the text to back up my response. In my head I would just think something that made sense and shoot my hand into the air as fast as I could. However, I do not think this is a bad way to classify a reader because it shows off how creative and thoughtful they can be. It is only bad in the sense of comprehension, where there are explicit answers that can be found in the text.
In a way I think that these types of readers could help each other and it is interesting how I have changed from one to the other. As a child I visualized much more when reading or being read to, and now I feel as though I am a very direct reader. I look straight for the answers and spend little time thinking of the overall themes or hidden messages in a book. I do however think that it depends on what you are reading. If I was reading a novel versus a textbook, my reading skills may be a little different.
If I had both types of readers in my classroom I would encourage them to work together. I think that they would really benefit seeing each other’s point of view and learn that there are many different kinds of readers, which are all equally important.
I enjoyed reading how Mrs. Hope engaged her kindergarteners in reading and in discusion. I found it to be very interesting as I am in a kindergarten class right now for my field placement and I did not realize the amount of strategies that can go into having a good discusion with the class. Although I thought she had many great ideas, I felt as if the strategies were very student situational. For instance we have many kindergartens that have attention problems that if they were asked to make a mind movie, they would not listen to the story and would take that visualizing time as a time to screw around and pull on their classmate's clothes or be touching someone's hair. Of course these students have days that are better than others, but mainly I suppose I am just stating that I believe that these methods would work better for some students more than others, but this does not change my thoughts on what I think about her visualization strategies, for I think they are very effective.
ReplyDeleteThe mind movies are a very good technique for younger students to use because they are able to understand what is expected of them without using complicating words. When a teacher tells younger students to visualize, I'm sure that this word may confuse students, especially at a kindergarten level. So by telling students to make mind movies it is easy as telling them to picture a movie in their mind from the text that is being read to them.
In reflecting upon the Applegate article, I was very surprised as to how many different kinds of readers were present. This was a very good article to read to become more conscious to the fact that I will have many different readers in my future classroom and I will have to be able to cater to all of my students reading abilities to the best of my ability. Just like you, Leanne, I was able to see that I was a literalist reader as well when I was growing up. I was never a student that was able to read something once and be able to answer any question that was asked of me. I was the kind of student that if I was asked a question I would have to go back and try and find where that information was in the text. If I could not find the answer I would become frustrated and try to read differently the next time, and that never seemed to work out in my favor either.
Overall, I think it is very important to have various strategies available to students. There are multiple ways in which students learn to the best of their ability, so it is important to be able to foster that as a teacher. I know when I was growing up I was always very frustrated when a teacher would tell me I had to do or think in a certain way, because I had my own way of learning that best fit me. When I am a teacher I will do everything in my power to support my students in the best way that I can.