Growing up I struggled
greatly with comprehension. I never could remember what I just read, and 90% of
the time I would read a page and at the end I had no idea what I just read. The
Tompkins book mentions the importance of Fluency when reading and trying to
comprehend the material that you are reading. Fluency is so important because
readers are able to recognize words that they are reading automatically, read
with expression and at a fluent speed. This helps readers understand the
information they are reading because they do not have to focus on pronouncing
words and decoding sentences. This is one reason why I was so poorly with
comprehension because I struggled reading books fluently. I was the kid that
read word by word until the fifth grade.
Also, mentioned in the
Tompkins book are different comprehension levels. I would definitely say that
depending on the type of book and the difficulty of the book affects what level
my comprehension is at. For example, the first level, literal comprehension is
when “readers pick out main ideas, sequence details, notice similarities and
differences, and identify explicitly stated reasons” (Tompkins, pg 257). I
would say if I am reading a challenging book or a text book for school that I
do not quiet understand I am only able to reach this level of comprehension if
I am lucky. The second level is inferential comprehension. This is when
“readers use clues in the text, implied information and their background
knowledge to draw inferences. They make predictions, recognize cause and
effect, and determine the author’s purpose” (Tompkins, pg 258) I would say that
I usually have inferential comprehension when reading my education books, I am
trying to understand what the author is saying and what purpose he has. I also
draw on a lot of my own experiences to help myself relate to the information
that is being shared. The last level is crucial comprehension “readers analyze
symbolic meanings, distinguish fact from opinion, and draw conclusions”
(Tompkins, pg 258). I find myself often having this level of comprehension when
I am reading a book for fun, I am drawn into the book constantly trying to make
conclusions and understand different symbolic meanings. I think that the level
of comprehension definitely goes hand and hand with the level of the text you
are reading and if you are able to read the text fluently and if you find the
book enjoyable and the information pulling you into the book and wanting to
keep reading more.
My
students are currently reading a Greek gods book, all the students are very
engaged and interested in this book. They try to find any time that they can
throughout the day to continue reading. Not only is the book engaging but also
often my mentor teacher elicits group conversations over what they just read.
Like mentioned in the Applegate article she asks higher order questions and
pushes her students to engage in the book and develop a deep understanding.
With having many group discussions over this book and allowing the students to
explore their own questions and thoughts with the books keep the students
engage. Also, this helps some students that are struggling a little to
understand the book to review the information they just read. By having
students listening to how other students paraphrase the chapter that was just
read is a great review for all students. Also, what is great is that my mentor
teacher has the students draw pictures that summarize each chapter that they
read. By drawing the pictures it forces the students to think of the main
information that took place in that specific chapter. This is difficult for
some students to be able to pick out the main topic instead of a couple small
events that took place in the book. One
section that I really enjoyed reading in the Applegate article was the
different types of profiles in comprehension. My classroom has a wide range of students’
levels of reading and their levels of comprehension. There are a couple of
students that are the “fuzzy thinkers” where they cannot directly answer a
question and just provide very basic simple answers. It is clear that they did
not totally understand the information that they read because when trying to
ask more in depth questions they often are not able to provide an answer. I
also have a couple of students that are dodgers; I never realized that they
fell within a category. When they have an short answer they have to write on a
test or a questions provided in a discussion often the students will provide a
very detailed answer however it did not answer the specific question. The
student will change the question, sometimes just slightly so that they are able
to answer the questions correctly because they were unaware of the initial
question. These readings have provided
me with a new incite onto how to best help my students become better at
comprehending the text and how to word questions and discussion in a way to
elicit the best responses and involvement from students.
The readings assigned this week emphasized and described many of the strengths and weaknesses that I have with reading comprehension. I have experienced both difficulty and success in comprehending multiple forms of texts in many different modes. It has been noted that overtime, comprehension abilities improve. In my personal experience, this was mainly the caused by an increase in fluency and the continuous development of comprehension strategies. Tompkins states that the reading process has multiple stages: pre-reading, reading, responding, exploring, and applying. While reading this section of the chapter, exploring seemed to resonate with me the most. Especially in high school, going back to look at the text more analytically greatly improved my comprehension, as well as the value I put toward the text. For example, in a college writing class that I took my junior year, we read the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. I had very little understanding of the text after the first reading. Like Tompkins says, in the exploring stage, students focus on words and sentences and examine the author’s work. After doing these things and discussing with my classmates in a whole-group discussion, I was able to identify the underlying themes and the emotions of the main characters.
ReplyDeleteTompkins also discusses the prerequisites for comprehension, one in particular being background knowledge. The text states, “When students have both world knowledge and literacy knowledge, it provides a bridge to a new text” (259). This is a factor that I feel greatly influences my comprehension, specifically with standardized tests. A similar trend is seen in my scores for MEAP tests, the ACT, and most recently, the MTTC Elementary Education Certification Test; my scores for Language Arts are always the lowest because of poor comprehension. I believe that this is because the student is given very little background information about the excerpt that they are reading, and therefore, they score low on the questions expanding on more complex ideas.
In addition to the Tompkins readings, I also identified with the Applegate reading, especially in terms of what teaching has evolved into. Many times throughout my education, my teachers claimed that my classmates and I would engage in an “open-ended” discussion about the book, when actually, they were initiating a discussion in IRE form. Applegate states, “The questions asked should not lead to a single correct response, the answers to them must be justified logically by readers, and encourage discussion”. This idea greatly contrasts to many of the “discussions” that I have engaged in; any answer posed would be evaluated, both in a good and bad way, by my teacher. I remember my classmates and me always wondering if our thoughts and ideas about texts would be “right”. Applegate emphasizes that we need to stray away from this tendency in order for students to have greater opportunities for comprehension; if they can openly evaluate and interpret texts, they can develop a greater understanding.
Today I taught my literacy discussion lesson to my 4th grade class. As discussed in the Applegate reading, I wanted my students to be engaged in "higher order thinking," and providing "multiple viewpoints" about the text that they were given to analyze. This got me thinking about my own experiences with reading comprehension. I believe that I was never really exposed to a class discussion until late middle or high school. Once my teachers began incorporating discussions into their lessons, I found literature to be much more enjoyable, relative, and easier to decipher. The Applegate article states that students who engage in discussion are much more interested and motivated in reading than those that don't.I find this to be a very true statement. The more we talked about a book we were reading, the more we discovered and explored. This made us all quite confident that we could write about the books many different elements on a test or within a critical essay.
ReplyDeleteLike Lorraine's classroom, there are many different levels of reading comprehension going on (They are also involved in a Gods and myths book and writing activity as well!). My MT actively talks about the book with her students, but not in actual discussion format. Often my MT uses IRE because she promotes the use of discovering the answer(s) and supporting your opinion with proof from the text or illustrations. Lindsey wrote in her post that the Applegate article said that the questions a teacher asks when working on literacy comprehension "should not lead to a single correct response..." but should allow for multiple interpretations of a text. This way, IRE will be taken out of the equation entirely because it will be impossible for students to provide only one single right answer.
By classifying my students based on the Applegate reading, I can see that I have a variety of different thought patterns within the classroom. One of the most common types of students I see in my classroom are the minimalists. According to Applegate, minimalists "are usually reluctant to elucidate their responses or explain their thinking." I often feel that the students are simply going through the motions and rushing assignments without taking the time to really think about them, therefore they have nothing to say on a deeply critical level. Other students are minimalists because they aren't confident in their abilities to produce good work. Some students in the class feel that it is best to produce nothing, then try to complete a task and fail.' Another reason suggested in the /tompkins resourse could be that students lack real world or background knowledge to properly answer the questions that are being asked of them. Applegate says that one of the best ways to help minimalists is "a safe and supportive classroom environment that encourages and celebrates the contribution of all students." Other helpful ideas include journals, spreadsheets and organizers, to help students gather their ideas and thoughts ahead of time. Teachers can also do their best to plan thoughtful and accessible lessons that kids can relate to.