After reading Tomkin's Chapter 7 on Facilitating students' comprehension and the article "Profiles in Comprehension" I feel that I'm a little more metacognitive about the comprehension strategies I use and the struggles I personally face.
Out of the eight comprehension strategies mentioned, I think I most struggle with identifying big ideas and summarizing. I have a hard time making my reading, or writing experience, as compact as needed. I'm sort of one of those people that highlight everything in the text. Too many things seem important to me, I include many details as part of my "big ideas." The two strategies are definitely interrelated. If you struggle identifying "big ideas" than you most likely struggle summarizing because summarizing is joining all of the big ideas together. Say I read an article or selection for class, the next day I'll usually remember a random detail but maybe forget a few of the main points. I think I do this because the comprehension strategy, connecting, comes to me most easily. Connecting is when readers activate their background knowledge to make connections or links. Three main connections are text to text, text to self, and text to world. I think since I've been in college I've greatly improved my "connecting" strategy. As a language arts teaching major, I've had to take a fair amount of English classes. Many of these classes require the student to make one of the three connections.
When reading Applegate, Quinn, and Applegate's article "Profiles in Comprehension" I definitely saw myself in one of their eight profiles. Before I went to college, I know I definitely was a "literalist." A literalist looks for all answers to any type of question to be stated in the text. I definitely did just that. I distinctly remember become frustrated when I couldn't find an exact answer in the text. Throughout my schooling, however, I have found that my comprehension struggles have lessoned. I have become a better reader.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
(2/20) Erin "Understanding MY Reading Processes"
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2 comments:
I totally can relate to what you are saying about highlighting everything in the book when you read a chapter. I do that too! I think that every sentence sounds great! Sometimes I think that I assume that because it is written in a publish text, that everything it says it right and great. I think that is why I struggle with writing lesson plans, because there are so many "big ideas" that I want my student to know and understand.
I think that it is important for us as teachers to understand the profile that our students fall under for comprehension, but also not to bubble them into the category with no opportunities to move. Even if a student may comprehend things in a certain way, it does not mean that they do not have the ability to comprehend in other ways. Teachers need to allow their students to comprehend in multiple ways and encourage comprehension in less used areas. Erin, after reading your blog, I think that you agree with that, by the way you stated how your comprehension strategies and profiles have changed throughout your schooling career.
When I first read that you struggle the most with identifying the big ideas and summarizing text, I initially thought that it had to do with the way you were engaged in books. Specifically, I thought that it had something do with how you were thinking about the book while you were reading it. For example, are you asking yourself questions and making predictions? I thought that this might be the reason because I have found out that this usually helps to understand a book a little better.
After continuing to read your post however I realized that this might not be the problem after all. I am the same way as you; I have a hard time compacting any type of thought, idea, or summary. When I read a textbook, it is full of different colors of highlighters because I highlight so much stuff. A good strategy to use to try to avoid this might be trying to think about a question or objective that you have before and during reading a book. This way you are just focusing on the material in the book that relates to a sole objective or question. I agree that being able to identify the big ideas in a story and being able to summarize text are directly related. To help you identify the big ideas in the text, you might just want to think about the things that you thought were important or that stuck out to you to help you summarize the text better.
I think that your struggles with identifying big ideas and summarizing text may have a lot to do with you being a literalist. Both of these skills involve extending the text and your knowledge to come up with a bigger idea. The book will not just point out the big ideas and summary nor will everyone’s big ideas and summary be the same. I am interested in the reasons why you think that you may have troubles with these skills. Do you think that it may have to do with the type of assignments and teaching that you currently have in college. For instance you can’t always rely on the teacher to help you figure something out, you are foreced to do it. Also the type of assignments you have now may be different. Instead of working on worksheets or direct answers you are now expected to use those same answers and turn them into bigger or more complex ideas. I personally think that it may have to do with the expectations that your teachers had in the past; did they expect you to look at a book and find an answer, or did they expect you to go beyond the text to find a deeper meaning?
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