Comprehension Strategies

I would have to say that after doing this week's readings and participating in the class discussions, I found out a little more about my own reading comprehension processes and strategies. In the past, I have had a tendency to fall into the pattern of being a Literalist, as defined by Applegate et. al., because my language arts instruction in middle school and high school was based on the assumption that all of the answers to the questions posed can be found in the text. Furthermore, many of my classes in high school were focused on written criticism of text we had recently read, so I was also taught that if I couldn't find the answer to a question posed by my teacher in the text itself, then the answer would be available in a critique of the story. I don't think this is necessarily a bad approach to literature, but it is if it's used exclusively. For example, I think it's a good idea to have students look for facts within literature, but I also think it's a good idea for teachers to encourage students to look for their own interpretations as well. By doing this, teachers would show students the vivacity of the written word and that there is more than one interpretation to the story.

I also connected my comprehension style with what Miller characterized, making connections to the text. I find that as I read, I will make connections from the text to something that happened in my own personal life or something that I have seen on the news or read about before. I know Erin mentioned that she does this as well, and almost automatically as she is reading. I just find it easier to relate to a piece of literature or a text if I can make these connections, because by doing this, the text becomes more relevant and meaningful to me.

In the field, my teacher teaches comprehension processes through a variety of activities and modeling during reading workshop time. During this time, the students gather on the carpet area while the teacher reads a text. Each week, or every two weeks, the teacher focuses on a certain area of comprehension or a way to analyze a story and he models it with his class. For example, as he was reading Mr. Lincoln's Way, with his class, they were focused on making inferences and predictions, so every once in a while, he would stop in the story and say "Hmmm, I know that Mr. Lincoln is doing this, so I need to think that he is feeling that," or "Well Mr. Lincoln just did this, so I wonder how his student will react." This is a form of guided modeling that the teacher is showing his students. He frequently goes into much more detail than I listed above, but it's more meaningful within the context of the story. Neufeld sited the importance of this type of modeling. He discussed that by modeling thinking processes to students, they can come to internalize the thought process and develop their own successful comprehension strategies. I agree with Neufeld's ideas, and I would strive to model thinking strategies during my upcoming language arts lesson, and in my future classroom as well.