Reading Comprehension
In any interaction with a text, the text is pretty much useless unless the reader can comprehend the meaning of that text. Since narrative, expository, and poetic texts all have different reasons for being written, and different forms of presenting the text, different strategies are needed to comprehend these texts. There are also many reading strategies that can be used for all of these types of text.
In order to describe strategies to help develop activities that facilitate comprehension of narrative, expository, and poetic texts one must first have an understanding of what comprehension means, they then need a better understanding of how the human brain works. “Comprehension is a creative, multifaceted thinking process in which students engage with the text,” Judith Irwin (1991) defines comprehension as a readers process of using prior experiences and the author’s text to construct meaning that’s useful to that reader for a specific purpose.” (Tompkins, 2010,p. 258)
With both of these definitions of comprehension they use the word process in the definition. The use of this word implies that comprehension is not immediate and there is a process that can be used to obtain it. This process, uses both the working memory and the long term memory portion of the brian, and a brief understanding of this process is essiential. There is a limit to what a person can hold in short term memory and the strategies used to teach comprehension must take this into consideration. By using strategies that limit the amount of information that is used in short term memory, the student can process this information and arrive at a better comprehension of what they read. The goal of reading is to put the comprehension of w...
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English Language Arts. London: Routledge, Retrieved from:
http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.credoreference.com/entry/routengart/comprehension
Julie Coiro, J. C. (2011). Assessment Frameworks for Teaching and Learning English
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Sweller, J. (2005). Learning Aids and Strategies. Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science.
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Tompkins, G. E. (2010). Literacy fir the 21st Century A Balanced Approach. Boston:
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reader creates “supplementary meaning” to the text by unconsciously setting up tension, also called binary opposition. Culler describes this process in his statement “The process of thematic interpretation requires us to move from facts towards values, so we can develop each thematic complex, retaining the opposition between them” (294). Though supplementary meaning created within the text can take many forms, within V...
Clarisse may be the consciousness of Montag because her questions drove Montag to his profound thoughts as they kept on having a conversation. Clarisse was a very peculiar girl that she has a very special feature which not everybody has. In my opinion, Clarisse is the igniter or a factor of Montag’s enlightenment in the way she made Montag to question his society and life.
Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Fiction. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to:
...t comprehension, it is important to analyze and view all aspects of the text, this will ensure the education you’re receiving, as well as the personal ties you make while reading.
For that, Welty needs exemplification. When coupled with the diction, exemplification serves as the main device implemented merging her experiences into a essay the explains the her relationship with fiction, and reading as a whole. Welty is a storyteller and she uses her skill to craft the narrative that describe her relationship with fiction. She describes the near mythological terror of the minotaur of the librarian, Ms. Jackson, who guarded the labyrinthian library of her hometown. She reminisces over the titles countless books she inhaled, two by two, as she rushed, back and forth, day after day, to the library for more. She speaks of her mother, who shared that same joy of reading, and who also enabled her to get her first library card. She illustrates about how books were ever present in her house. It’s through this exemplification and description that Welty is able to justify to the reader why books had such an intense role in her life, and why reading has held such value to her. Books were everywhere, they permeated her childhood. The effect of her vivid descriptions are that the reader and the author's perspective are merged. Rather than reading than reading the text, the reader experience’s it, and it's through the shared viewpoint that reader is able to realize the intensity and value reading brought to Welty’s
The authors’ main argument in “Rhetorical Reading Strategies & The Construction of Meaning” is that reading is both a constructive and discourse act, in which readers must construct meaning of a text. The authors of this article, Christina Haas and Linda Flower conducted a study in which they used a think-aloud protocol to analyze the participants’ thoughts and understanding of the text after they had read aloud. The authors also noticed that the more experienced readers used rhetorical reading strategies which contributed to a more efficient understanding of difficult texts. Despite the study, readers should use combine prior knowledge and careful reading along with the ability to read a text on several levels rather than being limited to
Language stands in for the actual substance in absence. How can you prove something exists without it literally being there? How do you describe the color red, or the taste of salt? You present it with a connection: it is the taste of sea water splashing to your face, the glow of sweat after a glorious game, and tears after having your heart break before you. Not being able to have the substance there can limit communication, but moreover it increases the opportunity for literature and language to “play”. Daniel Coleman explores this concept in his book, In Bed with the Word: Reading, Spirituality, and Cultural Politics, with an example of a musical performance. Though there is no life in the actual notes on a page, the pianist can eloquently give them life with each touch of her finger; they burst through the room and can dance with exquisite excitement (Coleman, 84). The text from an author can be given an equal opportunity for a performance as the reader chooses to fill in the gaps where communication is limited. The absence then becomes an even greater presence where the spirit can engage in something grander than itself. Therefore, the reason we read is to fill in the absence and to create a greater connection with the world.
Haas and Flower write about “examining reading as a meaning-constructing activity shaped by rhetorical principles”(Haas and Flower 1988). The authors more specifically discuss rhetorical reading strategies with the use of tables, figures, and examples. They also discuss a method to provide “a good way of capturing of what’s going on in peoples heads”, (Haas and Flower 1988) that may
What does Montag think of his feelings would be if his wife dies? Montag began to think about how him and Mildred’s marriage started, which both of them don’t remember. His thoughts were, “he remembered thinking then that if she died, he was certain he wouldn't cry. For it would be the dying of an unknown, a street face, a newspaper image, and it was suddenly so very wrong that he had begun to cry, not at death but at the thought of not crying at death, a silly empty man near a silly empty woman, while the hungry snake made her still more empty.”(Page 41), which means Montag won’t be sad about the fact Mildred has died but the fact he doesn’t feel anything but empty and how the society made him deprived in emotions.
What goes through your mind when you read? Do you read deliberately, looking for certain aspects, or do you read as a blank slate? When reading, professors expect a deliberateness that will help you to uncover meanings that are not readily apparent. Thomas C. Foster in his book “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” expands on this concept. He endeavors to instruct his readers in the way he believes they should read, in order to get the most out of each book. He concedes that, “When lay readers encounter a fictive text, they focus, as they should, on the story and the characters” but to truly read like a professor you must also divert a portion of your attention on “other elements of the novel” such as “memory… symbol… [And] pattern” (Foster, 15). Foster clarifies
2. Students will learn to integrate information from several texts on the same or different subject in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. To support students’ comprehension of texts on fifth-grade topics in all subject areas, students learn the meaning of g...
Comprehension is the purpose of reading. Comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from a given text and applying that to the students background knowledge.
Now when I read, I acquire some backstory of the author to understand their culture and experiences. This information allows me to use one of the best strategies a person could possess when reading, using empathy. Empathy allows me to put myself in their frame of mind during the time he or she was writing said piece. Another strategy I use is detection of diction. I seem to be able to know which words the author has intended to stress and leave unstressed, like an internal pentameter.
It is important that when selecting complex text educators look for specific factors that would meet each reader’s needs. These factors include language proficiency, background knowledge and experiences, and level of motivation. Depending on the factors mentioned, the educators can differentiate the instruction to meet the needs of the students where they could read a text and apply strategies learned. It is important to understand the text complexity because we do want readers to read text which are not challenging enough or that are extremely challenge that would make their self-efficacy low. Therefore, when Fisher & Frey (2012) stated the factors to take into consideration when selecting a text are established, readers would interact with the text. Moreover, the use of comprehension strategies like question and answer relationships (Reutzel & Cooter, 2016) would help the readers comprehend the text as they read
comprehension instruction: A comparison of instruction for strategies and content approaches ―[Electronic version]. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(3), 218–253.