This book, at times frustrating and frankly patronizing, DID teach this not so old dog some new tricks. At the end of the day, looking past Keene's Utopia, pod-people children with genius IQ's, and Brady-esque happy endings wrapping up in 30 minutes... I learned a LOT of useful strategies that I was not only able to keep in my pocket but was able to use right away in class. It was helpful that she used her own experiences personally to illustrate certain strategies before talking about how she used it to solve a problem or taught it to a group of children. I was able to piece these parts of the chapter together to aide in greater understanding. I guess I was making a 'mosaic' of my own. In the end, I'm sure that's what she had in mind.
This book has made me examine my own teaching techniques. Do I challenge my students enough? Do I collaborate with colleagues enough? But mainly... to I MODEL enough? The answer to all three is no. At least I can learn from that and improve. As it is very important to model strategies to your students explicitly- it was equally important for Keene to explicitly model for us... her readers/students. Though admittedly her tone and vocabulary occasionally made me a bit queasy, she did do her job and I appreciate it. It will be a challenge for me to adapt some of her methods to the students that I teach, not because they're special ed but because they're NOT perfect Stepford children. I do wish that there was more "troubleshooting" in the book in the case of an emergency, but overall I am glad that I read it. I gained insight into a lot areas that were very fuzzy for me as a teacher, and I was able to first roll my eyes, and then get a good idea. :)
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Chapter Nine
The Contour and Substance of Meaning
This chapter starts with an article from the New York Times by David Remick from January 29, 1996. It is, might I say, an article not in the least bit interesting to me or to the author except for the fact that she was considering using it as an introduction to a chapter in this particular book on synthesis. After discussion with her co-author, they decide to use it to make a point. She states that as she read this particular article she was synthesizing during and after reading it. However, due to her experienced reading ability the synthesis didn’t come without the result of other comprehension strategies that she used as she read. It was composed of a myriad of tiny mental pieces that formed a mosaic of understanding of the text.
She continues to say that she wasn’t summarizing the article in her mind, for summarizing would be highlights of the text: a listing of parts whereas synthesis is the creation of a whole. Synthesis is the process of ordering, recalling, retelling and recreating into a coherent whole the information with which our minds are bombarded every day. Synthesis is a uniquely human trait that permits us sift through a myriad of details and focus on those pieces we need to know and remember. Synthesis is about organizing the different pieces to create a mosaic; a meaning. This is a process that we all engage in naturally every day.
The author now realizes that synthesis is absolutely basic. We must reorganize and create our own explanations for what we are learning, our own definitions of our lives at any particular point in time.
Some Key Ideas
The process of synthesizing occurs during reading:
v Proficient readers maintain a cognitive synthesis as they read. They monitor the overall meaning, important concepts and themes in the text as they read and are aware of ways test elements fir together to create that overall meaning and theme. A proficient reader’s synthesis is likely to extend the literal meaning of a text to the inferential level.
v Proficient readers are aware of text elements and patterns in fiction and nonfiction and understand that being aware of them as they read helps them predict and understand the overall meanings or themes.
v As they read, proficient readers attend more directly to character, setting, conflict, sequence of event, resolution, the theme in fiction and to text patterns such as description, chronological, cause and effect, comparison/contrast and problem/solution in nonfiction. The use this knowledge to make decisions about the overall meaning of a passage, chapter, or book.
v Proficient readers actively revise their cognitive syntheses as they read. New information is assimilated into the reader’s evolving ideas about the text, rendering some earlier decisions about the text obsolete.
The process of synthesizing occurs after reading:
v Proficient readers are able to express through a variety of means, a synthesis of what they have read. The synthesis includes ideas and themes relevant to the overall meaning from the text and is cogently presents.
v Proficient readers use synthesis to share, recommend, and critically review books they have read.
v Proficient readers purposefully use synthesis to better understand what they have read. Syntheses are frequently an amalgam of all comprehensions strategies use by proficient readers.
Barbara Stala
The Contour and Substance of Meaning
This chapter starts with an article from the New York Times by David Remick from January 29, 1996. It is, might I say, an article not in the least bit interesting to me or to the author except for the fact that she was considering using it as an introduction to a chapter in this particular book on synthesis. After discussion with her co-author, they decide to use it to make a point. She states that as she read this particular article she was synthesizing during and after reading it. However, due to her experienced reading ability the synthesis didn’t come without the result of other comprehension strategies that she used as she read. It was composed of a myriad of tiny mental pieces that formed a mosaic of understanding of the text.
She continues to say that she wasn’t summarizing the article in her mind, for summarizing would be highlights of the text: a listing of parts whereas synthesis is the creation of a whole. Synthesis is the process of ordering, recalling, retelling and recreating into a coherent whole the information with which our minds are bombarded every day. Synthesis is a uniquely human trait that permits us sift through a myriad of details and focus on those pieces we need to know and remember. Synthesis is about organizing the different pieces to create a mosaic; a meaning. This is a process that we all engage in naturally every day.
The author now realizes that synthesis is absolutely basic. We must reorganize and create our own explanations for what we are learning, our own definitions of our lives at any particular point in time.
Some Key Ideas
The process of synthesizing occurs during reading:
v Proficient readers maintain a cognitive synthesis as they read. They monitor the overall meaning, important concepts and themes in the text as they read and are aware of ways test elements fir together to create that overall meaning and theme. A proficient reader’s synthesis is likely to extend the literal meaning of a text to the inferential level.
v Proficient readers are aware of text elements and patterns in fiction and nonfiction and understand that being aware of them as they read helps them predict and understand the overall meanings or themes.
v As they read, proficient readers attend more directly to character, setting, conflict, sequence of event, resolution, the theme in fiction and to text patterns such as description, chronological, cause and effect, comparison/contrast and problem/solution in nonfiction. The use this knowledge to make decisions about the overall meaning of a passage, chapter, or book.
v Proficient readers actively revise their cognitive syntheses as they read. New information is assimilated into the reader’s evolving ideas about the text, rendering some earlier decisions about the text obsolete.
The process of synthesizing occurs after reading:
v Proficient readers are able to express through a variety of means, a synthesis of what they have read. The synthesis includes ideas and themes relevant to the overall meaning from the text and is cogently presents.
v Proficient readers use synthesis to share, recommend, and critically review books they have read.
v Proficient readers purposefully use synthesis to better understand what they have read. Syntheses are frequently an amalgam of all comprehensions strategies use by proficient readers.
Barbara Stala
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Chapter 8: The Intersection of Meaning
This chapter, devoted to making inferences, is oddly focused on our author. Although she follows her normal pattern (piece of text she likes, her interpretation of that text in the fashion of whatever the chapter's theme is, her own two cents on the subject, then an example of how she taught a child this skill or strategy at one time, debriefing), Keene turns inward in this chapter more than ever. Perhaps because making inferences involves so much connection that she really wanted to set the tone. Whatever her reason, I did find this chapter much more believable and easy to swallow.
I was able to learn a lot while reading this chapter. For starters, I've always given an inference the lame definition of "reading between the lines." Of course, it is just that but it's also much more. It's the process of creating meaning that involves the blending of text knowledge and prior knowledge and experiences. This involves making predictions, ARGUING with the author, (this was a huge realization for me- that this arguing can fit under the umbrella of making inferences. It looks like I've made quite a few while reading this book. Ha!) relating to the text, drawing conclusions, making interpretations, making connections and making judgments. This happens during reading and after reading. It can happen internally or while discussing the text with others. Readers can remember what they read and apply it in future inferences, and also respond to the text in a variety of ways.
Another lesson for me was to cut your students some "slack" when asking for their inferences. Even if it seems way off from your perspective, if they can defend their inference using the text and their own schema then it is valid, makes meaning, and should be encouraged.
Last, and perhaps the largest shock for me, was that although I have not yet properly explained to my students what the entirety of an inference is or can be, I am and have been modeling and teaching my students to do so. In this chapter, Keene takes a first grade student who appears to not have a clue as to how to make an inference and turns her into an inference-making machine simply by explaining what it was and modeling it for her. Her strategy of modeling, questioning, and asking the student to explain her inferences is something that I already include in my own teaching. Who knew? ;)
I was able to learn a lot while reading this chapter. For starters, I've always given an inference the lame definition of "reading between the lines." Of course, it is just that but it's also much more. It's the process of creating meaning that involves the blending of text knowledge and prior knowledge and experiences. This involves making predictions, ARGUING with the author, (this was a huge realization for me- that this arguing can fit under the umbrella of making inferences. It looks like I've made quite a few while reading this book. Ha!) relating to the text, drawing conclusions, making interpretations, making connections and making judgments. This happens during reading and after reading. It can happen internally or while discussing the text with others. Readers can remember what they read and apply it in future inferences, and also respond to the text in a variety of ways.
Another lesson for me was to cut your students some "slack" when asking for their inferences. Even if it seems way off from your perspective, if they can defend their inference using the text and their own schema then it is valid, makes meaning, and should be encouraged.
Last, and perhaps the largest shock for me, was that although I have not yet properly explained to my students what the entirety of an inference is or can be, I am and have been modeling and teaching my students to do so. In this chapter, Keene takes a first grade student who appears to not have a clue as to how to make an inference and turns her into an inference-making machine simply by explaining what it was and modeling it for her. Her strategy of modeling, questioning, and asking the student to explain her inferences is something that I already include in my own teaching. Who knew? ;)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Ch. 7 - A Mosaic in the Mind
This chapter is about using sensory images to enhance comprehension. Keene starts the chapter with a poem by Jane Kenyton and then tells about the mental images she created while reading the poem. The creation of sensory images is important for readers to connect personally and sometimes permanently to a text according to Keene.
Creating sensory images was never a comprehension strategy I focused on in past years. This year I have a student in my class who has very poor comprehension skills - the worst I have ever seen. I decided to start using a program with him called Visualizing and Verbalizing (V/V). The V/V program is used to make students aware of the images they create as they read and give them the ability to discuss their images. The program starts out with pictures and eventually ends with multi-paragraph passages.
This chapter was interesting to me because of my special interest in the strategy this year - thanks to my student. I thought Keene had a good point when she said that the images we create don't necessarily have to come from the senses, but can also come from the emotional part of our minds - like when she pictured her deceased grandfather's face for the old man's face in Kenyton's poem. These types of images are the most important to create because they help the reader understand and make connections to the text at the same time.
Creating sensory images was never a comprehension strategy I focused on in past years. This year I have a student in my class who has very poor comprehension skills - the worst I have ever seen. I decided to start using a program with him called Visualizing and Verbalizing (V/V). The V/V program is used to make students aware of the images they create as they read and give them the ability to discuss their images. The program starts out with pictures and eventually ends with multi-paragraph passages.
This chapter was interesting to me because of my special interest in the strategy this year - thanks to my student. I thought Keene had a good point when she said that the images we create don't necessarily have to come from the senses, but can also come from the emotional part of our minds - like when she pictured her deceased grandfather's face for the old man's face in Kenyton's poem. These types of images are the most important to create because they help the reader understand and make connections to the text at the same time.
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