Carrie Podrasky- After completing the readings for today's class, I feel like I have a better understanding about my own skills involving comprehension. I got a lot of information out of Tompkins chapter 7. In particular figure 7-1 on page 225. Prior to this reading I do not think I realized all of these factors play a huge role in the reader's ability to comprend. I knew factors like content and structure along with motivation played a role but I did not realize inferences and strategies like visualizing and questioning were componets of comprehension. This figure made me think back to experiences I have had as a reader. I can think about times I have read books for lesiure and gotten so much more out of them than I typically do from a text book on something I do not care about. This observation can usually be made by anyone but I never realized all of the reasons why this is true. My own mind makes a purpose out of the reading even if I do not do it consciously. I know if I am reading for a class I enjoy and can get a lot out of I will be more likely to comprehend and understand the content. If I am doing a reading that seems pointless I probably won't comprehend 50% of the information. I also like the figure 7-2 on page 229. This is an excellent tool for teachers. For me, as a student this highlights areas that I am skillful in as well as areas that I need some work in. I realized I do a lot of visualizing and summarizing. However, I do very little predicting. I tend to do more predicting when it is a picture book but that is about it. I think that after reading all of the articles especially the one about special education on angel (Carlisle) I need to work on buliding all of my skills involving comprehension. I need to be able to teach my future students all of the straegies to help them not just the ones I am best at. They will benefit if I become skilled in all areas. Tompkins also talks alot about explicit instruction to develop and encourage comprehension skills across subject areas. It is true that comprehension skills developed in literacy activities will help students to succeed in all areas of school. Also writing tends to get left out of "comprehension" exercises. All of the tools taught for reading with comprehension can be applied to writing with comprehension. Concepts/vocabulary learned from reading will be applied to the writer's work along with learning what it means to have purpose with words. Overall, it is important that teachers to foster all types of comprehension skills. I learned that I was not aware of many skills that help students to become skillful in comprehension and this reading has helped me to become a better reader and hopefully a better teacher.
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Carrie- after reading your post I looked up the table you sited on page 225. I also agree that I understood reader and text factors in comprehension but didn't take it as far as the specific factors within these two types. I also really like the "role in comprehension" column. I wonder if this table would be good to use when assessing your student's comprehension and attempting to look deeper into it to see which factors you can build and improve for them. Your comment about getting more out of enjoyable reading is also a good hint to make sure to use interesting books all the time to keep your students excited to learn.
Carrie- I agree with you that your students will benefit if you become skilled in all areas of comprehension. Having good comprehending skills will benefit students in all areas. This task of being skilled in all areas sounds easier then it probably really is. After years and years of relying on your comprehension skills it is probably difficult to think outside the box, on how others comprehend differently. I know when I was reading; when there was a strategy that I did not relate to I wondered how others had acquired it.
Carrie – You make some interesting points about the material in Tompkins. Looking back to the information, it becomes clear how those roles not only help you think about comprehension as a strategy, but it helps you define teachable moments within that strategy. When you can break a huge idea like comprehension into smaller more manageable chunks, you can better analyze areas of strength and weaknesses within you classroom, as well as, help focus you students on understanding and mastering specific areas at a time.
Also, I really liked what you said about drawing meaning from you reading. You are right when a reading feels disconnected to the material or the same-old material and nothing really new (or interesting) it is hard to focus or connect to the reading. Personally, I find that despite my notes, if I struggle to make connections on that particular subject area, than I can’t remember much from it no matter how extensive my own notes were. Furthermore, I think you make an excellent point about drawing children into the readings, making them purposeful, connected to the material and generally good reads.
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