"The major folklore (belief/study) of reading instruction relates to the “theory” that reading is considered an exact process. In other words, the reader is expected to read everything exactly as printed on the page in order to understand the message of the author. In general the consuming public, legislatures, courts and too many educators hold to this theory. It is like the theory of the world being flat during the time of Columbus. “ –Robert Harper and Gart Kilarr
**Do you agree or disagree? Explain why or why not using evidence from text to support assertions.
I disagree with the authors views about the processes of reading. Students do not have to read every single word in a passage to gain meaning and comprehend what they have read. Many good readers can not read every word in the English Language. There are words that I come to when I am reading that I do not know. That is where I use the strategy that the assigned reading chapters focused on reading words in context. Readers can use the context in which words are written to make a meaning out of them. The reader that is encountering an unknown word can either look ahead into the text or skip the word and see the context that follows it. Using syntactic or semantic context are two types of context within the sentence that readers can use when trying to figure out an unknown word. (49)
In chapter four the authors discussed miscues and what they mean to readers. According to Kenneth Goodman miscue research has led us away from a word focus to a comprehension focus. (61) Just being a good reader does not mean that you get all of the words right. Good readers who generally make less miscues than average readers may make many more miscues involving pronouns and simple function words. (63) If they are reading for meaning they may make some miscues that do not change the meaning of the text such as an error like the one in the following sentence. White men came from the cities. The reader would change the word the to their.(63) That does not change the meaning of the sentence and it is an error but that does not make them a poor reader. Reading is not an exact process and being able to read every single word in the English Language does not make you a proficient reader. Reading is a process that requires taking in meaning of the words that are being read.
Mallory,I agree with you that good readers do not have to read a passage perfectly to gain basic understanding. My worry is with the implementation of the Common Core and the PARCC assessment coming down the pipe, that readers are going to be given very little room for their own interpretation of what they have read.
ReplyDeleteMallory, I like how you made mention of how miscue research has led us away form a word focus to a comprehension focus. I feel that it is important to put emphasis on this statement even when we approach our students. I am not saying, we as teachers should stand in front of our students, and read the quote. But, I think it is important for us to tell them before directing them to a reading assignment, not to worry so much about getting every word right, but on reading to understand. Emphasize the importance of comprehension. So that they know, its okay to make mistakes, because the goal is to understand and comprehend the text, not know all the words.
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