On Dec 30, 2006, at 8:26 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Renee says: "Of course they go together, but I just don't feel that > it's > important for students to be identifying their strategies, certainly > not as important as just using them."
Before I start, I do want to say that "Mosaic of Thought" is my number one recommended book for any teacher who asks. I keep mine handy and I have read it from front to back more than once. > > .........While I basically agree with you, Renee, one of > the things I am learning as I teach strategies is that for kids to > become > independent, they seem to need a deep understanding of a strategy. > They need to > know when to use it, why it is important and how it will help them. If > they > don't have this deep understanding then when they are really > challenged with a > difficult text they don't know what to do! I wonder if a certain level > of > conscious, metacognitive understanding must be reached before the > strategies > become unconscious and automatic...a part of the student's toolbox. And I'm not sure this is true, but of course I could be wrong. Or it could be true for some students and not true for others.. I know that I became an independent reader without knowing anything about strategies, without knowing or identifying anything about what I read.... especially as a young child. I became an independent reader by reading. A lot. For pleasure. And before I read Mosaic of Thought and knew anything about "strategies" by name, my students, for the most part, comprehended text quite well. Of course there were those who struggled more with text, but would knowing the names of strategies have helped them? I don't know. And I'm not talking about *using* the strategies... I am talking about *worrying about* the strategies and *naming* the strategies and *identifying* the strategies... etc. I agree that students are benefitted by knowing the strategies for reading and how they work and even when to use them (although I am not so sure about this one, because I think basically they are so intertwined that they are inseparable from each other, but that's just me). I'm just not convinced that they need a "deep understanding" of the strategies. Or perhaps I don't know what "deep understanding" means. I do know that I had many, many successful readers who became that way because they read. A lot. In class. For pleasure. Without interruption. My theory is that the number one thing that makes a better reader is twofold: reading more, and talking about what you read with another person. Not just retelling the story, but really talking about it. That's why I think literature circles are good, especially when students learn to ask questions about other peoples' reading, and to respond to authentic questions about their own reading. > > Perhaps the answer to this is that the kids don't need to identify the > strategy anymore once they become proficient and independent with it > in all types > of texts. I always have trouble with the idea that if students are > comprehending a particular text, then they don't need to understand > how they got > there. Just because a student can comprehend this particular text, it > doesn't mean > they "get" how to comprehend other texts. I still think we need to > assess > strategy usage, not just comprehension of a text. If a person comprehends a text well, why do they need to explain how they got there? I don't think assessing strategy usage is a good use of a teacher's time, IF it includes coming up with a grade, which is how far down the pike? Noticing it, yes. Helping with it, yes. Guiding it, yes. Is that what you mean by assessing strategy use? If so, I agree. > > In our struggle between finding a balance, and as we try to keep > comprehension the end result of strategies, we can't lose sight of the > fact that > reading is a process and we can not assume that because a student can > read and > comprehend a grade level text that the student will be know what to do > when > eventually they run into a text that is a challenge. To me, reading is a process of incorporating and chewing on ideas, and anything that helps get students to those ideas is important. So I guess my question is, how does knowing more about the strategies themselves help a student to comprehend text? A related question might be, how does knowing that a word is a noun help a student write or understand a sentence? > > Just my own two cents as I struggle with this issue. Struggle is good. :-) Me too. Renee "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." ~ Mark Twain _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
