1. How does this topic fit into what I have learned already in this course?
Our cognitive processes such as memory and attention are necessary for understanding language. Reading also takes all cognitive processes - such as working memory, long term memory, mental images, schemas all working together. Metacomprehension is a part of metacognition. Metacomprehension focuses on your thoughts about how you are comprehending(monitoring one’s understanding while reading)
2. What am I still not clear on in this week's reading(s)?
If we know that sentences with negatives are harder to process, why do we find them used often on ISAT’s and textbook tests? Are these tests trying to test the knowledge or trying to test processing?
3. Under what conditions would I apply this material to my own teaching/work.
I feel that much of this information is applicable to the teaching field.
Even though the text and articles I have read support that younger students are not really capable of monitoring their comprehension- comprehension strategies should be taught to older students an adults to help them with metacomprehension, I still think it is necessary to expose my third grade students to all the reading strategies. I feel repeated exposure to strategies makes the students realize, for one, that when they read they should be thinking while they are reading(not just reading words). Exposing students to fix-up strategies will give students ideas of what to do when they realize they are not understanding. Students will form good reading habits by practicing strategies such as summarizing, making a picture, asking themselves questions while reading, etc.
Another important piece of information for me to keep in mind is to consider the way I write questions for a test or pose questions in class. The text pointed out important information about how negatives, passive voice, nested sentences and ambiguous sentences confuse the reader(listener).
Making inferences requires that the students draw on prior knowledge. Many low achieving readers lack experiences necessary for making inferences. I need to brainstorm ways to give my student more experiences (by perhaps reading more stories and a variety of stories to my students/field trips/virtual field trips/interactive websites/ etc.)
I agree with your comment about the negatives on the ISAT's. I mentioned this in the weekly discussion questions. There are several of these on the ACT also. We practice them but is this really fair to the kids when they are timed to complete 60 math problems in 60 minutes?
ReplyDeleteYou had mentioned that your low-achieving readers do not make as many inferences. Maybe talking with them to find out what interests them would help in deciding the items to read. I am sure you do this already but maybe getting them used to making inferences with a topic that interests them would help them to be more likely to use the method more often down the road.
I found your comment on ISAT testing interesting. I guess the makers of our standardized tests did not take any educational psychology courses. I question if we should gear our tests toward some of the same wording of standardized tests. That way they are more prone to analyze and interpret the questions before answering them.
ReplyDeleteIf we know that sentences with negatives are harder to process, why do we find them used often on ISAT’s and textbook tests? Are these tests trying to test the knowledge or trying to test processing?
ReplyDeleteI think both, processing and knowledge. I guess they want to test how students process information and how accurate do they get after doing the thinking and cognitive process about the negative statements.
That is a very good question (#2). Perhaps this is more proof that these standardize tests are not what is best for defining intelligence and success in academics. The use of negatives tend to confuse the mind, we are less likely to remember negative stimuli....perhaps we need to focus on being more positive(lol).
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