Emily, I appreciated your reference to special education. It does help to get a picture of what could be going on. For me I can then extrapolate back to the other students who just may not have an ideal background or other issues that keep them from being proficient readers. Thanks for the summary. - Eric
Interesting connection to your experience with special education students. You make a great point about how the lack of background knowledge can inhibit the comprehension process. Yes, that's a great question about how do you help to expand your students' experience so that they have more to bring to the text.
It's absolutely true: addressing literacy in content areas other than language arts doesn't devalue the content area itself. The more we talk and read about literacy in this class, the more it seems to me that literacy could almost be redefined as understanding and sharing ideas so that we can connect. It seems like the Science teacher example highlights the importance of students being able to read/understand a variety of texts and being able to express themselves and their ideas. Those goals seem important in every content area. So your point about lack of background knowledge potentially inhibiting the comprehension process is really important.
I like your perspective on this. Your experience with special education students helps me think outside my own specific content area. I'm glad you took the time to talk about the importance of background knowledge. I really enjoyed that exercise. It was fun to try to decipher what the passage was talking about, but the lesson to be learned was very important. Without background information or culture of language we are just seeing letters make words and not reading anything we can comprehend.
Emily, I appreciated your reference to special education. It does help to get a picture of what could be going on. For me I can then extrapolate back to the other students who just may not have an ideal background or other issues that keep them from being proficient readers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the summary. - Eric
Interesting connection to your experience with special education students. You make a great point about how the lack of background knowledge can inhibit the comprehension process. Yes, that's a great question about how do you help to expand your students' experience so that they have more to bring to the text.
ReplyDeleteIt's absolutely true: addressing literacy in content areas other than language arts doesn't devalue the content area itself. The more we talk and read about literacy in this class, the more it seems to me that literacy could almost be redefined as understanding and sharing ideas so that we can connect. It seems like the Science teacher example highlights the importance of students being able to read/understand a variety of texts and being able to express themselves and their ideas. Those goals seem important in every content area. So your point about lack of background knowledge potentially inhibiting the comprehension process is really important.
ReplyDeleteI like your perspective on this. Your experience with special education students helps me think outside my own specific content area. I'm glad you took the time to talk about the importance of background knowledge. I really enjoyed that exercise. It was fun to try to decipher what the passage was talking about, but the lesson to be learned was very important. Without background information or culture of language we are just seeing letters make words and not reading anything we can comprehend.
ReplyDelete