SUMMARY: This chapter builds on the previous (Making Movies in the Mind) to stress the importance of connecting what readers already know to what the are reading. Reading is a synthesis of what has already been experienced wit the new input (from their reading). The authors suggest that good readers tend to make three types of connections: Text-to-Self (What I'm reading is like something I've done or experienced before), Text-to-Text (What I'm reading is like something I've read before), and Text-to-World (What I'm reading is like something that is happening around me now or something historical I know about).
One of the most effective ways to teach this skills to is, once again, the 'Read-Aloud-Think-Aloud' strategy. READ OUT LOUD TO YOUR STUDENTS FREQUENTLY, then stop at appropriate places and say to your students, "When I read this, it reminds me of.." or "When I read this, I think about..." This lets the kids know that it's not about reading the text as quickly as possible. Reading is about creating knowledge with meaning that is personal. In the last chapter we read that each reader mkes a diferent movie in his/her mind. That's largely a result of the different background knowledge that kids connect with the words that they read.
What if kids have no entering knowledge regarding the subject they read? That's where the SCIENCE of teaching mets the ART of teaching. We'll discuss this more when we meet.
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This quote sums up the chapter: (p.45) "The meaning youget from a piece [of text] i intertwined with the meaning you bring to it."
ReplyDeleteWe had a nice discussion of using student projects, film/video, hands-on activities, etc., to help students who might not have much entering knowledge about a topic make connections. Sometimes you have to CREATE experiences for kids so they have something to relate to.