WEEK 7 - The Reading and Writing Process
KUCER CHAPTERS 5 & 6,  and "WHAT ELSE MATTERS BESIDES STRATEGIES & SKILLS" ARTICLE

INTRODUCTION TO THIS WEEK'S BLOG

First, this was very dense reading, for me at least. I will add the second article to the next post, but for now I'd like to focus on what we all read together. I'd like to structure this first by reviewing what we read and highlighting key ideas. This ensures that I (and you) understand what we've read. If I've misunderstood a concept, or have overlooked an important note, please feel free to add your ideas. Then, I'd like to pose the questions Dr. Beach presented with our answers following. Finally, I had a couple of questions of my own, which you may answer. As a reminder, Dr. Beach asked us to answer questions in blue so it's obvious where we've written.


CHAPTER 5 - KUCER - THE CONSTRUCTIVE NATURE OF PERCEPTION

The traditional view of perception is that it is a passive, one-way process. The reader reads print, the print goes to the eye, the eye takes the print to the brain, and the brain makes meaning. However, recent research now suggests perception is much more interactive, both active and transactive between the visual and nonvisual memory. It's a constructive process where the visual (print) and nonvisual (brain) transact in a reciprocal relationship to make meaning. It's a selective process, where the reader chooses to perceive certain letters and words for a longer time than others.

Kucer broke down reading perception into parts of words, and consonants and vowels (Tables 5.3 through 5.7). I tried to read each of these tables, and I had an easy time with 5.3 (perception and beginning letters); I had to think more when reading Tables 5.4 and 5.5 (middle letters, ending letters). It was harder for me to read Table 5.6, which was missing vowels, and almost impossible for me to read Table 5.7, which was missing consonants. I thought a lot about my students who have difficulty reading and how it must feel to them. Interestingly, Kucer pointed out that children misspell the interior parts of words more often than the beginnings and endings. So there is inequality among letters, and how letters and words are perceived. Background knowledge fills in the gaps and is a powerful system of language.

Our reading perceptions are selective and constructive. Short term memory (STM) attends to print at the moment and has a limited capacity. "Masking" occurs when new information replaces just-learned information and we can't retrieve the just-learned information. It's easy to retrieve info from STM because it was just learned (telephone numbers are an example).

Long-term memory (LTM) contains conceptual and linguistic knowledge of the world. It's structured and interrelated to other store information. Information remains in LTM for an indefinite period of time. It can be difficult to retrieve and storing info here is slow. The more meaningful and connected information is, the easier it is to retrieve it.

Visual processing entails our eyes moving along the page when reading. Our eyes jump, called saccadic movements, and may jump ahead (progression), or backwards (regression), or both back and forth. Readers who are learning content focus (or fixate) on new, content words more so than shorter, transition words. The number of fixations, or times a reader returns to a word to process it, varies greatly within one reader's text reading session, and from one reader to another.

If text is predictable, it makes it easier to read. Word count has historically been the one measure of predictability, but there are many other ways to measure predictability, including the author's language pattern (does it match the reader's?), the words that are used (are there multiple meanings?), and the matching of pictures to print (more pictures make it easier to read print for emergent and early readers).



CHAPTER 6 - KUCER - THE READING PROCESS

There are a number of factors that influence reader-text-writer transaction including shared language, strategies that are known and used, background knowledge, and the purpose for reading, to name a few. All acts of literacy are not equal. Conditions and contexts when reading vary greatly, and affects the reading process so it varies as well. Technology is considered the new literacy, where linear reading is displaced by navigational reading, which is bouncing back and forth, and in and between web pages and Internet sites. This new technology will definitely affect the reading process, and may, in fact, engender a whole new reading process yet to be determined.

Literacy theory attempts to identify common processes and strategies used by efficient readers to make meaning. Models are illustrations or non linguistic representations of key ideas of theory. On page 146, there were features of literacy theory and a model of the reading process that included background knowledge, context, goals and plans, evolving text, intentionality and situationality, and intertextuality. Reading strategies are processed in STM and guide a reader's transaction with the text and construction of meaning.

When I read Table 6.2 I found I was reading from left to right and re-reading certain words and phrases. I was stumped and confused by the homographs thrown in and had to go back and reread complete sentences to make meaning. I found myself stopping mid-reading and subconsciously asking myself if I had read anything like this, or experienced anything like this, before. I was definitely flexible as I read. Further, the author pointed out that our offline (book) reading behaviors may differ from our online (Internet) reading behaviors. Again, this is a new area to be explored.

There are many, many differences between proficient readers and struggling readers. (I read this section of the chapter with keen interest since I work primarily with struggling readers.) Some key hallmarks of proficient readers include varying processing speed, flexibility in reading, a more global stance toward reading, drawing upon background knowledge as they read, fewer fixations, filling in gaps, and faster processing. Some key hallmarks of struggling readers include tunnel vision (narrow focus on the words, not the meaning), overreliance on the use of graphophonemics, underutilization of context, and inflexibility and not enough re-reading. These readers tend to think they need to read each letter in each word, whereas proficient readers don't do this at all. They fill in the blanks with what they think they know, and get the bigger picture in the process. The key difference between the two readers is the amount of information that perceived in a single fixation. That is, proficient readers perceive more quickly and accurately than struggling readers, who perceive less information and/or misinformation during a single act of perception.

Kucer elaborated upon the selective sampling view and the dense processing views of reading. Selective sampling is one perspective in the literacy field whereby the reader uses background knowledge, previous text processing, purpose of reading, and the print selected to make predictions and to make meaning. In the dense processing view, reading is print driven. That is, the reader depends on letters and words to make meaning, rather than to scan for the overall meaning of a passage. Interestingly, this may cause readers to become strugglers because they can't see the forest for the trees!

Fluency is debated as to whether it's speed and accuracy, or speed, accuracy, and prosody. Accurate reading does not a fluent reader make. We all know children who can read word for word accurately and not know a thing they've just read! So maintaining overall meaning is much more important than word identification.

Flow is the processing rate, which varies within a reader and from reader to reader, depending on background knowledge, context, and selective processing.



WHAT ELSE MATTERS BESIDES STRATEGIES AND SKILLS?

There are characteristics of successful readers. They include:

1.  metacongition - how a student understands himself as a learner; the awareness he has of his own thinking process; his understanding of what is needed for learning. Self-regulation and comprehension skills emanate from this and enable a student to take control of his reading. If a teacher shows a student how to be metacognitive, the student will become a more independent reader because he will be able to recognize reading challenges and will have the understanding to meet those challenges. Teachers can show children how to be metacognitive by thinking aloud as they read, to model it for students. Then they can talk about it. (I do and I use this word with my elementary students.)

2.  motivation and engagement - This has to do with the quality of student participation in reading, supporting effort and attention to reading. We want students to invest time in reading, whether it's reading curriculum content or reading for pleasure. If students do not have these qualities, they lack stamina and perseverance and attention to learning, which impairs their ability to learn overall. A teacher's language, interaction, and feedback during student reading can positively effect a student's motivation and engagement.

3.  epistemic beliefs - This is a student's theory of knowledge and knowing, or what "counts" as knowledge in the students' eyes. A student's epistemic beliefs directly influence how the student approach learning and reading, specifically critical reading, and the stance he takes toward text. Literal readers get information from text but are unable to evaluate what they've read if they have underdeveloped epistemic beliefs. Teachers can encourage development of epistemic beliefs by reading many views of one account of history, for example. This helps students develop an understanding that written words are authored, authors are fallible, and critical reading helps develop insight.

4.  self-efficacy - This is the student's own views on his ability to perform in the classroom academically. Many students who have low self-efficacy avoid challenges and see themselves as failures in school. On the other hand, students who have high self-efficacy see themselves as able to meet challenges and to solve problems. Teachers can help build a sense of self-efficacy by highlighting a student's progress, by praising the student with specific observations, and by documenting progress and having the student reflect on the progress.



DR. BEACH'S QUESTIONS (Please answer in blue on our blog.)

1.  What is the role of perception in reading?

Perception is interactive and ever-changing, and depends on the text, the reader, the reader's ability, the writer's ability. The reader's brain (nonvisual information) influences the print (visual) and vice versa. Perception changes, depending on what is printed. If the reader has the entire word, or just letters from the word, or the top half or a word, it makes a difference in what is perceived, and what is processed. There is inequality in perception among letters and words, depending on familiarity with the text, the vocabulary, the author's perspective, and the predictability of the text.

2.  What does it mean to read?

Reading entails many processes simultaneously. Ultimately, the reader must make meaning from print in order to read. This meaning-making may take a long time or a short time, depending on a number of factors.

3.  What factors impact transaction with text?

Transaction with text is determined by many, many factors. From the reader's perspective, transaction is determined by the reader's metacognition, motivation, engagement, epistemic beliefs, and self-efficacy. In addition, transaction is determined by the reader's background knowledge, contexts within the reading, the goals and strategies employed before and during reading, the intentionality and situationality of reading, and the intertextuality or relevance to previously-encountered reading. Short-term and long-term memory have an impact on transaction as well. From the writer's perspective, transaction includes the use of vocabulary and language, syntactics, familiarity with the reader's language and parallel use of this, the use of pictures and graphics in the text, the context of the writing

4.  What else, besides reading strategies discussed in Chapter 6, are important to becoming a reader?

A reader needs to be motivated to read, to have a plan and goals for reading, and to be engaged in reading.

5.  What makes text complex?

Text is complex when the reader struggles and isn't aware of his struggle, and doesn't know how to help himself. If a reader is not comprehending the text, it's complex. It has nothing to do with the number of words, or the kinds of words. It has to do with making meaning.

DISCUSSION

1.  Discuss your experiences with the tables in Kucer, Chapter 5, and your responses to the questions in Kucer, Chapter 6, with respect to Tables 6.2 and 6.6.



MY QUESTIONS (Answer in blue also.)

1.  Is there a point where whole language and phonics intersect? What does that intersection look like? At exactly what point do struggling readers rely heavily upon sounding out strategies (phonics) and miss the big picture (the whole language approach)? Conversely, when do proficient readers ignore some of the words (phonics) and go for the big picture (whole language)? What is the tipping point for each? How can we work with struggling readers to get them to read less and understand more?

2.  What teaching ideas have you gathered from reading this material? How will you do things differently in your classroom as a result of your reading? What are you aware of now that you were not before?


*I will read the second article and will post on it tonight.