INTRODUCTION As I recently read many articles about reading comprehension I was somehow reminded of my family and their love of food and cooking. I am from Goa, an ex-Portuguese colony in India where the cuisine is a uniquely Indo-European mix. We have many family recipes that have been passed down through the generations and some jealously guarded from "other branches" of the family. Some recipes have been altered slightly in the retelling over the years and some are deliberately altered to suit the changes in the availability of ingredients and the changing palate of the diners. For example we don't need to crack open a coconut, scrape out the flesh and extract the milk anymore (thank goodness!) we can simply open a tin so the differentiation …show more content…
between "thick and thin milk" has gone; my children do not like 6 chillies in a curry, one maybe two are sufficient. After all my research I felt that successful reading comprehension could be likened to and explained in terms of cooking and recipes. Over the years the view of reading has undergone subtle and not so subtle changes following ongoing research in the field. We have moved from the broad view of reading, through the simple to the narrow view. The ingredients have expanded and changed too and now include: cognitive skills (e.g., attention, memory, critical thinking, inferencing, visualisation) ,knowledge (decoding, phonological processing, syntax, vocabulary, word fluency, word retrieval, word knowledge, world knowledge, academic language, disciplinary literacy) and engagement (motivation, interest). Each student comes to the kitchen (school) with a recipe (requirements for success) and with their own ingredients (knowledge).
As they open their store cupboard to retrieve the necessary ingredients to cook they may find some lacking. They may simply be hidden behind something at eye-level (a reminder and drawing the student's attention to it will suffice), or they may be just out of reach on a high shelf (may need some simple instruction and work to strengthen weak skills) or they may be not in the cupboard at all (need individualised intervention to develop the required knowledge) . Some may have all the ingredients and be able to make the dish well but are just missing that little something (higher level knowledge) to make it special. It is our duty as professionals involved in teaching students to read to be able to provide whatever ingredients they need to master the recipe (reading comprehension) but also to help them make that really special dish (achieve full potential) and all in good time for the party (high …show more content…
school). THE PROBLEM 69% of eighth grade students are reading below proficient grade level while 26% are reading below basic level (NAEP 2007??) with a daughter in middle school and having worked with many students struggling through middle school detesting being forced to read I feel passionately about this group of students and their need to have good reading comprehension skills to be successful in high school and college.
At this stage in their educational life they need to have strong foundation in reading comprehension on which to build their knowlegde for their increasingly important high school and college careers. (SHANAHAN & SHANAHAN ????) . Why so many students are falling behind and what can be done to prevent
this? I acknowledge that assessment of reading comperhension can be unreliable and problemtic but it is not within the scope of this paper to discuss the issues there may be with assessment. HYPOTHESIS: Increase knowledge: domain specific, domain general, disciplinary specific, academic language WHAT IS READING COMPREHENSION? Catts (2009) says that "the comprehension of written text is among the most complicated mental activities we engage in on a daily basis" . There are a plethora of definitions of reading comprehension in the literature and no one definition is sufficient. First it is important to make the distinction between reading and comprehension. Reading in this instance is best described using the narrow view of reading (Kamhi 2007) where it is streamlined down to word recognition which encompasses the process of decoding and knowledge of letters, sounds and single words. When adding comprehension to the task of reading the Simple view of Reading proposed by Gough and Tunmer (1986) proposes that the speed and accuracy of word reading combined with the capacity to understand spoken language is what is needed for reading comprehension. So with these two definitions teachers have two clear areas on which to concentrate their teaching to produce proficient readers: decoding ( phonological awareness, phoneme-grapheme links,word fluency ....) and oral language skills (vocabulary, word retrieval, syntax, discourse). However something is still lacking so we add a third definition from the report from the Rand Reading Study Group (2002) which defines reading comprehension as "the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language." With this Snow emphasises that to understand a passage a reader interprets information from within the text with information already acquired previously to construe the meaning of the text. The Rand report combines these three definitions into a heuristic that lays out the interaction between the capacity of the reader, the structure of the text, the task being undertaken and the socio-cultural context in which this all occurs.() ADD HEURISTIC HERE In this model the reader brings to the act of reading all their cognitive capabilities (decoding, attention, memory, critical analysis, inferencing, visualisation), their motivation (reason for reading, interest in the content, confidence in own reading ability); their knowledge (vocabulary, topic, syntax, discourse and comprehension strategies) and lastly their individual socio-cultural experiences. The text can be presented in any format but one must bear in mind the structure of the text. Snow (2002) states :" The features of any given text have a large impact on comprehension. While reading, the reader constructs various representations of the text that are important for comprehension. Those representations include the surface code (the exact wording of the text), the text base (idea units representing the meaning of the text), and the mental models (the way in which information is processed for meaning) that are embedded in the text." Snow (2010) uses the following example to highlight how individuals use their knowledge and experiences to interpret text: "Alex and Ali ran to the swings and jumped on" Are Alex and Ali humans or animals? What gender are Alex and Ali? Where could they be from? Could Ali be Muslim? Are they in a playground? Did they end up playing on swings? Are they having fun? From these very simple 10 words we can see that comprehension of a sentence goes well beyond the structure and meaning of the individual words to include how we use our knowledge and experiences to contruct meaning around a sentence. Perfetti (1985) described it as "thinking guided by print." The task students are set to prove they have read and understood a passage is an important and oft forgotten component that can often hold the key to success or failure of the whole enterprise. We need to examine what is it we want the student to extract from the passage and why: to bake a cake, to answer an exam question, solve a clue in a tresure hunt, pass a class assessment, contruct a model race car, choose which film to watch at the cinema, surf the internet to see who won the World Cup Final in 1966 etc etc the list is endless. The studnet's level of motivation and engagement in the task is an important factor in the equation too.. In preschool and it has been clearly proven that learning the concepts of print and letter identification closely followed by phological awareness and expressive vobabulary are key ingredients to later reading proficiency (SCARBOROUGH 1998) but what about the older reader who is proficient in decoding, word fluency and retrieval but is still not performing well on reading comprehension tasks? In 1988 a study by Recht & Leslie compared reading compehension ability with knowledge of the subject and decoding skills. The results were surprising as they found there was no correlation between decoding and comprehension, the significant correaltion was with levels of knowledge. There is an argument that the importance of the skills acquired/taught in the early years are superceded by the need for knowledge in later years and that in fact it is knowledge that is the main ingredient in reading comprehension success. In his 2006 book The Knowledge Deficit Hirsch talks about "the fourth-grade slump" where children who in grade 1 to 3 "read" very well but then in Grade 4 show a significant drop in reading level. This he attributes to the fact that in Grade 4 students are no longer just using decoding skills to decipher the letters on the page into meaningful words they are now expected to use both decoding and language skills to attach deeper meaning to what is being read and use their world knowledge to make sense of it all in a practical way () ().. Language skills and knowledge hitherto ignored by teachers of reading are suddenly of prime importance and students need to catch up and fast.
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
I previously have mentioned, in prior reflection essays, just how important literacy is for a person’s future. Notice how I didn’t say “student’s” future? Literacy fluency effects several aspects of life, not only academically speaking. Ultimately, the literacy level of a child can directly affect their future as an adult. The whole point of Torgesen’s article “Catch Them Before They Fall” is about preventing students with literacy deficits from slipping through the cracks without the best possible, research-based interventions.
Taking a deeper look at the meaning behind food through the eyes of traditional societies reveals nothing more than absolute complexity. Sam Gill, in Native American Religions, indisputably shows the complexity through detailed performances and explanations of sacred ceremonies held among numerous traditional societies. Ultimately, Gill explains that these societies handle their food (that gives them life), the source in which the good is obtained, and the way they go about getting their food are done in extreme symbolic manners that reflect their cosmology, religious beliefs, actions, and respect for ancestors/spirits that live among them. All of which are complexly intertwined. These aspects are demonstrated through the hunting traditions of the Alaskan Eskimo and the agricultural traditions of the Creek.
Literacy, or the capability to comprehend, translate, utilize, make, process, assess, and speak information connected with fluctuating settings and displayed in differing organizations, assumes an essential part in molding a young's persons trajectory in life. The ability to read speaks to a key factor of scholarly, social, and financial success (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). These abilities likewise speak to a fundamental segment to having a satisfying life and turning into an effective worker and overall person (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1999). Interestingly, recent studies have demonstrated that low reading skills lead to critical hindrances in monetary and social achievement. As stated by the National Center for Education Statistics, adults with lower levels of reading skills and literacy have a lower average salary. Another study evaluated that 17 to 18 percent of adults with "below average" literacy aptitudes earned less than $300 a week, though just 3 to 6 percent of adults with "proficient" reading abilities earned less than $300 a week (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).
The Lenape tribes ate various kinds of food, including both vegetables and meat. Food had to be dried or eaten quickly because their modes of preservation were not as good as it is today. Hunting and fishing were very important because it was the only way to get food. Deer, elk, black bear, raccoon, beaver, and rabbit were among the animals hunted for meat, skins, and sinew. Bear fat was melted, purified, and stored in skin bags. Turkeys, ducks, geese, and other birds were also hunted for meat and feathers. A Bird 's their eggs were eaten for food. Marsh birds such as geese and ducks were killed with bows and arrows. They also were caught by using traps and nets.Birds, especially turkey, was favoured because women liked to use their
Before there was a United States of America, there were tribes of Native Americans living off the land. In the southeastern part of the country, the largest group of Native Americans were the Cherokee people (Boulware, 2009). Cherokees are networked through vast kinship lines that separates them from other tribes in the region (Boulware, 2009). They once occupied a territory that ran throughout the Appalachian Mountains (Boulware, 2009). Cherokees spoke a common language known as Iroquoian, different from the surrounding tribes (Boulware, 2009).
Native American music has many different musical styles. Within every Native American tribe there is a variety of musical styles and instruments. In response to the research that I have conducted, there are three main musical styles that are going to be my point of focus. The Sioux Grass Dance, the Zuni Lullaby, and the Iroquois Quiver Dance are the principal methods which contribute to Native American music.
On few subjects has there been such continual misconception as on the position of women among Indians. Because she was active, always busy in the camp, often carried heavy burdens, attended to the household duties, made the clothing and the home, and prepared the family food, the woman has been depicted as the slave of her husband, a patient beast of encumbrance whose labors were never done. The man, on the other hand, was said to be an loaf, who all day long sat in the shade of the lodge and smoked his pipe, while his overworked wives attended to his comfort. In actuality, the woman was the man's partner, who preformed her share of the obligations of life and who employed an influence quite as important as his, and often more powerful.
“Perhaps there is no other group in the world that has quite so diverse and rich culture as that of the Native Americans. With their gilded history that is rich in strife, struggle, and triumph, the Native American culture is indeed very colorful” (Bantwal). Native American culture is very diverse and it has a very colorful history. It is extremely diverse and in fact the term Native American is a broad term that is used to cover all Native tribes in America. Throughout history there has been conflict not only among the different tribes but also there was plenty of fighting against the white men. Much of the fighting between the Native Americans and the white men was due to misunderstandings, mistrust, and miscommunication. Many thousands of years ago “the nomadic ancestors of modern Native Americans who hiked over a “land bridge” from Asia to what is now Alaska” (History.com). Once they reached Alaska they slowly spread out across the continent of North America. They spread out and separated into different tribes who all have many of the same core ideas but the main thing that separates them is their location in the country. There are Indians from the plains, the pacific coast, the southwest, and the northeast and different locations also. One main idea that is pretty much the same for each tribe is the closeness and respect they show for the land they live on. The history of the Native Americans as a whole is pockmarked by conflict. The conflicts between the tribes were very common and happened because of land disputes or just because of the close proximity of the tribes. But when the white men entered the picture this is where miscommunication and mistrust came into play. The white men wanted the land that...
...ed by most, and how dyslexia can cause problems with reading comprehension. It also discussed ways that we can mitigate these problems for dyslexic people, but these skills can and should be used by all learners. Reading comprehension is a perishable skill, one that if you don’t work on increasing your reading ability by building your vocabulary, learn to read effectively, or using the correct reading strategies for the type of reading material being studied will diminish. Even with the largest vocabulary, if the words are not understood literacy cannot be achieved. Literacy is the key to comprehensive reading. It also gave some of the tools for reading and understanding different types of literature and how to get the important information out of each one. Edmund Burk said “To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting” (Gallagher, 2003, p. 11).
The causes of reading difficulties often arise because of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, poor preparation before entering school, no value for literacy, low school attendance, insufficient reading instruction, and/or even the way students were taught to read in the early grades. The struggles that students “encounter in school can be seen as socially constructed-by the ways in which schools are organized and scheduled, by assumptions that are made about home life and school abilities, by a curriculum that is often devoid of connections to students’ lives, and by text that may be too difficult for students to read” (Hinchman, and Sheridan-Thomas166). Whatever the reason for the existence of the reading problem initially, by “the time a [student] is in the intermediate grades, there is good evidence that he will show continued reading g...
Another step before solving the problem is that one must also know the roots of it. One of the many sources of illiteracy is right in the home. Many parents do not take the time to read to their children when they are at an early age. This introduces them to phonics and reading. It has been proven that children who have had their parents read to them have been known to have higher literary abilities (Sachwitz). Children who start learning about reading at an early age have a head start when they begin to have formal education. This leads to better acceptance of received material which in turn helps for a much better education. Another problem was a program inserted into the schooling system called the “Whol...
...ents to make a good reader. Therefore, without a certain piece of reading students skills the scaffolding is unstable. Due to a student’s faulty scaffolding, reading does not work cohesive to make the end product a successfully understood story. This concerns me. If I feel like they are falling behind on these skills and their other teachers, my colleagues, are not teaching them these skills, I will and do my best at making it appropriate for my class. Without reading skills, they will be faced with horrible ramifications from their problems to comprehend and understand the vocabulary words they see in their textbooks.
In this information–driven age, preparing students to read a variety of texts with complete understanding should likely be one of our educational system’s highest priorities. Understanding is more than just the ability to produce information on demand (knowledge) or the ability to perform learned routines (skills). “Understanding is the ability to think and act flexibly with what one knows.” (Active Learning Practice for Schools, n. d.) A review of the literature in the area of reading comprehension of elementary-age students shows two principle areas of focus. There is a body of literature that examines the development of proficient vs. struggling comprehenders and another body of literature that compares methodologies for teaching reading comprehension.
I work at community college and I see first hand how horrible the literacy skills are for young adults and students coming straight out of high school. As a college advisor, I advise students who take the college placement test before enrolling in college classes. Majority of the students test in developmental English and math classes. Most of the students do not know that their test results are below standard level. I feel the literacy challenges need to be addressed well before high school. The problems start when kids enter school and programs should be in place to address the issues early