The Reading Process: Who's in Charge?

Chapter Three in my book, Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas was very interesting and had a ton of useful information in it. The chapter began by asking a question: Is the reader controlled by the text, or does the reader play a major role in how the text is read and perceived? Before I read any further, I thought about my answer to this question. I believe that the reader has the power to decide how to interpret the text. In other words, the reader makes his or her meaning from the text based on previous knowledge. In order to answer this question, the author of the book explained a couple of different reading theories.

The Behaviorist Model of Reading was the first one mentioned in the chapter. This passive view of reading suggests that the reader passes his/her eyes over the words on the page, sounds them out based on phonics, and registers the words in his/her brain. Behaviorists believe that reading is a passive process, which involves little mental activity beyond word identification. Only the things that are directly observable can be measured. (Remember hooked on phonics worked for me?) This theory certainly relates back to the Mosaic of Thought article. The teachers were very surprised that Jeremy did not know the meaning of the work committee. They assumed that he knew the meaning of the word because he could pronounce it so well. I think back to learning to read in elementary school, this is exactly how I learned to read. The focus on accuracy of oral reading encourages readers to think of meaning as secondary. The behaviorist model is very linear and values accuracy in word identification over comprehension. After all, it is much easier to test on things that are observable when it comes to reading. In this mode of thinking, it is the writer who is in charge of the meaning.

The second theory in the reading process is called Psycholinguistic Theory. This theory allows for more of a multifaceted view of the reading process. This theory considers the interplay between the reader's mind and the printed text. The reader has active participation in making sense of the text. The reader uses previous knowledge, semantics, and background experiences to make predictions. This process is cyclical rather than linear. The reader makes predictions about the text as he/she reads, then as more is read other predictions are made to justify the text in his/her mind. In this mode of thinking, it is the reader who is in charge of the meaning.

Traditional instruction focuses primarily on proofreading, whereas focusing on construction of meaning allows for proofreading to be missed. When the reader makes assumptions on the text based on what he or she already knows, the reader's meaning making of the text will often differ from what the writer had in mind. When this happens miscues, or mistakes, are likely to occur. Literature forces us to fill in the blanks where things are left unexplained. Readers use their socially constructed knowledge in order to make sense of the text. They make meaning based on individual perceptions of race, class, gender, religion, and economic backgrounds. This means that teachers often have less influence on what their students make out of reading than they would like to believe.

At the end of the chapter, it is up to you to decide who is in charge based on what theory you believe. I certainly think that the reader is in charge of deciphering text. The writer creates text in hopes that the reader will perceive it in the same ways that he/she did when they wrote it. Sometimes this does occur, however, the reader will ultimately make meaning from the text based on his/her schemas, prediction in constructing meaning, and sociocultural-polical influences. Reading is certainly not linear, but rather cyclical. It is this cyclical pattern, which empowers readers to make sense of the world in their own way.

Book and Blog Introduction

I just began reading the book called Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas. I chose to read this book for a couple of reasons. First of all, I noticed that the authors all taught at universities in Michigan. I realize that this is a silly way to choose a book, but being from Michigan I was initially drawn to it. Two of the authors, Reade Dornan and Marilyn Wilson, even taught at Michigan State University, which is in my home town. Secondly, the title caught my attention. I was thinking about the diversity in the classroom and wanted to get a book that touched on the subject of multicultural and multilingual classrooms. So this book called out to me because I felt like I could relate to it both from my early literacy experiences in Michigan, and my current education experiences in New Mexico.

Last night I got started with the book and read chapters one and two. The early chapters introduce the book and begin by describing that there are two debates about how to teach reading in schools. The argument is over choice of whether the students should be taught explicitly to read through prerequisite skills before they will be able to read to learn; or whether children learn to read and use the language cueing systems as a result of reading to learn. These arguments are based from two very different views of learning and teaching written language. The first group believes that it is necessary to isolate specific features of a word and teach them to children before letting them read. This word-recognition style of teaching focuses more on letters, sounds, and morphemes. The second group focuses on a meaning-centered view, which stresses phonics and grammar.

There are two main teaching styles brought up in the first chapter of the book. The first shows students that reading and learning can be fun and worthwhile, but the texts must be relevant, useful, and peak students' interest. This style of teaching follows the transactional model of teaching where the teachers acts as a facilitator, rather than a lecturer. The environment of this classroom permits students to become independent learners. The other style of teaching is called the transmission model of teaching where the teacher dispenses the knowledge and students passively accept the information.

Once I am in the classroom, I believe that I would follow the transactional model of teaching, which stresses that learning is an active process. Students need to become independent learners. It is important that they learn to work collaboratively and take risks as they explore reading and writing.

Chapter two discusses the current competing scientific views of reading. The first view states that reading is a matter of getting meaning from texts by learning to identify phonics, or letters. They believe that learning is a linear process with an ordered sequence. The other side of the spectrum are the whole language advocates. They believe that reading depends on interaction between meaning and texts. A reader uses his/her own experience to aid in constructing meaning. This view seems to go along with what Gee was saying about discourses and how one's personal values, beliefs, and identity plays a role in the way a person thinks, acts, and lives within a society. Based on what little I know to begin with, I would have to agree with the whole language advocates with my view of reading.

This book begins with the history of literacy studies and begins by addressing the major theoretical issues involved in the politics of literacy. I am excited to get started with my book and expect to learn a lot.

Blogging About Blogging

I'm going to start off my first blog with a little bit of honesty; I'm not excited about blogging. I have never thought about starting a blog nor do I follow any. I do have a Facebook account and share a little bit of myself on that page, yet still I always hold back before posting a comment. I ask myself two questions before ever posting. First, who cares? and second, would I say what I am about to say to every one of my "friends" if they were standing right in front of me? Usually by this point I decide against my post.

I did enjoy learning about the history behind blogs on wikipedia. I still find it exciting that we are encouraged to use this source for classroom work. I like that blogs are a way to collaborate knowledge and communicate interactively with others in the online community. I always thought of blogs as only used for "personal" diaries or journals. I never realized that they can be used for corporate affairs or classroom work. Perhaps my experience with blogs in this class will change my mind about them.

While doing my research about blogs I looked at several different ones. I really liked blogs that had to do with New Mexico. There was a blog about the local music scene called rock squawk. I enjoyed seeing what the musicians had to say about the local music scene. The page also had a calendar of events so the community could see what bands were going to be playing and where. If you are interested in checking out this blog, here is the link:
http://www/alibi.com/index.php?scn=rocksquawk/


I also enjoyed looking at the blogs called Democracy for New Mexico and Urban Albuquerque. I will add links to both of these as well.
http://www.democracyfornewmexico.com/
http://www.urbanabq.blogspot.com/

I was not a big fan of the personal blogs which I came across. Most of them had to do with restaurants that people liked or didn't like. I sell wine for a living and constantly run across blogs about wine when I am doing research about a specific vintage. It is valid that everyone has their own opinion about wines. They share what they like or don't like, but unless I know that their palate is similar to mine I am not likely to listen to the ratings that someone else gives the wine. After all, I don't even like to follow Robert Parker.

For this class I bought three of the books that were recommended on Penny's listing. I bought Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts: Reading in the Secondary Content Areas, English Learners Academic Literacy and Thinking, and Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension. Due to the fact that I am taking three classes this term and working full time I will only be reading and blogging about one of these books during the semester. The book that I will be starting with and blogging about is Multiple Voices, Multiple Texts. I bought mine on Ebay, but I will put up a link to Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Multiple-Voices-Texts-Reading-Secondary/dp/0867094176/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308333853&sr=8-1

I look forward to getting started with my book and my blog and hope that this experience is positive and will change my opinion about blogging.