When pondering about this quote I really considered the wording that Adams used. Throughout his book, Weaver discusses the “skill of reading” verses the “process of reading”. The “skill” of reading is processing the individual letters of the words whereas the overall process of reading is discovering meaning through a combination of schema, context, and grapho/phonemic cues as discovered in Chapter 3. If I were to only focus in on her wording I can see where she could be considered correct because the skill of reading is to be able to process the individual sounds. However, from my general understanding of her quote I believe she is talking more along the lines of the overall reading process and this is where I would have to disagree with her. My understanding of reading, as built upon prior knowledge and what I have gathered from this book, is being able to discover meaning and make connections with the words on the page rather than just being able to sound the words out correctly. As we discovered in the last chapter, we rely heavily on context to obtain meaning and make connections. In fact, there were studies proving that students were more likely to correctly pronounce words within text because they were able to use the context that surrounded the word. With that alone I think Adams’ understanding of the reading process is a little misguided.
Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. I interpreted Adam's quote the same way. I think he makes and excellent point while discussing the letter formation that makes up words. However, I believe reading is more than just reading words on a page. It's like you said, reading derives from making meaning and connecting to what you are already familiar with. I think in order to make avid readers, we need to surround them with a variety of text in order to expose them to multiple meaning words. With this, they will be able to read a variety of materials while encountering several words used in different ways.
Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteI interpreted the quote the same way that you did. I don't agree with Adams' quote because I have also taken from our readings that good readers are reading for meaning. I took away from her interpretation that she maybe was going off what she had always been told. I think there are many teachers, in younger grades especially, that do put so much focus on each letter and word rather than the sentences as a whole. Being a fifth grade teacher, most of my students can read the words on the page fairly easily but they can't tell me what they read. I put so much more focus into what they are reading rather than how they are reading.
Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and how a good reader is one who is able to comprehension what we read rather than reading the words correctly. The ideas of having students "discover meaning and make connections" would play a major role in taking reading, taking chapter test and more importantly standardized testing such as the CRCT. I feel that there is a differences in teaching phonics and having to identify each individual letter vs. reading and comprehending.