Processes Of Reading

Unit 1 "A Theory of Reading:

From Eye Fixations to Comprehension"

Summary and Reflection

A reader is able to control the rate of input for reading comprehension. A reader can skip over portions of the text, reread sections, or pause on a particular word. (Ruddell & Unrau, 2004) Just and Carpenter developed a process model of reading by examining where readers pause for internal comprehension. Almost every content word of the study is fixated at least once, which is a common misconception. However, from the data that was presented it shows that "during ordinary reading almost all content words are fixated." (Ruddell & Unrau, 2004) Depending on the level of text, the fixation time varies. Just and Carpenter tries to account for the total time of comprehension in terms of the gaze length on each word.

There is a large variation in the duration of individual fixations as well as the total gaze duration on individual words. These gazes reflect the time to complete comprehension processes. Many times a longer fixation can be caused by an infrequent use of the word. Pauses can also be at the end of a sentence, which is an integrative process. The immediacy assumption is one assumption that a "reader tries to interpret each content word of a text as it is encountered." (Ruddell & Unrau, 2004) The second assumption is the eye-mind assumption, in which the eye remains fixated on a word as long as the word is being processed.

Reading has many processes that are the framework of the comprehension processing system. Decoding a word can take away from a student's comprehension of a passage. If a word is not in a student's working memory then the repeated reading would be something to assist the student. I must keep in mind that not every reader will comprehend a text the same way as his or her neighbor. This is so even from the author's intentions of the text. The reader may not comprehend the intended message that they author was trying to portray.

Unit 2: "Role of Reader's Schema in Comprehension, Learning, and Memory"

Summary and Reflection

The schema theory is what Anderson explains as the element of reading that provides the basis for comprehending, learning, and remembering ideas in stories and texts. This is when a reader is able to bring to mind a schema as they are reading that helps them comprehend a message from the text. "What is critical for comprehension is a schema accounting for the relationships among elements; it is not enough for the elements to be concrete and imageable." (Ruddell & Unrau, 2004) Just as all students are different, the way one interprets a text is different from the next. "The schema that will be brought to bear on a text depends upon the reader's age, sex, race, religion, nationality, occupation- in short, it depends upon the reader's culture." (Ruddell & Unrau, 2004) Readers must activate a schema that will provide a coherent explanation on order to comprehend. This schema that has evolved must also explain the message as a whole.

According to schema theory, reading involves simultaneous analysis at the levels of graphophonemic, morphemic, semantic, syntactic, pragmatic, and interpretive. Processes that are "bottom up," flow from the print and ones that are "top down," are processes that flow in the other direction. For instance, the word lock can be processed as something to keep closed or as a wrestling move. The reader's hypothesis will lean the meaning in one direction or the other.

As for the design of materials to enhance the schema theory, Anderson suggested that publishers create manuals for teachers to help students activate knowledge before reading. It was also suggested that for basal programs or content area text, suggestions for building prerequisite knowledge should be included. Third, Anderson calls for "publishers to feature lesson activities that will lead children to meaningfully integrate what they already know with what is presented on the printed page." (Ruddell and Unrau, 2004) Advance organizers with concrete language would be beneficial to "bridge the gap" with what a child already knows with what he needs to know. Advance organizers are something that I would like to bring into my classroom. I use graphic organizers to further explain concepts, however, they would be beneficial to my students to activate their prior knowledge. Most importantly, consideration must be taken for some students whose schemata may not match those of the majority culture. With a graphic organizer I can assist those that may have no background knowledge on a particular subject. Many of my students come from a lower-economic background and have not experienced certain things.

Unit 2: "Schema Activation and Schema Acquisition

Comments on Richard C. Anderson's Remarks"

Summary and Reflection

John D. Bradsford discussed Richard Anderson's theory of schema and some potential shortcomings of many versions of schema theory. One of the main functions discussed by Bradsford was activation of background knowledge. Some children, especially in my classroom, may not have poor comprehension or memory skills, but rather fail to activate background knowledge that was presumed by a text. My students in particular, misinterpret text because of their lack of knowledge in homonyms. I teach an ESOL Shelter class in which half are in SLD classes for Reading and Math. At the beginning of the year we went over homonyms and I noticed through the year that this is an ongoing lesson. "The question of what it means for children to be "familiar" with the words used in a story is more complicated than might be apparent at first glance." (Ruddell & Unrau, 2004) For instance, we came across the word carat in our reading text and many students misinterpreted it as carrot. This is something that definitely can affect their interpretations as Bradsford noted.

Bradsford also discussed the phrasing of questions and how there can be mismatches between initial interpretations. This brought to mind the state standardized tests that my students take. Most questions are multiple choice, in which they answer after reading a passage. In these tests, they often give an impractical answer choice. It is up to the student to identify this choice through their process of elimination. However, if the student read a passage that dealt with diamonds and carats and the question had an answer choice dealing with vegetables,