Text Participants

The next chapter in Reading to Live discusses one of the most important of all the four practices which is becoming a text participant and making meaning.  The author states that once a code breaker has entered the text, he or she will become a text participant.  What is interesting is that Wilson also believes that children are able to actually participate before they can begin code breaking.  An example of this, as noted in the book, is when children make predictions based on titles to ponder developing relationships and plot outcomes.  I thought this was a valid point because it proves that children bring meaning making to the table before they can even read and pronounce all of the words and sentences in the correct context.

Wilson continues to write that “The ways we make meaning or understand a text are linked directly with our reading purposes…”  Once again this proves that children already bring something to the table when attempting to code break and become a participant.  They view each and every attempt as a purposeful venture into literacy.  These purposes are what allow text participants to find meaning as it relates to how they have previously made sense of the world they are already accustomed to.  I think this is very important in my discipline because students are going to be reading about physical education and health and they are going to seek purpose within the realm of how their body has already experienced ways to move and improve itself through concepts like lifelong exercise knowledge and nutritional program development.  They will have to find meaning as it relates to their previous experience or they will never believe there are positive benefits to this learning process.  Simply put, if they can’t explore the possibilities by becoming a participant in the ideas then they will be dissuaded to continue the process.  This often happens in literacy, as Wilson mentions, because teachers often test whether or not a child has understood something which consequently sets boundaries to what a child should understand.  It limits their exploration and meaning making of the material at hand.

There are also some useful strategies at the end of this chapter for teachers to use in regards to allowing text participants to make meaning of their works of literature.  One of the most beneficial ideas was very simple but I feel it will be useful to understand how children will communicate true meaning related to a piece of work.  This was just allowing students to ask questions and create answers to concepts or ideas in the reading that weren’t necessarily answered by the author.  This will allow the teacher to understand many things such as how the student viewed the material as far as purpose is concerned as well as what personal meaning they brought to the table when participating in the text.  Wilson believes that “so much more thinking and learning occurs” when compared to a structured question and answer session in which students are called upon to answer few questions related to the material.  There is no pressure for right or wrong answers and children don’t feel threatened by the ways in which they made sense of whatever was being studied.  I couldn’t agree more.

Code Breakers

Chapter 3 of Reading to Live focuses entirely on an important practice which is code breaking.  As mentioned before, this practice involves getting inside the text and unlocking the mysteries of the print to find meaning, as Wilson discusses.  She brings up a valid point which reiterates that this practice is not learned in isolation but that it is learned while engaging and analyzing the text, often times simultaneously with other practices. 

As the chapter begins she talks about a common misconception which is that reading is strictly visual and that what the eye sees is what is most important.  I was somewhat puzzled at this misconception but she explains it well by showing the same word and analyzing multiple meanings that come from this word.  I never really thought too much about this but this portion of the chapter made me aware of how difficult the English language really is.  She mentions that there are 26 letters in the alphabet but there are over 42 sounds involved!  So many words have multiple meanings.  I also didn’t realize how many pronunciations there are for single letters such as the letter a in words like cat, was, Andrew, and Fiona, which Wilson uses as examples in her text.  I think the major point she makes regarding this concept is that teachers must teach the letter sounds in a variety of pronunciations and words.  She believes holistic programs truly achieve this and she states that “A major difference between skills classrooms and whole language classrooms (holistic) is that in skills classrooms, sounds are attributed to letters divorced from words, whereas in whole language classrooms, sound-letter patterns are discussed only in the context of words.”  I would agree with Wilson’s statement and aim to teach in these holistic conditions to promote literacy in my classroom in the future.  It makes more sense because children aren’t separated from the meaning making process which seems to happen in skill based programs.

The chapter continues with Wilson analyzing phonics and early writing.  She displays a few student written assignments in her book as evidence and makes some interesting conclusions.  It appears these students aren’t only writing to communicate but they are “exploring letter representations” while making sounds.  Every letter in the examples she provides prove that students’ writing almost always involves a form of meaning involved.  This is the case even when the writing is barely discernable to an experienced onlooker. 

So what does this all have to do with code breaking?  This is a question I pondered after reading certain segments of this chapter.  It proves that this meaning making process involved in reading words and making their sounds must be attributed to being able to form sound-letter relationships, know the letters of the alphabet and their sounds in actual words they can read, and also understand the relationship with the text a child has previously had experience with.  Holistic programs, as Wilson has convinced me, are the best ways to develop efficient code breakers which will allow them to enter the text and continue with their path to literacy.

Early Reading Instruction

In the second chapter of Reading to Live, by Lorraine Wilson, there are many suggestions for future and current teachers on how to engage and successfully aid early readers in literacy.  This chapter, titled “Early Reading Instruction” brought up many unique concepts that focus around integrating the four reading practices mentioned in my last blog.

She begins by discussing work that took place in a K-2 class in which students followed the teacher as she read a picture book.  Following the reading, the students were to participate in sessions in which a variety of activities were incorporated to allow the students to step into the shoes of the author.  They were to predict decisions as well as retell the story by making their own decisions and study how that would affect the overall nature of the story.  The teacher finished the lesson by a word study activities that focused on similar spelling and grouping of words.  Wilson explained how these conditions, led by her instruction, allowed the students to take part in the ownership of their learning process which overall promoted their literacy and led to reading and writing creativity on a higher level.  This was valuable to me as a future educator because it gave me ideas to use in the future as I will be teaching physical education and health as my primary discipline. I have realized how valuable it is in my career of study to allow students to take part in their own education whether it is reading about a lifelong sport or health related concept which will benefit them and allow them to understand the information from the author’s perspective. 

The chapter continues with innovative ways to teach strategies for early readers and one point that Wilson makes that caught my attention was how powerful it is for teachers to read aloud to students.  This simple form of modeling will almost always create silence and gain the entire audiences’ attention.  I began to think deeper into why this phenomenon actually occurs, especially when Wilson writes that “reading is always about something and always for some purpose.”  The book mentions how even the most misbehaved student will suddenly focus and listen to the teacher’s words as he or she reads aloud and engages the student body.  So it seems that this total involvement is due to the fact that children are these little human sponges who are still making meaning of the world and this process takes them to “magical places” and allows a form of “shared literary experience” among every member.   These early readers who are struggling with this new discourse can witness a condition in which their goals are already attained and are being displayed before their very eyes and ears. They become text participants without having to face the struggles of independent reading attempts.  This proves that they all have a desire to read which is really something special at this early age compared to other grade levels.  It is also a way for students to value their teacher and make meaning about the process of becoming literate readers which leads to success for both parties involved.  I think this proves that reading aloud has more depth than most people think.  It is not only a means of communication to learn but it is a type of shared experience with a variety of meanings and understandings existing as a whole.

Reading to Live

The book I chose to blog about for the next few weeks was an interesting choice now that I have dug into its contents.  Reading to Live by Lorraine Wilson dives right into the questions of what literacy is defined by and what does it mean to become literate in today’s society. 

The introductory chapter as well as chapter one provides the reader with the meat and potatoes of what she feels literacy should represent.  She states on page 3 that “..throughout this book, reading means meaning making.”  So for people to become literate, as she elaborates, Wilson believes without a doubt that it involves social practice and a definite purpose among other concepts as well.  An intriguing example she brings to the table is how she describes miscues made by a six-year old reading a story book.  The young child substitutes a few words and changes colors based on visual mistakes but whatever miscues are created by this individual do not deter the listener from the overall meaning of the narrative that she follows through with.  This tells the observer that the goal of this child was not to focus on the perfection of the exact originality of the words but to tell a story that made sense because meaning was the priority.

Wilson mentions toward the end of Chapter 1 that her book would consistently reference The Four Resources Model  created by Allan Luke and Peter Freebody who were researchers studying reading practices in the late nineties.  These four practices are the code breaker, the text participant, the text user, and the text analyst.  I was somewhat confused but Wilson does a quality job of explaining this model.  In summation, the code breaker gets within the text while the text participant is inside the text possibly experiencing emotions related to life experiences.  The text user must find purpose of the reading in a practical sense while the text analyst “steps back from the text” and criticizes the material. 

I found Luke and Freebody’s model to be very useful, especially when thinking about the framework for this course.  Thinking about how people become literate and eventually use it for whatever discipline in life is an important reason for becoming a teacher, in my opinion.  The model represents how reading a given text has different aspects and steps involved and how they don’t necessarily fall into strict, structured order.  If we aren’t able to be reflective about what we read and find reasons or purposes for the information then how are we to teach children that becoming literate is a valuable tool to promote their own well-being?  Wilson makes a great point after discussing this model by writing “Why is such junk reading material, rather than material about real issues, being fed to children?”  She is referencing the fact that many teachers impose their own books upon children based only on teaching protocols such as controlled vocabulary or phonics texts.  This book by Wilson brings up a key question which is what are the most important things students need to learn to become literate? 

 

It seems that every child at some point in time will inevitably write about what they have read, especially what influenced them in the beginning.    Children will absorb the meaning of these early literary works and store it into their long term memory banks which prove that literacy is beyond a means for communication.  They aren’t storing words and phonic skills for communication purposes only but for reasons that have long-term life relationships attached.  I think what Wilson is saying is crucial to the fact that students must be taught how to understand all aspects of the resources model to develop proper literacy.  Many are missing out on this due to improper teacher instruction as a direct result of an educational system based on standards and measurements rather than individual needs.  As the title says, reading must encompass all aspects of living.

Experience with Blogging

I have had mostly positive experience with blogs for pretty much the past few years.  I don’t have cable television and hardly even watch the free network shows.   I get all my news and entertainment from internet based sites and providers.  This has caused me to collide head on with the world that is blogging.

I am a consistent sports fan but the sport I follow most is Brazilian jiu-jitsu.  Since these competitive events are never broadcasted in America I have to follow sources that provide me with the updates for the major tournaments (if I am not present when they occur).  The two main websites I have been visiting for the last 2 years have allowed me to personally be involved with reading many blogs.  Usually these are collaborated with video blogs in which interviews are linked on the page that discuss and involve the athletes of this amazing and beautiful martial art.  This has also allowed me to follow actual people who I would have never met before in life due to their talented blogs about what events are being held and what are the likes and dislikes of the situations at hand. 

My interest in blogs has always been simply reading them whether they are about groundbreaking films or other sports in general.   I actually have never been involved in the creative process until taking this course.  Reading many blogs has also resulted in many scrupulous lashings at certain bloggers which has made me ponder many times how I would have written something better or more truthful.  There are many “trolls” out there who I have wanted to correct due to their unnecessary and overly saturated sarcastic tone so maybe this course will cause me to actually take action and voice my opinions now that I know the authentic process a bit more.  A high quality blog should aim for the truth and not meander through windy roads of propaganda, in my opinion.  There is enough garbage on the internet as it is so why add fuel to the flames?

The blogs that interest me most are ones that provide insightful information concerning interesting and productive topics in life.  I read a travel blog a few months ago and it was amazing how the writer wrote about the ways to make travel cheaper, faster, and more efficient for certain destinations like Thailand and Brazil.  The information was absolutely legit and vital to any person trying to save money from buying a travel book or magazine.  It proves that web based information can lead to positive educational experiences if the writing falls into the right hands and vice versa.  It also demonstrates that quality information should not have a price on it.  Many companies base their product, such as books and magazines, on the premise that they have what you need.  The truth is that people have what people need and this is always sources of knowledge which should be free, right? Human nature tends to want something in return, yet we all want information to make our lives easier don’t we?