Smith Summary (MODEL FOR GROUP PRESENTATIONS)

The multiple definitions and types of comprehension in reading reveal a connection of multiple interpretations. Smith is saying that there is a pattern of how reading happens, and that it happens in different ways for different poeple and purposes. He adds that this proves simple definitions of comprehension are "inadequate for the richness taht is reading." Thus Smith suggests that the notion that comprehension is a basic element of literacy, can be modified to understand that the activity and process of reading is dependant on not just what is read, but who is reading it.

How does understanding different purposes affect how we define the neurological act of comprehension?

How does understanding what readers look for in a text modify how we define fluency?

To what extent do the intentions of the reader and the writer shape the meaning of the text?

To what extent does fluency depend on familiarity rather than specific skills?

How does an emphasis on reader's experience modiify the pedagogy of reading?

Studing the effects of reading reveals some anomalies about things reading can achieve that other forms of thinking cannot. While Smith classifies reading as part of a larger pattern of thinking, he argues that one can only learn about reading and writing through reading. He also adds that reading offers specific emotional satisfactions that may be less available in other types of thinking, including the amount of control and the ability to create stories. Thus Smith suggests that the idea that pedagogy should be based simply on specific skills can be modified to understand the "creative experiential interaction" and the "quality of the experience" of the reader in interacting with the text.

Data Collation

p 167-170

Connection: different types of comprehension

Problems of Definition (Popper, Interpretation examples)

Comprehension in different contexts:

Novel/poem=experience

Textbook=analytical thought

Telephone book=key

Recipe=steps

But this can vary

Application

So What

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Literacy seems to be about the neurological act of comprehension, but it’s really about the neurological purposes and attitudes of those reading. This changes our analysis of what comprehension is by asking us to focus on reader's needs at a particular moment.

Application

So What

Data Collation

Literacy seems to be about the pedagogy of specific skills, but it’s really about the neurological state of the reader in terms of experiences with reading. This changes our practice of pedagogy by shifting the focus to quality of reading experiences rather than specific skills.

Application

p 167-170

Connection: prediction at different levels

Text predictions (what something means for a relevant purpose) takes place at different levels:

letters

words

meanings

Readers look for each level in print to answer different questions

don't look for same levels/same answers at the same time

p 179-182

Anomaly: Specific consequences of reading

knowledge about reading, writing (grammar, selling, punctuation, pargraphing, style), academics; membership in club of literacy and knowledge

a form of thinking in which we make choices, predict, anticipate, but have the luxury of control over events.

Connection: positive emotional aspects: reading can develop positive aemotional attitudes towards the act, and stories are perhaps most satisfying element of thinking

So What

Text predictions reveal a connection in the fact readers look for different answers at diffrent levels. This reflects that, for Smith, literacy values "the potential of answering certain questions." Print does not matter in terms of the particular symbols it uses, but on how ansswers can be obtained, which may take place at the level of words, letters, or meaning. Thus Smith suggests that the idea of fluency can be modified to understand how well a reader is able to find answers to the particular questions he or she is asking.

Literacy seems to be about the neurological act of decoding symbols, but it’s really about the neurological act of finding answers to questions developed by readers. This changes analysis of what fluency is by turning to the question of what literate readers actually want to get from a text.

So What

Literacy seems to be about the neurological process of gaining specific reading skills, but it’s really about the neurological process of being familiar with the conventions of ceratin types f writing. This changes our analysis of fluency by suggesting it depends on familiarity with a type of text rather than having a certain set of comprehension skills.

Application

So What

Literacy seems to be about the neurological act of comprehennding a text, but it’s really about the purposes with which a reader approcahes reading a text or a writer approaches writing it. This changes our belief in the neurological relationship betwen text, reader, and writer by suggesting the three constantly interact rather than are always in interaction with a set text with a set meaning.

Smith's examiniation of fluent and beginning reading reveals a contrast between the modes of reading. He suggests that fluent readers' reading is "purposeful, selective, anticipatory, and based on comprehension." Readers may have fluency in some types of reading, but not others: there is no such thing as someone who can fluently read anything. Thus Smith suggest that idea that having specific reading skills guarantees fluency, can be modified to understand that experience with certain types of texts leads to fluency at those types of texts.

Application

Smith's focus on reader's predictions and authors intentions reveals a connection between the interactions between different levels. Smith suggests that there are larger, global, needs and smaller, focal ones, and a reader may comprehend one level without comprehyending another. Equally, a writer may have a clear intention of "certain pathwyas of ideas" but specific focal concerns may shape the book or need to be revised for the sake of the book.Thus Smith suggests that the idea that readers and writers interact with a "static text," can be modified to understand rather that they are involved in a "dynamic" process based on both readers and writers specifications.

Data Collation

178-180

Contrast between fluent and beginning reading

Fluent= familiar (with that type of text) and skilled. Id individual words, use nonvisual info, are purposeful, selective, anticipatory and predict based on comprehension

flexible with intentions and expectations, both own and the writers

Beginning=not there. Depend on individual words instead of overall meaning.

Every reader will have some texts with which they are fluent, others with which they aren't: in which case will read like "fluent" or "beginning" reader in that case--approaches are same

Data Collation

p 170-177

Connections--how Readers predict what are writer's intentions:

Multiplex levels

Car driving example--have both long term route to map where you're going and moment by moment decisions (braking, avoiding traffic)

Global issues: title, genre, chapters

Conventions: genre, story, registers

Focal issues: sentences, paragraphs

Conventions: grammar, discourse, syntax, idiom, semantics

Focal choices more sudden and short term