After reading literature on
comprehension strategies, I have learned a great deal about my own
comprehension processes and the reading behaviors of learners in the classroom.
In one reading, Applegate, Quinn, and Applegate (2006) classified eight common
profiles of thinking readers can fall into that are considered “pitfalls” of
successful reading comprehension. These profiles include literalists, fuzzy
thinkers, left fielders, quiz contestants, politicians, dodgers, authors, and
minimalists. Thinking about each of these tendencies and reflecting upon my own
comprehension, I have found that I sometimes fall into the category of a “quiz
contestant.” According to Applegate, Quinn, and Applegate, a “quiz contestant”
responds to questions on the text by searching their memory bank, but often
disconnects from the text before they think of their own examples. I have found
that I do this in comprehension when I read about a topic of interest and think
of stories from my own life, but then fail to connect my story back to the
text. I can work on improving this in my own comprehension by remembering to
compare my background knowledge and experiences back to the stories I read.
In addition to learning
about common pitfalls of comprehension, I also learned about reading strategies
and processes my students and I should engage in each time we read. The reading processes are prereading,
reading, responding, exploring and applying (Tompkins 2010). The strategies we
should use in the stages are activating background knowledge, connecting,
determining importance, drawing inferences, evaluating, monitoring, predicting,
questioning, repairing, setting a purpose, summarizing, and visualizing
(Tompkins 2010). Thinking on my own reading patterns, I realized that I do not
often set a clear purpose for texts before I read. Neglecting this strategy
could be problematic in both my own comprehension and my future teaching. In
the future, I will work to identifying the focus of my reading through texts
before I read.
While these reading
processes and strategies outlined in Tompkins are helpful to my own
comprehension, they are crucial guidelines for teaching literacy to my future
students. In my future classroom, I can make sure to regularly participate in
each reading process with my students and teach them the appropriate strategies
they should use when reading. In addition to outlining the strategies, Tompkins
noted that assessments in each of these categories are crucial. Therefore, in
my future teaching, I plan to both teach and assess my students’ progress in
each of these areas. Furthermore, I can carefully observe and record their
reading patterns to see if they fall into any of the eight profiles that could
inhibit their comprehension. By understanding these clear goals and assessing
my students’ progress, I can give each student the instruction they need to
improve their reading comprehension.
