A key aspect of academic success in
education reading comprehension (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983). Reading comprehension is a key factor in students’ academic, achievement, engagement,
and persistence (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2003; Pintrich & De
Groot, 1990). Therefore, helping readers acquire
comprehension skills that will will increase learning is most significant. As a college reading instructor, a goal of mine is to help facilitate a suitable match between students’ reading
beliefs, text comprehension, and strategy transfer.
My main objective is to help support students
with self-belief and reading strategies transfer
across college disciplines (i.e., Social Sciences, Humanities, and Life
Sciences). High-intensity (i.e., expert) reading students
utilize deliberate reading objectives, deep-processing reading strategies, and persist
at task longer (Alexander, 2005). These readers during the
reading process create inferences, predictions, and questions (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002). Also, these students use
metacognitive skills to monitor comprehension during, and after reading
completion (2002).
On the other hand, low-intensity (i.e.,
non-experts) readers may lack metacomprehension and self-regulation skills
(2002). So, their ability to regulate
cognition and reading comprehension is often not applicable. Conversely, these students may mistake the main
details in text and concentrate on unimportant meanings. Nonetheless, the difference between these two
groups is not reading cognitive aptitude (in most cases) but effective strategies
and their application. In other words,
some students don’t possess the skills (yet) to call the right plays (i.e.,
reading strategies), in different situations (i.e., history, psychology,
biology).
Text Processing the CI Way
In our chapter reading (Alvermann,
Unrau, & Ruddell, 2013), we had to read and investigate another reading comprehension
model, Construction-Integration (CI) Kintsch,
(1988). The gist of the model suggests text processing occurs along two stages. The first stage is construction (i.e.,
concepts, syntax, and semantic) that connect a network of activated
concepts. Continuing, the activation process
either strengthens or diminishes links not compatible with the network units or
conceptions. In other words, the weak
links are destroyed and stronger ones move up the evolutionary (memory) ladder.
Ultimately, the second stage (i.e., integration) develops mental
representations or as I refer to as, a contextual text screen shot. Jumping way
ahead, in short, I’m most interested in the situation model…it is a screen shot
of the situations in the academic text (i.e., thesis statement, headers, and
graphs). This all is the result of
combining the textbase with the reader’s prior knowledge and experience. As a result, a strong situation models are
theorized to contribute to students’ text learning. I’m not sure if learning is
synonymous with comprehension at this point.
Time out.
2 Minute
Warning
I am a college reading instructor because I want to help students learn to
implement reading and study comprehension strategies. So, I want to zero in on the (CI) model for a
sec. I am concern with how memories are
constructed in students’ minds and consciousness. It is not uncommon to hear instructors and theorists
discuss prior knowledge or often times referred to as schema, as a file
cabinet, (I was guilty of this until Dr.
Mandringo hit me up).
However, back to the lesson
at hand, there is a need for a deeper discussion on memory storage and its retrieval
cues. I am reading a book for another
class assignment (i.e., Moonwalking
with Einstein: the Art and Science of
Remembering Everything, (Foer, 2011). The author discusses principles for stronger
memory capacity and knowledge retrieval strategies. He points our new memories and experiences
become attached to our old memories and experiences. Then our schemata or mental representations must
be organized and stored with a particular distinct pattern or in a social
context. Our memoires stored in this pattern
become retrievable (i.e., prior knowledge) to both high and low intensity
readers (2011).
In short, new knowledge and experiences are easier to recall for knowledge
and text action if stored inside a social context. For example, a low-intensity reader who
attaches memories to a social context (birthday party) can use memory strategies
to retrieve this knowledge. Foer points out, “We don’t remember in isolated
facts, we remember things in context” (Foer, p.65). Conversely, knowledge stored in bits and pieces
often becomes obsolete due without connectional cues (social context) with new knowledge.
Therefore, new experiences stored in social contexts will help ‘meaningful’ prior
knowledge influence new learning and comprehension.
Alexander,
P. A. (2005). The path to competence: A lifespan developmental perspective on
reading. Journal of Literacy Research, 37(4), 413.
Alvermann, D. E., Unrau, N. J., &
Ruddell, R. B. (2013). Theoretical models and processes of reading (Vol.
978).
Foer, J. (2011). Moonwalking
with Einstein: The art and science of remembering everything. Penguin.
Kintsch, W. (1988). The role of
knowledge in discourse comprehension: a construction-integration model. Psychological
Review, 95(2), 163.
Linnenbrink, E. A., & Pintrich, P.
R. (2003). THE ROLE OF SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS INSTUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND LEARNING
INTHECLASSROOM. Reading &Writing Quarterly, 19(2), 119–137.
Mokhtari, K., & Reichard, C. A.
(2002). Assessing students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. Journal
of Educational Psychology, 94(2), 249.
Pearson, P. D., & Gallagher, M. C.
(1983). The instruction of reading comprehension. Contemporary Educational
Psychology, 8(3), 317–344.
Pintrich, P. R., & De Groot, E. V.
(1990). Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom
academic performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(1),
33.
