Constructing Meaning through Reading and Writing
Students always learn their comprehensive nature of writing meaningful compositions and passages through their English teachers and therefore a teacher should have all the strategies that can make the student understand how to make good writing that can construct meaning.
These strategies should be addressed to in before, during and after reading processes of passages and texts. The students must be engaged actively in during reading the text and therefore the teacher should assist them attend the problems arising and employment of fix up strategies in comprehension. The students should be able to evaluate after reading the comprehensions so that they may know how the text may apply in the future or its importance in the future writing of texts and compositions to construct meaning and understanding.
The strategies help the students to fully understand the compositions as it has been witnessed in many famous universities in the world like the University of Virginia that came with a book of Professional Development and Reading of Comprehensions.
Strategies and Activities
Strategy one and activity one (Activating prior knowledge):
These strategies work hand in hand with each other when the student is in the reading processes and therefore a student should recall anything he/she knows about a topic before reading the text with new information. This is activating prior knowledge and you therefore need to access what the student knows and clarify incorrect knowledge if there is any. You should also be able to put the student in a position that he/she can recall more information already known on the topic.
Strategy two and activity two (Anticipation guide):
Anticipation guide is a statement of a compilation where the students either agree or disagree with what is contained on the text. The statements should be related to crucial concepts or issues from the upcoming text. Anticipation guides are done with expository texts but can as well be done with narratives. After establishing statements to your students, allow them to respond to the statements after some few minutes of understanding.
The students should respond by brief discussion where answers are supported with prior knowledge. During reading, make sure you revisit the anticipation guide so that the students can be able to make amendments or correct understanding to their original answers of the prior reading. After reading, let your students reexamine the statements so that they can turn the false statements into true ones by the show of evidences.
Strategy three and activity three (Seeking clarification):
The process of seeking clarification is where the readers must monitor their reading to ensure outstanding by use of metacognition. Metacognition is a term used to refer knowledge and control individuals have on cognitive processes (University of Virginia 2003-2010). Comprehensive monitoring should provide students with the steps that they can take to fix problems as they arise.
Strategy four & activity four (Fix up Strategies):
The problems which may arise in a comprehensive reading by the students may be handled with the fix up strategies of passage construction of meanings. The fix up strategies must begin with the reader defining the problem which usually needs another method of devising solution and controlling the problem.
Strategy five & activity five (Introduction of new concepts):
After knowing the problems which may arise when reading the text, the student should develop the idea of knowing the concepts in the content of the text i.e. the students should have the anxiety of the text.
Strategy six & activity six (before reading strategy):
You should be able to bring the student to an environment of reading. He/she will get to understand what might be contained inside the passage.
Strategy seven & activity seven (reading):
The reading strategies include looking back through the text, rereading what was read, slowing down reading whenever you encounter challenging points or ideas in the text, forward looking on the future help of the text.
Strategy eight and activity eight (After reading):
The student now has an overview of what he/she has read. The first thing you should ask yourself is how deep has the content been understood. This will depend on the coding systems as other strategy of after text reading.
Strategy nine & activity nine (The coding systems):
The coding systems help to serve students when they are in problems noticed on fix up strategies and therefore through coding systems, students can reflect and make self regulations. Explicit modeling of fix up strategies also helps students resolve arising problems.
Strategy ten & activity ten (Generating self questions):
It must be noted that question asking is an active activity while answering is passive so students should learn to ask and answer own questions. Your students will be good in thinking if they can be able to generate questions while reading. There is the KWL chart that prompts students only to self question but also to activate prior knowledge and assimilate new information. The KWL chart helps the students to see the importance of before; during and after writing processes in that they can get questions on personal thinking as to what do I know? What will I learn? What did I learn? Respectively.
Strategy eleven & activity eleven (Evoking sensory images):
There is the aspect of evoking new images whereby students after reading the text, the students can construct the images and therefore it is a memory representation of the passage. A thoughtful sequence of activities will always help the students to use the imagery they understand or the picture seen in the text as a comprehension strategy. Creating mental images works better when the text is highly descriptive and therefore can have the idea of lending itself to visualization.
Strategy twelve & activity twelve (Loud reading):
Both narratives and informative texts are used during loud reading strategy and this allows your students to compare their images of understanding of the text as they discuss the information from the text. Also on read aloud, let your students stop engaging in image sharing of text understanding but then inform them on how creating mental images on a text help them understand the passage. Discuss on how imagery can support writing by elaborating a piece of passage especially by use of concrete objects like birds and frogs.
Strategy thirteen & activity thirteen (Inferences):
Adequate comprehensions depend on abilities of the writer to make inferences and readers make plethora inferences while reading e.g. elaboration of ideas based on knowledge of passage subject. A question answer relationship technique can assist you to make inferences.
Strategy fourteen & activity fourteen (Text summary):
The students finally must summarize the texts having the mental representations as the key parts of a composition by identifying the main ideas in the comprehension and leaving the irrelevant ones. (University of Virginia 2003-2010)
Conclusion
Teachers play a key role in bringing up the writing and reading abilities of a child and therefore they should encourage the students to have careful planning before performing any writing right from the kindergarten to grade 1 and grade 2 literacy development of a child constructing meaningful writing. This is because bringing a child in an environment that supports and stimulates literacy helps them attain literate knowledge. (Neuman & Roskos 1992).
References
University of Virginia (2003-2010). Instructional activities for comprehension development: Strategy instruction
Website http://www.readingfirst.virginia.edu/prof_dev/comprehension/lesson3.html
Neuman S B. & Roskos K (1992). Literacy objects as cultural tools: Effects on children’s literacy behaviors in play: Reading Research Quarterly, 27, 203-225
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