Rieman, fall 2013 Response to Reading Harvey and Daniels After youve completed the reading for class,

please thoughtfully answer the following questions. Type up your work, print it out, and bring it to class. We will use these to guide class discussion and I will take them up at the end of class. This work also counts as part of your final grade and will be used in your portfolio. You can write these up as essays, incorporating the questions into your piece. Or you can respond to each question separately, making sure to make your answers more substantive than a sentence. 1. Whats your rhetorical/critical reading of this piece? Think about who wrote it, to what audience, for what purpose, using what moves (language use, structure, organization etc.). Support why you think what you do. For example, what makes you think its written for the audience you claim? 2. Harvey and Daniels claim the following: the prime determinant of understanding is prior knowledge. Period, point blank, case closed (22). Respond to this claim, thinking about your own experience as a reader in different disciplines or as a newcomer to a topic. 3. Where did you do this reading? (in your room? the library? etc.) What time of the day? Was it the same or different place and/or time as you read your last article for this class? Why or why not? What about the time and place helped or hindered your reading experience? 4. List three words or concepts that you were previously unfamiliar with, define them, and state where you figured out their meaning. 5. What personal experiences can you relate to this text? 6. What are your suggestions for how we may focus class discussion today? It may be offering a quote you found interesting or confusing and want to explore more. It may be a concept you think we should talk about. It could be some tangential idea you want to talk about. Or perhaps its some guiding question for the class to consider.

Elena Belova

Q-1 Ive read a chapter from the book Comprehension and Collaboration written by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels. This book is for teachers who want to help children to learn information, not just look through passages and answer literal questions. I can suppose that authors were teachers themselves, but they came up with idea and wanted to share it with others, present their experience. Reading carefully we may notice that the authors are still practicing teaching because they are talking about people who asked them for help. However, probably they are not exactly teachers, just writers, thoughtfully looking for the concept of learning. The structure of the text reminds scientific inquiry because it is written by steps, leading reader from one statement to another. There are also tables, pictures, elements that contribute to increasing interest of readers. Writers make a dialog with readers using tests, giving explanations, leading us to conclusion. Sometimes they even predict our thoughts and it means that they are good psychologists. I think that this chapter is for wide circle of readers, despite the evidence that authors address it to teachers. Another point is the simplicity of the language, which makes the text understandable to anyone. Q-2 I agree that understanding the topic depends on previous knowledge. For example, when I was a senior in high school I had to take chemistry. I didnt understand anything in the book when there were unfamiliar symbols or terms. However, I passed it because I knew some information from other sciences like biology or physics, which as known have many points in common with chemistry. Unfortunately I cant write reactions or solve problems now because I dont remember how to do it. I learned solutions before the exams and then, a couple of days later, they evaporated from my head. Q-3 I started to read too late because I had a lot of classes today. At the beginning I wasnt interested in doing assignment, but then, moving pages down on the computer screen I started to immerse in the topic of the reading. I was reading in the same room, everything was as at the first time, except roommates. They were suspiciously quiet. I heard only planes flying somewhere far away and rustle in my head. Probably it is because I listened to music too much. However I was concentrated on the reading. Somewhere in the middle of the chapter the rustle died away. Q-4 Glean- choose something very carefully (from English-Russian dictionary) Infer- imply, mean something. Make a conclusion. (from English-Russian dictionary)

Comprehension. At first it wasnt a question, but then I felt that Im failing. At that moment I read the sentence: Comprehension is about understanding. Q-5 Reading the text I tried to analyze my mistakes in the past. What I did wrong and why. I realized that when working on class assignments I dont think too much about information, I skip all details in order to complete the task faster, but reading fiction I learn. It happens unconsciously, I just emerge myself into the book and cant stop reading, thinking, asking questions: Why it is going on? What will they do next? Why they did that?. I read this text very quickly because I felt comfortable and understood everything. It is always easier to read when you are familiar with topic. Q-6 I asked myself: How can I learn to read non-fiction if usually I dont remember the content after a couple of hours? It is the most challenging question for me now.