Module 3: Activity 1 - Perception Resource

http://www.readingrockets.org/shows/launching/meaning/

PBS Video, “Reading for Meaning”

A portion of the third PowerPoint this week focused on the importance of attention and perception as factors that affect the sensory registers in the information processing theory. I was particularly interested in the brief video that was shown as part of this PowerPoint that featured a student who had trouble with reading comprehension, and decided to track down additional resources on reading comprehension and some of the tools that can be used to improve it. It seems like this is best accomplished through connecting reading experiences to ideas that are tangible and relatable for kids. This video, “Reading for Meaning,” highlights several classroom and community programs that are designed to help students improve their interest in reading as well as their reading comprehension.

For each approach, there is a reference to the way in which it helps students retain reading knowledge. The first program discussed, CORI, focuses on non-fiction reading as a means of getting students to ask their own questions and communicate about their reading with others. At one point, the teacher asked the student to interpret the actions of the town reacting to the tornado sirens. At another point, a student was asked to present the results of her independent reading on a topic related to the weather and answer questions from her fellow students. In addition to emphasizing the way in which information is perceived and internalized, this example also touches on the importance of meaningfulness. By exposing the student to the subject matter in a variety of different ways over a period of time as well as allowing the student to ask and answer their own questions within the subject matter, the student is able to make connections to the material. In the example of Theme Scheme, teachers work with their students to find the meaning of the story and connect it to a student’s real life moral dilemmas. In another example, an author and illustrator work with students to create stories that have personal meaning to them through text and art. Each of these activities helped to reinforce what was read while also helping the student connect the material with something that they could relate to.

These activities align with the constructivist interpretation of information processing theory outlined by Mayer (1996), which calls for “an active search for understanding in which incoming experience is reorganized and integrated with existing knowledge… in this view, processing is not a series of discrete algorithms executed in order, but rather a coordinated collection of processes aimed at making sense out of incoming experiences” (p. 156). Perception in terms of reading comprehension can be understood as helping to connect incoming information to the existing structure. As the student in the PowerPoint video notes, he understands what he is reading but he cannot recall it and synthesize it in any meaningful way. Asking students to actively make connections and latch on to reading selections and subjects that are most meaningful gives them an active area of interest that they can use to strengthen their connecting abilities.

References:

Mayer, R. E. (1996). Learners as information processors. Educational Psychologist, 31, 151-161.