Reading
Reading Strategies:
Strategy 1- Asking Questions:
The text I connect to is “Babe & Me.” I connect to this book for many different reasons. The first reason is that the main character’s parents, Bill and Terry, are divorced and my bio-parents, coincidentally named Bill and Terri, are also divorced. I also relate to this book because the main character, Joe, likes to play baseball, but he isn’t very good…like me. Another reason is that Joe collects baseball cards and so do I. Another reason I relate to this book is because I love the Yankees and Babe Ruth is my favorite player. Guess what … Babe Ruth was Joey’s favorite player, too.
Strategy 2- Asking Questions:
In “The Man Upstairs”, I inferred that the kid would kill Mr. Coberman because he didn’t like him. In “So Much Unfairness of Things”, I predicted that P.S. would get caught for cheating, and in the end he did. In “Flowers for Algernon”, I thought that Charlie would die from the operation like Algernon did…which he didn’t. In the “Headless Horseman”, I thought that Brom Bones would be killed, but in the end, it was actually Ichabod Crane that was killed.
Strategy 3- Asking Questions:
When I read books, I ask questions to help me understand something that might be confusing. One example of this was, when I was reading “The Monkeys Paw”, at the end, when they wished their son would come back to life, the dad thought he would be mutilated and wished him dead again. So I asked the question “Why didn’t he use his last wish to wish his son normal again?” Another book I asked a question in was “Flowers for Algernon.” At the end of the story, Algernon’s intelligence rapidly deteriorates and he eventually dies from it. Then later, Charlie’s intelligence starts to deteriorate but he didn’t die from it. So I asked the question “If Algernon died, why didn’t Charlie die, too?”
Strategy 4- Determine Importance:
In every book, usually towards the end, there is a big idea. In the book “So Much Unfairness of Things”, I determined that the main idea is not to cheat. In “Flowers for Algernon”, the main idea was that you can’t trust everyone. What helps me identify the big idea in each book is to think about what the characters are thinking. Sometimes it helps to think how I would act in a similar situation or ask myself what would be important to me if I were the person in the book.
Strategy 5- Visualize:
One book that I have visualized is “The Man Upstairs”. In this book, when the kid’s grandmother was making the turkey, I could picture myself there watching the meal be prepared. Also in this book, when Mr. Coberman was described, I could make a clear mental picture of what he looked like since the author went into so much detail. Another example from this book is that, when the kid was looking out the multicolored window, I created a picture in my mind of a huge window with different panels and different shades of different colors.
Strategy 6- Synthesizing:
I synthesized in the book “Babe and Me”. Before I read this book, I only knew what a great baseball player Babe Ruth was but, after I finished reading the book, I had a whole new perspective on his personality. I learned that he had a fun personality which makes sense because no one who is serious all the time would call an outrageous shot like Babe Ruth did in the 1932 World Series. Babe Ruth was larger than life and that came through both in his personal life and in his baseball career which he loved so much.
Strategy 7 – Monitoring & Repairing Comprehension:
I used monitoring and repairing comprehension a lot in the book “Blockade Billy.” This book was written by Stephen King who is known for his complicated plots and characters. This writing style made reading his book extremely confusing and hard to understand. Stephen King didn’t give the motive for the main character’s behavior until the very end of the book. I had to keep re-reading paragraphs to try to understand what was going on. Another example of using monitoring and repairing comprehension is that most of the story took place in the 1950’s so the characters used a lot of old-fashioned slang while talking. I sometimes had to ask my parents, and grandparents, what some of the words meant.
Summary:
This strategy that I find myself using the most is visualizing. I think this is the case because I like to draw and I love movies. I would picture a scene in a book and imagine how it would look in a movie. This helps me to understand the book. This is definitely my favorite strategy. Another one of my favorite strategies is making connections. I think this is the case because I can understand something better if I have personally experienced something like it in my life. I can compare the experiences if I have something to base it on. The strategy that I find the most difficult to use is determining the importance because often the big idea is hidden. To help myself to find the big idea, I try to remember as many important details as possible.