Buehl,
D. (n.d.). Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines (p. 72-121)
Teaching to the match: bridging
academic knowledge gaps. “Question: How do academic knowledge gaps affect the
reading of disciplinary texts? “ (p.72)
What is the necessary reader
background knowledge; for the reader to find success in what they are trying to
comprehend? I guess that is considered by many to be the hardest question to
answer because we all come from different cultural backgrounds. When an author
writes his texts he can’t possibly make it universally understandable to all
readers. I mean if we weren’t raised in this country and had to read text and
answer questions about the USA in a history class, without the popper
background knowledge we could be lost. The language variables alone could be
hard to overcome, and vocabulary is a whole other issue someone from another
country would have to figure out. To facilitate an understanding when we read
text is complicated to say the least. Who are the right authors for our
students? Well if I was teaching a classroom full of females’ students I wouldn’t
just choose male authors with male messages, I would have to consider bringing
in other influences to inspire my students learning outcomes. I would have to
play the matching game. When the instructor does a good job at this game the
reader’s comprehension will come naturally. If I personally read a book about
coaching strategies I get it right off the bat. If I read a different book
about war strategies my background knowledge plays in and I understand that the
also because they’re so closely related in nature. On the other hand if I read
a book on nuclear physics I would be hopeless lost and more than likely give up
reading that book. Knowing the schema, which we rely on when reading for
comprehension is necessary to working fluently and efficiently. Gee says
something to this effect in our previous discussions. I will end this post with
something to contemplate over; why is important to consider how our students
came to know what they know?
I like your analogy of the all female group. I am always surprised when books have to say stuff like this. I can't believe that people operate under the belief that all students are the same and should be taught thusly. I think that it is a benefit to the culture of a classroom that students are divers and have diverse situations and setting in which to share things. If everyone was the same than we would all feel and respond the same way to a text and that is not what makes reading fun (for me at least). Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is important to bring in different influences for our students. If you are using books from similar authors with the same idea's then the students are going to notice and not really learn anything from it. Having different opinions on things will only help your students in the long run.
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