In Praise of Wiggle Room: Locating Comprehension in Unlikely Places

Autor/in	Aukerman, Maren
Titel	In Praise of Wiggle Room: Locating Comprehension in Unlikely Places
Quelle	In: Language Arts, 86 (2008) 1, S.52-60 (9 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0360-9170
Schlagwörter	Classroom Communication; Discussion Groups; Figurative Language; Grade 4; Teaching Methods; Reading Comprehension + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Klassengespräch; School year 04; 4. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 04; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Leseverstehen
Abstract	Comprehension has often been conceptualized in ways that privilege either the "right" understanding of a text (comprehension-as-outcome), or getting to that "right" understanding (comprehension-as-procedure). This article makes a case that we should, instead, teach with an eye toward fostering comprehension-as-sense-making--a socially purposeful decision-making process undertaken by the reader that does not depend on arriving at the "right" understanding. To foster comprehension-as-sense-making, teachers must avoid the tendency to evaluate and steer students' thinking during discussions about text--even when that feels difficult to do because students have non-standard textual understandings. Drawing on data from a fourth grade literature discussion group discussing a non-fiction text, the article suggests six ways in which teachers can work to open up the conversation to students' textual sense-making: following student ideas; making textual decision-making visible; highlighting ambiguity and difference of opinion; opening spaces for student talk; holding back (e.g., through reducing the amount of teacher talk); and allowing the students to share in the evaluation of the text and of each other's ideas about the text. Students may do more active sense-making, and learn more from one another, when the teacher does not tell them whose understandings are "right." (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	National Council of Teachers of English. 1111 West Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096. Tel: 877-369-6283; Tel: 217-328-3870; Web site: http://www.ncte.org/journals
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10