Reading Task Analysis

This was an interesting task. We put in some obvious symbols to indicate that the emotional connection as well as the higher functions (that include how the body is positioned) are connected during the reading process. We've broken the larger tasks into three stages: before, during, and after.

(It would have been nice to connect the brain from the three stages together, but the lines wouldn't reach - no matter how long you play with the program!)

Hopefully it is understood that the decoding functions that are present in the "Before" aspect of the brain part are also present in the "During" and "After."

First Day Reflection (retyped to this post as I had deleted it!)

On our first day when we began talking about how we read I was thinking a lot about how my own two kids read. Carley has understood directionality since she was a little over nine months. She is able to position the book correctly and look at the pictures from top to bottom and left to right. It's quite fun to watch her read her own stories because even though she is not able to read the words she is quite adept at giving a defined beginning, middle, and end to her story with lots of character description and reactions.

Jack, however is not as enthusiastic about reading just yet. Books are often the things that one stands on to reach the interesting things that are slightly out of reach. When he was teething, books were used as chew toys. Occasionally he will flip through the books, but it is a random activity with little regard to how one is "supposed" to engage with books. I was so excited on the day that he actually picked up a book that I had to take a picture (see above).

The difference between my two kids helped me to rethink the idea of engagement and prior knowledge, along with personal preferences. For the large part my girls in my class are enthusiastic readers who are content to sit for an extended period of time reading their books. They have mastered the skills that they need to at grade-level and have little difficulty engaging in tasks with reading and writing. And then there are the few boys in my class who struggle with their reading. I do a lot to celebrate their successes and encourage them with "high-interest" reading material. However, when we are reading content-specific material the "wheels come off the bus" as it were.

I'm excited to learn more about the reading process and how technology can support struggling readers and writers.