Just a quick note:
I have moved into the drafting stages of this thesis, which is why I haven't posted anything in about two weeks.
A few things:
I have chosen APA formatting. Though I really despise "citation styles," the paper is geared towards educators and what seems to be educational psychologists, since those are the people most often cited in the neuroscience/education papers I have read. I also prefer Chicago Style or MLA, but I think the audience deems APA.
Also, worldcat.org is the coolest citation generator!
I've really hit a stride with finding new papers. This is late in the game, but once I found the right ones, it just spilled into new ones that I should have been reading weeks ago. Oh well. It's just a draft for now!
Recently saw a direct connection between a cogsci paper and a a participant's paper! Also, APA prefers "participant" to "subject" since the former acknowledges the participation and contribution of the human. Interesting.
Gotta get back to reading and writing!
peace, love and interdisciplinary work.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Awesome Research Book Says Awesome Things
"Precise demonstration of truth is important but not as important as the communal pursuit of it" Wayne C. Booth (xvii)
"It [writing a formal research paper] will change the way you think, but only by giving you more ways of thinking." (13)
Though in reference to writing, I think this is a great argument for the combination of English Education and Cognitive Science. We are changing the way we think of each discipline (roll with me that English Education is one subject) by allowing other practices to influence how we think about those practices themselves. The goal of this project is not to threaten the integrity of either discipline, but rather let the best of each flow freely into the other as to help us understand the human experience of reading a literary text.
Thesis question: How can we enhance our understanding and teaching practices of reading through this neurological-based study on Jane Austen?
Paige likes it. We are not guaranteeing answers, but rather engaging in discussion in search of more questions and answers!
"It [writing a formal research paper] will change the way you think, but only by giving you more ways of thinking." (13)
Though in reference to writing, I think this is a great argument for the combination of English Education and Cognitive Science. We are changing the way we think of each discipline (roll with me that English Education is one subject) by allowing other practices to influence how we think about those practices themselves. The goal of this project is not to threaten the integrity of either discipline, but rather let the best of each flow freely into the other as to help us understand the human experience of reading a literary text.
Thesis question: How can we enhance our understanding and teaching practices of reading through this neurological-based study on Jane Austen?
Paige likes it. We are not guaranteeing answers, but rather engaging in discussion in search of more questions and answers!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Scattered Thoughts
So I've been thinking a lot about attention during reading. Obviously.
I wrote in an ENG classroom the other day that "Reading is a socially individual experience." And not to toot my own horn, but I think I hit something here. Someone can't read for us, thus it is individual. However, we have tons of other things in our brain besides squishy grey snot. We have reading strategies taught to us by teachers, other languages/dialects, movies, books, texts, poems, conversations, lectures and even that nagging feeling that I left the door unlocked. Besides all of that, during the actual reading process there is evidence that we actually place ourselves in the narrative, our brain activates motor cortex to perhaps mirror the actions occurring in the book and drawing on social experiences to dissect the story. Thus, reading is also incredibly social. I want to either prove or explore this idea in discussions of the experiment.
I tried so hard to prove that we learn to interact socially by reading books because I do believe it, despite no scientific evidence. I think we can prove that a lot is a happening in the brain during reading by this experiment, or rather, it is already proven and we get to talk about it in a different way! We also draw on our social experiences to enhance our reading. English Education majors constantly talk about student-to-text connections to deepen learning. How do you relate to this character or situation? Is there another text that relates to this? We draw on prior knowledge to engage students (as in SHAKESPEARE IS STILL AND ALWAYS WILL BE RELEVANT TO HUMANITY) and foster perspective analysis on both their and the text's social situation. But is this automatically happening in the brain. "Reading in the Brain" by Daehaene clearly states language happens in the brain, but what else besides that?
"Reading is a cognitive, social and cultural activity..." (71)
Also, "...our individual command of reading varies greatly from person to person, depending on how we learn to read." (71)
What are these differences in the subjects' brain? How do we as secondary ed teachers, who often are not the first people to teach students to read initially, deal with the variances in reading styles? I wrote earlier about reading strategies and this is an attempt to teach reading, but also kind of level the playing field. As we teach strategies, we also are attempting to get everyone reading at the same level, a loaded term. I would hope it's impossible to get everyone to read the same for that would diminish the unique interpretations and essays. However, ensuring everyone can read and process texts of the same density and complexity is a good goal.
To move in a direction closer to what we can see, what areas are being activated? Is it worth the teacher's time to teach close reading? Are there more effective ways to teach close-reading? What are the benefits of spending precious class time having students pleasure read?
I read a study called, "Properties of Attention During Reading Lessons" (1992) that I had some serious problems with, but still was able to draw something from it. They watched 2/3 graders while each read aloud and based on physical appearances determined if the students were paying attention or not. Urg. Anyways, the silver lining.
"Probably what happens when a text becomes too difficult and errors rise is that children's strategies break down and they become discouraged." (171) The authors go on to posit that too easy reading does not foster learning and neither does super hard reading. Instead, like Goldilocks discovered, it's the middle ground that is the best for children, or the zone of proximal development. The article also cites Gaffney and Anderson who say, "Moreover, whether a particular child will find a particular book easy or difficult depends upon the context in which the book is read and the conditions surrounding its use." (171) This idea of external influences is interesting in our experiment.
At the upcoming think tank, I want to talk about external influences since they are a huge part of education.
I will end it here for tonight. More to read! Happy thinking!
I wrote in an ENG classroom the other day that "Reading is a socially individual experience." And not to toot my own horn, but I think I hit something here. Someone can't read for us, thus it is individual. However, we have tons of other things in our brain besides squishy grey snot. We have reading strategies taught to us by teachers, other languages/dialects, movies, books, texts, poems, conversations, lectures and even that nagging feeling that I left the door unlocked. Besides all of that, during the actual reading process there is evidence that we actually place ourselves in the narrative, our brain activates motor cortex to perhaps mirror the actions occurring in the book and drawing on social experiences to dissect the story. Thus, reading is also incredibly social. I want to either prove or explore this idea in discussions of the experiment.
I tried so hard to prove that we learn to interact socially by reading books because I do believe it, despite no scientific evidence. I think we can prove that a lot is a happening in the brain during reading by this experiment, or rather, it is already proven and we get to talk about it in a different way! We also draw on our social experiences to enhance our reading. English Education majors constantly talk about student-to-text connections to deepen learning. How do you relate to this character or situation? Is there another text that relates to this? We draw on prior knowledge to engage students (as in SHAKESPEARE IS STILL AND ALWAYS WILL BE RELEVANT TO HUMANITY) and foster perspective analysis on both their and the text's social situation. But is this automatically happening in the brain. "Reading in the Brain" by Daehaene clearly states language happens in the brain, but what else besides that?
"Reading is a cognitive, social and cultural activity..." (71)
Also, "...our individual command of reading varies greatly from person to person, depending on how we learn to read." (71)
What are these differences in the subjects' brain? How do we as secondary ed teachers, who often are not the first people to teach students to read initially, deal with the variances in reading styles? I wrote earlier about reading strategies and this is an attempt to teach reading, but also kind of level the playing field. As we teach strategies, we also are attempting to get everyone reading at the same level, a loaded term. I would hope it's impossible to get everyone to read the same for that would diminish the unique interpretations and essays. However, ensuring everyone can read and process texts of the same density and complexity is a good goal.
To move in a direction closer to what we can see, what areas are being activated? Is it worth the teacher's time to teach close reading? Are there more effective ways to teach close-reading? What are the benefits of spending precious class time having students pleasure read?
I read a study called, "Properties of Attention During Reading Lessons" (1992) that I had some serious problems with, but still was able to draw something from it. They watched 2/3 graders while each read aloud and based on physical appearances determined if the students were paying attention or not. Urg. Anyways, the silver lining.
"Probably what happens when a text becomes too difficult and errors rise is that children's strategies break down and they become discouraged." (171) The authors go on to posit that too easy reading does not foster learning and neither does super hard reading. Instead, like Goldilocks discovered, it's the middle ground that is the best for children, or the zone of proximal development. The article also cites Gaffney and Anderson who say, "Moreover, whether a particular child will find a particular book easy or difficult depends upon the context in which the book is read and the conditions surrounding its use." (171) This idea of external influences is interesting in our experiment.
At the upcoming think tank, I want to talk about external influences since they are a huge part of education.
I will end it here for tonight. More to read! Happy thinking!
Sunday, November 4, 2012
On Test Essays
One thing that drew my attention was the question of what factors made reading harder. I tallied the responses as followed. The language of concerns actually varied little, so I was able to group them easily.
Factors that made reading harder:
Not being able to write/mark the texts: 5
Not being able to flip/reread: 4
Not being able to FLIP and WRITE: 6
None:1
Use outside resources: 1 (also flip/write)
PhD students use the reading technique of annotating texts. Some specify what they would underline (repeated words/phrases, important quotes, in the margins) and some noted it helps them to organize and make sense of the text.
As a student of English education, we learn about how to teach reading strategies and the importance of those strategies.They help struggling readers to focus on the text , organize it and connect on a personal level with it. They also push advanced readers to consider the text beyond a basic plot level, encouraging them to make intratextual connections, to other works and most of all, ask questions. Reading strategies can also be a scaffold for later class activities and assignments. This action is mirrored in the experiment by the need to mark the text, one particular reading strategy.The amount of people needing to annotate the text shows how much students rely on the strategy to succeed in reading. It is not safe to say that it helps the readers since we don't have any evidence, but we can say that the readers use it to succeed in close-reading. I'm not sure how much this relates to the brain imaging because we don't have images of annotating brains versus non-annotating brains. I think this is important because it shows that readers who are highly invested in reading (they are English PhD students after all) engage in the text by writing in it, they don't, except for one, just read it.
One criticism I have of the question is that it doesn't specify when the readers use the strategy; close reading or pleasure reading. We would assume it's during close reading but we can't say for sure. Does pleasure reading include annotation and physical reading strategies? Or is that solely a feature of close reading?
However, does the need to annotate justify the need to teach it in schools?
I myself used to use sticky notes to write down my thoughts, I've also learned about a color-coded system of sticky notes (blue for questions, pink for personal connections, green for figurative language etc...) graphic organizers and a code system to write in the actual text.
I would also be curious as to what subjects underline versus what the they brainstormed and then wrote.
Factors that made reading harder:
Not being able to write/mark the texts: 5
Not being able to flip/reread: 4
Not being able to FLIP and WRITE: 6
None:1
Use outside resources: 1 (also flip/write)
PhD students use the reading technique of annotating texts. Some specify what they would underline (repeated words/phrases, important quotes, in the margins) and some noted it helps them to organize and make sense of the text.
As a student of English education, we learn about how to teach reading strategies and the importance of those strategies.They help struggling readers to focus on the text , organize it and connect on a personal level with it. They also push advanced readers to consider the text beyond a basic plot level, encouraging them to make intratextual connections, to other works and most of all, ask questions. Reading strategies can also be a scaffold for later class activities and assignments. This action is mirrored in the experiment by the need to mark the text, one particular reading strategy.The amount of people needing to annotate the text shows how much students rely on the strategy to succeed in reading. It is not safe to say that it helps the readers since we don't have any evidence, but we can say that the readers use it to succeed in close-reading. I'm not sure how much this relates to the brain imaging because we don't have images of annotating brains versus non-annotating brains. I think this is important because it shows that readers who are highly invested in reading (they are English PhD students after all) engage in the text by writing in it, they don't, except for one, just read it.
One criticism I have of the question is that it doesn't specify when the readers use the strategy; close reading or pleasure reading. We would assume it's during close reading but we can't say for sure. Does pleasure reading include annotation and physical reading strategies? Or is that solely a feature of close reading?
However, does the need to annotate justify the need to teach it in schools?
I myself used to use sticky notes to write down my thoughts, I've also learned about a color-coded system of sticky notes (blue for questions, pink for personal connections, green for figurative language etc...) graphic organizers and a code system to write in the actual text.
I would also be curious as to what subjects underline versus what the they brainstormed and then wrote.
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