The urge to discuss our ideas with others is part of our innate desire to confirm and clarify our thinking. Talking about their reading enables readers to consolidate information and store it in their semantic or long-term memory. During book discussions, readers have the chance to reflect on what they are interpreting as they read or listen to it. Teachers use inquiry-based language that invites reflection and tentativeness (Lindfors 1999), using such words and phrases as
“I wonder . . . , ” “Maybe . . . ,” “If . . . ,”; “I think . . . ,” or “Tell me more.”
The talk in literature discussion groups is grounded in the reader’s need to make sense of the author’s message. Therefore, participants engage in collaborative language acts—they agree or disagree with each other, express confu- sion when puzzled, seek or give clarification, compare and contrast ideas, offer evidence, express opinions, generalize to new situations, and make connections (Figure 4.7). Literate knowledge is developed in social contexts, where language becomes the means for developing and expanding our minds.
Figure 4.7 The best way to understand a text is to talk to someone about it. Here, third graders engage in a book discussion.
Figure 4.6 Reading logs can be divided into sections to help students organize their thinking.
Closing Thoughts
Here are some important principles that capture the essence of this chapter.
Strategies are cognitive processes, which means that they are unobservable. Strategic behaviors, however, can be observed and studied for evidence of students’ power of comprehension.Teachers can use language prompts and teaching tools, such as reflection logs and sticky notes, to activate thinking processes; at the same time, they must take care that the tool itself does not become the reason for reading. Deep comprehension is the result of a well-orchestrated system of flexible decision-making strategies working together
(most of the time, unconsciously) to construct meaning for the author’s message.
Comprehension is directly related to fluency of thinking; both rely on efficient and meaningful self- corrections. When meaning becomes unclear, an active self-correcting system responds immedi- ately to restore understanding and create order.
To understand the process of comprehension, we should study the strategic reading behaviors of expert readers, including how we ourselves employ specific behaviors to understand a text. If we can become more aware of our own process of comprehension, we will be better able to share this critical information with our students.
Remember the books you read . . . then you read again, maybe more than once . . . or from which you just reread particular lines or passages?
What is it that pulls readers back to revisit a text? I know that for me it’s the language—beyond the story line—that pulls me back. Sure, the story is great—but what makes it memorable? How does the writer use language to create the images that get stuck in my head? I try to remember how many times I’ve read Beloved by Toni Morrison, the story of Sethe, who escaped from slavery but can’t escape from the horrors of her own past. The characters in the book are so mesmerizing that I can’t stop thinking about them. I reread the words over and over, trying to make sense of the actions, yet lacking the experience to really understand them. Beloved, the ghost child, killed by her own mother;
Denver, the living daughter, afraid to leave the house, afraid of the unknown, of the world outside that could cause a loving mother to murder her own child. I feel compelled to read the words again. “I’m afraid the thing that happened that made it all right for my mother to kill my sister could happen again.” What horrible thing could have happened to Sethe that could justify—in the wildest stretch of human imagination—the killing of her own child? Morrison takes us inside Denver’s mind: “I need to know what that thing might be, but I don’t want to.” Is it possible that knowing what caused this horrific action could be even more terrifying than the action itself? “I watch over the yard, so it can’t happen again and my mother won’t have to kill me too.” What does Denver mean by “have to kill me”? Morrison’s preci- sion with language seems to remove the blame from Sethe, while
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Understanding Language for Comprehending Texts
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simultaneously emphasizing a past so dreadful that it is hard for the reader to imagine. How does a writer take an abstract idea, one that is difficult to comprehend, and make it believable?
Through written language, Morrison uses words to create images of beauty and horror, safety and fear, sorrow and ecstasy—opposite concepts existing side by side that tell a complex story of love and endurance. After reading the book, I watched the movie. The book helped me to make sense of the gaps in the movie; I could hear Morrison’s words, lingering in the back of my head, reminding me of the thoughts in the minds of the actors on the screen. Toni Morrison is a master at crafting language to help her readers look deeply within themselves, seeing harsh reality in imaginary events and helping them move to deeper levels of comprehension. I am reminded of Vygotsky’s theory of language and thought: written language that becomes the tool for influencing the reader’s thoughts. I’ll also never forget another book of Morrison’s—The Bluest Eye.I first read that novel eight years ago, and it has stayed with me ever since. The Bluest Eye tells the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove, a black child raped by her father, growing up in the 1960s in an America that idol- izes blond, blue-eyed children. In a child’s way of thinking, Pecola believes that if her eyes would only turn blue, she would be beautiful and all her problems would disappear. At the end of the story, Morrison writes: “So it was. A little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment.” In the afterword to this book, Morrison describes the challenge of moving her readers to deeper levels of self-questioning, taking them beyond simple pity for the character to a self-interrogation of society for the part it played in destroying her. A writer’s ultimate goal is to use language that moves readers to self-reflection, creating a memorable reading experience with long-lasting
potential—in other words, a book you can’t forget; words that stay with you; images and passages that become embedded within your thoughts. The connection between language and deep comprehension is indissoluble, and requires the writer to understand how language works in precise and reliable ways so as to help the reader comprehend the written message.