Chapter Four

One of the greatest insights that I gained from chapter four, "The Presence of the Past," is that it is OK for each of us to "get something different" from the things we read. Being an English major in college, I have always thought that there was one right way to interpret literature...now I'm realizing that the ways we interpret what we read (and even the ways we interpret life) has more to do with our life experiences than what the author was thinking when he wrote what he wrote. The reader is the only one who can create meaning for what she has read.

The taffeta dress story (and Ellen's thoughts on it) caused great dissonance for me. She made it a racial issue, and I see it as a socio-economic issue. I know a lot of people who had the same experience...and it was not because of their color...it was because they lived in poverty.

When I first read this book, I had started using KWL charts a lot in comprehension lessons. It surprised me to learn that sometimes your schema is wrong and that you need to change it when you learn new facts. Therefore, it really needs to be: "What I think I know/What I want to know/What I learned." This makes a lot of sense to me.

I found the "Gradual Release Planning Template," on pages 76-79 to be very helpful in thinking about how I can implement this way of teaching in my classroom.

This is some of what I marked in the text:
2nd paragraph, page 93- I like the way Kathy taught her class how to use the strategies in science also.
top of page 95-"Schema is about way more than reading!"
2nd paragraph, page 95-I like the way the "language of the strategy permeated every facet of the classroom." This is the way I teach normally...I like it when my teaching covers a lot of area, instead of just a small area...it's like "killing two (or maybe more) birds with one stone."
3rd paragraph, page 97-The fact that this way of teaching gave the students independence and power in their learning....WOW...that's just what we are trying to do in teaching!
The 6 bullets on page 98 that show the "way in" texts-this is exactly how we teach in kindergarten, and it makes a lot of sense to me.

Schema study is one of my favorite in MOT. I have used it a lot since I have understood what it is, and how to best activate it.

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