Quote: "When students don't have adequate background knowledge, the topic or genre of the text is unfamiliar and many words are new, they're likely to find the text very challenging, and it's unlikely they'll be successful" (Tompkins, pg. 259-260)
Comment: I remember reading many books in high school, however I cannot recall many times when we had any sort of background knowledge given to us before we read the book. Usually any background knowledge I had came from a friend who had already taken the class, a popular movie made about the book, or what I read on the back cover. It seems to me, that not knowing much about the book kept me from making early judgments and made me work harder to understand it. During or after reading a book, we would watch the movie, or find connections to the book in other media, and because I was familiar with the book it was thrilling. However, for me, I believe it would be beneficial to read the Grapes of Wrath before learning about the dust bowl because I would have a deeper understanding of the time period and happenings.
Question: Is it ever appropriate to not include background information before reading a text? Does age play a factor? For example, is it good to always have background information given to elementary students, but it isn't needed as often for older students? What is the balance between exploring the book before it is read, and exploring it while it is being read?
No comments:
Post a Comment