Blog Post 5: Klarissa Guillen
🥔Couch Potato Homework Blog🥔
Blogger: Klarissa Guillen
Typing from: My Mac book & on the living room couch w/my dogs :)
Feels nice to be writing my final post :) but I also enjoyed writing these. I feel like I got a little more comfortable writing after submitting a good handful of these! Well this weeks readings and short film were great. I always love a good short film because they hit a little harder when there isn't much language/dialogue use within the film. Mixing both the readings and short-film I think what I got the most out of them was the feeling of understanding our interests. I say this because as I was reading both chapter 2 and 7 I was literally doing what they were talking about. I was reading through, not really connecting, spacing out, and then having to re-read the chapter from the beginning. Is it bad to say this also happens to me when I'm driving? like I'm driving then space out but I've also safely gone through traffic lights, stop signs, and followed the correct space and pace of the car in front of me!
Things that stood out to me from both chapters were:
"Reading is a very common human enterprise"
"The goal of any kind of reading is comprehension."
"Identities influence reader profiles."
"The goal assumes that teachers of a discipline are, to a moderate extent, insiders; people that have extensive knowledge, experiences, and insights into their disciplines."
and so on.
I think I liked pointing these things out because when we as educators are teaching something within our own discipline, we do it in a way that flows naturally. When we then try and branch out of this discipline is when we start to wonder, ask questions, and feel the need to look for answers in texts, online, etc. We naturally seek the unknown and try to get to the next answer. Then comes the feeling of "lack in passion" is what others might say but really its the uncertainty that you may be teaching something that you haven't been educated well enough on if its not in your discipline. 
Just like in the short-film. The male character didn't seem up to the challenge in doing the little girls hair but then did it after seeing her eagerness to get her hair done. We didn't know why other than her looking at reference videos of someone who means a lot to her. Were they late to school? Did she personally know the lady in the video? my thoughts also went dark very quick and I was like "oh my god did the lady in the video die and that was her mom?!?". Again, human instinct is that wonder, seek answers, and then try it out even if you may be unsure. Seeing that the readings connected back to helping our students understand why they are learning in school and then getting techniques to do it in the next chapter helps a lot!
The final comment I'll leave here is that, being curious, seeking the unknown, and having the drive to do it even if you are uncertain comes with being an educator. To educate others in understanding, comprehending, and problem-solving is no easy thing! But we got this!
Your point about feeling uncertain when we move outside of our own discipline really stood out to me. I think that uncertainty can actually help us understand what our students experience when they encounter an unfamiliar disciplinary text. As teachers, we may naturally know what to pay attention to, what questions to ask, or what information is important within our own discipline, but students may not have developed those “insider moves” yet. This made me think that our role is not simply to give students the answers, but to make some of those invisible thinking processes visible and give them opportunities to question, explore, and make meaning for themselves. In that sense, our own experience of being an outsider can actually help us become more thoughtful teachers of disciplinary literacy.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI also had a similar experience when I was doing the reading where I noticed that sometimes when I read, I'm just reading to get through a certain text, but not actually comprehend certain concepts. I believe the article called it surface processing. For me personally, I think I would do the most surface processing for the chapter readings that my AP US History teacher would assign. I remember struggling with this class reading because I was not sure on how digest this reading to better understand the class.
Hi Klarissa!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your point about how our minds naturally start wondering when we encounter something unfamiliar. I think this happens whether we are reading a movie, a written text, or another literacy form. We are constantly trying to connect what we are encountering with something we already know.
I also think that is why going back and rereading is actually a normal part of comprehension, not necessarily a sign that we “failed” at reading. I read about research on comprehension before and it describes reading as an active process where readers connect and integrate information from the text with prior knowledge to construct meaning. When a connection is not immediately available, readers may need to slow down, reread, or look back in the text to build that connection.
Hi Klarissa!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your point that we naturally become curious and start looking for answers when we step outside our discipline. I also found your connection to the short film interesting because the little girl’s eagerness pushed the male character to try something he wasn't sure about. It made me think about how sometimes we learn best when we have a personal reason to understand something, rather than simply being told to do it. As future teachers, I think this is important because our students may not immediately understand a concept until they can connect it to their own interests or experiences. It also made me wonder: what if teachers used students’ curiosity and personal interests as the starting point for learning instead of introducing a topic through the textbook first? Would students become more willing to explore unfamiliar subjects, even when they initially feel uncertain or struggle to understand them? I think this could be a meaningful way to help students develop both comprehension and confidence in their learning.