Complex texts and my thoughts on them
By: Jack Freeman
When I was younger the act of reading was really hard for me. I would often read a whole page of a book and then when I got to the bottom of the page I would realize I kinda spaced out and would restart. Even into high school i would most of the time just look up a summary of whatever required reading I had to do. However when In class, when we would discuss the content, I would realize that the summary I read didn´t provide all of the detail or nuance that I would've gained if I had just made time to read the actual text.
I think a lot of other people my age had similar problems. Because its so easy to open up a canvas assignment and be like ¨40 pages! forget it ill just look up a summary.¨ In the past few years as I've finished high school and started college I have made it more of a point to read the text and make my own connections and conclusions. I think this is especially dangerous if students are using AI to summarize. I think It scares me because if you are always having AI summarize you start to lose your ability to think.
In my current spot in my academic journey, I love reading books. I love reading at home, on the bus, anywhere. I try to never read the same genre 2 books in a row in an attempt to widen my web of knowledge. However I do sometimes find it hard to read some books because of the varying complexity. I sometimes have to stop and look up some large words.
I think the Hair love video was a great representation of how it feels to read complex texts. If your willing to just dive in and be patient and not get discouraged. A text that might have seemed like a foreign language at one point could feel like a breeze.
I think that since I was a highschooler I’ve understood the fact that a summary can’t capture the nuance or depth that teachers expect, and honestly, that real learning requires. I used to feel overwhelmed when I saw 30-40 pages of reading, but I knew that if I relied only on a summary, then all I would know is the plot. Teachers want students to make their own connections, linking the text to their lives, linking it to earlier class discussions, or asking meaningful questions about what’s happening and why. Those things only really happen when we actually sit with the text and think through it ourselves. Reading with intention takes a lot of time, and trying to do that for 40 pages straight can be exhausting, so we should help students build that habit gradually, and teach them to read with intention, little by little every day. There have been plenty of times when I’ve read a page and realized I didn’t retain any of it. Of course, rereading is the normal thing to do, but many times I zone out again, while rereading it. One approach that could be helpful is skipping that page for the moment, moving forward, and then coming back later. It’s like skipping a question from a quiz that we don't know the answer to, and hoping that the later questions can engage our brains enough so that once we go back to the question we skipped, we’ll actually understand it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your reading journey and for learning that reading indeed allows us to make our own connections and conclusions, which the AI summary doesn't give us that 'click'. I also enjoyed the meme you shared above, as we all have been in the situation Jerry feels about reading without our brains, and then we suddenly notice that we need to reread parts to get there. This confession will truly help us to put ourselves, as teachers or future teachers, so we can validate our students' reading challenges, which is also a nice thing to do. This confession will also drive us to do our best in facilitating our students' reading journey in the future.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to spacing out while reading or realizing that you haven't actually been understanding what you're reading and a lot of the time it frustrated me when I was trying to read. It discouraged me from reading but in a way I think that exacerbates the problem and I like your method of reading more to counteract this and especially reading different types of things to broaden your knowledge.
ReplyDeleteHi Jack.
ReplyDeleteYour connection with the massive use of AI summaries, it takes me back to the fact about how easy it is to focus on the result instead of the process.
I also really liked your interpretation of the Hair Love video. As someone who uses English as a second language, I have this feeling of being overwhelmed by a complex English text. When I get too tired, I'll start reading faster for absolutely no reason 😂. Eventually the words just sound like mumbling in my head, and then I reach the end and realize I basically read nothing. It makes me think that sometimes slowing down, be more patient, and rereading.. and staying with the text are actually part of the reading process, not signs that we are bad readers.