[Xmca-l] Re: A Question about Reading and Motivation

[Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>]

Carol,
Your comment:

"We move in an out of abstract/analytical, fun, meaning,
abstract, laugh, meaning, snack, computer book etc."

is lovely.

Do any teachers ed programs actually teach this?
-greg



On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 9:35 AM, Carol Macdonald <carolmacdon@gmail.com>wrote:

> Sorry to put my oar in so late in the day. (Eight days later.)
>
> The reading books these days (at least I can source many such) are
> beautiful and interesting to children. I teach children with minor
> dyslexia.  We move in an out of abstract/analytical, fun, meaning,
> abstract, laugh, meaning, snack, computer book etc.  Just keep the tempo up
> and the mood light, but we do need to move in and out of phonic skills.
> Motivation pervades,
>
> The children are astonished that I make the reading exercises specially for
> them - I think  children reckon we can just get everything off the
> computer!
>
> Carol
>
>
> On 28 August 2013 09:27, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>
> > Re: Peg Griffin - http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Mail/**
> > xmcamail.2011_05.dir/msg00530.**html<
> http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Mail/xmcamail.2011_05.dir/msg00530.html>
> > and Peg and Mike et al: http://lchc.ucsd.edu/People/**NEWTECHN.pdf<
> http://lchc.ucsd.edu/People/NEWTECHN.pdf>
> >
> > The first article sets up a scenario in 5thD where kids "sneak" a look at
> > piece of writing in order to find an answer to a current affairs
> question.
> > As opposed to telling the kids to read a text and then (for example)
> > testing them on it.
> > The second talks about "reading for meaning" where assistance is given to
> > kids to read in order to find out something they want to know about the
> > world. As opposed to decoding "Jack and Jill" stories containing nothing
> of
> > interest to them at all (and actually humiliating).
> >
> > I am trying to get my head around the issue of the motivation which the
> > teachers are trying to engender in the child which facilitates learning
> to
> > read.
> >
> > Following A N Leontyev, Peg talks about the "merely understood" motive
> for
> > the child "to be a productive, informed, literate citizen" which is what
> > the education system is supposed to be doing. Peg says this motive was
> "in
> > the social interactions and ready to replace the 'really effective'
> motives
> > that got the kid to come to/put up with our reading group." ... *in the
> > social interactions*!
> >
> > Generally speaking I think there is no doubt that the distinction between
> > "really effective" and "merely understood" motives is valid, and that in
> > general children who have difficulty in reading, read only for
> "effective"
> > but "external" motives which do not succeed in them learning to read
> > effectively. Further, the task of the teacher may be or may be supposed
> to
> > be to get the child to learn to read so as "to be a productive, informed,
> > literate citizen." This objective is somewhere in the complex of motives
> > underlying a teacher's motives, certainly in 5thD, but I suspect often a
> > "merely understood" motive for many teachers, alongside earning a wage
> for
> > their own family, having a quiet day and the kids getting good test
> scores,
> > etc.
> >
> > But I question whether it is *ever* the child's motive "to be a
> > productive, informed, literate citizen." This may be an "internal reward"
> > for learning to read, but not for learning to read any particular text or
> > even a particular type of text.
> >
> > Would this explanation make sense: Learning to read is like happiness. It
> > does not generally arise through being the motivation of the activity
> which
> > produces it. People learn to read as a byproduct of struggling to get
> > something they want out of particular texts. And this applies to adults
> as
> > much as children. I think people can only learn to read philosophy if
> they
> > are struggling to get something out of a book on philosophy (other than
> > pass the exam or acquire an air of erudition). In Peg's email message we
> > learn that the kids jumped on the newspaper article to extract
> information
> > they wanted in (what they took to be) /another/ task. In the QAR story,
> > adults mediate kids' relation to a text which is in turn mediating their
> > real and meaningful relation to the world. (I think if a kid is strongly
> > enough motivated to pass a reading test, and assisted, they will usually
> > manage to learn to read, but it is for those for whom this doesn't work
> > that the issue arises, isn't it?)
> >
> > But in general I think it is neither necessary nor likely that a child
> has
> > their eye on becoming a literate citizen when they struggle with a text
> and
> > learn to read in the process. Isn't it always more proximate motives? The
> > "internal" reward in reading a particular text is the particular content
> of
> > that text, not actually anything to do with books, or texts, or reading
> or
> > citizenship.
> >
> > I know there are dozens of experts in literacy education out there, so
> > please help me.
> >
> > Andy
> >
> > --
> > ------------------------------**------------------------------**
> > ------------
> > *Andy Blunden*
> > http://home.mira.net/~andy/
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Carol A  Macdonald Ph D (Edin)
> Developmental psycholinguist
> Academic, Researcher,  and Editor  *EditLab.net*
> Honorary Research Fellow: Department of Linguistics, Unisa
>



-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
883 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson