[LIT] redefining reading

[Dave Middlebrook]

I like this definition (from Ellin Keene, I think): Reading is thinking.

At first blush, it seems so broad as to be useless.  But then I think about 
the problems inherent in hitching reading too closely to decoding.  For 
example, people who are blind can't see our written language, but they can 
use braille and screen readers to decode the text -- i.e., to "lift" if out 
of the darkness and bring it into the realm of sound, where they can think 
about it.  Some LD students can benefit from screen readers as well --  
different reasons, but same outcome.  Another example: deaf people can see 
text, and they can think about it -- despite the fact that have no 
experience of sound.  So my view is that it's the thinking that counts.

There is a good argument to be made that a growing awareness of "disabled" 
readers as "differently abled", as well as the spread of software tools such 
as screen readers, search tools, and navigation tools (which are great aids 
for skimming and scanning), have contributed to the shift in our conception 
of reading as decoding to reading as thinking.

Of course, I would not want to overlook the impact that format has on 
thinking.  Some might argue that thinking is thinking, regardless of where 
you are doing it.  But that misses the role of perception -- that perception 
is, itself, thinking.  Western culture has driven a wedge between perception 
and cognition, ignoring the first and elevating the second.  This viewpoint 
has always been somewhat troubled; it is more troubled today, now that we 
have such a wide selection of formats from which to choose -- and thus such 
a wide range of "places" in which to think.

So I really like Keene's definition (or was it Miller's or Tovani's....?). 
It's deceptively simple, welcoming to the fullest range of readers, and 
right on target when it comes to what is important about reading.


Dave Middlebrook
The Textmapping Project
A resource for teachers improving reading comprehension skills instruction.
www.textmapping.org   |   Please share this site with your colleagues!
USA: (609) 771-1781
dmiddlebrook at textmapping.org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill IVEY" <bivey at sbschool.org>
To: <lit at literacyworkshop.org>
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 12:27 AM
Subject: [LIT] redefining reading


> Hi!
>
> Brenda Dyck - yet again! - has pointed me to an interesting article, this
> one by David Booth. In it, he argues (among other things) that in this day
> and age, we need to redefine what reading is. Well - do we?
>
> And more importantly, how would each of you define reading?
>
> And yes, I have more questions I may wonder about depending on our answers
> to this one ;-)
>
> Take care,
> Bill Ivey
> Stoneleigh-Burnham School
>
>
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