Comprehension Literacy Log 4

Roles of the Reader, the Text, and the Task

Sweet, A.P. & Snow, C. Reconceptualizing reading comprehension, In C.C. Bock, L. B. Gambrell, & M. Pressley (Eds.) Improving comprehension instruction: Rethinking research. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2002.

Snow, C. (2002) Reading for understanding. Pittsburgh, PA: RAND.

These texts focused on the roles of the reader, the text, and the task to foster comprehension.  We have discussed these roles in class and these readings made me think of our discussions and the word sort we did into these three groups.  We weren't totally sure how to sort the words and we discussed how inter-related the three roles are and how easily they can be mixed up or used for the wrong purpose.  These readings helped me to better understand the importance of all three roles.
Snow states "the specific cognitive, motivational, and linguistic capacities and the knowledge base called on in any act of reading comprehension depend on the texts in use and the specific activity in which one is engaged" (2002, p. 13).   They all depend on each other, when one is neglected they are all neglected in some capacity.  One of the most important things to remember about the task is the need for an authentic purpose.  We should be translating to students that reading is done for a purpose.  Sometimes the purpose of reading is enjoyment, sometimes it's to learn, most times reading serves many purposes at once.  We've been talking a lot about purpose in my classroom lately; the purpose for different items, different subjects, writing, reading, media, etc. Once I began the conversation about our different reasons for doing things, the consequences of our actions, they began noticing different purposes in different areas and began questioning about putpose as well.  As a teacher, I have to be mindful of the "capacities and abilities" of the reader as they pertain to each text and task.