Synthesis Blog #1

One of the first points brought up in the chapter was the importance of background knowledge when reading a passage, and the excerpt about the cricket game expressed that beautifully. Sometimes reading about things you have no knowledge about is almost like reading a foreign language. I remember when I had to take the ACT back in high school, I had a similar experience to the cricket passage.

 It was the science portion of the test, and I remember reading the lab write ups and experiment guides and being confused with the scientific jargon. I ended up just skimming through it to find the answers without bothering to try and fully understand the material. I’m sure this is something everyone can relate to because with the push for more standardized tests, it makes students more oriented for skimming through readings and answering questions correctly versus truly understanding and comprehending them. I think that this has turned reading into a bothersome task instead of something that can be enjoyed. Also, learning how to read for different subjects is vital too. Especially for science articles since they’re so different compared to reading for literature. I liked that the chapter included a little bit about schema because I thought that it was amazing that just the right piece of information could fully activate your understanding of the entire passage.

 Also, fun fact, when I read the word schema in the chapter it literally triggered the schema in my brain for that word because I remembered learning about that in educational psychology. Reading this chapter really made me reflect on how reading is much more than looking at words on a page and that it is essential to focus on specific mindsets when reading certain subjects and making sure that students have the right background knowledge and how to activate it.

307