What if this time I actually read the book assigned, Shadow Country, by Peter Matthiessen? Through learning about different techniques to understand what I am reading, I have been able to successfully read this book. My relationship with reading has changed throughout the completion of Shadow Country, by using five techniques that I have found to be beneficial to me, which are highlighting, questioning, creating a mental picture and background knowledge. At the beginning of the book, when the prologue was assigned to read, I thought it would just be a quick few pages that weren’t very important.
After skimming through the text and completing the last page of the prologue, I realized “do I even know what I have just read? ” It was like a whirlwind of information that has been sucked into fifteen pages and left me feeling confused and overwhelmed. The next day in class students brought up the idea of highlighting, so that night I thought I would give it a try. I sat down with my book and a highlighter in hand and began rereading the prologue and highlighting everything I thought was important or confusing, so then after I could go back and try to examine what I was stuck on.
In a study done as part of the REAP, Highlighting: altering visual characteristics of a target vocabulary word such as color, font-weight, and underlining, in a way that makes that word more visually salient in order to draw the learner’s focus attention to that word. Highlighting was great way to determine what was important for me to remember in the prologue and can work with any text. It visually pops out when colored with neon yellow and can be easily sighted. From highlighting important text, I realized I needed to use another technique in order to process what I questioned.
The Essay on Books Obsolete? E-books Taking Over?
From the beginning of time paper books have been the soul means of historical documentation and the recording of stories, as to be passed down through the generations. With the new technology know as kindles, e-books, etc. the needs of paper books has drastically decreased. When it comes to storage, convenience, and quality, e-books will be giving paper books a run for their money. Here are the ...
When thinking about how I was going to answer all these questions that I had about what I was reading, I decided to look into other strategies. What better name to call a method that allows me to repair understanding to what I could not figure out than to call it, “Fix-it-up! One of the tools that I used to “fix up” my understanding of what I read was by rereading. This especially became helpful when I became confused with all the characters that clashed in my mind. I realized in order to identify who each of them were and their viewpoints, I had to stop and question. It is always important to have questions to answer when reading.
The most important question I have found is, “Does it make sense? ” If it doesn’t make sense then how can I ever understand what I have read? The use of asking questions allowed me to go back and try to “fix” what I don’t understand. This became especially helpful when I stuck once on a Henry Short section. I became confused when Henry began to retell the story that was told to him by the House family about his mother and how he began to be known as the nigger in Chokoloskee Bay. I was confused at first because he does not refer to the boy who was taken from his mother as himself.
I had to stop, think about what I was confused about, reread and then answer my own question. After rereading I was able to realize that Miz Ida told him that he was better off stayin in Georgia than with his sinful mama. Using the “Fix-it-up” strategy can clarify the reading. Even if it leads to rereading to find the answers, it was worth doing to understand clearly what I was taking in. Throughout the story, every time I read I wondered, “How would it look if I were there? ” I’ve always been curious in what the setting from a story would actually look like.
The Essay on Reading Questions
He decides that it is a “false memory” and that they did not matter as long as one knew what the memories stood for; he proceeds to smile at the portrait of Big Brother and his legs convulse as the announcement is made that Oceania won the war. Short Answer Questions for Entire Novel 1. During Winston's stay in the Ministry of Love, O'Brien asks Winston, "How does one man exert his power over ...
A famous philosopher named Thomas Aquinas once said, “Man’s mind cannot understand thoughts without images of them. ” I have learned that readers are constantly creating mind pictures as they read, visualizing what is occurring, what characters look like or act like, and the themes. Creating these visuals can be a great bridge for helping to see how words and images connect to get the full impact when reading. I also found that when using my imagination to visually see what I interpret, I was able to connect more with the characters. I could see their viewpoint from an “insider” instead of just reading about who they are and how they acted.
While deep in thought imagining what was going on, I realized that in order to get an accurate setting for the story without beginning to imagine too much and start thinking about Watson growing horns or Ten Thousand Islands as a far off land, I had to research and gain background knowledge. Making connections between the information already known about the book and its context with the new information that I learned really helped keep myself relative. Knowing that the story took place from 1890 to 1910 reminded myself that the times were different and that the language was spoken in a southern accent due to being in southern Florida.
Also the condition of the setting which was in the everglades and aspects of that such as the damp, muddy soil and the species found there as well as the social and economic status. Another barrier that I encountered was the language. Throughout the book I looked up words like black loam, which is an organic dirt matter and hubbub, which means a nosy situation. Allowing myself to understand the place and the time period and the language has helped me to connect with the story instead of blocking it out and losing the detail presented.
From that point of highlighting the prologue, I have been able to proactively change my strategies for reading text. Highlighting; to recall important text, creating a mental picture; to creating mental pictures in order to imagine what is happening in the book and be able to relate to it, questioning; to solve unanswered questions I have had and be able to “Fix-it-up”, as well as gain background knowledge when reading to stay relative to text and to understand the setting.
These all have been satisfying strategies to improve my relationship with reading through the use of “Shadow Country. ” Using these techniques has allowed me to accomplish what I had set to do. I wanted to be able to understand what I was reading and have a better approach for it. In the future, I feel confident that I can use my strategies to help me conquer challenging text and connect to literature more than just from another’s point of view, and to get what I feel I should get out of it.
The Essay on Reading Gendered Texts
Reading Gendered Texts The idea of gender in this following passage is portrayed in a very extreme manner. According to this the first ever mistake on earth was made by a female, in this particular case Eve. Eve being the first ever female on earth, left the consequences of her mistake for all future generations to suffer. As far as the process of child birth is concerned, the author very directly ...
