Profile in Comprehension

I read the Article, “Profile in Comprehension” by Applegate, Quinn & Applegate. This article was mainly about 8 different profiles that students fit into during reading comprehension. The 8 types of profiles are Literalists, Fuzzy thinkers, Left fielders, Quiz contestants, Politicians, Dodgers, Authors and Minimalists. I guess I didn’t really like this article because I don’t think that all students can be grouped into one category. I wouldn’t even know where to place myself because for me it depends on the subject matter. For subjects such as history I tend to be more of a literalist because I do not have a strong background in history, I just look for the correct answers. For science I tend to be more of a politician because even if I think something sounds right, it could be way off. I also did not like this article because all of the profiles were negative. There was not one profile that had a description of something positive like, “Uses prior knowledge and content in the text to create a logical answer.” The profile all had negative descriptions.

The article gave “Interventions” for each of the different profiles, but this did not help me much because half of the interventions I was not familiar with in the first place. It should have gone into deeper meaning of what a QAR, QtA and a Sketch to Stretch is and it would have made a lot more sense to me.

Comprehension

I was very surprised to see all the different tyoes of comprehension profiles sugessted by Applegate. Reading through them gave me a better understanding of how and why students are respondin to text in different ways. I could automatically relate the discriptions to the students in my placement. I also could relate the profiles to the way that I respond to text. I think that I have developed a well rounded comprehension profile since elementary school, but I recall being more of a politician profile when I was younger. I could relate to the text and pull information from it, but I felt that I needed to tell people what they wanted to hear instead of forming my own opinions of the text. I would also consider my early comprehending to be a minimalist profile. This may come from not feeling comfortable or confident with my own abilities. I feel that I sometimes still respond to text in a minimalist way, expecting other people to know what I mean without elaborating or explaining myself.
I think that it is important to make students aware of how they are comprehending text and to scaffold them into making deeper connections and being able to express their ideas. Being able to make deep connections and have meaningful conversations about text is a crucial aspect of literacy.

Comprehension

After reading Tompkins chapter 7 and Profiles in Comprehension (Applegate) article I have learned a great deal about comprehension. I never realized that there were so many different ways that someone could comprehend readings and how important background knowledge is as a prerequisite for comprehension. As we have learned, it is important that the reader makes text-to-self, text-to-world and text to text connections. Teachers also need to make inferences for students. It is also important that they guide students towards the big ideas of what they are reading. This can help them make predictions and understand the important part of the text.

I feel like the most interesting part of the reading was the Applegate article. It discussed eight different types of thinkers. It mentioned that it is important for teachers to elicit patterns of thinking that help students think about ideas, not just text details. The first profile is literalists, fuzzy thinkers, left fielders, quiz contestants, politicians, dodgers, authors and minimalists. When I was in lower elementary, I feel like I was a fuzzy thinker at times. It is when they can be confused when asked a question that involves thinking. It can be difficult to express the right words or ideas.

"Digital Natives"

I consider myself somewhat of a digital native. I could define every term that was provided, but I think there could be many more terms in the quiz that represent the growing significance of technology in our society. There are many common technologies that I still do not know. I have four brothers and one sister and I feel like I learn about new technology from them every time we are together. On the other hand, when I try to text message my mom on her cell phone, or talk to her about a blog that I did for class, she has no idea what I am talking about.


I would not consider myself to be an emergent learner for digital literacy. Emergent learners in literacy are at the very beginning phases of literacy. I think that I am familiar with enough technology to get by in school and everyday life. I would say that my digital literacy developed ever since I was a young girl. I started to play video games when I was about seven or eight and got an Atari for Christmas. Since then, schools had more and more computers as I progressed through the grades. I think instant messaging influenced the way I write and made me become faster at typing.

I am currently tutoring refugee students and adults in Lansing. I have found that, depending on where they are from and the resources that were available to them, a lot of people I tutor can be considered as emergent digital learners. This is a constant struggle for them, because not only do they have to learn English, but they have to learn how to type papers on a computer, search the internet, and use email. American teachers incorporate technology into lesson plans almost every day, so refugee students need to "catch up" when it comes to digital literacy. Tompkins talks about how emergent learners of literacy sometimes benefit form observing and imitating others. I think that this can also be true for "digital immigrants", especially ESL students.

Digital Literacy Quiz

I took the quiz and I scored myself a 4 out of 6. I know what a Blogs, Wikis, Instant Messaging and Massive Multiplayer Online games (thanks to my little brother) are. I had no idea what modding or smart mobs are. I consider myself to know quite a bit about technology, but obviously there is a lot I still need to learn. I don’t think I am a digital native or a digital immigrant; I am somewhere in between.
My WRA class at MSU was technology based and for the first time I learned to make a webpage, post on a wiki, and create a blog. If it wasn’t for this class I would not even know what these terms meant. My brother is only a sophomore in high school and does these things daily, he is helping me make a webpage for our dad’s company and I would have never been able to do that at his age. It is so interesting to see how the different generations of people are with technology. My mother just got her first e-mail address a month ago and still does not see the purpose of it and my grandpa learned how to work a mouse on a computer recently. I think we take a lot of our knowledge of technology for granted but I still wonder has it has made our lives easier, or more complicated?
I would not consider myself to be an emergent learner when it goes to digital literacy. I think I am a little further along that being emergent. Emergent literacy is concerned with the earliest phases of literacy development and therefore emergent digital literacy would also focus on the earliest phases. I don’t believe that any of us in TE401 are emergent when it come to digital literacy because hopefully we all know a lot about blogs and webpages already and we can’t be emergent because we need to teach the stuff!

Digital Natives Quiz

After taking the quiz, I feel very un-educated in technology. I only knew two out of the six terms that were given! This would confirm that I am not a digital native and I am a digital immigrant. However, I feel like I am a quick learner to new technologies and if I were introduced to them I would be able to understand and participate in them. When I heard we were going to have a noteblog for our Language Arts class I was somewhat confused because I have never heard of one before. Now, I feel like I have been exposed enough where I am able to use it to its full potential.

In digital literacy, I would have to consider myself an emergent learner. This is because I only knew two out of the six terms on the digital natives quiz online. In the emergent stage I would only know a small amount about technology. In the beginning stage I would understand three or four terms and I would consider a five or above being fluent in digital literacy.

I hope to gain more knowledge about different types of technology over time. It is extremely important that I am aware of all new technology because future and young generations are exposed to games, wiki, emails, instant messaging and other technologies which make students digital natives. In my future classroom, I plan on using technology on multiple levels to connect with individual students. This could help connect with certain students on different levels.