What are some of the
major differences between a skills approach to literacy and a comprehensive or
sociopsycholinguistic approach?
A
skills approach to reading is a view of reading that focuses solely on the pronunciation
of words. The main goal is to correctly
say each word written. The idea behind
the skills approach is that meaning will come once students can pronounce words. This sounds like using phonics to read. My understanding is that the skills
approach to literacy is rule driven.
Unlike the skills approach to literacy, a
comprehensive or sociopsycholinguistic approach to literacy has a focus on the “why”
of words and sentences. I thought the
first exercise in chapter 2 was extremely interesting. The reader was asked to write sentences that
contain the word run. As I started to think of sentences that
use the word in different ways, I was truly shocked with the many meanings that
I discovered. I use these meanings
frequently, but I have never stopped to actually think that there are an
extensive amount of definitions. The
idea behind the sociopsycholinguistic approach is that words hold meaning based
on their context. When groups of words
are combined to make a sentence, the exact definition of the words used is
usually understood. An additional piece
to the sociopsycholinguistic approach is that not every person who reads the
same sentence, or any piece of writing, will take the same meaning away from it. The knowledge that we bring to what we are
reading determines the meaning we interpret.
Upon first reading that idea, I was really surprised. Reflecting on this, however, it makes sense
that each person has different schemas, comes from different walks of life, and
has different basic ideas about the world.
It is understandable that no one reads the same piece of writing in the
same way. This was just a new way for me
to think about reading and comprehension.
Mackenzie,
ReplyDeleteI too believe the skills approach to teaching reading is rule driven. In a classroom where there is a diverse group of learners we sometimes have to question the most effective way to teach reading. I thought your quote "The knowledge that we bring to what we are reading determines the meaning we interpret" is very interesting. Seeing as students in our classroom are from a variety of different backgrounds, they each hold different meanings for words. As educators, it is important that we are mindful of the multiple backgrounds that enter our classrooms and create diverse lessons to meet the needs of all learners.