When one enters the educational system, we are taught that comprehension is an important staple in the process of reading and writing. For a better grasp on the subject at hand I tend to not necessarily reread the whole passage/book, but reread only the main points to fully understand the material. Clarity is needed when reading higher level passages so one can comprehend all angles of the story, not just the bigger picture. Unfortunately, that in itself is my biggest flaw. I only try to comprehend what is necessary, not the deeper meaning. For example, when taking a test one shouldn’t expect to know all the material for that particular test if they only read the chapter once! I believe that a few rigorous rereads of the material is needed for accuracy.
I personally do not believe that rereading is only for those who do not comprehend, I believe it is for those who want to expand their knowledge on the subject. Whether the book be for pleasure/school, I tend to annotate and go over passages again that I feel are note-worthy. Comprehension comes easier to a literate person because one who is educated understands the obvious fact that you not only read to expand your mind, but to apply what you have just read to other things one may read in the future! In my experience as a rereader, I have learned it does truly help more than most teens would like to admit. I highly advise it.
Over the course of just this summer, I have found myself annotating more than ever. I was never one to willingly annotate, but as I have read the books this summer, I have found that it is much easier to connect the passage to the real world, or even back to itself, when I put the pen to paper. I think that in addition to rereading annotating helps you to fully understand the meaning of the text because you can respond to it and add to the meaning. It is now only the author's work, but a portion of it belongs to you. Many texts are written to be open for interpretation and annotating, I have learned is an excellent way to take advantage of the text.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you here Madeline because I too do not reread for the idea of miscomprehension but to further my knowledge on the piece. For discussions in classes clarity is an extraordinary aspect in the sense of knowing what the book is truly about all the way through. Going along with rereading, annotating has shown to help me when coming by a part I've annotated because it reminds me of what I was thinking and what the part meant to me then compared to what I am thinking now. The texts we've read can be interpreted in many different ways, but the act of rereading for all of us can help us come to one clarification about the book.
ReplyDeleteI agree that rereading heavily aids comprehension. Also, I find myself annotating and going over the passages I annotated rather than rereading entire chapters or books. When one annotates, it is unique to them and them only in the instant the pen hits the paper. Whether the annotation lead to further comprehension or not, it is an important reading tool to practice. Annotating is the flexing of the mental muscles rather than the hand; sometimes they flex to show off knowledge and understanding, and other times they are flexed and worked out due to lack of comprehension. After further analysis of the annotation, one overcomes the initial mental gap between them and the text.
ReplyDeleteComprehension is one of the largest skills that people can grasp onto at a younger age. It allows for us to understand more of the information and lets our minds attach to ideas specifically. I have the same problem as Madeline and I don’t look into the deeper meaning at first. I need to open up my mind more when I’m reading so I can look at more possibilities of the text. Annotating helps with this problem in a very large way. It creates new ideas while we are looking at important parts of the text for long periods of times and it draws our attention to the text specifically. Anything can be annotated and annotating the text more than the main ideas can create these new ideas for us to understand.
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