And, really, once the entire process was demystified (even though we could only scratch the surface tonight), it's a miracle that anyone can read! lol The intricacies involved are innumerable. So much opportunity for error!!! Whether there is a problem with the optic nerve, or the cornea or retina, or perhaps the neurotransmitters are not binding at the proper receptor sites, the possibilities for error or miscommunication are endless!
When we completed the introductory activity, which was a "Task Analysis of Reading", I was shocked by how much I take for granted! The task was to "write down the step by step process involved in reading the following passage".
My list could have gone on and on, but my initial list included:
-Read from top to bottom
-Read from left to right
-I am drawn to bolder text-I know that the bold text is the title, Gary Paulsen is the author, and Chapter 1 tells me that this is the beginning of the book-Imagine the plane using the descriptors-Had to know what a loud, roaring sound would be like-Remember relationships between people: who drove the plane, people's names, etc.-Pausing a commas, stopping at periods
We are attending to reading task every step of the way, from using our eyes to accessing our executive functioning capacities in our frontal lobe!!!
My A-MAZ-ing teammates (Stephanie and Nicole) and I completed a web-map together on Inspiration to review and synthesize some of the information we learned throughout the evening. We all agreed that we could have gone on forever with this mapping assignment if we hadn't had a time limit! :)
I should make mention of some of the worthwhile videos we watched throughout the presentation this evening:
CLIP #1: LEARNING TO READ
CLIP #2: HOW WE HEAR
CLIP #3: HOW WE SEE
CLIP #4: NEURONS AND HOW THEY WORK
