So far we've read a text sprinkled with deliberate errors,
a text filled with nonsense words, and a real-language text
set up to show you how you make sense of unfamiliar words.
This activity also uses an authentic text.
DIRECTIONS:
- Have a blank piece of paper and a pencil ready.
- Read the
paragraph through JUST ONE TIME.
- Click on the "Click
Here" button when you're
done.
- Then, write down everything you remember
reading without looking back.
Click here for the passage.
- When you're done writing, Click
here to return to the
story.
- Now compare what you wrote with what you read.
After you've compared your version with the original,
consider the questions below:
- How many sentences were there in the story as you
rewrote it from memory? If you used more than one sentence
where did you separate them? Are they equivalent to
the clauses in the original?
- How much of the original
paragraph did you leave out? How many elements did you
combine? Does your paragraph make sense or were you
able to remember only bits and pieces? Did you get the
gist of the paragraph even though you rewrote it considerably?
- What
did you make of the title? (This is the opening paragraph
of a short story by Roald Dahl.)
- Why do you think Dahl
isn't precise about the time?
- What inferences did you
make about "I"?
Is that person a female or a male?
- Is the driver alone?
- Where are the gates of this bungalow
and how can a car approach them?
- What is the driver's
relationship to Harry Pope and why would she/he turn
off the lights to avoid waking him?
- Is the driver being
considerate or nefarious?
- Why is Harry Pope's full name
used?
- What will happen next, do you think?
- What did you learn
about reading from this activity?
Now that you've finished all four activities in the
first set, list your insights about reading and share
them with the rest of us on the listserv. Then go on to
the second set of activities.
