The
way I that define reading is as the process of receiving and interpreting data
being communicated through symbols. It
is also much more than that. Stories transmute
experiential knowledge that can define for us the meaning of life. Two main components of developmental
influence that inspires creative consciousness are context clues and content. Reading can allow us to create, destroy, and
re-create our reality. According to a
1978 report by Mitchell & Green in which they examined the processes by
which fluent readers comprehend prose, concluding that “reading rate is largely
determined by the speed with which a reader can access the meanings of words
and construct a representation of the text rather than by the speed with which
they can formulate and test successive predictions about it.” It could be thought of as pronouncing an
additional sense.
When
I was in grade school, after reading fables and tall tales, the class repeated comprehension
check worksheets twice a week. It was at
that age too at a vacation bible school teaching the story of the Hebrews
Exodus from Egypt that a passion for literary meaning and something that I later
heard of Jesus calling parables of the Kingdom.
As I listened for an entire seven days to the stories of emancipation
from the chains of slavery by God through Moses, all the until the climax in
chapter 14 at the parting of the Reed Sea, I contemplated the relevance and
potential applications to understand for myself and for my family. I instinctively and literally wanted to become
Moses for my image in nation and of course, a resolve to a choice competitive
elimination. It was like hearing the
voice of God. Confirmations are abundant
from within the text itself, “[And] God looked upon the children of Israel, and
God had respect unto them” (Exod. 2:25, 1611 KJV, Holy Bible). One of the most amazing pieces of information
that kept my attention even more so today was to learn the meaning of God’s
name, YHVH, “I am that I am.”
I
had always been reading years beyond most other children my age. The first such of long, stories outside of
the Bible that I can distinctively remember reading fully on my own without my
being assigned was Heidi, an 1881 work of fiction for children by Swiss author, Johanna Spyri. “We must never
forget to pray, and to ask God to remember us when He is arranging things, so
that we too may feel safe and have no anxiety about what is going to
happen.” The moral reasoning that I most
appreciated from the text was learning the value of friendship, humility, and simplicity. I have noticed just today, my daughter too, seeing
it for the first time, is captivated by the characters and this story. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
According
to Steinberg, Bornstein Vandell & Rook (2011) by the study of children’s computation
time, we come to have some etymologically significant terms for
intelligence like in microgenetic analysis, [which is] determining children’s progression
using the computation strategy to an unconscious use of the shortcut strategy
to conscious use of the shortcut strategy over a series of sessions, also
called assimilation (pg. 277). In
cohesion with this is a contemporary developmental theory of intelligence from one
Robert Steinbern called “triarchic theory of successful intelligence, composed
of analytical abilities to critique, judge, and evaluate; creative abilities to
invent, discover, and imagine; and practical abilities to utilize and implement
ideas in the real world. Research suggests that these components are relatively
independent statistically, and that children apply them to different kinds of
problems” (Steinberg, et al, 2011, pg. 279).
Socially, it is a natural occurrence in learning and in growth that
similar problems will connect similar people together to co-create prospective
new solutions, and that is called the never ending story.
References
Mitchell, D. C., & Green, D. W. (1978). The effects of context and content on immediate processing in reading. The quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 30(4), 609-636.
Steinberg, L. Bornstein.,
Vandel , D., Rook, K. (2001) Lifespan Development Infancy throught Adulthood.
Belmont, CA: Cenage Learning.
