Week 8- Assignment 2

1.     Schema Theory

 A student’s schema is the prior knowledge they bring to the text they are reading.  It is important for comprehension as activate prior knowledge can help students figure out something they don’t understand by connecting it to something they already know. Student can construct new knowledge based on their schema .

2.     Situation Model Theory

When students create a mental model or representation of textual information it helps with comprehension as it goes beyond the actual structure of the text.  Comprehension is first and foremost the construction of a mental representation of what that text is about: a situation model. With prior knowledge and metal representation, students can understand what the text is trying to express beyond the actual definition of the words. The deeper meaning and exposition that will lead to further questioning, such as why was the text written, and learning is made possible through the creation of a situation model.

3.     Role of Reasoning

Role of reasoning helps readers connect to their readings by connecting the text to prior knowledge and using their reasoning to  evaluate it as well. Making inferences and analyzing the text and situation, drawing conclusions and comparing with prior knowledge, all help with reasoning and leads to great comprehension and understanding of the text.

4.     Role of Attention

When students read a text, they have to be able to pay attention and focus on the details of what they’re reading. If a student has problems focusing and paying attention, their comprehension of the text will be affected as they will not be reading as purposefully and as actively.

5.     Role of Surface Features

Surface features are just as important as activating prior knowledge when it comes to comprehending a text. Decoding and relating skills are essential to actually reading the text and if a reader can’t properly read a text and lacks in vocabulary, they will have difficulty recognizing and understanding what they are reading. If a student is really busy with trying to decode , it will slow them down in other areas of comprehension such as reasoning and evaluating the information in the text and, in general, making connections.