When you are reading, do you get the picture? If not, why are you reading, or as Chris Tovani says, fake reading? A conversation with a student yesterday in Reading Workshop caused me to think about the point of reading.Then, as I watched Kevin tutor Max while reading King Arthur in Freak the Mighty a connection shouted out.
As Kevin says, "every word is part of a picture. Every sentence is a picture. All you do is let your imagination connect them together." These interconnected pictures then become the movie that plays in your mind as you read a book. This is the basis of comprehension.
The student I talked to yesterday has spent her whole life fake reading. She chooses books she can't read, or that are so difficult for her that there are no pictures when she reads.
Why? She can read any book she wants. All last year she could choose her own SSR book. Yet she continues to choose books that she doesn't "get." Hopefully someday she will realize that she has a movie ticket, and just needs to turn on the show.
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