My aunt, the mother of my cousin Mabie, told me that I'll probably have a difficult time sustaining the attention of Mabie while we are reading. She usually wants to skip pages and just look at the illustrations and go directly to the end of the story. I thought I could find a solution to her "attention-span problem" by using books with interesting and colorful pictures but I was wrong because she did what she normally does. She turned the pages and asked me to go directly to the last page. This was the first time I read to her. I expected that she will be doing the same for the rest of the reading sessions, but surprisingly she didn't. Analyzing why she did that the first time I read to her, I realized that a part of the reason was that the book I used which was titled "The Amazing Hat" involves so much repetition and patterns. these devices, one one aspect, are helpful for children to comprehend a text. But on the other hand, it may be observed in the case of Mabie that once she recognize the patterns, she tend to lose interest. If we look at the story "The Amazing Hat", the characters almost said the same thing to the young girl Mia. "Yes, Mia, but it(the hat) will look lovelier if we put something on it". Then Mia also replied in a similar manner. Mabie may have quickly realized what the plot is, so she was just interested to see what happened in the end. However, the our other reading sessions, when I used books that do not involve a lot of patterns, and books whose plot may have been more exciting for Mabie (just like the story "Ani has a Bad Tooth"), she listened attentively until I have reached the end of the story. She looked at the pictures, and paid attention to my narration, as well. And when asked questions about these stories, she was able to answer more correctly compared to her answers to my questions after I read to her the first time.It was interesting to find out that a more complicated plot interested her more than a plot that involved so much pattern, which seemed to bore her.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Focus, Mabie! Focus!!
My aunt, the mother of my cousin Mabie, told me that I'll probably have a difficult time sustaining the attention of Mabie while we are reading. She usually wants to skip pages and just look at the illustrations and go directly to the end of the story. I thought I could find a solution to her "attention-span problem" by using books with interesting and colorful pictures but I was wrong because she did what she normally does. She turned the pages and asked me to go directly to the last page. This was the first time I read to her. I expected that she will be doing the same for the rest of the reading sessions, but surprisingly she didn't. Analyzing why she did that the first time I read to her, I realized that a part of the reason was that the book I used which was titled "The Amazing Hat" involves so much repetition and patterns. these devices, one one aspect, are helpful for children to comprehend a text. But on the other hand, it may be observed in the case of Mabie that once she recognize the patterns, she tend to lose interest. If we look at the story "The Amazing Hat", the characters almost said the same thing to the young girl Mia. "Yes, Mia, but it(the hat) will look lovelier if we put something on it". Then Mia also replied in a similar manner. Mabie may have quickly realized what the plot is, so she was just interested to see what happened in the end. However, the our other reading sessions, when I used books that do not involve a lot of patterns, and books whose plot may have been more exciting for Mabie (just like the story "Ani has a Bad Tooth"), she listened attentively until I have reached the end of the story. She looked at the pictures, and paid attention to my narration, as well. And when asked questions about these stories, she was able to answer more correctly compared to her answers to my questions after I read to her the first time.It was interesting to find out that a more complicated plot interested her more than a plot that involved so much pattern, which seemed to bore her.
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