Synthesizing is the most complex of the reading strategies. It is far more difficult to nail down examples of when you are actually synthesizing as you read as compared to a time when you are visualizing or asking a question. Synthesizing is that moment when we are reading along and then something happens to change our thinking. You are using your background knowledge, the clues in the text (inferring) and then BAM! You realize something new, something you hadn't seen before...it might be insight into why a character has been behaving a certain way. In the story The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting, the clues in the text combined with our background knowledge lead us in one direction. About half way through the story, the clues start making the reader question whether the original assumptions about the characters were correct. A new perspective emerges. That aha! moment is true synthesis.
No comments:
Post a Comment