This is the second 1/3 of the text. I am more comfortable reading than the first 1/3. I took my parochial metacognitive analysis and threw it into the wind and instead I am using my self-defined metacognitive skills. I am gong to have some fun with this text tonight.
The first metacognitive skill I like to use is what I call “bringing the text down to my level”. This is a unique technique I use to personalize the text and helps me to sink it in to my mind. For instance on p 19 of the text, it talks abut how Helen Shaw had “come out for the tryouts and couldn’t act for sour apples”. I like to personalize the text and will whimsically read the text as “couldn’t act for s#*t”. It makes a small connection in mind and personalizes the scene, the quote and the character. Not quite sure what this metacognitive skill is (or if it is a real one at all), maybe it is a form of “fixup”.
Another of my other unique metacognitive skill I like to use is the “the universal moment”. These are the lines I take special notice of to anchor the text to a defining moment or sync point. For instance on p20 the text is talking about trying to find another Stella character (Street Car Named Desire) as auditions for the part continues. The line talks about love and goes something like this, “that’s life I guess, 20 Blanches to one Stella. And when you find Stella she doesn’t know what love is.” The line speaks volumes. How universal. The text continues into unrequited love. Something we have all witnessed in life. This is what fiction is all about. Twisting what we have experienced into a universal experience. Something we can all relate to. Ok that sounds like the metacognitive skill “making connections”.
How about the metacognitive skill of “the arrival or the ah ah moment”. On p 23 the text talks about how Helen Shaw “wasn’t in a bottle anymore. There wasn’t any bottle to hold her up and keep her safe and clean”. This is an “arrival moment” that started on page 21 when Helen talks about living her life in a big bottle, not being able to touch. C’mon when we started reading the text on p 21 we all knew that Helen was going to come out of her “bottle”. Ok that sounds like the metacognitive skill “predicting”.
Hmmm, so maybe I have been using metacognitive skills all along. I just have been calling them something else.
I have had a very similar experience with these reading comprehension skills. I didn't realize how often I used them until I started trying to consciously take note of them. It's funny how these strategies we use while we read have become second nature to us. I'll use the same tired driving analogy again. When you first started driving, you were very aware of every move you made. Over time, however, the car just becomes an extension of your body. Your brain knows you have to make a left turn, and without thinking your hand hits the turning signal. It's the same with reading. These processes become automatic over time.
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