Reading WITHOUT Meaning
I am a reader. I am passionate about reading and even more passionate about teachingfuture readers to understand its power, complexity, and beauty.It is magical to watch them as they turn the squiggles on the page (or screen) into joyous,personal meaning.That's what it's all about, right? Why we teach students about the squiggles on the pages,the letters, the sounds, and the words they represent...so they can get to meaning?Reading is a meaning-making process. Without meaning, what would be the point?Yet, imagine what your life as a reader would be like, WITHOUT meaning:You could read the words accurately, fluently, even with intonation and proper phrasing:
The wogglily thenk mired zurrely bire the herp.
You could describe/define attributes of those words:
Is "woggily" a noun, verb, or adjective? (Hint: an adjective)
What about "zurrely"?You could answer questions about the words you read:
What kind of thenk was it? (Hint: A woggily one, right?)
How did the thenk mire the herp?
Where was the thenk?Even if you could do all of that really, really, really, really well....what would be the point, if
you couldn’t c
onnect to, share, understand, relate to, compare, be impacted by, envision,create, elaborate, explore, laugh at, cry over, question, become empowered by, bemotivated because of, write about, present, discover, reread, re-imagine, hold dear, hangonto, or be forever changed because of those words!Imagine what
your
life as a reader would be like without meaning?
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