When reading, how do you make meaning from text? What is your procedure that you follow to do this?
One way to make meaning involves defining the key concepts and then asking what, why and how questions. These answers are then used to construct a visual of the concept by comparing it to your past experiences of that concept. This could be from a real-life experience or about what someone told you about the topic or from watching a movie about it. Younger learners may not have had enough experiences to generate meaning from, in that case one needs to seek out real-life experiences relating to the content one is learning about. In some cases it may be difficult to experience the context and there learners should experience the next best thing. For example, if one is learning about farming, then working in garden can you some insight into the environment. Once an image has been generated in the mind’s eye, meaning can be said to have been made. It’s that sense of “I get it” when you are reading a book and you instantly understand what the author means. Video can help generate meaning faster as with reading one needs to first generate an image from the text, however the reader generates the image themselves allowing them to use their imagination in comparison to video.
As one reads, you can have a conversation with the author by asking yourself questions as you read and comparing your real-life experiences. You could ask “What caused this to happen.” Or “What were the consequences of that when I experienced something similar in my life? Asking these questions and answering it yourself creates a mental dialogue that helps one build a picture of the concept in their head. This is active meaning-making and a key mental operation for reading deeply and really understanding something.
When making observations in the real-world, making an association between a stored concept and a physical marker allows the observer to identify an object by retrieving information from her stored network of information relating to the concept.
Generative learners seek out wise mentors who can help guide them through their learning process.
Listen to Chapter 5 to hear about how Somerai uses retrieval to identify an African Elephant in the savannah and her meeting with her mentor, Shanti.