Thinking strategies / Fixup strategies

Tovani believes that teaching a few strategies well is the key to the success of her work. It is not necessary to have too many techniques, gimmicks or a grab bag full of tricks. She feel it is more important for students and teachers to" master a few core skills"
On page 5 Tovani gave this explanation of:
 Thinking Strategies Used by Proficient Readers and Writers
"the strategy is an intentional plan that is flexible and can be adapted to meet the demands of the situation. Strategies give readers options for thinking about text when reading words alone doesn't produce meaning."
She also states "good readers and writers monitor their understanding as they read. They recognize when the text is making sense and when it is not. Some of the strategies good readers and writers include the following:"

                              
                                            Thinking Strategies:
1. Activating background knowledge and making connections between new and known information.
2. Self questioning the text to clarify ambiguity and deepen understanding.
3. Drawing inferences from the text using background knowledge and the clues from the tech's.
4. Determining importance in text to separate details from main ideas.
5. Employing fix up strategies to repair confusion.
6. Using sensory images to enhance comprehension and visualize reading.
7. Synthesizing and extending thinking.


The next set of strategiesTovani introduces us to is called Fix Up strategies.
This is strategy whereby a reader can get unstuck when the text becomes too difficult or confusing.

You can find the following lists of fix up strategies on page 6

                                    Fix Up Strategies:
1. Make a connection between the text and your life, your knowledge of the world, and other texts.
2. Make predictions: stop and think about what you have already read.
3. Ask yourself questions about what you've read, then try to answer them.
4. Reflect in writing what you've read.
5. Visualize.
6. Use print conventions.
7. Retail what you've read.
8. Reread.
9. Notice pattern in text structure.
10. Adjust your reading rate either faster or slower.

At the end of Chapter 1 Tovani warns us that there are no easy answers and that teaching strategies for the sake of teaching strategies isn't the goal. She reminds us that  "meaning doesn't arrive because we have highlighted text or use sticky notes or written to right words on a comprehension worksheet. Meaning arrives because we are purposefully engaged in thinking while we read."

In reading this book  I can't help but make a connection to James Paul Gee's theories on literacy and discourse. Many of the strategies discussed in Chapter 1 of " Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?" Involves primary discourse, secondary discourse, and meta-learning. Of course we know primary discourse to be the information and behaviors and knowledge and way of thinking that we learned from our families and close peer. Secondary discourse in the knowledge that we've acquired through our formal education or outside influences. Meta-learning meaning to build on our existing knowledge. When we apply these aspects of G.'s theory to thinking strategies and fix up strategies to Tovani's book we see that they match up well, she talks about activating background knowledge, drawing information from the text using background knowledge, self questioning, making connections from your own life, your knowledge of the world, another text.