Chopsticks and Reading Comprehension

Prior to attending class today I was avoiding blogging for this week; I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write about. My problem was I had read the two assigned texts for this week, Chopsticks and the Graves chapter on reading comprehension, as two entirely different entities. It was not until I began to work on the table in class, which connected how we used the key comprehension strategies to interpret Chopsticks. I found, as I went through the table and reflected on my reading that my answers varied greatly depending if I was focusing on the first or second time I read the book. Below I have included a table to show how my use of certain strategies discussed in Graves changed from my first time reading Chopsticks to my second.

Strategy	First Read	Second Read
Establishing Purpose for Reading	Purpose: Read this for class well enough to be able to discuss it.	Purpose: To answer all my questions from the first read.
Using prior knowledge	Using the back of the book which described it as a romance mystery.	Knowing that she descends into a mental illness and her father is abusive on SOME level
Asking and Answering Questions	Who are the main characters? How did they meet? Why isn’t Frank concerned for her mental stability? IS FRANK REAL?!	So many, but here are a few: Q: Is Frank real? A: Probably not Q: Is her dad sexually abusive? A: Maybe? Q: Was she a famous piano player? A: Probably not? Q: What’s the deal with the Crackin? A: No idea but it might represent evil Q: Why is Jo Ann Castle important? A: NO CLUE
Making Inferences	Her father might be abusive The couple’s relationship is unhealthy Maybe she is buckling under her father’s pressure	Frank is not real-she created this all in her head She is not a piano player-she is made it up as well Her father may be sexually abusive->Crakin is the abuse and some of those quotes are things her says to her, not Frank
Determining what is important	IMs, letters, quotes from conversations	Handwriting, symbols on letters, the back drop of one picture being The Bell Jar