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Abstract
The essays below were prepared following the LRA session organized by Janice Almasi entitled, “Examining the relative contributions of content knowledge and strategic processing to comprehension.” What unites these essays are the personal and historical stances that each writer has taken; in addition, the essays are rich with constructive critique of tensions in the conduct of comprehension instruction (e.g., acknowledging and building on readers’ sensemaking efforts, while encouraging the development of reading expertise and flexibility). There are redeployments of classic theories (e.g., schema theory) and heuristics (e.g., the interactive model of reading) and the call for new lenses with which to inform scholarship on comprehension. Finally, there are invitations to consider new horizons for comprehension research that take into account contemporary contexts and uses for interpreting and learning from text.
Keywords sensemaking, comprehension strategies, knowledge building, tasks, dialogue
References
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