Improve Reading Comprehension: Same Words, Different Meanings

By Marlene Caroselli, Ed.D

Sentences can have antithetical meanings sometimes, depending on things as simple as a single space or a puny little mark of punctuation.  To illustrate, when men were asked to punctuate this sentence:

    WOMAN WITHOUT HER MAN IS AN ANIMAL.

the majority of them placed commas after the first word and the fourth, suggesting women lose their social skills if denied access to the opposite sex.  Women tend to see the sentence differently. The majority will punctuate it this way:

    WOMAN--WITHOUT HER--MAN IS AN ANIMAL.

Same words. Entirely different meanings.

In his February 26 2010, blog, "When Rote Learning Makes Sense," author Ben Johnson reminds us that before students can think critically, they need to have something to think about. He endorses Benjamin Boom's assertion that evaluating and creating are the highest levels of thought.

The reading tutors at KnowledgePoints help students understand inferences and the nuances that are to be found in the writing they read. Our tutors give them something to think about and then challenge them to create new, evaluated thoughts.

One thing you can do at home requires very little effort. Obtain a list of provocative quotations and ask your child to interpret each. Play devil's advocate with some. Offer a different interpretation--perhaps even more than one.

Of course, there can be no "correct" answer because only the originator of the quote knows what he or she meant. (Remember Freud's response to the analyzers who saw physiological symbolism in a simple cigar. Sometimes, he reminded them, "a cigar is just a cigar!")

However, you can increase your child's comprehension of reading passages by discussing the most likely interpretations of that material. If the meaning is fairly obvious, ask for an example that illustrates the truth of the quote.

Some quotations that can pave the way to in-depth thinking follow.

• The game of life is the game of boomerangs. -Florence Scovel Shinn
• To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. -Bertrand Russell
• A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.   -Thomas Carruthers
• After the game, the king and pawn go into the same box. -Italian Proverb
• Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that  nothing is. -Thomas Szasz
• Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the     headlights, but you make the whole trip that way. -E.L. Doctorow
• A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible abor and there is an invisible labor. -Victor Hugo

KnowledgePoints Learning Center, which provides reading tutoring to students in Florham Park, Morristown, Livingston and other area towns can provide thoughtful challenges, like these,  to your kids.