Productive Teaching Term Paper

Language

Culturally-Based Cognitive Apprenticeship

(Teaching African-American High School Students Skills in Literary Interpretation) by Carol D. Lee

The author observes that there is a distinct need for implementation of special strategies pertaining to reading comprehension skills in schools populated by students of African-American or other ethnic minority groups. Cultural orientation plays a crucial role in understanding and interpreting literature alongside general reading and task specific strategies. This automatically implies that the differences in cultural background and home language are important considerations that affect the comprehensive skills of the students in the study of literary texts.Researchers also vary widely in their opinion as to the kind of reading strategies that must be emphasized in view of the disparities in the community. For example 'signifying', use of double extendre and metaphoric statements are important aspects specific to African-American english. The author opines that since interpretations are largely based on the cultural context….....