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Someone can demonstrate their independence by showing that they can do things on their own. Lets take a new college student that just moved out of their parents house. They can show their parents that they are independent by learning to pay all of their bills, and buying and cooking their meals. But does independence mean never asking for help? No, that is far from the truth. Independence should never result in failing. Asking for help does not make you not independent. It makes you human. No matter how independent someone is, they will still ask for help sometimes.

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To critique without comprehending is an odd thought. How can one even critique something that someone else did if they do not even understand what they did. Lets take an essay for example; if someone was to read your essay and give you feedback on it, would you trust their feedback if the essay was not on something they even knew about? Of course you would. An essay is usually written to inform someone about something or someone you know. You can totally critique the style of writing and the grammar, and even give advice about what they should add or take out. Although it sounds strange that someone would critique without comprehension, it can still be done; and sometimes, the ones with no comprehension are the ones who are going to give you your best critiques.

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People critique a lot without comprehending any particular topic. People have these ideas or biases about certain topics and let those biases shape the way they critique. They would rather not take the time to comprehend the other opinions than to change their own. Students often do this when they are evaluating a topic that they have a bias towards and rather than explore the topic themselves they stay with their biases. It is important for teachers to let students explore other areas in order for students to become more knowledgeable.

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To be literate is to be open to other cultures and different people. If students stay within their own cultures and world then they will never be open to the cultures around them. In literature, readers are given insight to different worlds which then broadens their own world views. It also shows readers that everyone shares a universality in human experiences.

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Often times my college courses will overlap and one class will refer to something I'm learning in another class. I think it possible to critique without comprehending because if I'm writing a paper for an English class on the domestication of cats I could ask someone with no knowledge of the prompt to rules of MLA to read my paper and they would be able to critique it. While someone may not be able to fully comprehend the extent of a topic they do have merit to judge to a certain extent.

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"Reading purposefully" means to read with an intent. When reading a text for anything other than pleasure, the reader must put some sort of meaning and connect it to something in order for information to stick. Listen attentively is basically the same as reading purposefully. Whatever you hear or read you must connect it to something meaningful to make the knowledge stick. Listening attentively is nodding your head, taking notes, and answering or asking questions.

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A student demonstrates independence by reading on their own outside of the classroom. A large part of getting a student to do this means that we as teachers need to provide material that our students find interesting enough for them to want to read something that is unassigned to them. First of all, hopefully we can make them interested enough to read the books we are assigning but it is important to provide students with books and materials that are easy reads, relevant to them, and makes them want to talk about the books they are reading to their peers. Also a large part of this is providing students the opportunity to talk amongst their peers about the books they are reading.

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The difference between bias and assumptions are that bias is a permanent way of thinking and an assumption can be changed. Coming in with a bias towards something may make a person shut down new ideas or material because of their bias. Everyone has bias built in them that came from their family, home life, religion, etc. Assumptions can be changed easier because they are based off information and once information proves an assumption wrong, then the assumptions change.

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People that are independent don't have to rely on other's to take care of them. Students in the high school level are getting their first taste of real independence. They are responsible for all their homework and managing to get to class on time. It will also be a time when many students start to drive which is another big responsibility. I would also say that students are beginning to accept themselves and find out who they are and who they want to be in the future. They set goals and work towards accomplishing them. When students can stop relying on friends and family's opinions they will become more independent on their thought process as well. These are all the steps taken on the way to adulthood.

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Audience, task, purpose, and discipline all work as a team when it come to communicating ideas. The audience must listen attentively to understand what the task will be for the day or activity. There needs to be a purpose as to why the audience is participating in the task. There also needs to be some type of self discipline to get the task done. These are important steps to take into consideration when teaching. Students have to have some sort of interest for them to participate in these tasks. Many students just do the work to try to keep up their good grades, other students it may be harder for them to participate. Communication is key between teachers and students. The teacher needs to see what would be the best way possible for students to learn and become more active in class work.

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The most important step to encourage independent learners starts in the classroom environment: to create an open and accepting atmosphere. Classrooms can be a set “routine” where students know that their position is to sit in the classroom and listen to the teacher; however, this doesn’t always have to be the case and it shouldn’t be the case. Teachers are part of the process in allowing students to show independence; they can demonstrate this by giving students countless opportunities to talk and share their ideas with the class. Independence comes from students who are allowed to exercise their own beliefs in education; (for example) students can start book clubs by expressing their opinions on the given book(s) and interact with their peers—this helps students take a strong liking in reading by having the choice to pick and learn about their book(s) of preference. This all goes back to the teacher and their methods of teaching--to promote independence within students is to acknowledge a system of growth, intellect, and curiosity: this is what education should consist of.

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To read with a purpose is to allow yourself to fully indulge, engage, and comprehend with the material. Reading purposefully will let students to appreciate the material; students who read with a purpose are interacting with the material by formulating thoughtful responses. Thoughtful thinking derives from reading with a purpose; by doing so, students can elevate their comprehension skills and improve their reading abilities. Intrinsic motivation opens doors for students who have an intent to discover something new within the reading. To listen attentively is to actively participate—relating to the class discussion and the material. Students listen attentively by answering questions, taking notes, annotating, and being responsive at all times.

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I don't believe that it is possible to critique something without at first comprehending it - the student wouldn't have the necessary basis to make an informed critique on the information that is being presented, and any critique would therefore not have the substance necessary to carry the weight that a critique should. Reading critically, and writing critically, requires the ability to think about the context and the purpose of the text that is being examined, and in order for that to be possible the student must first comprehend what is being written - none of the other steps that come later in forming a solid critique, like taking the intent and the argument of the writer/author/poet into consideration, can be achieved without first comprehending the material.

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I believe that it is more difficult to integrate what is learned online with what is learned offline, but only if the online source is not something that can be converted into an offline source - like a PowerPoint or a Prezi that can be printed out and added to a notebook or a journal for further reference. With online sources that are flash-based - offering a brief lesson intended to be easily-digestible - unless the information is being chronicled in a notebook it can be difficult to recall at a later date. While modern education software tends to replicate a notebook - putting all of the information in a single, easy-to-access location - not all of them follow that format and that could create challenges for learners that have to operate within both mediums. I have seen teachers who use a paper notebook and have students do their assignments online, print them out, and then glue them into the notebook so that they can be referenced easily, and I believe that could be beneficial to students - particularly those who learn better by having something in their hand as opposed to reading it on a screen.

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Reading independently requires students to read outside of their assigned texts. The goal is for students to read both inside and outside of the classroom. From the earliest years, instructors should make a wide variety of texts available to their students, because the goal is to get a young reader excited to learn about a topic of interest, which varies widely from student to student. One way to do this is to have a class library with a wide variety of texts for young readers to choose from. Also, independent reading should be scheduled to give students time to read and log their progress during class. Students should be given opportunities, either with classmates, teachers, or librarians, to discuss what they've read, but they should not necessarily be assigned homework or written work for all the books they've read. Reading is for enjoyment and pleasure, too.

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Understanding of other cultures is extremely vital to today's literate individual. "Inhabiting other worlds" may create uncomfortable, unfamiliar feelings for a student who is reading a novel that takes place in a foreign country, for example, but from this discomfort comes growth. We, as students and individuals, do not grow if we are not challenged. This is why it is extremely important, when striving to create globally conscious and responsible students, that we push them outside of their comfort zones, to make connections to texts which might seem worlds away from containing their own perspectives. Making these connections is like a capacity or skill, which must be honed, and once students begin to draw parallels between their own world and other, much different spheres of influence, they will gain a sense of respect for people from diverse backgrounds and cultures outside of their own.

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According to the text, students should be openly critiquing an author or speaker's assumptions and premises when reading. While it may certainly be true that there is overlap in what bias and assumptions/premises are, I think that bias comes more from a place of inflexibility whereas assumptions and premises are how we try to understand something before we have deeply considered it. Encouraging students to actively engage with the text by analyzing and critiquing the assumptions of the author is a very important part of literacy, as determining why a piece was written and whether it is inherently true or based on false assumptions/untruths is core to our understanding of literature. This is especially important as we move towards integrating things like media literacy into the classroom and students are forced to engage in inherently biased media or media that is based on faulty premises.

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I believe that the experience of different cultures is important for developing students that are literate. Having students read the same types of literature from the same culture will breed a degree of complacency and inflexibility in knowledge and understanding of texts. Encouraging students to be able to interact with different texts from different cultures will not only improve learning but expand critical thought for the student by forcing them to think about the different cultures that they are reading about and how they are different. This will lead to a more developed and well-rounded knowledge with literacy, competency, and a more developed understanding of their culture and other cultures.

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How does one demonstrate independence?

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How is it even possible to critique without comprehending?

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How important are the experiences of "widely divergent cultures" to being literate?  How actively must students "vicariously inhabit worlds...much different than their own?  How does this kind of understanding change the nature of knowledge?

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Is it harder to integrate what you learn from online sources with offline sources than to meld different sources of the same type?  How are they different?

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What does it mean to have (or develop) a "base of knowledge" to be "proficient in new areas through research and study?"   How much of this is about the wisdom of recognizing where you have gaps in your knowledge/understanding?

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The text mentions "the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline" when communicating ideas.  How important are these considerations?  How can we make them clear to our students?

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The text says "read purposefully" and "listen attentively."  What do the adverbs in those phrases mean?

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Is there a difference between bias and what the text calls "underlying assumptions and premises?"  How important is it to identify or question underlying assumptions?