0 • Think Linking

introduction to the Think Linking course

The more you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you’ll go.
Theodor Seuss Geisel [Dr. Seuss], I can Read With My Eyes Shut!, 1979

This is a course on reading and listening comprehension—learning how to understand better. More specifically, comprehension strategies through interactive stories. And the more you know, the more places you go.

Goals

For the learner to have the opportunity to . . .

Identify comprehension as a skill that can be learned
Assess a variety of linked-story formats (e.g., an iQuiz)
Develop comprehension strategies (e.g., decrease distraction)
Read and construct a variety of interactive stories
Construct questions that are classified as higher level

Introduction

You can never step into the same river twice.

You can’t step into the same river twice since the water keeps flowing. So said Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher, about 2500 years ago.

In other words, we are the same, but the river has changed. It is always moving on. Next time you step in, it’s different water, different river.

You can never read the same book twice.

In comprehension, the reader (or listener) is always changing, the story remains the same.

But there is really no way of considering a book independently of one’s special sensations in reading it on a particular occasion. In this as in everything else one must allow for a certain relativity. In a sense, one can never read the book that the author originally wrote, and one can never read the same book twice.
Edmund Wilson, forward to The Triple Thinkers, 1952

We change as we acquire understanding of words and ideas and as we bring more life experience to the story.

This course is about the way we understand script and strategic inferences we make from within the text and from our life experiences.
It is a course about developing reading and listening strategies through interactive stories.

The modules that follow use a variety of linked (hypertext) stories. We will use hypertext to read, listen to, and create stories.

For instance, taking an iQuiz is an exercise in finding meaning and making inferences about a passage provided.
Making a quiz adds personal investment and ownership in the process of helping others find meaning and make inferences.

Materials

To read interactive text you will need a web browser. You are probably reading this on a web browser now.
To construct interactive text you will need a plain text editor, such as BBEdit (Mac OS) or Notepad++ (Windows). Don’t use a word processor (e.g. Pages or Word). It may add unwanted formatting.