Chapter 2

I was very interested in the differences between the top-down and bottom-up processing theories. The bottom-up seemed to focus on starting small and working towards more complex ideas and thoughts. I tend to see a great deal of bottom-up processing in my kindergarten classroom. I found the feature analysis theory very interesting as well. This was a direct correlation to the bottom-up way of thinking because my students have a tendency to learn letters by looking at each part of the letter. For me, the top-down processing seemed to look at the big picture and work down into smaller components. My students who are ready to read seem to use more of this processing. They are looking for big clues to help them with their questions.
I connected both of these processes to the many different theories that I use in my classroom. I use more than one theory in hopes to provide successful education to my students. These processes are both needed for information acquisition. They may be used at the same or different times in the students' learning. The author validates her point of feature analysis by illustrating the chart on page forty. Looking at the chart, it was easy to see why some of my students have a difficult time identifying letters if they don't connect them to a sound. The audio-visual connection was also made in chapter two. The author stresses that using auditory and visual cues provide more learning opportunities for the students.
One part of the chapter that I found amazing was the part on blindness. Whether the blindness be "change" or "inattentional," I am sure that I fall under one of these categories quite often. In a busy world, where we are constantly multitasking, I am sure that I am missing a vast amount of details. I will have to start trying to notice more.