Chapter two is an introduction into the use of multiple perspectives in the classroom. Appleman includes four vignettes as examples.
“My Papa's Waltz” is a great example of teaching through induction. Instead of explaining how poems can be read in different ways, the teacher invited a student to interpret a poem and then read it aloud with that interpretation in mind. The teacher then asked if everyone agreed with that interpretation. When someone disagreed, he asked that student to explain his interpretation and then read the poem aloud using that frame of reference. The class was astounded by the difference in the readings (and perhaps a little uncomfortable). One student wants to know “which is one is right?” (13). This, of course, is what the teacher was hoping would be asked. There is not just one way to read a text. It is possible for two readings to be correct.
The “Little Miss Muffet” vignette was more straight forward. The teacher introduced the idea that the same story could be told from more than one point of view. First he read an essay about the story of Little Miss Muffet from other people's perspectives. He then had the students do the same exercise with famous nursery rhymes. Although the class had fun with it, at least one student failed to see the point of the exercise (15). Appleman describes the teacher's explanation to the class. I am curious if the students found use in this and if they employed this method of analyzing text in other English classes. Was this a one time exercise or a completely new way of looking at literature for them?
Although this chapter gets us towards discovering the use of employing multiple perspectives when analyzing text, I feel a little pulled along, almost as if I am her student and she is using an inductive teaching technique to encourage me to discover the truth on my own. In fact, her approach for convincing me of the value of literary theory in the classroom is akin to how she wants us to introduce it in the classroom: she wants time for theory to make a case for itself before it is fully exposed. I didn't find her tactic to be necessary. After all, she had me at “We live in complicated and dangerous times” (1).
Monday, October 1, 2007
Appleman, Chapter 1 - The Case for Critical Theory in the Classroom
Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents
Deborah Appleman
Appleman makes the case immediately for teaching theory in the classroom, and does so while tackling the naysayers head on. She recognizes the arguments people will have about the practicality of teaching theory when we're struggling to just get students into the classrooms in the first place. How can literary theory apply to the lives of students? Appleman argues that not only will literary theory give students the tools they need to respond analytically to the texts they read in school; it will also give them the tools they need to interpret the “text” of their own lives (2).
Through theory, students will learn new ways of seeing and this will allow them to interact with the world around them in different ways. I like that Appleman continually stresses that what we learn about the written text applies to the living text of the world in the same way. Literary theory gives us a new way to approach multiculturalism.
I found the discussion about New Criticism versus Reader Response theories to be interesting because I was taught with both methods at different times in my career without knowing the name of either. I didn't know that my teachers were applying a literary theory to their pedagogy. Perhaps they were not aware of that either. Truthfully, I liked both methods. I liked searching for the “hidden truth” in a difficult poem and I liked discovering the truth in me that was like the text I was reading. Looking back, it would have been nice to have been given some tools and a language to employ while analyzing and interpreting text.
Appleman concludes the chapter with a statement I'd like to keep clear in my mind as I go through this book: “The purpose of teaching literary theory at the secondary level is not to turn adolescents into critical theorists; rather, it is to encourage adolescents to inhabit theories comfortably enough to construct their own readings and to learn to appreciate the power of multiple perspectives” (9). Theory, then, becomes more than a tool to use or facts to memorize. Theory is a way of seeing or even a way of being.
Deborah Appleman
Appleman makes the case immediately for teaching theory in the classroom, and does so while tackling the naysayers head on. She recognizes the arguments people will have about the practicality of teaching theory when we're struggling to just get students into the classrooms in the first place. How can literary theory apply to the lives of students? Appleman argues that not only will literary theory give students the tools they need to respond analytically to the texts they read in school; it will also give them the tools they need to interpret the “text” of their own lives (2).
Through theory, students will learn new ways of seeing and this will allow them to interact with the world around them in different ways. I like that Appleman continually stresses that what we learn about the written text applies to the living text of the world in the same way. Literary theory gives us a new way to approach multiculturalism.
I found the discussion about New Criticism versus Reader Response theories to be interesting because I was taught with both methods at different times in my career without knowing the name of either. I didn't know that my teachers were applying a literary theory to their pedagogy. Perhaps they were not aware of that either. Truthfully, I liked both methods. I liked searching for the “hidden truth” in a difficult poem and I liked discovering the truth in me that was like the text I was reading. Looking back, it would have been nice to have been given some tools and a language to employ while analyzing and interpreting text.
Appleman concludes the chapter with a statement I'd like to keep clear in my mind as I go through this book: “The purpose of teaching literary theory at the secondary level is not to turn adolescents into critical theorists; rather, it is to encourage adolescents to inhabit theories comfortably enough to construct their own readings and to learn to appreciate the power of multiple perspectives” (9). Theory, then, becomes more than a tool to use or facts to memorize. Theory is a way of seeing or even a way of being.
Wilhelm, Chapter 6 - Expanding Concepts of Reading, Response, and Literature
I can feel Wilhelm's passionate distaste for standardized testing as if the pages of the book itself were red-hot. Although this is not the focus of the chapter, but a jumping off point, I feel it bears some discussion.
Too many teachers sadly shake their head when it comes to standardized testing, but do nothing about it. We need to change the way our country feels about this subject. We've let it go too far already. If we allow standardized testing to determine the funding we receive and to be used as a measure of our success as teachers, then we are agreeing that government officials far removed from education know better than we do how to assess our own students. We need to take this power out of outsiders' hands. This begins by doing our own classroom research. We need to show firsthand proof of the methods that work in our classroom and we need to demonstrate our students' growth and improvement.
A few words on literacy, then. Literacy is more than the ability to read words and make sense of them. Literacy is the ability to interact with text – to have a conversation with it. A good reader is transformed by a good book in some way. Wilhelm takes this idea one step further even and shows that literacy is an interaction with text and an application of that text to the world around us. A successful reader, then, is one who is transformed by a text and then transforms her world as a result. The world should look different after reading a good book; more importantly, it should be different.
Too many teachers sadly shake their head when it comes to standardized testing, but do nothing about it. We need to change the way our country feels about this subject. We've let it go too far already. If we allow standardized testing to determine the funding we receive and to be used as a measure of our success as teachers, then we are agreeing that government officials far removed from education know better than we do how to assess our own students. We need to take this power out of outsiders' hands. This begins by doing our own classroom research. We need to show firsthand proof of the methods that work in our classroom and we need to demonstrate our students' growth and improvement.
A few words on literacy, then. Literacy is more than the ability to read words and make sense of them. Literacy is the ability to interact with text – to have a conversation with it. A good reader is transformed by a good book in some way. Wilhelm takes this idea one step further even and shows that literacy is an interaction with text and an application of that text to the world around us. A successful reader, then, is one who is transformed by a text and then transforms her world as a result. The world should look different after reading a good book; more importantly, it should be different.
Wilhelm, Chapter 5 - Reading Is Seeing
I love the depths of teaching difficulties Wilhelm explores in this book. It would seem that drama would be the cure all to fix all who students who can't read, but no. What about those students who don't want to or can't (?) participate in drama exercises? Can we reach these students as well?
This chapter explores the importance of visualization in the reading process. Successful readers visualize automatically as they are reading. Some students only see words as a series of letters to decode. And yet, these students enjoy reading comic books. They are able to interact with these stories in the way you would expect a successful reader to interact with any piece of literature. The pictures, as visual representations of the text, allow them to enter the world they were reading.
I'd like to stress how important it is here that we begin to redefine what exactly is text. These are the sorts of stories the media and politicians running for office like to seize upon when they talk about the need for education reform. See how education has fallen to the lowest denominator? As educators, we need to be able to defend our positions and our methodologies. In this case, visualization is a gateway to the world of reading, but it is not the end of the road for these students. Once students learn to respond to text via visualization, they learn to use the same practices in their heads as they read.
Wilhelm shows that visualization is a great technique for students of all ability levels because it allows them to respond in very natural ways and then share their responses with each other (138). These responses are very individual and always creative. It allows students to respond without worry of censure or “doing it wrong.”
Finally, as a proponent of teaching to the multiple intelligences, I welcome visualization as another way students can respond to text. I always allow multiple options for unit projects. I feel that one-size-fits-all assessments are not fair to all students because they don't allow students to display their knowledge in the way they are best suited.
This chapter explores the importance of visualization in the reading process. Successful readers visualize automatically as they are reading. Some students only see words as a series of letters to decode. And yet, these students enjoy reading comic books. They are able to interact with these stories in the way you would expect a successful reader to interact with any piece of literature. The pictures, as visual representations of the text, allow them to enter the world they were reading.
I'd like to stress how important it is here that we begin to redefine what exactly is text. These are the sorts of stories the media and politicians running for office like to seize upon when they talk about the need for education reform. See how education has fallen to the lowest denominator? As educators, we need to be able to defend our positions and our methodologies. In this case, visualization is a gateway to the world of reading, but it is not the end of the road for these students. Once students learn to respond to text via visualization, they learn to use the same practices in their heads as they read.
Wilhelm shows that visualization is a great technique for students of all ability levels because it allows them to respond in very natural ways and then share their responses with each other (138). These responses are very individual and always creative. It allows students to respond without worry of censure or “doing it wrong.”
Finally, as a proponent of teaching to the multiple intelligences, I welcome visualization as another way students can respond to text. I always allow multiple options for unit projects. I feel that one-size-fits-all assessments are not fair to all students because they don't allow students to display their knowledge in the way they are best suited.
Wilhelm, Chapter 4 - Using Drama to Extend the Reader
By now, Wilhelm has shown us what good readers do when reading, but how do we bridge the gap between those who do it right and those who don't do it at all? How do we convince the disenfranchised, the jaded, those who have given up? If a reader needs to participate in a text in order to “get” the text, then teachers need to somehow open that world up those students who have lost their way.
Drama is a great bridge to most of those students because it does everything a reader is supposed to do: it creates an active interest in stories. Drama forces students to think differently about the reading process, converting them from recipients to participants. The three students Wilhelm uses as case studies, although of varying reading abilities, all had the same difficulty understanding that reading requires them to do more than just understand the words they are reading. Before drama, they got nothing more out of the stories they read than the words on the page.
Through the use of various drama techniques (see 100-101), Wilhelm was able to teach his students to put themselves into the shoes of characters in the stories they read. They learned empathy. This ability opened up new dimensions of reading, because they were no longer confined to a single plot line. They could examine scenes from every angle; they could guess what might happen next; they could imagine how the story would have been different under different circumstances; they could extrapolate what occurred in the spaces neglected by the author.
For me, the most important benefit of using drama to teach literature is Wilhelm's students learned to love literature. They would read for pleasure. It's also important to note that his students wanted to be able to respond to literature in their own terms. When Marvin read his first book by himself, he told his teacher “I liked it, and I don't want anybody to ask me any questions about it” (110).
Drama is a great bridge to most of those students because it does everything a reader is supposed to do: it creates an active interest in stories. Drama forces students to think differently about the reading process, converting them from recipients to participants. The three students Wilhelm uses as case studies, although of varying reading abilities, all had the same difficulty understanding that reading requires them to do more than just understand the words they are reading. Before drama, they got nothing more out of the stories they read than the words on the page.
Through the use of various drama techniques (see 100-101), Wilhelm was able to teach his students to put themselves into the shoes of characters in the stories they read. They learned empathy. This ability opened up new dimensions of reading, because they were no longer confined to a single plot line. They could examine scenes from every angle; they could guess what might happen next; they could imagine how the story would have been different under different circumstances; they could extrapolate what occurred in the spaces neglected by the author.
For me, the most important benefit of using drama to teach literature is Wilhelm's students learned to love literature. They would read for pleasure. It's also important to note that his students wanted to be able to respond to literature in their own terms. When Marvin read his first book by himself, he told his teacher “I liked it, and I don't want anybody to ask me any questions about it” (110).
Wilhelm, Chapter 3 - The Dimensions of Reader Response
This chapter is a great primer for the teacher as researcher. Wilhelm uses it as a sort of methodology chapter that leads into his discussion of his findings. As teacher researchers we can use this study as a basis of our own studies.
Teacher Journal – I have used and still use this method, although never as consistently as I should. Writing once a week is better than once a month; writing once a day is better than once a week; writing after every class period is the best we have time for; writing on the fly as something strikes us is the best of all. Journals are great to go back to if you are writing an article about your practices. If you have the time, journals also allow you to change your teaching practices as you go along.
Literary Letters – This practice can be useful if done properly. Students hate nothing more than activities that are a waste of time. Students need to understand upfront the relevance of writing letters to each other about what they just read.
Think-Aloud Protocols – The free response protocol asks students to respond to their reading when something strikes them. There is no specific question they are asking. This is a good practice to get students into as a reading practice. Cued response protocols force students to respond more specifically. This is a good way to get students to write and think more deeply. The two column protocol was designed specifically to make life easier on the researcher. I am not sure if students would get anything more from it than cued response or free response. Visual protocols allowed students to draw their response instead of writing about it. As we see in subsequent chapters, this allows students who have a hard time responding verbally to understand text on a deeper level.
Much of this chapter is devoted to discussing the ten dimensions of reader response that Wilhelm studies. If nothing else, this gives us ten things we should be looking for in our student readers. It also gives us a basis for our own classroom studies. We can look for these characteristics in our students and then figure out how to tweak our instruction to make up for their deficiencies. This chapter exists as “praxis” the place where theory and practice meet.
Teacher Journal – I have used and still use this method, although never as consistently as I should. Writing once a week is better than once a month; writing once a day is better than once a week; writing after every class period is the best we have time for; writing on the fly as something strikes us is the best of all. Journals are great to go back to if you are writing an article about your practices. If you have the time, journals also allow you to change your teaching practices as you go along.
Literary Letters – This practice can be useful if done properly. Students hate nothing more than activities that are a waste of time. Students need to understand upfront the relevance of writing letters to each other about what they just read.
Think-Aloud Protocols – The free response protocol asks students to respond to their reading when something strikes them. There is no specific question they are asking. This is a good practice to get students into as a reading practice. Cued response protocols force students to respond more specifically. This is a good way to get students to write and think more deeply. The two column protocol was designed specifically to make life easier on the researcher. I am not sure if students would get anything more from it than cued response or free response. Visual protocols allowed students to draw their response instead of writing about it. As we see in subsequent chapters, this allows students who have a hard time responding verbally to understand text on a deeper level.
Much of this chapter is devoted to discussing the ten dimensions of reader response that Wilhelm studies. If nothing else, this gives us ten things we should be looking for in our student readers. It also gives us a basis for our own classroom studies. We can look for these characteristics in our students and then figure out how to tweak our instruction to make up for their deficiencies. This chapter exists as “praxis” the place where theory and practice meet.
Wilhelm, Chapter 2 - Looking at Student Reading
We should take note of Wilhelm's discovery that even students who were avid readers did more of their real reading for pleasure at home – not at school or for homework. His students did not expect what was read for school to be engaging or fun. They also felt that what they were expected to find interesting or important about a text was usually not the same as what they found to be interesting or important on their own (26).
Whenever I come across this section on “What makes valid reading,” I misread it to mean what sorts of text are valid reading for students. I definitely have my opinions on this as well. At any rate, I think Rosenblatt's two characteristics are a good starting point: 1) an interpretation cannot be contradicted by the text, and 2) there needs to be textual evidence to support an opinion (27). If we are going to use a reader response pedagogy in our classrooms, then we need to begin with these assertions. Otherwise, our classrooms descend into that “we'll agree to disagree” mode which makes us all a little more than uncomfortable. It will be ok to have 20 different interpretations of the text in the classroom, so long as all 20 interpretations are supported and not contradicted by the text.
I like that Wilhelm begins by seeing what works for students who already enjoy reading. How do these students approach reading that differs from students who don't enjoy reading? Assuming they are receiving the same education, then there is something in their attitude about and how they approach reading that gives them a more enjoyable experience. The three case studies Wilhelm uses all share some common characteristics of good readers including a love of reading and the ability to articulate in a sophisticated way what they read (29-30). There were active, participatory readers. He did not choose these students based on overall academic ability. In fact, one of the students had difficulty in other classes (30).
Although these students didn't think of how they read in terms of reader response theory, the way they read shared much in common with the pedagogy we employ in our classrooms. First, they have a relationship with the author (31). This is a difficult skill to convince students to work on. In fact, the New Critics would frown on this practice. How can you establish a relationship with an author you have never met, who may even be dead? I see their texts as a living manifestation of their minds, however – and in this way, readers are really conversing with the author herself. Second, these students immersed themselves in the worlds of their texts (32). The imaginary wall separating reader from text disappears and they become one. I am immediately reminded of Harry Potter entering Tom Riddle's diary. This is an apt metaphor for what skilled readers do whenever they open a book.
I wonder if we can agree on even a question so simple as what is literature? At the very least, we as teachers have expanded what we consider to be acceptable reading by our students. I do like this definition: “any text that provides a particular reader with a deeply engaging aesthetic experience” (33). We should also be prepared to support texts such as graphic novels when we are called out for “dumbing down the curriculum.” However, it is also important to expand a reader's repertoire beyond the texts he enjoys walking into the classroom. That is part of our job as teachers.
Ultimately, we need to remember that one of our roles as educators is to help create well-rounded citizens who will help contribute to our world and perhaps even make it a better place. What this means to me may be somewhat different than what it meant to our 19th century government, but I maintain that good citizens know more than how to read and interpret texts. Good citizens will be able to employ what they've read in their outside worlds. It is the connection between text and real life that improves us. Good readers already know this – we need to teach the rest of our students the skills needed to make the same moves.
Whenever I come across this section on “What makes valid reading,” I misread it to mean what sorts of text are valid reading for students. I definitely have my opinions on this as well. At any rate, I think Rosenblatt's two characteristics are a good starting point: 1) an interpretation cannot be contradicted by the text, and 2) there needs to be textual evidence to support an opinion (27). If we are going to use a reader response pedagogy in our classrooms, then we need to begin with these assertions. Otherwise, our classrooms descend into that “we'll agree to disagree” mode which makes us all a little more than uncomfortable. It will be ok to have 20 different interpretations of the text in the classroom, so long as all 20 interpretations are supported and not contradicted by the text.
I like that Wilhelm begins by seeing what works for students who already enjoy reading. How do these students approach reading that differs from students who don't enjoy reading? Assuming they are receiving the same education, then there is something in their attitude about and how they approach reading that gives them a more enjoyable experience. The three case studies Wilhelm uses all share some common characteristics of good readers including a love of reading and the ability to articulate in a sophisticated way what they read (29-30). There were active, participatory readers. He did not choose these students based on overall academic ability. In fact, one of the students had difficulty in other classes (30).
Although these students didn't think of how they read in terms of reader response theory, the way they read shared much in common with the pedagogy we employ in our classrooms. First, they have a relationship with the author (31). This is a difficult skill to convince students to work on. In fact, the New Critics would frown on this practice. How can you establish a relationship with an author you have never met, who may even be dead? I see their texts as a living manifestation of their minds, however – and in this way, readers are really conversing with the author herself. Second, these students immersed themselves in the worlds of their texts (32). The imaginary wall separating reader from text disappears and they become one. I am immediately reminded of Harry Potter entering Tom Riddle's diary. This is an apt metaphor for what skilled readers do whenever they open a book.
I wonder if we can agree on even a question so simple as what is literature? At the very least, we as teachers have expanded what we consider to be acceptable reading by our students. I do like this definition: “any text that provides a particular reader with a deeply engaging aesthetic experience” (33). We should also be prepared to support texts such as graphic novels when we are called out for “dumbing down the curriculum.” However, it is also important to expand a reader's repertoire beyond the texts he enjoys walking into the classroom. That is part of our job as teachers.
Ultimately, we need to remember that one of our roles as educators is to help create well-rounded citizens who will help contribute to our world and perhaps even make it a better place. What this means to me may be somewhat different than what it meant to our 19th century government, but I maintain that good citizens know more than how to read and interpret texts. Good citizens will be able to employ what they've read in their outside worlds. It is the connection between text and real life that improves us. Good readers already know this – we need to teach the rest of our students the skills needed to make the same moves.
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