Picturing Reading as a Process

Laurence Musgrove

Associate Professor of EnglishDepartment of English and Foreign Languages

Saint Xavier University, Chicago

Picturing Reading as a Process

Purpose

To reflect on the ways we picture reading literature for ourselves and our students, and how we might provide students a more productive and

responsible way to envision reading and responding to literature as a process.

Identifying Problems

List the most common problems your students have in reading and

responding to literature

Identifying Problems

•Reading comprehension.

•Student resistance to reading and responding to literature.

• Blaming texts for reading difficulties.

• First impressions or undeveloped responses.

• Looking for the one right answer.

• Confused about the best way to respond.

• Waiting to someone else to decide what a text means.

Picturing Reading for Yourself

Draw a picture of what happens

when you read literature

Picturing Reading for Yourself

Explain in writing how that picture depicts

what happens when you read literature

Picturing Reading for Your Students

Draw a picture of how you would depict

reading literature for your students

Picturing Reading for Your Students

Explain in writing how that picture depicts

reading literaturefor your students

How Students Might Picture Reading

How would you imagine students picture what happens

when they read literature?

How Students Might Picture Reading

Samples of Student Drawings and Explanations

With the exception of the newspaper, this drawing accurately represents my attitude and habits of reading. I have whatever assignment out and ready to be read. But, I’ll find any excuse not to read. My picture shows me asleep on my bed at 2:30am with the TV only showing fuzz and the book I was supposed to read sitting on top of it. I generally don’t read, but pay extra attention in class, when I feel the assigned reading will be unenjoyable.

I love reading and enjoy the places that books can take me. I feel free and feel that I can become anything or anyone.

My drawing represents my brain, and knowledge expanding. Reading helps by showing how things are supposed to sound and be written, also it gives you a good perspective on difference issues, no matter [what] they are. Reading helps the brain and you become more social, smarter, and objective.

No matter what the reading material is, I like to place myself within the book. I try to feel what the characters are feeling. My drawing depicts how I place myself in the book, by diving in. The book must be something of interest in order for me to engage in it fully.

A Proposal: Graphic Support

Picturing reading as a process can offer students a better approach, because they will be reminded visually of four things:

 1. What they contribute to the act of reading

2. What the world of the text has to offer 3. What types of response are possible4. What they can do to make sure they have

responded as thoughtfully as possible 

Picturing Reading as a Process

RESPONSE

READER TEXT

REVIEW

Picturing Reading as a Process

READER

The Reader

AttitudesKnowledgeExperience

Reader Attitudes toward the World

+

Hope

-

Despair

Courage Fear

Honesty Dishonesty

Humility Arrogance

Open-mindedness

Narrow-mindedness

Persistence Procrastination

Reader Knowledge of the World

Reader Experience in the World

Influence of Cultural Perspectives

GenderRaceReligionNationalityAgePoliticsEconomic classRelationships

The Reader

AttitudesKnowledgeExperience

My Papa’s Waltz

Picturing Reading as a Process

TEXT

What the World of the Text Offers

Form

Reader

Topic

Author

Focusing on the Author

• What can we learn about the author’s life?

• What is the author’s purpose?

• What relationship exists between the world of author and the events in text?

• How is the author’s life and art shaped by history?

• How is the author’s life and art shaped by specific cultural influences?

• Are there other authors who have influenced this author?

Focusing on the Topic

• What topics does the author address?

• Has the author written other texts about these topics?

• Why has the author chosen these topics?

• What other authors have addressed the same topics?

• Which of these topics are most interesting to us?

 

Focusing on the Form

• How has the author used narrative or poetic form?

• How has the author used form to fulfill his or her intentions?

• Has the author used this form in other texts?

• What other authors have used this same form?

• Who is the narrator and why has the author chosen this perspective?

 

Focusing on the Reader

• Who might be the intended reader?

• How are we different from the intended reader?

• To what degree can we identify with or become the intended reader?

• How might readers respond differently?

• How has the author attempted to meet or thwart what readers generally expect from this kind of text?

 

What the World of the Text Offers

Form

Reader

Topic

Author

The Eclipse

Picturing Reading as a Process

RESPONSE

What Kinds of Responses are Possible

PersonalBiographical

FormalReaderTopical

InterpretiveCreativeEthical

Personal Response

When we focus on how the literary experiences remind us of people we know or experiences we’ve had, we respond in a personal way.

Biographical Response

When we focus on the life of the author, we respond biographically to literature.

Formal Response

When we focus on how the literary experiences are crafted, shaped, and presented, we respond formally.

Reader Response

When we imagine the reader the author might have been writing the story, poem, or drama for, we create a reader response.

When we imagine how readers might respond differently to the same text, we are also involved in reader response criticism.

Topical Response

When we focus on the topics or subject matter in literature, we respond topically.

Interpretive Response

When we imagine what the author intended us to believe or feel about the topics in the text, we generate interpretive responses.

Creative Response

When we imagine ourselves as authors and use another author’s language, style, or forms to create our own story, poem, or play, we are responding creatively to literature.

Ethical Response

When we imagine the value of the literary work to potential readers, we respond ethically to literature.

What Kinds of Responses are Possible

PersonalBiographical

FormalReaderTopical

InterpretiveCreativeEthical

Art

Picturing Reading as a Process

REVIEW

How Readers Review their Responses

Checking Other Resources

Checking with Ourselves

Checking with the Text

Checking with Others

Checking Other Resources

What information in resourcessuch as dictionaries, the internet,

and critical texts can help usdevelop a fuller understanding

and response?

Checking with Ourselves

How have our attitudes, knowledge,

and experiences played a role

in shaping our response?

Checking with the Text

What evidence in the textsupports or conflicts with our response?

Checking with Others

How do other readers agree, disagree,

modify, or enlarge ourresponse to the text?

How Readers Review their Responses

Checking Other Resources

Checking with Ourselves

Checking with the Text

Checking with Others

My Papa’s Waltz

Picturing Reading as a Process

RESPONSE

READER TEXT

REVIEW

The Results

Changing AttitudesChanging KnowledgeChanging Experience

The Character of the Reader

YOU ARE UNABLE TO READ UP TO A STANDARD GREATER THAN THE STANDARD OF YOURSELF. YOU MAY FEEL A GOOD DEAL OF GUSTO ABOUT A GREAT POEM, BUT THAT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE WORTHY OF IT. YOU JUST CANNOT FEEL THAT GUSTO IF YOU’RE NOT WORTHY. SO, IF YOU REALLY DO FEEL THAT A CERTAIN POEM IS THAT GOOD, YOU ARE JUST ABOUT THERE YOURSELF. I MEAN, YOU’RE THAT KIND OF PERSON.

“FINDING WHAT THE WORLD IS TRYING TO BE,’ WILLIAM STAFFORD

Teaching Strategies

1. Collect student pictures of reading to evaluate attitudes toward and conceptions of reading literature

2. Explore various analogies for reading

3. Discuss readers’ responsibilities when reading and responding to literature

4. Demonstrate “Picturing Reading as a Process” Model