(Re) Introducing Reader Response

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us. -- Franz Kafka

Reader response theory is one of the most popular approaches to literature in the classroom setting. In her seminal work, "Literature as Exploration," Rosenblatt describes and delineates the origins and philosophy of reader response criticism. She describes how a reader’s interaction with text is “never to be duplicated”; it is always individualized in its potency. The rest of today's texts continue Rosenblatt's work -- they build on her philosophies while offering current methodology and rational for the most useful applications of RR in today's literary classroom.

In the "Lens of RR (ch. 3)", the author gives insightful discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of RR.  "Lens" argues that RR must be taught both “explicitly” and as “one of a variety of theoretical approaches” in order to cement its place as a entry point into higher-level analysis. The writer references Rosenblatt’s ideas and theories to discuss the positive and powerful ways students can use reader-response to make analytical textual meaning. Two detailed examples are given from the real world of the classroom novel: Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound and Native Son. The author explores student responses to both texts to demonstrate the power of explicit reader response teaching pedagogy as well as some of the inherent difficulties in this approach

Styslinger and Eberlin's "Responsive Reading Using Edmodo,"offers a practical, useful conversation about how to best incorporate reader response approaches to 21^st century one-to-one technologies.  They discuss and describe student reactions to the use of Edmodo and find interesting questions for further study.

In her article, "Dimensions of Failure in Reader Response," Henneberg stands out as unashamedly facing the difficult work of engaging “alternative” adolescents in the reading of classroom texts. She uses her 17 years in the English classroom to unpack some very real situations that face English teachers, and discusses how a professional development seminar by Sheridan Blau gave her tools necessary to equip her students. I especially liked this list of “prerequisites” Blau argues students must have “before they can successfully participate in reader response activities”:

1. Capacity for sustained focused attention.

2. Willingness to suspend closure-to entertain problems rather than avoid them.

3. Willingness to take risks-to predict and be wrong, to respond honestly, to offer variant readings.

4. Tolerance for failure: willingness to re-read and re-read again.

5. Tolerance for ambiguity paradox, and uncertainty.

6. Intellectual generosity and ego-permeability: willingness to change mind, to appreciate alternative visions, and to engage in methodological believing as well as doubting.

(Sheridan Blau, 1994, "Literary Competence and the Ways of Knowing: A Theory for Practice in the Teaching of Literature.” Unpublished manuscript.)

The article ends by offering fantastic, pragmatic ways to incorporate reader response into the alternative classroom.

"Critical Literacy as Comprehension: Expanding Reader Response" by Maureen McLaughlin argues that students need to learn to read critically. McLaughlin describes that "the goal is for readers to become text critics in everyday life—to comprehend information sources from a critical stance as naturally as they comprehend from the aesthetic and efferent stances.” She has very purposeful, specific examples of critical literacy, and includes several reading lists of books that evoke critical literacy responses.

"Do"
Here is a great reading lesson I did using the Say Something reading strategy handout!

One of the ways I'd like to weave reader-response into my classroom is through multimedia and artistry. A fantastic app (or website) for this approach might be storybird.com. Storybird.com allows my students to match their writing to illustrations. They can also take a poem and select art and illustrations with which to align each line or stanza. The website is easy to use and offers thousands of high quality illustrations, searchable by key word. Here are some examples of poetry set to images; here are some examples of stories set to illustrations. The beauty of a website like storybird is that it allows students to have very individualized, specific responses to literature and poetry. It also allows for creativity and the creation of texts. Storybird.com is a creative way to utilize reader response theory in the secondary classroom!