Reading and Responding Refresher

by Mona Quinn

As educators who value reading, writing, and reflecting, not necessarily in that order, our lesson plans bulge with assignments and projects that we hope will help students connect with literature. Journal entries, graphic organizers, character scrapbooks, illustrations and explanations, power point demonstrations, book reviews, related research, etc., etc., are a part of our repertoire. Some teachers utilize these methods in order to aid comprehension, but also to introduce the ideas and themes they wish to emphasize, to help assess what is learned, to guide students in making real world connections, and to provide a way for them to personally identify with the text. Certainly no one would argue that this is not best practice. But, I wonder if the most valuable activity we can employ to reach our instructional goals is simply allowing students to write about their reading. Various strategies to accomplish this task have been endorsed by a number of practitioners.

Nancie Atwell promotes the use of dialogue writing as a method of communicating with her students about their reading. By posing initial questions, she encourages her students to respond in writing after they read. Then, she writes back, responding and asking questions to invite a deeper reading and comprehension. In this way, she can nudge each student into reflecting on his or her writing, thinking and reading. Each student is met where he or she is, and the instruction is tailored for the individual student, rather than for the entire class. Technology has helped replace the bulky spiral notebook journals with emails, web pages, and blogs which can help make the dialogue more convenient and time efficient.

Kathleen Andrasick explores the connections students make by writing “next to texts” dialogue journals that allow students to choose a specific piece of the reading that resonates and then write a reaction (45). Andrasick reminds teachers that this process will inform them about students’ interaction with a text rather than their comprehension of the content. Using this method, students create their own meanings. Andrasick further endorses the practice of response journals using free writing. Students, rather than teachers, choose the topics of their free writes. Both of these methods of response are less linear than teacher posed questions, and the teacher must be willing to allow students to generate their own meanings.

Allowing students to write about their reading frees both the teacher and the student. The assessment of student learning becomes individual and authentic, and students become critical inquirers responsible for their own learning. Guided by rich textural resources, both teacher and student become collaborators in the integration of reading, writing and responding. The teacher then serves as a facilitator of learning instead of a dictator of ideas. Of course, all of these methods have upsides and downsides. Time commitment in class and outside of class is a huge consideration for teachers; grading poses potential problems; and inspiring reluctant readers to take charge of their own learning is a daunting task. However, there are always substantive and creative ways of approaching these challenges as a means to a very worthwhile teaching practice. In fact both Atwell and Andrasick address and offer solutions to some of these concerns. In the end, each teacher, once schooled in and convinced of the process, must tailor the methods to his or her own comfort zone.

References

Andrasick, Kathleen Dudden. (1990).

Opening texts: Using writing to teach literature. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Atwell, Nancie. (1998).

In the middle. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Mona Quinn

Mona Quinn is a former secondary English teacher who is also a certified Faculty Mentor Trainer, as well as a calibrated Indiana Mentoring and Assessment Program (IMAP) portfolio scorer through the Indiana Department of Education Division of Professional Standards.

This featured article appeared in Volume 2, Number 1 issue of the Write Connections quarterly newsletter. View other archived newsletters , a topical organization of all newsletters, or sign-up to receive notification when the next newsletters are ready to download.