Critical Encounters Ch. 3

This chapter was somewhat eye opening for me to read. I have always been taught to use reader response, with out knowing it was reader response, but at the same time not let my ideas get too far off what the teacher's ideas were. That just wasn't allowed. We were often times told we were wrong if we interpreted a story a certain way. This chapter, however was good at showing the pros and cons to the theory and the shift in the classroom environment. The examples that Appleman uses are on page 27, with the five paragraph essays turning into reading logs, the desks lined in columns switching to the desks forming a circle, etc. I also agree with Appleman when she talks about emphasizing to the students that reader response is just one technique out of many literary theories. A question that arose from this chapter was which technique is better to use in the classroom, Doing one literary theory at a time, or incorporating many theories at the same time, like the teachers did in the examples form the chapter?

Critical Encounters Ch. 2

I really enjoyed reading this chapter. I thought it was really easy to follow, and convenient how Appleman put in the four different teachers, their styles and stories about what they were doing in the classroom. i also like how they were spread across the spectrum of age, and classroom set-up. However, i felt like the teachers didn't talk too much about the theories to their students. Yes, they talked about the different perspectives and voice, and tone and whatnot, but they didn't really say why they were doing these activities, or what they wanted to students to get from them. I had this same experience in my high school. We did a lot of really, fun entertaining activities, but i never really got the overall, "big" picture of why we were told to do certain things. That was one thing that frustrates me. However, my favorite part of reader response theory is the idea of taking on a different perspective and looking at a text through a whole new window. I agree with Appleman when he says that " applying theory should be neither mandatory nor automatic.". Overall I felt like i could really connect with both the students, becuase i did a lot of what they did, and the teachers in each instance.

Critical Encounters Ch. 1

When i started reading this chapter, i felt like i was in the middle of a book. It didn't start out as a Chapter one normally does, but it was kind of a nice change. I do like the quotes at the beginning of the chapter though, and that seemed like a nice way to get the reader interested. I agree with Appleman when he talks about how adolescence have to deal with a lot in their lives and just how they manage to lead productive lives. I think that this also has a lot to do with why literary theories may be put somewhat on the back burner. As we just read in Wilhelm, it is hard enough to get kids to read the books, let alone deal with literary theories. However, i think he is correct is saying that literary theories keep us understanding we are not alone as learners and readers and that they can also a good way to interpret different cultures. Which then leads me to question how the "canon" is becoming loose, and ever changing. From my own experience in high school, the canon has been the same for years, and we touched on this idea in class.

As far as the set up of the book, and chapter, i like how at the end it gave a brief idea of what each chapter is going to be about, and even thought i haven't gotten there yet, the chapters to come seem like they will be good with the examples from real classrooms.

You Gotta Be the Book-Ch 6

Wilhelm is a great example for the type of teacher i want to be, and the style of teaching i want to partake in. i want to be able to create a highly motivated learning environment and most of all, i want to learn things from my students. This is something that Wilhelm did through his research, but benefited him more than those students probably know. He not only got them to enjoy reading, on some level, he was able to make them into active, interested readers. Teachers have to be willing to refocus their agenda, like Wilhelm did to best reach his students. He went beyond the curriculum and introduced students to other works outside the "canon". Wilhelm makes a good point that we need to ask ourselves if we want to teach the texts, or if we want to reach students on a different level and make them engaged and make personal connections with texts that they can take with them through their lives. I think that this is a struggle teachers have with themselves, but also within their curriculum, school, and school district. I personally believe that as long as the reader can make a personal connection, on some level to the text and using any means possible, such as drama, art, etc. it is still giving them the opportunity to have an experience with that text. A few things i wish Wilhelm did were to not group his students so much when he talked about them. It would have been nice to hear what the engaged readers did with the drama and the visual arts way of approaching the text and if it helped them any father, or if they didn't get anything out it and just thought it was a waste of time.

You Gotta Be the Book-Ch. 5

As i ended my last blog i was talking about there being other ways of connecting with students, and using artwork was the highest one in my mind. There are many visual thinkers and it is easy for them to connect to things with images and using art as a crutch to understand a story better. I really enjoyed this chapter because it was easy to see from the actions these students took that art and visual stimulation would be most beneficial to them. I also love the idea of SRI's because students can be as creative or as literal as they want, but still create something that will help them personally understand and connect with the text. I also like the fact that Wilhelm also made them illustrate their own books. I think this technique helped the students a lot because it was a different way of getting their point across to the audience and they took pride in their work, where they might not with a written or spoken response (in Kae's experience). A huge aspect of why these students never made the visual connection and being able to "enter the text" i think is becuase they were seldom read to as children and don't remember any picture books. It is these base actions that can set up their entire future and that can be really hard to break. Luckily Wilhelm was able to do that for these kids.

You Gotta be the Book- Ch. 4

I liked the fact that Wilhelm has switched his focus of students on to the less proficient readers. It is nice to see how these students have changed in their reading ability, and makes me feel more confident in myself as a teacher that there will be a way to help any student, no matter what the struggle is. I think that the most important part of using drama in the classroom for reading was to get the students into the story, and being able to "enter the text". Libby could only do that with stories she could relate to, and neither of the boys seemed to be able to visualize a secondary, imaginary world in their heads while reading a story. However, using the drama skills that Wilhelm came up with, it forced the students into thinking more outside the box of what the book was literally saying through the text. These activities helped the students enter the text, and therefore, they could move onto so many other dimensions from that point. Another good thing about using the drama was that the students weren't dependent on it. Once they got used to seeing how to relate to the story and use their personal experiences to make connections they didn't have to use drama to always do that, and then they could use a form of drama to go to another dimension of reading. These students who were so reluctant and unmotivated at the beginning became so willing and excited about reading by the end of the study that is amazes me, and i am sure amazed Wilhelm. I am also sure that there are other tactics out there for other kinds of students if the drama didn't work for them to become connected to the text and be able to relate and experience the story. It is just a matter of finding different ways to reach students and what they might be interested in.

You gotta be the Book-Ch. 3

When students are truly involved in a book, and are getting their own personal experience out of it, then it is very easy for them to experience all the ten dimensions of reading. The students can get lost in a second world, and let that world take over. They take a perspective, they fill in missing gaps, they create a landscape, they expand beyond just the written text of the story. It is very easy for engaged readers to do this to a full extent. However, it was nice to read that Wilhelm was learning, from his engaged readers, how to better help his less engaged readers to be able to reach these dimensions.
A few aspects i am a little confused about in this chapter are when Wilhelm is talking about the differences between boys and girls and how they put themselves in the story and originally get involved. Are his finding really true about the differences between the two genders, and if so, why doesn't he go into more detail about those differences. I guess those are just a few issues i am having a hard time getting my mind around.
I was happy to see that at the end of the chapter Wilhelm is learning possibly more than his students. He is taking away a lot from this study, and i hope to be able to learn more from my students than they can learn from me. it is the only way to grow as a teacher. It was refreshing to see that he has come up with new ideas about what to do for the less engaged readers with role-play and the visual arts which he will talk about in the coming chapters. I would really like to read more about how he engages and gets those less interested students involved.

You Gotta Be the Book-Ch 2

This chapter was easier to read than the first one because i wasn't dealing with a lot of the same questions as Wilhelm was in the first chapter. However, i am still on the same page as him when it comes to a lot of his ideas about literature and teaching literature in the classroom. For instance, when he is talking about valid reading. I too believe that reading can lead to self-discovery, but only if the reader can understand what the author's intent for the story is. Some of his students gave metaphors for reading, and Wilhelm said that they fit with what Rosenblatt says about literary transaction. If students can learn to read for enjoyment, but also understand what the author is trying to get across to the readers, then that i what i take as valid reading. The readers should be able to make a personal connection, and experience the text but also not be mislead by the author's intent.
The biggest thing that Wilhelm says in this chapter that i wish to take with me into my classroom that the idea of winning three out of every five. It can be school days, students, lessons, etc. but as long as you can get three out of five, you will go somewhere. I think this is a good notion to have in the classroom because you can't reach all your students in the manor that you may wish to throughout the year, but as long as you can reach the majority, you will make a difference.
Another topic that is covered in the chapter that whole-heartedly agree with is to get students interested in a whole variety of literature. However, i don't think that this should have only been noticed through his engaged readers. I think that it would have been more effective if Wilhelm had learned this lesson from those readers who struggle, and are disinterested.

You Gotta Be the Book-Ch. 1

Reading this chapter was a very reassuring task for me because i finally felt like i wasn't alone in a lot of my thoughts on reading. I struggle with a lot of the same questions that Wilhelm does and agree with a lot of what he says when he talks about the struggles there are to get students interested in reading and having them obtain the ability to gain an aesthetic stance. I had a "bottoms up" approach when i was in school and that is all i have really witnessed in a school setting. The only time i have seen other people, or for myself, use an aesthetic stance is when people are reading for personal enjoyment. I feel it is in these moments that the reader is searching for meaning and understanding within the text. In the school settings, I have never experienced readers reading for their own personal meaning and understanding. They are all just searching for the best answers to pass the class.
As a teacher to be, I would just like to know the answers to these questions that i have personally struggled with and also that Wilhelm suggests. Rosenblatt suggests that the students have to explore on their own and interpret there own reactions to the text to make the reading more personally fulfilling to them. However, when I think about my past experiences of working on my own through a book, I would just get frustrated when i didn't understand something. So, i believe there needs to be some happy medium that allows the students to become comfortable enough to want to read the text but also to use the reader response and take an aesthetic stance to reading