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.