Erin's+How+Do+We+Read,+Interpret+and+Respond+to+Text?

"If Anything is Odd, Inappropriate, Confusing, or Boring, It's Probably Important" is now my personal motto. The case study by Lesley Rex on David McEachen was a pleasure to read. It also got me thinking about how smart it is to use the students' biases against them. This motto does not allow the students to opt out due to boredom, offense or any other reason. I loved that the moment their adolescent minds (and mine too) are just about to give themselves permission to check out and take off he reels us back in. "In seeking excuses to avoid the hard work of figuring out meaning...the mind dismisses troubling passages...shifting the burden of responsibility to the text, and thus releasing the reader from the responsibilities of readership" (Rex 78). Lazy readers, beware! It is just when the material seems the furtherest from reach that we must redouble our efforts to shape meaning from its weirdness. The "Odd" article fit in nicely with the week's theme of "How do we read, interpret and respond to texts?" David's classroom showed me first hand, modeled if you will, how as a teacher, a literate thinker and meaning-maker, I must show the students how to become an active participant in their own education. "Teachers handed over the frames of understanding for action and students took up and acted within those frames" (Rex 72). The word "modeled" appeared again and again throughout this week's readings and serves as a call to action in my own classroom. Am I showing the students what it looks like, and how powerful it can be, to be active in creating their own knowledge within the context of my English Literature classroom? Lex's study melded beautifully with the chapter on "Fostering Adolescents' Engaged Academic Literacy." David's classroom of active knowledge-makers and the two classrooms discussed in the chapter were on the same page, so to speak. The teachers in all three classrooms had some very striking similarities. They all valued questions. They all acted as cheerleader, role model and participant. The students were shown how the process of learning and interpretation worked; then they were handed the reigns. The separate readings came together to explain and exemplify how "dispositions for engagement in academic tasks," (Fostering 98) once developed, can serve to build ownership, to excite young minds towards further investigation, and to help students to see themselves as ready to broaden their understanding and own the academic content. The courage and growth of David's students, the ardor of Eduardo towards introductory Chemistry, and the ability of Gayle's honors History class to make meaning from the Articles of the Constitution are compelling, instructive, and a loud call to action for me. Am I offering my students relevant texts that they must understand in order create meaning and to make a difference in their real-world lives?

Works Cited:

Rex, Lesley A., and David McEachen. "If Anything Is Odd, Inappropriate, Confusing, or Boring, It's Probably Important": The Emergence of Inclusive academic Literacy through English Classroom Discussion Practices. //Research in the Teaching of English// 34 (August 1999):65 - 129.

Schoenback, R & Greenleaf, C. Fostering Adolescents Engaged Academic Literacy; In L. Christenbury, R.Bomer, & P.Smagorinsky. //Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research//. (pp. 98 - 102). New York; Guilford Press, 2009.