YGBB Part 1

     Wilhelm's discussion of New Criticism versus reader-response in the classroom really made me aware of my own education in middle and high school. There are only two classes I can remember, Honors 10th and 11th grade English, that I utilized the reader-response method as a learner. As I read Wilhelm's words, I realized for the first time that a majority of my education of literature was searching for the right answer in a novel and plugging it into a fill-in-the-blank on a worksheet. It is appalling to me that I was instructed in this manner, and that there are still teachers today using the New Critical approach in their classroom! I will most definitely not be that kind of teacher. As I think back to my 10th and 11th grade classes where we practiced reader-response, I remember forming our own interpretations, writing responses and feelings based on those interpretations (rather than answers to questions or prompts), choosing our own version of projects that correlated with the texts, and discussing the texts in both small and large groups. I had the most positive literary experiences in these two years, and also retained the most information. A student does not need to be overwhelmed with information or specifics about a text, and then told to memorize it, in order to take something away from a class.
     I understand that I will have students showing up to my class on day one with a negative attitude toward reading. That is the ugly truth of being an English teacher, one reinforced constantly by Wilhelm. However while reading YGBB, I thought of a strategy to break the ice a bit. During the first week of school, I can assign my students an interesting and fun book chapter or excerpt to read in class one day. I will then collect the text without saying a word. I will give them no worksheets or questions that go with the reading. Just reading for reading's sake. (I'm sure they will think this is odd.) The next day, when they come into class, I can ask them to write a paragraph or two in response to the previous day's text. I will remind them that the response should be based on such things as how the text made them feel and what they thought about the choices each character made. It does not have to include any specifics or "right" information about the text. I would do this exercise once or twice a week for the next couple of weeks to break my students of their efferent reading habit. Hopefully it will allow them to enjoy reading and really absorb the text. Also, having them read one day and write the response the next takes the pressure away of "just looking for things to write about in the text," as they had done in previous classes.
     A question came to me as I was reading about Wilhelm's reader-response approach in his classroom. He states: "It became clear to me that the general strategies used by many students to read a textbook in the efferent stance were not sufficient to achieving an aesthetic reading with literature" (31). Students utilize the efferent stance with textbooks in almost every other class of the day. They search for methods to solve problems and the correct answers in both math and science, and the correct people, places, and dates in their history textbooks. So how then can we as English teachers expect them to just shift into the aesthetic stance when they step foot in our classrooms? This is a difficult transition. I guess my real question is, What strategies and assistance can we provide in the English classroom to smoothly transition from "looking for the answers" to "creating one's own meaning"?

My Literacy Profile

I would describe my literary "style" as classic. I love old classic novels as well as the modern and contemporary classics. The Great Gatsby is my absolute favorite book. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is my second. This book has been deemed a modern classic for its coming-of-age theme. Also Smith's writing is brilliant and creative in my opinion. I am a fan of the novels I will most likely be teaching, such as To Kill A Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, and The House on Mango Street. Sometimes over the summer when I need a quick and easy read, I read books set up in the same vignette style as The House on Mango Street. They are a nice break from all the reading I do during the semester. My favorite poet is Tennyson, and I especially enjoy his love poetry; it's beautiful! The most recent book I've read was Salman Rushdie's Luna and the Fire of Life, which was unexpected and fantastic. I finished it at the end of break, of course. I always wish that I had more time to read new bestsellers during the semester, but its so hard! I have loved reading ever since I was old enough to hold a book. I hope that I can inspire my students to read and write through the use of classic and contemporary classic novels every single day.