Reader Response In Secondary And College Classrooms

This text, based on Louise M. Rosenblatt's transactional model of literature, focuses on the application of transactional reader-response theory in the classroom. It grows from frequent requests from secondary school and college teachers for teaching suggestions on how to put theory into practice. This is not a "What should I do on Monday?" cookbook, but an expression of the practice of theory in college and secondary school classrooms. The chapters portray a spectrum of strategies--including biopoems, expressive and imaginative writing, journal writing, readers' theater, role playing, and unsent letters--using as examples individual works from several genres. Recognizing that teachers who may have been trained in other theories and methodologies may be hesitant about their quite different role and expectations in the reader-centered classroom, the authors provide stepping stones to develop readiness and confidence, suggestions, and insights to ease the transition to the transactional model of teaching and learning. Pedagogical features: * An explanatory introduction to each section defines its orientation and describes the content and direction of the chapters it contains. * Invitations elicit engagement of readers with concepts, attitudes, or strategies presented in the chapters; they invite readers, as individuals or members of a small group, to consider ideas or to practice a strategy, among other activities, in order to enhance understandings. * A glossary defines key concepts and strategies discussed in the text. * A bibliography provides an extensive list of resources--books and journal articles--both theoretical and applied. New in the second edition: * Six new chapters--three deal with the roles of film-as-literature in the English classroom, and three with enhancing multicultural understandings. * Updates and revisions to several chapters that appeared in the first edition. * Invitations, new in this edition, have been added to focus and expand readers' thinking.

This book offers teachers a convenient means of broadening their understanding of reader response theory and criticism and applying this theory to the teaching of literature in high school and college classrooms. The book is designed to arouse individual teachers' interest in reader response theory and encourage them to apply it to their teaching. The book covers the various branches of reader response theory, the key ideas of its many proponents, and the advantages and disadvantages of each branch of theory as perceived by critics. Individual chapters include: (1) Introduction; (2) Textual Theories of Response; (3) Experiential Theories of Response; (4) Psychological Theories of Response; (5) Social Theories of Response; (6) Cultural Theories of Response; and (7) Applying Theory to Practice: Making Decisions about Eliciting Response. (A glossary of key terms in reader response theory along with an extensive bibliography covering the many facets of the entire field are appended.) (HB).

From the Back Cover: Reader Response in the Classroom: Evoking and Interpreting Meaning in Literature explains and demonstrates how teachers can use a reader response approach to teaching literature. Strategies for implementing reader response pedagogy in the classroom are illustrated through essays that focus on the teaching of specific literary works. Many of the essays include classroom transcripts of the reader response method in action. This edited volume is arranged in four sections: Section 1 (The Transactional Theory of Literature) explains the theory of ready response-its significant features and applications; Section 2 (Initiating Readers' Responses) and Section 3 (Developing Readers' Responses) focus on classroom processes for facilitating readers' responses; Section 4 (Exploring Differences: Gender, Race, Culture) addresses how different readers respond to texts.

Focusing on reader response in the classroom, the works collected in this book represent the results of a five-week summer institute in which 25 middle school, high school, and college teachers studied the principles and applications of literature instruction. The following essays are included: an introduction by G. Garber; "An Overview of the Method" (P. Hansbury); "Reader Response: Theory and Practice" (P. Hansbury); "Formalist Criticism in the Secondary Classroom" (R. DeFabio); "A Formalist Lesson Plan for Salinger's 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish' Used with Advanced Seventh Grades" (M. McKay); "A Formalist Lesson: 'The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner'" (C. Forman); "Introduction to Historical/Cultural Methods of Literary Inquiry and Instruction" (M. Kelley); "An Historical-Cultural Approach to 'The Whole Town's Sleeping'" (J. Butterfield); "Introduction to Psychological Criticism" (B. A. Boyce); "A Psychoanalytic Approach to Joseph Conrad's 'The Secret Sharer'" (G. B. Kamm); "A Psychological Critic Looks at 'A Narrow Fellow in the Grass'" (D. J. Marhafer); "Overview of Mythological Criticism" (D. M. Quick); "The Application of Archetypal Criticism to John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'" (D. M. Quick); "A Feminist Archetypal Approach to 'Jane Eyre'" (R. Y. DeFabio); "Multiple Critical Approaches to 'A Rose for Emily'" (C. Reynolds); "Multiple Critical Approaches to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'" (C. Forman); and "Yes, But Does It Work?" (D. M. Quick). (JD)

"Shows how to breathe new life into use of the reader response notebook in elementary classrooms by using it for design work, expanding what counts as text, and making it an integral part of a community of practice"--

Reading is a quest. Likened to an adventure -- both metaphoric and real -- the quest is a journey of discovery. The reader's search encompasses the sensations of the experience itself, accompanying emotions, sense and meaning engendered by the experience, and understandings of the self, others, and the world around. Out of curiosity, readers also search for an extensive array of information. The journey can be envisioned and contemplated again and again after the reading act itself is completed. In a meaningful way, the reader's quest and its discoveries are life enduring and life fulfilling. The purpose of this volume is two-fold: * to establish and explore the essential features of reader response theory and its rendering of the reading process, and * to acknowledge a philosophy of teaching and to illustrate teaching strategies to evoke and enhance readers' responses. Understanding the ways in which the reader affects the reading and how the reading happens will illuminate classroom pedagogy. This text establishes and explores the essential features of reader response theory and its rendering of the reading process. The essays acknowledge a philosophy of teaching and illustrate a spectrum of teaching strategies to evoke and enhance readers' responses, including whole and small-group discussion; story drama; readers' theatre; journal writing; scripts, letters, stories, and other writings; and "body punctuation." A case study format is used to illustrate these strategies in action in real classrooms.

This engaging book applies reader response theory to children's literature methods to help new and experienced teachers best involve kindergarteners through eighth graders in literature and literacy. KEY TOPICS: Authentic student responses open chapters, book clusters and the accompanying CD database of children's literature provide guidance for involving students with literature, and Literature Resources on the Web guide users to lesson plans, standards, author interviews, projects, and other Internet resources to enrich teaching. MARKET: For teachers of Children's Literature.

Because of the emphasis placed on nonfiction and informational texts by the Common Core State Standards, literature teachers all over the country are re-evaluating their curriculum and looking for thoughtful ways to incorporate nonfiction into their courses. They are also rethinking their pedagogy as they consider ways to approach texts that are outside the usual fare of secondary literature classrooms. The Third Edition of Critical Encounters in Secondary English provides an integrated approach to incorporating nonfiction and informational texts into the literature classroom. Grounded in solid theory with new field-tested classroom activities, this new edition shows teachers how to adapt practices that have always defined good pedagogy to the new generation of standards for literature instruction. New for the Third Edition: A new preface and new introduction that discusses the CCSS and their implications for literature instruction. Lists of nonfiction texts at the end of each chapter related to the critical lens described in that chapter. A new chapter on new historicism, a critical lens uniquely suited to interpreting nonfiction and informational sources. New classroom activities created and field-tested specifically for use with nonfiction texts. Additional activities that demonstrate how informational texts can be used in conjunction with traditional literary texts. “What a smart and useful book!” —Mike Rose, University of California, Los Angeles “[This book] has enriched my understanding both of teaching literature and of how I read. I know of no other book quite like it.” —Michael W. Smith, Temple University, College of Education “I have recommended Critical Encounters to every group of preservice and practicing teachers that I have taught or worked with and I will continue to do so.” —Ernest Morrell, director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME), Teachers College, Columbia University