Reflecting on Reading

1. Reflecting on Reading Donna Alvermann, Ph.D. Department of Language & Literacy Education University of Georgia PowerPoint by Achariya Rezak

2. What is the purpose of reflecting on reading? • Encourages students to take a reflexive, critical stance to reading. • Students should be part of a "cognitive apprenticeship" in which the teacher models reflective thinking. • Encourages students to talk about texts they've read, to write thoughtfully about important topics, and to take on a leadership role in post-reading discussions.

3. Two strategies for guiding students’ reflections on reading: • Reading for Different Purposes • Discussion Webs

4. Reading for Different Purposes: • Encourages movement beyond surface understanding, and promotes viewing a text from different perspectives. • To engage in this activity, first assign a text and use pre-reading strategies. • Break the class into groups. Each group will have a different task in regard to the text, like "list facts and opinions about the text" or "name obvious and hidden purposes of the author." • A spokesperson from each group presents findings to class. • Members of each group write a summary based on their findings.

5. Discussion Webs: • Encourage viewing a text’s message from more than one perspective. • Can help structure discussions so that more students can contribute. • Encourage students to support their assertions with relevant information instead of opinion.

6. How to make a Discussion Web: • On a handout or the board, write a question about the text in the middle of the space. Then draw two arrows to either side, indicating the two sides to the argument. Students will write statements on each side supporting each side of the argument. • Introduce the text to the class with pre-reading strategies • Introduce the central question. Group students into pairs to discuss the question and write down reasons for both columns. • Join two groups. Then ask each member of the group to present one of their reasons. After that, have each group of two compare webs to reach a four-person conclusion. (Develop a minority report if there are dissenting opinions.) • Then, each group is given three minutes to present their conclusion (which side they agree with), the strongest reasons for this decision, and any dissenting opinions. • Finally, students can use webs to write individual answers to the central questions.

7. Example of a Discussion Web • Discussion Webs might be used in Language Arts to identify competing arguments in a text. The following text is used as an example for the next slide: • “Few scholars of multicultural literature believe traditional categories of understanding, evaluating, and/or teaching literature are sufficient. As Anne Stavney notes, pedagogical changes must recognize that previously excluded texts often violate traditional categories of discourse and evaluation. We must revise these categories and create new ones. Can we value, for example, simplicity rather than complexity of language and meaning? Must a text be dense and ambiguous to be canonized? [....] Multicultural criticism has tended to focus on reading, understanding, and evaluating works within the same conventions used for canonical literature: genres such as historical narrative and autobiography, literary forms such as the Bildungsroman or Kuntslerroman, and formalistic qualities such as innovation in language or narration and ambiguity of meaning” (Grobman, 2001, p. 226).

8. Example of a Discussion Web:

9. Summary • Reflecting on reading encourages students to think and talk about the texts they've read, to write thoughtfully about important topics, and to take on a leadership role in post-reading discussions. • Discussion Webs and Reading for Different Purposes are strategies for modeling and guiding students' reflexive and critical responses to texts.

10. Reference • Grobman, L. (2001). Toward a multicultural pedagogy: Literary and nonliterary traditions. MELUS, 26, 221-240.