When reflecting on what I was going to write my very
first blog about I finally decided to start at the beginning. I am just
beginning the first few chapters of our readings from Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Text, 4-12 and Critical Encounters in High School English:
Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents. I am finding that I am satisfied
with the texts because I am excited about the goals that the authors aim to
reach.
Teaching
Literary Theory to Adolescents emphasises that
teaching and understanding literary theory is significant because it “provides
readers with the tools to uncover the often invisible workings of the text”
(Appleman, 2009, pg. 3). I find this a very significant goal, and it goes on to
explain that, “by teaching literature along with theory, we help students learn
to decipher the world inscribed within the texts they study as well as help
them learn to read the world around them” (Appleman, 2009, pg 10). The complimentary text, Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging
Text, 4-12, is clear in is goal as well. Gallagher states that it is an attempt
to answer the question; “what can we do, as teachers, to prepare our students
to read challenging text at the deepest levels possible” (2004, pg. 8). I liked
that these texts had clear goals which are encouraging to teachers, because
they strive to help teachers create lessons that support critical thinking and
reading for students.
This brings me to my own question to reflect on; when
did I become a critical reader who could read in a deep and meaningful way? I
feel that is has happened over period of time in where I cannot pin point a
certain location of change in my student career. However, I do feel like there
was, and still is, a significant growing change in my abilities to read and
understand text. When I reflect on my development as a reader I remember a past
were I did not enjoy reading and I felt that I was a slow reader in class. I have
always felt that I was a slow reader, who often had to, and still do, look up
words in the text. Does this make me less educated, as I often felt, or does it
reflect careful reading, or both? Today I enjoy a love for reading. Although I
do not wish to forget and undermine my high school teachers here, I do wish to
note that I believe I owe my noticeable improvement in my own reading skills to
my classes and professors at university. For example I believe I developed my primary
source reading skills in my history 229 class, Europe in the 20th Century,
and I believe I owe much of my new critical thinking skills to my sociology
classes. With that being said the English classes that I was able to take
enriched my love for reading and gave me rich texts to challenge and grow from.
Also critiquing and summarising many articles throughout my education has
strengthened my ability to read, question and understand scholarly articles. Reflecting
on my own progress as a student really allows me to value the goals of these
texts, to create critical well rounded readers, because I know that it created
a thirst for knowledge and appreciation of literature. I look forward to
developing my skills further and I hope that I will be able to teach students tools that will help them become critical successful readers themselves.
References
Appleman, Deborah.
(2009) Critical Encounters in High
School English: Teaching Literary Theory
to Adolescents. New York: teachers College Press.
Gallagher, Kelly. (2004). Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Text, 4-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
