"A Response-Based Approach to Reading Literature"

The article, “A Response-Based Approach to Reading Literature,” really resonated with me. I appreciate that Judith Langer encourages teachers to push their students to think critically about what they’re reading and not just read in order to attain the same understanding as the instructor. I like that she suggests to invite ambiguity and allow for questions to lead to more questions and discussions instead of a predetermined answer.

I had many instructors in high school and college who would assign readings and give quizzes or homework with questions similar Alan Purves’, “Huck Finn is a good boy. True or False.” While some teachers would require a why or why not response after that, many times the question stopped after you circled your response. But in a situation like that, an argument can be made for either side. Stopping a student from exploring their reasoning is detrimental to thinking critically about the reading. I appreciate that Langer says not to do that sort of teaching and to allow alternative views.

She says literature is often tested as if there is one right answer, as if there is one predetermined interpretation. In high school, I had an English teacher who taught this way and we would all come to the same conclusions. It took the fun out of reading and a lot of kids in the class wouldn’t do the readings because she would tell us what we needed to know and think. It defeated the purpose of reading the book.

I thought it was interesting that in her study, many teachers felt torn about deviating from the lesson plan, as if allowing students to talk about what they were getting out of the reading was in some way taking away from what the teacher had planned. I can understand an instructor feeling that way, especially if they were a newer teacher. But as a future teacher, I’d like to encourage my students to find their own meaning in assigned readings and have a thoughtful understanding of it. I know that this type of teaching would have been more encouraging to me as a student and I would have approached readings with a different mindset.