I’m trying to
conceptualize a framework based on “Critical Inquiry Strategies for Responding
to Social Worlds Portrayed in Literature” by Beach and Rosenblatt’s Reading as Exploration, these being some
of the philosophies that have resonated most with me. My context is a Benito Juarez freshman IB
classroom and while they enjoy reading and will (somewhat) enthusiastically
complete homework, the challenge for my planning will be selecting works they
can connect to which I am also comfortable teaching. Partly for this reason, I believe the
Rosenblatt would be so advantageous for it will allow me to frame this unit on the
student’s natural response as a guide for instruction and I will acknowledge my
own bias and direction as very distinct from where the students will probably
arrive when confronting the text.
After some
preliminary searching I came across the book The Queen of Water by Laura Resau and María Virginia
Farinango. It is a coming of age story
for a young girl in an Ecuadorian village and seems to have excellent
reviews. If anyone in the class has read
it I would love to hear your input! I
think this might be an interesting YAL to read in conjunction with Much Ado About Nothing since both text
will provide social worlds so extremely different from those of the
students(and between the two texts). I
believe, however, I’ll be able to find some common ground to bridge them…but
more one this when I’ve done some more reading.
Speaking of
Rosenblatt, I do think that the texts I have so far and readings I’ve done of
them do portray my personal outlook, in this case a sort of feminine perspective, and I
think that is something I need to try and balance out in the rest of my
planning. I’m hoping both through poetry
selection and the themes I’ll examine will help to offset this disproportion.
Kelsey,
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of that novel, and am excited to check it out!
I also think that a Rosenblattian kind of perspective will be useful to pursue. At this point, as you collect your texts, I might encourage you to also think about kinds of methods that you could use, and strategies you can teach students to use, that "get" them to do the kind of analysis and reading that aligns with critically engaged reader response. This allows for a good deal of freedom of choice, on their part, and then there's the extension--what do they do with it in their reading and writing so as to demonstrate their learning? This might mean that you focus on learning and skill-based practices that hone in on the notion of choice, and of making connections, but also ones that call into question the ways in which texts take shape both as a part of culture in terms of how they're written and used, but also how they're received (in terms of the reading event).
The feminist perspective might be a great way to start, too. I really like the critical questions (as a starting point) that are available at the OWL at Purdue website for the typical questions that "Feminist Criticism" suggests that readers pose to texts as they engage them. This would bring in some really interesting conversations as to how gender categories inform the way in which we define texts, but also how we allow these categories to define us (and how we make sense of our worlds).
Have you determined yet what your conceptual framings and some essential questions might be?
Looking forward to seeing the planning-in-action!
sarah