Things to Consider from Purves

It is important for the teacher to select some of the text.  He/she considers interests, culture, and other criteria when selecting texts for discussion.  Student choice is also important in the equation.  Sometimes it takes the teacher sharing his/her own heart and different texts so that students become "hooked" and have a place or reference.  The teacher initially shares his/her own enthusiasm for reading, writing, responding in different fashions to be a model.  Then as time goes on, more students become thinkers and risk takers on their own.  The the community of reader and reading response has been launched.  Who knows where this shall go.

There are many different ways to respond to what we read.  It is important to show the students some of these ways and to try them out together.  Students then are given more "tools" in which to creatively respond to what they are reading.  The response could be in the form of tableau, role play, poetry, interviews with characters or authors, letter writing, using materials in the classroom and out to show how you understood and responded to what you are reading.  This can be done is small groups akin to literature circles or book clubs or any groupings.

As the students are freed to respond in the ways that they connect to the text, they do go deeper.  In fact, through some of the aforementioned ways but not limited to the, the analytical happens.  Some people believe that this approach is a bunch of fluff or kumbaya flaky moments with no real value.  Purvis has shown in the later chapters that you can go even deeper with this reading creative response because it touches on the relevance and affective domain.  Through the affective domain you have a gateway to go deeper and be more episodic.  To me it's "getting the your cake and eating it too" except you get the whole double chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream on top.  The learner is totally engaged in a emotional, cognitive and superlative level.  To me, this is real life.  This is the way it should be in all our classrooms.