Sunday, March 17, 2013
Enter (Stage Right-Or Left) the Response-Based Approach
I am still working on this one. I am so tired. I think I will try to wade through this and then try more in the morning. I need some coffee, to be sure.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Now Onto How Porcupines Make Love III-Chapter One-Three
Chapter One-By Way Of An Introduction: Readers, Writers, and Literature
Basically if I could synthesize this it would be that all are welcomed here. Emerging from the New Criticism where the text is king, this new way of thinking about literature from all walks of life, cultural backgrounds and other considerations is paramount. Thinking about literature and different types of literature considerations and not the classical or the high and low class. Literature is for all and the reader should be able to access what some consider to be the high class but all are welcome at the table,
Chapter Two-Those Kids: Readers, Rappers, Writers, Talkers, Listeners
To continue the synthesis: Strong consideration of the learner as reader. When we consider the adolescent we need to consider their interests and expose them to all kinds of literature. Many times we look at them from an adult lens, instead of considering their interests, backgrounds, cultural ramifications and what speaks universally to certain groups of students. Students tend to want to read what they consider interesting. They do not have an adult lens to look from. Exposure to many different types of readings will enable the students to have access to literature and also allow them access to literature. They will respond in their fashion. Instead of teacher-centric, we could consider the reader-based approach. From that perspective, keeping our focus on the reader, then many great things will flow from the aesthetic. You can get many different places when the transaction is taking action between the text, the reader and the poem.(Rosenblatt). I am so glad I read her book. Its foundational and now I can see how other researchers have gleaned so much from her seminal work.
Chapter Three-Being a Chapter That Deals in Literary Theory and Its Relation to the Curriculum-
Synthesis: Consider the Canon-The Text, The Reader and the Poem
Many different groups help decide the canon of reading for our middle and high school students. There was a shift in thinking. Taking a multicultural approach, the canon is fluid. Changes can be made as needed. Titles will come and go based on different factors and relevance to the readers and audience. Mentioning Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory, we understand how the text is nothing without the reader. Together there is a poetic transaction. Keeping this in mind, it is very important to have the student use a reading response.
So basically considering the cultural, interests, age of the readers is important. When exposing students to different literature, it is important to allow choice in what students can read. The more choice, the more the motivation. Reading is a social act. Students that have time to read, discuss, respond, write and grapple with the text in different situations will bring out the aesthetic which will allow the transaction to continue and flourish.
Basically if I could synthesize this it would be that all are welcomed here. Emerging from the New Criticism where the text is king, this new way of thinking about literature from all walks of life, cultural backgrounds and other considerations is paramount. Thinking about literature and different types of literature considerations and not the classical or the high and low class. Literature is for all and the reader should be able to access what some consider to be the high class but all are welcome at the table,
Chapter Two-Those Kids: Readers, Rappers, Writers, Talkers, Listeners
To continue the synthesis: Strong consideration of the learner as reader. When we consider the adolescent we need to consider their interests and expose them to all kinds of literature. Many times we look at them from an adult lens, instead of considering their interests, backgrounds, cultural ramifications and what speaks universally to certain groups of students. Students tend to want to read what they consider interesting. They do not have an adult lens to look from. Exposure to many different types of readings will enable the students to have access to literature and also allow them access to literature. They will respond in their fashion. Instead of teacher-centric, we could consider the reader-based approach. From that perspective, keeping our focus on the reader, then many great things will flow from the aesthetic. You can get many different places when the transaction is taking action between the text, the reader and the poem.(Rosenblatt). I am so glad I read her book. Its foundational and now I can see how other researchers have gleaned so much from her seminal work.
Chapter Three-Being a Chapter That Deals in Literary Theory and Its Relation to the Curriculum-
Synthesis: Consider the Canon-The Text, The Reader and the Poem
Many different groups help decide the canon of reading for our middle and high school students. There was a shift in thinking. Taking a multicultural approach, the canon is fluid. Changes can be made as needed. Titles will come and go based on different factors and relevance to the readers and audience. Mentioning Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory, we understand how the text is nothing without the reader. Together there is a poetic transaction. Keeping this in mind, it is very important to have the student use a reading response.
So basically considering the cultural, interests, age of the readers is important. When exposing students to different literature, it is important to allow choice in what students can read. The more choice, the more the motivation. Reading is a social act. Students that have time to read, discuss, respond, write and grapple with the text in different situations will bring out the aesthetic which will allow the transaction to continue and flourish.
Interpretation, Evaluation, Criticism-Last Chapter
I am half way through the chapter. I am understanding more the criticism and the critic. The critic who thinks only certain works of art are only for a select few. Only these works of art can be understood through a critics eye. These are only for the select few. She states that this past century was a century of critics. She believes that with the Transactional Theory, all readers can access all kinds of works of art. These works of arts should not be limited and discarded as in the past, but be respected and be accessible to all the readers. She is very passionate about these points.
Now onto the second half pp 45-75.
Basically it was about the New Criticism and efferent reading in different contexts. She gave more examples of efferent reading in the different criticisms. In each one lies the aesthetic, albeit a minimum. I have learned that the aesthetic the reader is highly engaged. The reader is important in the process. The interaction with The Reader, The Text and the Poem is paramount.
Now onto the second half pp 45-75.
Basically it was about the New Criticism and efferent reading in different contexts. She gave more examples of efferent reading in the different criticisms. In each one lies the aesthetic, albeit a minimum. I have learned that the aesthetic the reader is highly engaged. The reader is important in the process. The interaction with The Reader, The Text and the Poem is paramount.
The Quest of the Poem Itself
Almost finished. One more chapter to go. In this chapter Rosenblatt speaks about the different views on the reader being apart of the equation or not. She goes through a few noted scholars' views and then shows how her view of Transactional Theory is a viable alternative. It goes through multiple interpretations of the writer's intent. When moving through this, it is ironic that the people giving their viewpoint based on a their process, has actually shown that there are different viewpoints on the author's intent. There can be different viewpoints based on background, historical, cultural and political view points. It is noted that even a writer may go back to his/her own writing years later as a reader and forget his her intent. There is a constant connection between the Reader, The Text and the Poem.
The Text: Openess and Constraint
On to the next chapter. I have to say that I am still thinking about the last chapter and that fly from the Dickinson poem. I am also considering the miscue analysis she spoke about in efferent reading.
Now to go get me a cup of Joe.
Okay I finished the chapter. It goes deeper into the relationship with the reader and the text. It shows how words have a feeling and tone. The reader brings his/her background and reads the tone and mood from his/her perspective. The reader is always structuring, interpreting and going back to their background to help make sense of the text for themselves. When we are in the aesthetic, we are going deeper into the text. It is as if take an efferent stance we loose so much. I think the aesthetic brings us into the text and makes it so much more profound and contextual. We are constantly interacting with the text on so many levels that I am not sure we are always cognizant to what we are doing as readers. I never knew of the profundity at which, I go into the text and have the transaction at a deeper level. It's very interesting to consider so many aspects of this aesthetic stance and the transactional way of looking at the relationship with the reader and the text. If we allowed ourselves to go so much deeper within the text, then our understanding would be out of this world. When we would try out say something, it would be a diatribe cubed. Wow!
Now to go get me a cup of Joe.
Okay I finished the chapter. It goes deeper into the relationship with the reader and the text. It shows how words have a feeling and tone. The reader brings his/her background and reads the tone and mood from his/her perspective. The reader is always structuring, interpreting and going back to their background to help make sense of the text for themselves. When we are in the aesthetic, we are going deeper into the text. It is as if take an efferent stance we loose so much. I think the aesthetic brings us into the text and makes it so much more profound and contextual. We are constantly interacting with the text on so many levels that I am not sure we are always cognizant to what we are doing as readers. I never knew of the profundity at which, I go into the text and have the transaction at a deeper level. It's very interesting to consider so many aspects of this aesthetic stance and the transactional way of looking at the relationship with the reader and the text. If we allowed ourselves to go so much deeper within the text, then our understanding would be out of this world. When we would try out say something, it would be a diatribe cubed. Wow!
Evoking a Poem
What can I say? I am still trying to synthesize it all. Basically, I am going to attempt to fully understand what she was saying. This is what I understand: the reader is very active in the process of understanding. The reader becomes the book. I refer to Wilhelm in this aspect. The reader brings his/her conceptions and reshapes them based on the situation. Sometimes the reader goes into a piece of poetry or another genre with a structure in mind. The reader moves along and creates images in the mind based on the text and his or her background albeit cultural, historical, and ever present point of view. Sometimes the reader is moving on and has a keen sense of what is going on in the text but then is thrown a curve ball by the writer. They encounter places of the unexpected. The reader then reshapes his/her analysis and starts to backtrack to make sense of this new invading sequence. The reader then reenters his/her reading evaluating what has happened and then thinks even further trying to make meaning for his/herself in a way that will fit his/her circumstance. The Emily Dickinson poem is a perfect example with the fly intruding in the situation. I thought it was comical. In such a serene and serious point of the poem a fly invades. It was interesting how she continued with the moment in the poem but didn't let it take over. Then the fact of the fly leads the reader to think deeper. What is the author trying to say with the entrance of the buzzing fly? Is there more to this than meets the eye. What is the symbolism here? The reader then goes back and reads further but with a different lens...questions are asked and some are still unanswered. Aesthetic reading...
Pre-Chapter Four Early Morning Thoughts-Evoking a Poem-Chapter 4
I will add some thoughts about this chapter in a few minutes. I need to read it and have a coffee. I also wanted to get down an idea to respond to the "poem", the relationship between the reader and the text. I was thinking of making a Stupeflix or even an Xtranormal about this. Maybe add some old 80s or 90s rap by DJ ? It' takes two?? I don't know. I'll have to think about that a little more. I wanted to make the whole portfolio digital. That's my goal. So any how. Onto chapter 4!
Efferent and Aesthetic Reading-Move over Margaret Kilgo
Wow! Double and triple wow! This was so deep that I became lost a few times. I managed to wade back into consciousness. It's a lot to take in at 1:27 am. When you read through Rosenblatt, you really have to read it slowly. She explains things with varied examples that bring it to the concrete analysis. I may need some more concreteness before this is over. There's one thing that is true, I definitely understand the difference between Efferent-to take away type of reading and Aesthetic type of literary reading. I kept thinking about standardized testing and STAAR Reading test as I was reading. I was wondering if when kids read the STAAR Reading test, if they aren't really going to the efferent of "just the facts ma'am" type mentality and not getting lost in the text that aesthetic reading can do for you. I know many teachers have the students write the main idea next to each paragraph as they read. They believe this practice will help the student get the gist out of every paragraph. This sounds to me much like the efferent reading of getting the take away instead of going deeper and looking at the text from different stances. I know Rosenblatt spoke of the continuum of the aesthetic and efferent. We move accordingly as readers depending on many factors. But if we has teachers, only teach our students to just get "just the facts ma'am" how much are we missing? How much of the transaction are we withholding from our kids? I know the STAAR is genre based and we have a literary base and an informational base. Practically the whole test is on the analysis and inferential levels. If we are about "just the facts ma'am" only, aren't we missing the boat? I am thinking about how I bring all the cognition into both types of reading and it depends on my stance and other factors. I think it is important to understand both and how we treat them as readers in this transaction with the text. Many people view the aesthetic as all kumbaya and flower childish. Rosenblatt puts that to bed. It's about cognition...thinking....That's not too bad at 1:37 am on a Saturday morning. I'll look it over tomorrow as a part of the transaction to see what I was thinking, the language I was trying to convey and if it all makes sense to me tomorrow as a reader...transactional theory-you have to love it!
Friday, March 15, 2013
The Poem as Event-Chapter 2-Rosenblatt
The Poem as Event
Wow! That was pretty darn deep. Basically, what is understand thus far is the reading is a process or a relationship between the text and the reader. They are not separate entities a such. They go together as in a similar vain between and speaker and listener. The speaker speaks to the listeners in a linguistic way and many cultural linguistic norms are shared. There is an interaction. One speaks and the other listens to the gestures, tone, dictation-type ways the speaker would like to be understood or not. The listener brings their linguistic background and other experiences and there is an interaction or intercambio of sorts. The reader interacts with the text, which was written by the author. The author being the speaker, is thus gone but the words, tone and dictation are left for the reader to take in and thus an interaction takes place. The poem is the interaction of the text with the reader in real time. I think that is what I have synthesized so far. I liked this quote and I will add it before I forget. This is thus a part of my transactional experience, my interchange, if you will, my process, if you like. "This necessary co-operation between writer and reader, the one to suggest, the other to make concrete, is a privilege of the verbal form."-From John Fowles..(page 14)
Another quote I love is this: The text, we have seen, patterns and delimits, but it ultimately functions like a chemical element: it itself is merged in the synthesis with the other elements to produce a particular event-a poem, novel, a play.(page 15) Rosenblatt
Yet we must remember that once the creative activity of the author has ended, what remains for others--for even the author himself--is a text. To again bring a poem into being requires a reader, if only the author himself. (page 15) Rosenblatt
That is so true. I know many people want to teacher reading and writing apart from themselves. This would be akin to taking the poem without the reader or the text. It is a total process and an interaction. One cannot exist without the other. This brings to mind the need for revision in writing but also revision in the mind for the reader to consider as they both co-construct meaning together. Just a thought. I loved this chapter. So deep and yet I think I am understanding it more and more.
Wow! That was pretty darn deep. Basically, what is understand thus far is the reading is a process or a relationship between the text and the reader. They are not separate entities a such. They go together as in a similar vain between and speaker and listener. The speaker speaks to the listeners in a linguistic way and many cultural linguistic norms are shared. There is an interaction. One speaks and the other listens to the gestures, tone, dictation-type ways the speaker would like to be understood or not. The listener brings their linguistic background and other experiences and there is an interaction or intercambio of sorts. The reader interacts with the text, which was written by the author. The author being the speaker, is thus gone but the words, tone and dictation are left for the reader to take in and thus an interaction takes place. The poem is the interaction of the text with the reader in real time. I think that is what I have synthesized so far. I liked this quote and I will add it before I forget. This is thus a part of my transactional experience, my interchange, if you will, my process, if you like. "This necessary co-operation between writer and reader, the one to suggest, the other to make concrete, is a privilege of the verbal form."-From John Fowles..(page 14)
Another quote I love is this: The text, we have seen, patterns and delimits, but it ultimately functions like a chemical element: it itself is merged in the synthesis with the other elements to produce a particular event-a poem, novel, a play.(page 15) Rosenblatt
Yet we must remember that once the creative activity of the author has ended, what remains for others--for even the author himself--is a text. To again bring a poem into being requires a reader, if only the author himself. (page 15) Rosenblatt
That is so true. I know many people want to teacher reading and writing apart from themselves. This would be akin to taking the poem without the reader or the text. It is a total process and an interaction. One cannot exist without the other. This brings to mind the need for revision in writing but also revision in the mind for the reader to consider as they both co-construct meaning together. Just a thought. I loved this chapter. So deep and yet I think I am understanding it more and more.
The Reader, The Text, The Poem-The Invisible Reader
This is my first chapter in Rosenblatt's book The Reader, The Text, The Poem. I will be commenting on each chapter as I finish.
My Thoughts-This is rather dense reading. You really have to have a deep foundation in the philosophers and the great poets. I need to read more about them. I am familiar with some but not so much with others. I realized from reading this, that the reader has not had the prominent role in the equation of author, text and reader. The reader has been subjugated to a lesser "behind the scenes" role. The poet and their perspective has been a focus for quite some time. Now Rosenblatt is bringing the reader to a more formidable role. The transactional theory is coming into focus. So far, chapter one has left me with much to ponder and wade through. I am now ready to move onto chapter two. I want to see how the reader will be more involved in the process. Interesting.
My Thoughts-This is rather dense reading. You really have to have a deep foundation in the philosophers and the great poets. I need to read more about them. I am familiar with some but not so much with others. I realized from reading this, that the reader has not had the prominent role in the equation of author, text and reader. The reader has been subjugated to a lesser "behind the scenes" role. The poet and their perspective has been a focus for quite some time. Now Rosenblatt is bringing the reader to a more formidable role. The transactional theory is coming into focus. So far, chapter one has left me with much to ponder and wade through. I am now ready to move onto chapter two. I want to see how the reader will be more involved in the process. Interesting.
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