Response-based Literature Teaching and Learning
Response-based approaches to teaching and learning (Bleich, 1978; Holland, 1975; Iser,
1978; Langer, 1991a, 1995; Tompkins, 1980) provide alternatives to objectifying literature,
and so, promote alternative, non-"scientific," models of problem solving and critical thinking. Where traditional approaches to literature champion the close
readings of texts and "correct" interpretations, response-based theorists regard
readers as active meaning makers whose personal experiences affect their interpretations
of literary works. Response-based practice likewise emphasizes the reader and the constructive
reading process. Students are encouraged to actively respond to what they read based
on their own knowledge and experience, and to further develop their interpretations in tandem with the knowledge and experiences of their classmates. Understandings
are developed through discussions and other dialectic processes of discovery as individuals
interact with one another -- explaining, challenging, testing, and building more coherent and elaborated understandings of literary works.
The teacher's role in a response-based framework is that of facilitator, responder,
impresario. He or she encourages students to build, reflect on, and hone their own
defensible meanings and understandings of a work (Langer, 1991b, 1995). Response-based teachers promote and guide the classroom exploration of multiple perspectives and
student construction of defensible interpretations of literary works. They make
the quality of students' critical and creative thinking the focus of assessment.
Response-based teachers place student-generated questions at the center of learning, encouraging
a problem finding, as well as problem solving, approach to critical thinking. They
emphasize the importance of teaching and learning the processes of literary understanding, which they view as both socially and personally mediated.
Langer (1990) breaks literary understanding into four stances people take when engaged
in reading for literary purposes:
- Being out and stepping in
.
In this stance, readers make initial contacts with the genre, content, structure,
and language of the text by using prior knowledge and surface features of the text
to get sufficient information to begin to build an envisionment. With literature,
readers make initial acquaintance with the characters, plot, and setting. They use information
from the text in concert with their background knowledge to get enough information
to "step in."
- Being in and moving through
.
In this stance, readers are immersed in the text world, using both text knowledge
and background knowledge to develop meaning. They take new information and immediately
use it to go beyond what they already understand, asking questions about motivation, causality, and implications.
- Stepping out and rethinking what one knows
.
In this stance, readers use their text knowledge to reflect on personal knowledge.
They use what they read in text to reflect on their own lives, on the lives of others,
or on the human condition. Whereas the previous stance was primarily concerned with shared text knowledge and discourse around it, this stance is primarily concerned
with personal knowledge and reflections.
- Stepping back and objectifying the experience
. In this stance, readers distance themselves from the text world, reflecting on
and reacting to both its content and the reading experience. They objectify the text,
judge it, and relate it to other texts or experiences. This evaluation and generalization is based on their notions of specific genres as well as the content of the text
or the literary experiences in which they engaged.
Ideally, response-based pedagogies support each of these stances.
