Active Readers

The Active Reader: What is Active?  Van Woerkum, 2012

1.       Show the students the following quotation and have them respond to the questions as homework or as a warm up.

What does the following quotation by Samuel Johnson mean to you?  How does a reader “finish” a book?

                A writer only begins a book.  A reader finishes it. 

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

2.       Ask the class the following question.  It may seem rhetorical or nonsensical to them, so should generate some interesting discussion.  Discuss as a group or in small groups.

How does a reader interact with a text before the reading begins?

a.       Explain to the class that a good reader makes guesses (inferences) about the reading before reading the actual texts.  Discuss the meaning of inference.

b.      Give students articles or readings with no text, just titles, subtitles, and images.  What can they guess (infer) about the topic of the article?

c.       Have students write an article with no text.  They are allowed to give only a title, a subtitle, and a couple of images, but the topic must be clear to the reader.  Have students work on a computer in groups so they can use images from the internet. Distribute possible topics or let students choose their own topics. 

d.      Exchange “articles” and let the other groups guess (again, infer) the topic.

e.      Homework:  Respond to the following (class blog?):

 Describe your experiences “reading” the articles with no text.  Did you usually guess what the topic was correctly?  How can you explain that? 

3.       Ask the class the following question:

How does the reader interact with the text during the reading process?

a.       The teacher presents a paragraph, one line at a time, where each sentence is seemingly unrelated.   Students write after each line what they understand the paragraph to be about.  Have them notice how their interpretations change after each line.   Students (humans) will always find order in chaos—that is, students will always be able to make some kind of coherent story even with sentences that are unrelated.

b.      Have students share their understanding of the meaning of the paragraph in groups of two.  There might be some similarities, but (hopefully) there will be some differences.  Discuss why each student interpreted the same paragraph in different ways.

c.       Homework: Respond to the following:

Why did you understand the paragraph differently from your partner, even though you both read the same words?  What were you thinking of after each sentence that made you interpret the paragraph in that way?

4.       Final project: Respond to the following question in a 2-3 page essay.  Give students time to pre-write and discuss in class.

Do you agree with the following quotation by Samuel Johnson?  Discuss several ways that a reader “finishes” a writer’s book.

                A writer only begins a book.  A reader finishes it. 

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)