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Karolides, Nicholas (Ed.). (2000). Reader Response
in Secondary and College
Classrooms (2nd Edition). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
338 pp.
$36 (Paper) ISBN
0-8058-3024-3
Reviewed by Patrick
Inglis
University of British Columbia
April 10,
2002
Given society's continuing faith in
standardized assessment
and the growing production of curricular aids and lesson plans,
it is important to re/establish an alternative vision for what
reading and literature instruction can be. Reader Response in
Secondary and College Classrooms, edited by Nicholas
Karolides, provides such a vision. It represents a welcome return
to the teachings Louise Rosenblatt first shared in her seminal
work Literature as Exploration (1938) and later in The
Reader, the Text, the Poem (1978). Its compilation of twenty
chapters divided into four parts promotes renewed confidence in
Rosenblatt's transactional model and the ideals of reader
response by showing its implications and by providing practical
means for classroom implementation.Combining theory with
practice, it stands as an important book for all teachers
interested in reclaiming the classroom as a place of curiosity,
possibility, and genuine critical engagement with literature.
Furthermore, the language used to frame Rosenblatt's work and the
work of other reader response theorists is neither too complex
for preservice teachers, nor too introductory for experienced
teachers and researchers of literature instruction, making it a
wholly accessible contribution to the field of language and
literacy education.
Borrowing from Rosenblatt, part one
establishes the legitimacy
of reader response theory through its discussion of the
reader-text relationship. This relationship is defined as a
transaction in in which readers draw upon their experiences and
social context to actively construct meaning. Karolides confirms
the important role the reader plays in making meaning in chapter
1: "The words, in effect, have no symbolic meaning—are only
marks on the page—until the reading event occurs, until the
literary work has been lived through by the reader" (p. 12). A
reader response approach to literature thus affords students a
wide variety of ways and means to personally connect and interact
with literature.
Parts two and three expand this discussion
and outline
multiple ways teachers can develop reader response curricula.
Many forms of response are introduced, with the majority of
attention resting on dramatic, written, and oral modes. And
although response through art and music are not developed in
detail, the possibilities showcased through other response forms
provide a framework by which art and music can introduced. Part
four presents additional ways teachers can incorporate reader
response into practice, yet focuses specific attention on how
reader response to literature can be used to present
multicultural and gender issues prevalent within schools and in
society abroad. Issues related to social justice, the ideals of
democratic education, and the role reader response can play in
transforming student perspectives and society itself, are given
due attention.
One major criticism of a reader
response approach is the
assumption that it serves students' personal needs at the
expense of the text and its author. Close inspection of
Rosenblatt's work, plus Robert Small's comparison of
a reader response classroom to a more traditional classroom in
chapter two, debunks this misconception and refutes the claim
that reader response intends anything of the sort. Several
chapter authors, including Patricia Kelly and Deborah Appleman,
argue that a genuine reader response approach reflects the
transaction that emerges from readers' interactions with a text,
allows for unavoidable differences of opinion, and encourages
students to make personal connections, all the while holding
their responses accountable to the text.
Although the book's objective is
not strictly to provide
ready made lesson plans so much as it is designed to provide a
firm understanding of reader response theory and the
possibilities that can be created from it, many of its strategies
can be extracted for immediate use. Teachers serving learners at
different grade and ability levels will appreciate the variety of
strategies discussed and the ease with which each strategy can be
transferred from one learning environment and genre to another.
For example, the comparative and intertextual study of the
western film Shane by Joy Gould Boyum in chapter five,
though taken from her work in a New York University literature
class, is not only applicable to other levels of instruction, but
can be used with other genres of film. Another example is
Elizabeth Poe's treatment of World War II literature in a
grade 9 classroom in chapter twelve, which informs ways teachers
can prepare units of study around a particular theme or era in
literary history.
A positive feature that sets
the book apart from other
discussions of student-centred learning approaches is its
conception of the teacher's role in a reader response
classroom. Some progressive educators find fault with a teacher
centered, top-down instruction model of literature instruction
that seeks right answers and forfeits personal response. These
critics claim that such an approach minimizes curiosity,
decreases affection for reading, and makes open discussion all
but impossible (e.g., Dias, 1992). Yet the student-centered
approach that fails to recognize the importance of the teacher,
and experiences a teacher can bring to the classroom, and which
threaten to relegate the teacher to that of a silent (and
passive) observer, is perhaps as drastic a circumstance as the
one it aims to replace. Conversely, reader response as conceived
by Karolides and other authors, transcends typical notions of
student centered instruction and settles on an approach that
incorporates all members of the classroom environment. In each
chapter, teachers are shown providing leadership in whole class
discussion, initiating student to student conversations,
facilitating knowledge acquisition with challenging assignments,
modeling critical response, and as Mary Jo Schaars shows in
chapter eleven, extending learning beyond a test or final
project. Teachers, like students, are also asked to bring their
own literary and personal experiences and questions to bear in
the meaning-making process. For instance, in chapter ten Linda
Varvel weaves her own unsolved questions into a class study of
Arthur Miller's The Crucible as a way of working
through areas of the play that pose problems to both her and her
students.
One minor drawback to this otherwise exemplary
book is its lack of attention to social context. Although authors
discuss the importance of developing a positive
atmosphere—one characterized by mutual respect—no
explicit discussion suggests ways student and student as well as
student and teacher relations can be managed and maintained.
Neither do any of the chapters discuss the problems and conflicts
that such an environment can inadvertently encourage. Research
showing how response centered classrooms can privilege dominant
members over others and how this can subvert the objectives of
reader response (Lewis, 1997) suggest that a more critical
discussion of context is needed. While lack of discussion
concerning this issue does not call into question the overarching
theme of the book, it does reflect a deficiency teachers need to
consider when weighing how to implement its strategies.
The enduring strength of Reader
Response in Secondary
and College Classrooms is that it does not suffer from
Romantic idealism. Couched in the hope and promise of reader
response is a constant reminder that it is a difficult and
challenging process to adopt and sustain. It is a process
characterized by ambiguity and uncertainty; a process that many
of the book's authors freely admit requires trust in oneself and
one's students. It requires a leap of faith necessary in
all good teaching. As Ron Luce asserts, a reader response
approach also requires nothing less than a "long-term commitment"
(p. 109). Yet throughout its honest portraits of reader response
classrooms, the book captures the very essence of why it is we
teach literature. Linda Varvel writes: "A wild, and sometimes
chaotic, interaction of ideas between students and students, and
students and teachers is the kind of intellectual training that
deepens our respect for each other and enhances the learning
experience" (p. 177). Still, we are confronted by an educational
climate that not only threatens to set literature instruction
back even as we enter the 21st century (McCracken
& McCracken, 2001), but also jeopardizes the spirit and
potential of this work. The contributing authors of Reader
Response in Secondary and College Classrooms are to be
commended for attempting to re/ignite in teachers a motivation to
meet the ideals of reader response even in the midst of such
opposition.
References
Dias, P. (1992).
Literary reading and classroom constraints: Aligning practice
with theory. In J. Langer (Ed.), Literature instruction
(pp. 131-162). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of
English.
Lewis, C. (1997). The social drama of literature discussions
in a fifth/sixth-grade classroom. Research in the teaching of
English, 31, 163-204.
McCracken, N.M. &
McCracken, H.T. (2001). Teaching in the time of testing: What
have you lost? English Journal, 91(1),
30-35.
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