1. Double Entry/Dialectical (Dialogue) Journal

This strategy is like marginal (annotated) note taking, but rather than writing responses in the margins of a text, the reader writes responses on paper. This can be set up either vertically or horizontally.

To format this vertically, make two columns: Notes(Quotes) and Responses. Under the "Notes" column, write down quotes that somehow interest you, puzzle you, or fill you with a sense that they are significant. Under the "Responses" column, write down your thoughts for each corresponding quote.

To format this strategy horizontally, simply write down a quote, using quotation marks, and directly following it, write your thoughts about that quote. Skip a line and continue on to the next quote.

Wrap up your responses by looking back at the nature of your thoughts. What are your thinkings like? What seems to be the center of gravity? Your overall impressions of the work itself?

2. The QCS (Quote/Context/Significance) Strategy

This is a variation of the double-entry journal, with the addition of "Context'' as a way of making further meaning. Again? while this strategy may be formatted either vertically or horizontally, I suggest the horizontal method because it allows for more space and less "humbug" in laying it out.

This strategy encourages you to look at significant quotes within context. "Context" refers to the conditions existing in relation to a quote. In other words, what is going on when this quote arises? Who is speaking? Who is listening?

"Significance" does not mean "What does the quote say or mean?" Rather, it refers to the importance of the quote. Is the quote significant because it is foreshadowing an upcoming event? Is it giving insight into character? Is it validating an earlier quote or event?

Wrap up your QCS by looking back at your "Significances" column and pulling them together with some general impressions about the text. Center of gravity? Writer's intent or purpose? What do your thinkings show about the kind of reader you are? What are you paying attention to? What do your insights show about points of location?

3. The QIW (Quote/Inference/Warrant) Strategy

This reading strategy encourages you to pay attention to the kinds of inferences (opinions) you form, and the warrants(assumptions) upon which these inferences are based Any reader brings a set of assumptions to the text being read. These assumptions are not innate, but learned, instead. We assume things based on personal experience, prior knowledge from other readings, textual details read in earlier sections of the text, familiarity with a writer's work? and so forth.

Again, I suggest a horizontal format for space and ease. As you read a text, write down statements(quotes) that interest you. (This is the "This is what I see" part of this strategy.) Then? make an inference based on the quoted material. (This is the "This is what I think about what I see" part oft he strategy.) Finally, explain the assumption that led you to make the inference you did. (This is the "This is why I think this[pointing back to the inference] about the quote I copied" part of the strategy.)

Wrap up your QIW strategy by looking at the kinds of inferences made and the assumptions upon which they are based. What do your assumptions say about your reading style? Are your assumptions largely from personal experience? From textual detail, Are they valid or do you notice a lot of prejudging or jumping-to-hasty-conclusions kinds of assumptions? Are your assumptions trustworthy, or do you see a need for more careful reading?

4. The Oriented Reading

This reading strategy illustrates the reality that a reader's attention to textual detail is influenced by the purpose for which he reads. A reader who loves gory details is likely to skim over much of text, searching for and slowing down at details describing gore; one who reads for beautiful languaging is apt to read slowly and carefully, stopping at those places where imagery is especially vivid or where lines are crafted eloquently.

For this strategy, you have the option of selecting your own orientations, or trying the one I suggest. In either case, you will have to read text twice and record your responses twice.

For the first option, choose a purpose for your first reading: will you read for character? for theme? for imagery? for line breaks? for voice? for tone? for setting? Let text speak to you about what's important to pay attention to and this will help you determine purpose for reading. Whatever your choice, pay attention only to those parts of text which speak to your purpose. Record your responses as you read. Then read the text again, this time choosing another orientation, and recording only those responses that speak to it.

For the second option, where I suggest the orientations, try reading the first time with feelings/emotions in mind, responding to those parts of text which elicit any feeling or emotion in you. For the second reading, try reading for concrete nouns, paying specific attention to nouns only, and recording your responses to them as you read.

Wrap this strategy with a discussion of how orientations play a part in your reading style. What insights did you gain about yourself as a reader? Any difficulties or limitations? To what extent does oriented reading play a part in the way you read?

5. Character Sketching

This reading strategy invites you to pay attention to the characters in a story. For each character, track his or her qualities, the textual support, and the method used to reveal each quality. For example, one quality may be "timid," the support: the character hides behind her mother, the method: character's behavior. Do this for each of the characters.

As a wrap, pull your thinkings together by looking at your sketch and summarizing each character's profile. Then, think about why the writer has created each character to be the way he or she is: what purpose does each serve in the story? why did the writer choose the combination of characters in relation to the story's center of gravity or theme? which are your favorites? least favorites? how important is character in the spectrum of character, theme, setting, and plot?

6. Character Re-creation

Sometimes, the importance of a character may be fully realized by removing him or her from a story; or he may be "transformed" with additional or opposing qualities. This is an especially helpful strategy to try when you somehow resist a character as he stands in text.

Focus on a character you wish to remove or change. If you remove a character, explain how the story would move without him or her. If you change a character's qualities, describe the "new" character you have created and explain how this new character would move in the story.

Wrap this strategy by explaining what happened to your understanding of the original story after you tampered with a character. In the process of changing the original story, what else changed as a result? What general conclusions can you make about the ways writers go about in creating their texts?

7. Altering Point of View

While this reading strategy focuses on point of view, it is also indirectly related to character study. Retell a story from a different point of view: if the story is told in third person omniscient, for example, how would the story change if you were to tell it from a third-person limited? If the story is told through a female character's eyes, how would it change were you to tell it from a male's point of view?

You need not rewrite the entire story from your altered point of view. It may be enough to explain how the information in text would change if the point of view were to change. Since the retelling of a complete story would take significantly more time and energy, you may receive extra credit if you rewrite the story completely from your altered point of view.

Wrap this strategy by talking about how altering the point of view affected your understandings of the text. In altering the point of view, what else had to change to accommodate this new "voice"? So which did you prefer, your version or the original's? Why?

8. A Character Mandala (Visual Reading Strategy)

For readers who are visual learners - seeing things in pictures--this strategy may further understandings of text in graphic symbols. A mandala is a circular representation of symbols that reflect dualities(opposites). Thinking in terms of opposites can be limiting; however, it is a valid way of making meaning of text so creating a mandala may be helpful. Since mandalas revolve around thinking metaphorically, creating one will depend heavily on your imagination and "connecting instincts."

The mandala has two parts: the sun and the shadow. Working on the sun part first, think of answers to the following questions, keeping in mind one character for whom you will create a mandala:

a. What animal is your character most like?

b. What plant is your character most like?

c. What color is your character most like?

d. What number is your character most like?

e. What geometric shape is your character most like?

f. What mineral or gem is your character most like?

g. What natural element is your character most like?

These seven symbols will become the sun images for your character's mandala.

The second step is to write sun sentences for your character. Write one sentence for each symbol above, explaining why you chose each. Example: Margo is like a mouse because she is fearful of people and avoids them whenever possible.

For the third step, look carefully at each sentence you wrote and pick one adjective that best summarizes the quality of the character as represented by each symbol. Example: "timid" comes to mind when I think of Margo's mouse metaphor.

From this fourth step on, you are now focusing on the character's opposite or shadow metaphors. This is a more challenging part because text may not show a character's opposites, so you may have to imagine them. You might want to think in terms of internal/external: if the sun images represent the character's external qualities, perhaps the shadow images can represent the character's internal qualities. First, choose an opposite symbol for each of the seven sun images in your character's mandala.

Next, write one sentence each explaining why you have chosen the shadow symbols you did. Then, pick one adjective that best summarizes the quality of each shadow symbol.

Now it is time to draw your mandala. Within the framework of a circle, using color and shape but no words, draw or symbolize all of your character's sun images and shadow images. Arrange them in some way that makes sense to you. You may want to consider placing images in relation to each other, or in relation to color and shape, or any other basis for configuring the mandala.

Finally, frame your mandala with two complete sentences: the first sentence will contain all of your sun signs; the second sentence will contain all of your shadow signs. These two sentences will be written around your mandala, forming a sort of border or periphery around the circle. Here's an example of a sun-sign sentence: The timid mouse crept under the magnolia bush eating seven gray marbles perched on a round mountain.

While the sentences may seem incoherent, looking at them carefully, moving ideas around, rewriting them in other ways, may shed additional light on your character's qualities.

Wrap this strategy by talking about the experience itself. How did you feel about creating a character mandala? Why? Did this strategy do anything for your understandings of your chosen character? If so, in what way? If not, why not? Are you a visual learner? In what sense are you or are you not?

9. Character Poem Based on the Mandala

The mandala you have created for your character is really the beginning point of other reading strategies, all inviting you to be creative and to look beyond the text for furthering your understandings of your character. Choose any one of the shadow or sun images from your character's mandala and craft a poem about your character. You may use the following as an example:

Summer

If Maggie were

a season

she'd be Summer.

Not one of those

summers that press

but a light, airy one

her early morn finger-rays

warming spring seeds nestled

in Mississippi soil.

She'd toss back her dark braids

look Ma straight in the eye

and say, "Don't fret, Mama,

She be okay, Dee will."

And Ma would look into

the sunshine eyes of her

poor crippled Maggie,

and believe, her black anger

waning in the healing curve

of Maggie's summer smile.

Wrap this strategy by talking about your writing process. What steps did you take to craft this piece? Did the crafting of a poem further your meaning making of your character? Explain. Any insight into your reading processes?

10. Crafting a Poem Using More Than One Symbol from the Mandala

This is another reading strategy that invites imagination and creativity, again based on your character mandala. Here are the steps:

a. Select a key word, an abstraction or concept that reflects some significant theme or emotion in your character's story. (I have chosen "anger" as my key word.)

b. Look at your character's sun-shadow mandala and choose six concrete images that will serve as metaphors for your poem. You may choose one from each category: animal, plant, color, number, mineral/gem, natural element, etc.

c. Write metaphoric sentences for each of the concrete images; start each sentence with the key word you have chosen. Example: anger is a bear separated from her cub.

d. Think of a refrain that goes with your key word. Write this refrain as a command. Examples: if "night" is your key word, the refrain "Go to sleep" will fit; if "anger" is your key word, the refrain "Let it go," will fit.

e. Using these key elements, craft a poem that reflects your character's life or personality. You are welcome to use my example as a model.

 

 

Advice from a Daughter

Let it go. Anger is the March wind, barreling in from the north.

Anger is poetry, written in dark, after day's work is done.

Let it go. Anger is nine, nine years gone by, nine more to go.

Anger is the old guard dog, held fast by chains of betrayal.

Let it go. Anger is black graphite, steel-solid, imperious, immutable.

Anger is the square certificate, framed in fury fires.

Let it go.

Anger's choking hold on you.

Father's rule.

Japan's rule.

No place for haiku in your woman's world.

 

Wrap this strategy by talking about your crafting process. What steps did you take to create this piece? Did it further your understandings of your character? How so or why not? Talk about the practice of revisioning one genre into another; what does it do for your meaning making skills?

11. A He Is/She Is Character Poem

This reading strategy, which is really a post-reading activity, may also give you some idea of how much you know your character. It invites you to craft a poem, either as the character or as someone outside the character looking in on her. In a sense, it is a "biopoem;" since you can't include everything text reveals about your character, you will have to decide what details you wish to include. The "easy" part of this poem is that some of your lines may come directly from the story itself. I have crafted one and you are welcome to use it as a model for your own poem about some character.

 

She Is Maggie

 

She is zero she thinks, made hollow by puckered burn scars

and one bum leg that won't do her bidding.

She is seamless, the fluid drift of time spent between Mama's house

and the barren dirt floor called yard outside.

She hides behind Mama's skirt when Dee comes to call -

sweet, soft, susurrus Maggie -

bold, brass, bilious Dee

She follows behind, lost in Big Sister's flowing caftan,

She does not see that she is form, not shadow, for

She is the one who knows, knows it is Daddy who carved

the table, not Uncle Seamus,

Knows how butter is churned and quilts are stitched.

She is of everyday use, solid, her feet planted in roots

stretching back to the first Dee on the first plantation.

She needs no plaited turbans, zebraed bangles, or transplanted

African gofers to make her mark,

She is Maggie of the South, whose Mama can butcher and strip

a carcass quick as any man can,

Whose sure hands can set a homey table of chitlins and sweet

potato pie well as the next woman.

She is Maggie, who'll marry slow Tony and make their

morning bed with the quilt of everyday use.

 

Wrap this strategy by talking about the process you used in crafting your piece. I'd like to know why you chose the details you did in crafting your piece. To discuss this, it may be wise to begin your talk with some statement of intent: what center of gravity did you have in mind as you planned this piece? Also discuss whether this strategy helped further your understandings of your character. If it did, in what way, if not, what seemed to be the resistances?

12. Creating a Coat of Arms for a Character (Visual Strategy)

Another strategy for making meaning of text that appeals to artistic learners is the creation of a coat of arms, a symbolic representation of a family's line or heritage. Choose an outline appropriate for the character in mind. By outline, 1 mean the border or outer configuration of the coat of arms (an oval, a flower, a fleur-de-lis, a shamrock, etc.). What you choose to include within the border is up to you. You may use the mandala images (an animal, a number, a color, etc.), or you may use your own creative impulses.

Your coat of arms should be accompanied with a discussion of how you came up with the idea and what the images or symbols mean. Drawing parallels between the character's qualities and the images themselves would be a good idea.

Wrap this strategy by talking about whether this activity furthered your understandings of character or not. Elaborate.

13. The Art of Questioning

It is believed that Socrates once said, "A good philosopher is one who knows what he does not know." Since I believe this to be true, I thought it might be a good idea to look at the kinds of questions we ask ourselves when we read particularly challenging text. If questions are a way of determining what it is we do not know, it stands to reason that looking at your questioning strategies may alert you to ways of improving reading strategies.

Read the following poem at home and write down the questions that come to mind as you read. Since I assume that you will read this poem several times, make a distinction between questions asked during your first reading and those asked during any subsequent readings. If you find "answers" to your own questions, write them down next to the corresponding questions and briefly explain how you arrived at them.

Wrap this strategy by looking at your questions carefully and categorizing them if possible. Are some of your questions about words you don't know? about connections between one line and another? and so forth.

Esp. in being an entrance, a passageway, a constriction, or a narrowed part,

there was no there there.

 

 

we she

raised smiled

her more

head

 

surprise surprising

 

 

there

her. sunny. yellow. head.

 

 

called also "apparent

 

horizon"

the act, the state, the place, of junction

obvious/untrue

we saw her throat, it wasn't there

14. A Close Look at Responses and Their Significances

Examining the kinds of responses you make to text sometimes tells you how you read. Read a story and write down the responses that come to mind during your reading. When you are finished with responding, look carefully at the kinds of responses you make and see if they fall into obvious categories. For example, are some of your responses about character? conflict? crafting? universal truths/themes? tone? Feelings? Based on the categories, talk about yourself in terms of the kinds of textual detail you seem attracted to, at least for this text. Your findings may show a pattern of how you read other texts. Wrap this strategy by talking about what your responses show about the kind of reader you are. Be sure to talk about whether this is true of only this text or whether it may be true of other readings as well.

15. Ranking Quotes

This reading strategy is closely related to #14. Read a story or some assigned text and write down quotes you feel are somehow significant to the whole piece. Then go back and prioritize them: which quotes seem to be more significant than others? Rank them in descending order--most important to least important. Wrap this strategy by talking about how you came to prioritize them as you did. It is this discussion that may shed light on how you read. Also talk about whether or not doing this ranking activity has helped you gain further insight into how you read text.

16. A Look at Predicting

Predicting what will happen next, how a character will turn out, what center of gravity will unfold, and where the next event will take place happens in our minds as we read almost instinctively. Recall formula fiction like Nancy Drew mysteries or Babysitter's Club dramas you read as a young teen-when you made predictions, were they almost always accurate? If they were, the accuracy reflects your familiarity with the genre and the author.

While making predictions for modern realistic fiction or challenging fiction may not be as easy, the kinds of predictions you make reflect the way you read text. To illustrate this to yourself, read a page or two of some story; then, stop reading and write the rest of the story as you imagine it will occur. You need not write your prediction in the style of the writer. Rather, you can simply explain what you think will happen, how the characters will turn out, and what the central meaning or intent of the writer will be.

Now finish reading the text and compare your prediction with the writer's actual story.

Wrap this strategy by explaining how the two perspectives differed. Talk about why these differences occurred, and also include a discussion of why you made the kinds of predictions you did. What part does predicting play in reading text? How important is it for you to make predictions in helping you to make further meaning of text?

17. K-W-L

To help you develop a focus before reading nonfiction material, this strategy may prove helpful. First, before you begin reading, make a list of what you know (K) about the subject. Then, consider what you would want (W) to know or learn through the reading. Finally, make a list of what you have learned or are learning (L) from the reading. Wrap this strategy by talking about how this pre-reading focus helped or did not help in your reading.

18. Linking Lines

There is something about a poem that invites me to listen for its "music;" even if I may not understand the meanings of every part of the piece, I can listen to the combinations of words and their sounds, and get some idea of the feeling being conveyed. It's very much like listening to Hawaiian music; although I do not understand the language, I can get a sense of the feeling being conveyed by the combination of instrument and word-sounds. Of course, my meaning making would be far richer if I knew the language itself.

This strategy may help you to understand poetry more completely. First, read the poem out loud to yourself, several times if necessary, and write down the general feeling being conveyed: is the poem melancholic? angry? pensive? Is there more than one feeling? What are they and where do you get a sense of these changing feelings?

Next, for textual understanding itself, break the poem up into complete "chunks;" for example, if line 1 by itself expresses a complete thought, the first break would be "Line 1." If lines two through four express the next complete thought, then the second break would be "Lines 24." And so forth. List the line breaks as they express complete thoughts.

Then, look carefully at the relationships of meanings between the lines and explain what the relationships are. For example, "Line 1" may be expressing a sentiment of loneliness. "Lines 2~" may be giving examples of loneliness. The relationship between line 1 and lines 2 - is made clear by this explanation. `'Lines 5-6" may be explaining what the speaker does to combat the feeling of loneliness. Again, the relationship is made clear: the speaker names the emotion, gives examples, and explains how she deals with it.

As a wrap, explain what you saw happening in terms of how the poet moved her piece from one idea to the next. Then talk about how this movement is related to the overall feeling or specific feelings in different parts of the piece. Also discuss your overall reading strategy -- did this close look at connections between lines and thoughts help you to make further meaning of text?

19. How Important is Setting?

Setting refers to the time and place in which a story happens. Some stories may be "lifted" from its original setting, placed in an entirely new one, and not many other changes will occur. Other stories depend so heavily upon setting that tampering with it will completely alter other elements such as plot, character, and theme.

Read a story and simply enjoy it during your first reading. Then, "uproot" the story--take it into a completely different setting. Be very specific in explaining the new setting. For example, it's not enough to say the new setting is the "past;" say that it is 1776, in a tiny village along the Koa coast, and add further details that may be relevant to your story.

Now explain what is going on in this new setting; how will the original change in terms of character, plot, theme? What did you have to alter in the original in order to accommodate the new setting?

Wrap this strategy by talking about whether or not this experience added to your understandings of how setting works in any story.

20. Shared Reading

This strategy is based on the concept that shared perspectives often bring to light what is missed through only one perspective. Working with a partner, each will take turns being a "field researcher." As your partner reads a poem out loud and responds to it out loud, your task as researcher is to record what he says in his responses. You will do it twice and keep a record of your partner's second responses as well.

Then, you will switch roles: you will read a poem out loud and respond out loud as your partner records your thoughts. You will read the poem out loud a second time and respond again as you read, while your partner records your second set of responses.

After both have read and responded, each will then look carefully at the kinds of responses your partner made the first time: what kinds of questions is he asking? what kinds of responses? what seems to be his strategy of reading the second time around? any new insights? what seems to be his strengths as a reader? his weaknesses? You will share your findings with each other out loud.

For a wrap, talk about this strategy: did working with a partner shed some new light on the way you read? What did your partner discover about your reading strategy that you had not realized before? How did this strategy work for increasing your understandings of yourself as a reader?

21. Key Words/Phrases Zoom-In for Poetry

The form of a poem is defined by economy--every word is carefully selected, with no room for waste or extravagance. A reader can add to the economy as a way for making meaning of text by "zooming in" even further on key words and phrases. The zoom-in technique usually calls for your focus on verbs, nouns, and imagery.

The process is easy: first read the poem out loud to get a sense of its overall meaning intent. Then, write a paragraph or more about it. Now go back to the poem and this time, during your second reading, highlight key words and or phrases that seem to be bolstering the meaning of a line or "chunk" (group of lines expressing one complete thought). Be discriminating about this -- better to under highlight than over highlight.

Now look at the words and phrases you have highlighted. See any patterns? Any connections between one highlighted word/phrase and another? Any "thread" running through the highlighted sections? Using the highlighted words and phrases, can they be somehow put together into some "mini-poem" or "poem within a poem"?

Wrap this strategy by talking about how this experience contributed to furthering your understandings of text. If it didn't, talk about why this strategy "failed" for you.

22. Shared Questionings

This is another strategy focusing on your questioning skills as one way of making meaning of text. Read a challenging piece (poem, short story). Respond to it as you read. Then, look at your responses, copying the questions you posed on a separate sheet of paper. Bring these questions to class. With a partner, exchange your questions. Each of you will assume that the other partner is an "expert" on this piece, thereby making him qualified to answer the questions you pose. Write your answers to your partner's questions on his paper; he will do the same for you. When you are finished, talk about the experience.

Wrap this strategy by collectively writing about the experience. What did this experience do for your meaning making of text? What were the difficulties? What was made clearer by this experience?

23. A Poetic Dialogue

This strategy offers you a different way of seeing whether you have connected with a piece. Or of seeing how you have connected, if at all. Bring a poem to class that you would like to share with a partner. It should be chosen based on what you think your partner might like. Read the poem to her one line or chunk at a time. Stop your reading, and give your partner a chance to write some response to the line or chunk you have just read: this response may be what she thinks will be the next line, it may be a response to what she has just heard, it may be anything that comes to her mind. When she has finished writing her line, continue reading the next line or chunk; again, stop and give her time to write another response. When the whole poem is completed, switch roles. Now your partner will read to you a line or chunk from the poem she has brought to class for you. She will stop and give you time to write a response line. And so forth until both of you are finished with your "response poem."

Wrap this by first talking about whether or not this experience helped either or both of you in making meaning of text. Collectively write your thoughts down and submit to teacher.

24. Revisioning Text

This strategy invites you to re-cast a piece into a completely new genre. If you have read a poem, you may wish to recraft it into a newspaper headline; a short story may be recrafted into a poem; a poem may be recrafted into a song or rap; a short story may be recrafted into an editorial or a sequel may be written; and so forth.

The challenging part of this strategy is to maintain the integrity of the text--to remain true to the overall meaning or center of gravity, the tone, the overall emotion or impression of the original.

Wrap this by talking about the experience. What steps did you take to change the form? What kinds of decisions did you make, or what influenced the decisions you made? Why did you do what you did? How does your new genre compare with the original? Hopefully, answering these questions will give you some insight as to why writers create the kinds of pieces they do.

25. The Venn Diagram

One of the most natural responses to a text is to make a comparison/contrast between this text and another. Perhaps two characters in the piece are so different that you are drawn to the differences; perhaps a setting in the piece reminds you of a similar setting in another piece; perhaps the plot of one story is strikingly similar to one you read from a very different place and time.

When this striking realization of similarities or differences hits you, a closer look at how two things differ or how they are similar may be necessary for furthering your understandings. In such a situation, you may find a graphic organizer called a Venn Diagram helpful.

To create the Venn diagram, simply draw two large intersecting circles. Label one circle as "Subject A" (Mother, e.g.), the other as "Subject B" (Daughter, e.g.). The space where the circles intersect will contain your list of how these two subjects are similar (shared points). The differences will be listed in the respective circles.

Wrap this strategy by talking about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the Venn diagram. Include a discussion of your reading strategy: what part do graphics or visuals play in your reading strategies?

26. Quick Draws

For visual learners (artistic style), drawing sketches of parts of a story may be an effective reading strategy. As you read a text, you will be drawn to certain quotations describing a character, an event, a conflict, an idea, or anything else. Quickly sketch these out and write captions explaining the sketch itself (what is going on? in what context is it occurring?) and its significance to the rest of the piece.

A more focused method of quick drawing is to look for specific quotations that address the following:

 

• a quote that seems to capture the story's center of gravity;

• a quote that describes accurately a character's personal quality;

• a quote that reflects your dominant feeling or emotion of the whole piece;

• a quote that represents the turning point or climax of the piece;

• a quote that triggered some outside thought, a point at which you stopped reading momentarily and started thinking of some personal experience, memory, or thought.

• a quote that made you resist or "argue against" an idea.

After you have done either the "free" sketching or the "focused" one, wrap this strategy by talking about yourself as a reader: are you a visual learner? how do pictures play a part in your understanding of text? does this strategy not work for you? why or why not?

27. A Surrealistic Meaning-Making Activity

"Surrealism" refers to a movement in art and literature in which the subconscious mind is expressed by the irrational juxtaposition of images. In other words, to find out what may be lying in your mind, you will be "hooking up" ideas you would not ordinarily think of relating to each other. After you have read a text, comb through the whole piece and look for five abstract nouns (betrayal, anger, confusion, control, sensitivity, e.g.). Write them down in a vertical column. Next, comb through the piece again and look for five concrete nouns (tomato plants, haiku poem, block of tofu, furo, worn hat, e.g.). Write them down in a vertical column alongside the first list. Matching the first abstract noun with the first concrete noun, create a simile and list three ways in which they are similar. For example, betrayal is like a tomato plant because both are cultivated by external forces, both contain needles that can hurt, and both produce fruit that may be bittersweet.

Now convert the simile into a metaphor that is somehow appropriate to the story, yet containing at least one or two of the similarities listed in the simile part. For example, Mother's betrayal is a tomato plant, aroused by Father's needlesharp words, encased in the bittersweet fruit of her heart.

Wrap this strategy by talking about how this "forced" pairing impacted upon your reading skills. Does looking at text from an "unnatural" perspective aid in furthering your meaning of it? What seems to be the benefit of looking at text from places outside of your natural scheme of skills?

28. A Found Poem

This strategy is an offshoot of the revisioning strategy. It works especially well for prose pieces since you will be recrafting it as a poem. After you have read a story and gotten some sense of what was significant (plot, character, theme, tone, and so forth), comb through the text, looking for lines that focus on the center of gravity or significance. If, for example, you think that the main character's audacious quality was the center of gravity, you will be looking for lines that describe or imply this audaciousness. You will use these lines to craft a poem about the character, borrowing words, lines, phrases from the original to create your revisioned piece as poem.

Wrap this strategy by talking about how this recrafting helped further your meaning making of text. Include a discussion of your process: what did you do to craft this piece? What decisions did you make about including the lines you did? What did you discover in the process of recrafting? Any difficulties? Insights into how you read?

29. Foregrounding and Privileging Information

The term "foregrounding" refers to the actual text or written word; the term "privileging" refers to the underlying, implied, value or principle lying in back of the actual text. Very often, in the process of choosing details to foreground, a writer is really privileging some deeper underlying meaning.

As an example, let's examine the extract below from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: Now and then a boat from the shore gave me a momentary contact with reality. It was paddled by black fellows. You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang; their bodies steamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks-these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality; an intense energy that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast. They wanted no excuse for being there. They were a great comfort to look at.

In this extract, the physical appearance of the African natives is being foregrounded; most of the text is a description of their bodies. Parts of the details seem objective or "positive": "they shouted, sang, their bodies steamed with perspiration;" "they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast."

Yet, other parts seem "condescending" or "negative": "black fellows;" "white of their eyeballs glistening;" "faces like grotesque masks;" "these chaps;" "they were a great comfort to look at." These details hint at what is being privileged: what is not stated but is very obviously present is the white captain who is describing the natives. He seems to see the natives not as his equals, but rather as something comforting to look at. The physical details of the natives foregrounds the wild, natural quality of the natives; but these same details privilege the European value for mental strength or reason. Blacks represent basic, natural, physical part of life; the white captain represents the rational, intellectual side of life.

Some texts are direct and apparent; others are more challenging to read because the writer depends heavily on foregrounding text to privilege certain information. Read a text that you feel has some underlying information beneath the surface (actual text). Describe what is foregrounded and what is being privileged through this foregrounding. As you work on this strategy, you may have a sense that this is very much like making inferences drawn from textual data. You are right about this. Foregrounding and privileging is just another way of saying that there's more to a story than what meets the eye. Underlying currents of ideas frequently lie below the waves of words. Keep in mind that privileging refers to values or principles, not necessarily of the writer, but of the characters instead. In order to know whether the values or principles are really those of the writer herself, you will have to prior knowledge about her style, her themes, her personal values and constructs.

Wrap this strategy by discussing whether this strategy provided additional insights into your skills as a reader. Elaborate.

Re-visioning Text

When a piece is particularly affective, meaning that it has a powerful emotion sweeping through the entire reading from beginning to end, it almost welcomes a re-visioning. Simply put, revisioning means to "see" the piece in another form--as a work of art, as a song' as a color, as a taste, as a natural element, and so forth.

For example, I once read a haunting poem, written by a friend, that swept me away into a deep sense of melancholy. My heart ached, and T immediately sat back to let the feeling carry my thoughts where it would. These thoughts were not contrived, rather, they were memories of experiences that shared the same melancholy gloom that the poem evoked. The following list of memories represent the re-visioning

I saw in my mind's eye, the final journey of Mrs. Shibata in a Japanese movie called The Ballad of Narayama. It was the custom of the villagers who lived at the foot of Mount Nara to take their elders to the summit of the mountain when it was their time to die. Like the Inuit who left their old ones to die on the ice, these Nara villagers were so poor that feeding the useless meant sure death for the rest of the family. When it is Mrs. Shibata's time to go, she does so with courage and dignity, allowing her son to strap her onto his back for the final journey to her death. The trip up the mountain is heartbreaking, for the son does not want his mother to go. But she tells him that it would be dishonorable for her to continue living when she can no longer contribute to the welfare of the family. I was eight then, but I cried with all my heart and soul, for I could sense the anguish of both mother and son.

The gloom of the poem takes me to another art, this one of a painting done by a famous artist whose name I do not recall. Entitled "The Gleaners," the artwork shows several farmers in the foreground, stooped over to glean what few morsels of grain they can find after the harvesters have swept through the field. The man's fingers are short, stubbed, a result of a lifetime of toiling for survival. His face is weathered, but it shows no emotion, only a stubborn, almost hypnotic set to the brow that etches his misery into the mind of the viewer. The overcast sky in the background brings together all the senses of futility, hopelessness, and degradation in the way gleaners eke out their lives.

Gray comes to mind, not a light, promising gray, but a dark one, a gray that reeks of iron, granite, and immovable spaces in time. It is a gray that filters down and settles onto my skin, seeping into my pores, filling me with a sense of emptiness, and no tomorrow's.

No tomorrow's taking a giant step into an abyss, a chasm, a yawning deep that swallows the voice with no echoing returns.

And the song? There is a song, but not the kind that sings of promise, requited love, or bright futures. It is a lullaby, sung, the story goes, by a woman who was bidding farewell to her young child on the night of her suicide. The words, "Mother will be by your side, don't cry, don't cry, mother will be by your side," capture the dismal landscape of the poem.

Thinking and Talking About Literature (TAL)

The following suggestions for ways to think and talk about literature come from former students, whose ideas I have gathered in this document for your use. Some of you are experienced readers who need no promptings to make meanings of texts, others need some guide, push, or finger pointed in the right direction. When the time comes to think and talk about literature, you may find this list helpful. T hope so.

1. Look at the title. Does it hint at or foreshadow what you may expect? Is it a literal title? Or is it symbolic in some way? Perhaps even ironic?

2. Plot.

a. does the sequence of events mean anything?

b. is there one action around which all others revolve? What is it? Why?

c. is there one pivotal action that sharply turns the story off in another direction?

d. is there any action you wonder about? Why has it been included? How would it change the story if it were left out?

e. see anything ironic about an event (or character, or dialogue, or setting, or?)

3. Character.

a. is there a character you particularly like? Why? Why not?

b. what qualities are developed (what is this character like? how do you know?)

c. why did the author include a particular character? how would the story have changed had he been omitted or even changed?

d. what does the character's role point out about the theme?

e. see any conflicts between characters? between whom? what is the cause? can you predict how it will all turn out between them?

f. what about the physical qualities of a character? are they significant? how?

4. Setting.

a. any special reason why the author set the story where he did?

b. see any connections between the setting and the theme or point of the story?

c. see any connections between the setting and the characters?

d. does the setting play a major role' at least more than just "background decoration"?

e. how might the story have changed if the setting had been changed?

f. does the setting influence the customs or practices of the characters?

5. Symbols: Notice any? Any objects that keep reoccurring? Significance?

6 . Tone: Is the tone striking in any way?

Basing Inferences Upon Textual Data

This reading strategy is based upon my assumption that any reader establishes his own connections with text. In short, Reader A may then make connections that are completely different from those of Reader B; yet, both are using the same text and the same data from which these connections are made. Does this mean that one reader is correct while the other one is "reading wrong"? Possibly. But more likely, it may mean that both readers are "seeing" the same text differently--they may be coming from different points of location, bringing with them different contexts, genders, ages, assumptions, ethnicities, and so forth, all which play a part in how we "come to the text."

What matters, I believe, is that any reader has the right to interpret text as he wishes; but this right comes with the responsibility of supporting inferences with textual data. To help you see this concept as a possible way of looking at the relationship between reader and text, I ask that you try the following strategy, one that may be developed either while reading or after a reading. The steps follow:

1. Read the text. As you read, jot down some inferences (opinions) you are making as a response to specific parts of text.

2. As you continue to read, write down actua1 quotes and their corresponding page numbers that clearly support the inferences you make.

3. Keep in mind that inferences may change as you go deeper into text. If it becomes evident that your initial inferences were wrong, make a note of the quote or event that issued a warning signal, telling you that your initial or previous inference was not correct.

4. If you are unsure about an inference, it is perfectly all right to pose your inference in the form of a question.

5. Include a metacognitive discussion of your inference-making abilities. Talk about the kinds of inferences you made, the kinds of textual data you looked at in making these inferences, and the strategies you employed for correcting false inferences.

 

A Brief Sample of How This Strategy Will Look:

1 . Inference: From the first paragraph, I have a sense that the narrator will be recalling some painful memory from her childhood

a. "I place one hand over my heart, close my eyes, and concentrate. There is something dark inside. At first it is like the night air, transparent shadow, but soon it is transformed into impenetrable lead." (36)

b. "I take one step backward, another, and with each step decades are erased and I grow smaller, until the glass returns the reflection of a seven-year-old girl. Me." (36)

2. Inference: The narrator as a child is either independent or neglected.

a. She returns to her grandfather's home by herself, in early evening. (36)

b. "I am wearing a blue coat that is too large for me." (36)

c. She has been caught in the rain and returns home soaking wet. (36)

3. Inference: She is probably from an impoverished circumstance.

a. She lives in her grandfather's house. (36)

b. "The property appears abandoned--shutters hanging from their hinges, paint peeling from walls. (36)

c. "The ceilings are covered with years of paraffin soot." (37)

4. Inference: Her parents are probably divorced or separated.

a. Her mother lives in grandfather's house, but father lives somewhere else. (37)

5. Inference: Child is afraid of mother dying. She worries about what will happen to her.

a. "Does it hurt a lot Mama?"...."I'II go get you a glass of warm milk and tell my brothers not to make any noise." (37)

b. "If she dies, my brothers and I are lost; they will send us to my father. The mere idea terrifies me." (37)

6. Inference: The Indian maid is cold and insensitive.

a. She does not look up when the child enters the kitchen. (36)

b. She commands the child to go to her mother. (36)

c. She scolds, "Don't strew your things about; I'm not your slave. I don't have to pick up after you." (36)

d. She turns the volume up on the radio after she scolds the child, as if to dismiss the child from her presence. (36)

e. She scares the child--"Margara is always telling me that if I don't behave I will have to go live with him (father)." (37)

f. Child wants to go to the kitchen to drink her cocoa but she admits, "I don't have the courage to face Margara." (37)

7. Inference: Child is either religious or superstitious or a little of both.

a. "There is a mirror with a heavy wood frame, but I don't look because the Devil might be reflected in it." (36)

b. She prays to Blessed Mother to make her mother's pain go away. (37)

c. "If I don't move and pray hard, I can make the pain go away."

8. Inference: Child's father must have done something very wrong

a. Child is terrified by the thought that she may have to live with him if Mother dies. (3 7)

b. No one is allowed to speak the father's name in the house, especially in the presence of Grandfather. (37)

c. "Papa is a forbidden word, and anyone who says it stirs up a hornet's nest." (37)

9. Inference: The eighth inference may not be valid There is too little information to validate this. Father may have been forced to leave because of mother's illness or Grandfather 's domineering way. Any number of possibilities abound.

Metacognitive Reflection of my Inferences:

My inferences suggest I pay close attention to text. I not only "see" the setting as a way of placing the story in context, but I look closely at what the setting might tell me about the characters themselves. I had to read the excerpt twice to catch some of the details before making some of my inferences. In my second reading, I noticed the large amount of space devoted to the child's thoughts in the presence of her ailing mother. This suggested to me that the child is in a precarious position. She is young and powerless, she is afraid for her mother's health, she wants to make her mother's pain go away, she worries what will happen to herself and her brothers should their mother die. I can infer that she is not happy. She doesn't seem to have any adult support systems. Her maid is frightening, her grandfather is nowhere in the picture, her mother is very sick. This excerpt comes from Isabel Allende's autobiographical work, Paula. I know from prior knowledge that Allende is a South American writer, and I've read a few of her novels, all of which are set in South America. So I can infer that this excerpt is part of a painful time in Allende's life, probably when she lost her mother at a young age and is forced to grow up pretty much all by herself. My inferences suggest that I can weave in and out of text as I read. I pay attention to the literal details and I continually make inferences, especially since I am always asking "Why" questions: Why is this important? Why does Allende talk about the grandfather's garden? Why is the maid painted so dismally, as cold and uncaring? How does this impact on the child? I also reconsider inferences as I read I see this as a good practice. I don't want to voice an opinion and stick to it stubbornly even if later text proves it wrong. I look for negotiations as I read.

Reading Strategy: The Power of Language to Shape Our Thinkings/Responses/Emotions

Perhaps THE most powerful "tool" humans have for getting what they want from others is language itself. The more skilled the user of language is, the more he is likely to succeed in getting what he wants with it. In literature, it is this skillful use of language that enables the writer to manipulate the responses of his readers. Is this necessarily a bad thing? I think it might be if the reader is unaware of the manipulation. But if the reader is aware of how the writer uses his tools to lead him toward desired responses, then I don't see it as a bad thing.

Of course, this is an oversimplified concept of language, not taking into account the other considerations that play equally important parts in storytelling--context, intent, the reader's politics of location that allows for shifting perspectives, and so forth. Let's thus look at this strategy as a simple first-step for looking at how a writer may use language to effect specific responses to text. Here's how it works:

1. Read a text. As you read, make a list of what you think the writer wants from you.

2. Look at your list and write each item as a separate number. Beneath each item, list quoted words or phrases used by the writer to elicit specific responses.

3. At the end, write a metacognitive discussion talking about how your attention to the writer's language helped in your making meaning of text. If you read text that you feel is fairly objective - one in which the writer seemed not to manipulate but rather to present facts or details without biases--then be sure to talk about this in terms of how the writer managed to remain nonmanipulative.

 

Sample Activity of the Above Response to a poem, "A Sandal String," by Joseph Auslander

1. The poet wants to convince me that "big" meaning can be found in "little" things.

He uses the metaphor of a "sandal string" as the only artifact left behind that "some child of Egypt wore." Yet, this small thing evokes pictures of his mother tying the string when it is loosened through "too much dizzy frolicking." The big idea is one of love: the small thing conveying it is the sandal string. The poet uses the phrase "No more" three times. This means nothing more than the string--so for this to be repeated three times, it must be important. This small piece of string is actually a great deal to the mother. It is what she will use to enshrine the memory of her child in her heart.

2. The poet wants me to think about relationships between objects and the people "behind" them, who either used them or made them.

In stanza two, the only action is presented. The first and last stanzas are more descriptions. So in this stanza, the poet describes a mother bending over to tie her child's sandal strings. The details force me to picture living beings who long ago were connected to this string: the mother who lovingly tied and retied them, the child who wore the sandals and caused them to loosen because of his play.

3. The poet wants me to feel poignant, sympathy, loving as I read his poem.

He uses a mother-child relationship to make his point. And what can be more loving, caring, and tender than a mother who is ministering to the needs of her child? He hammers home this purpose in the last stanza when he talks of the moment when "death came in like a king/Silently through the bolted door/Some mother kept a sandal string.../No more." I really feel the sympathy when I realize the child dies before the mother. This isn't supposed to happen. the child dies later, not before the mother. What makes it more heartbreaking is that the sandal string was the only thing she kept--No more. is the final line. This means nothing else was kept, no more than just the sandal string. It probably symbolizes a time when her child was alive, running, jumping, playing, with his sandals on. Dead children need no sandals. This thought makes me feel the sorrow for the mother who has lost her child.

4. The poet wants me to believe as he does, that death is the Great Equalizer, who makes no distinctions between sex, age, status, or whatever. He's horrible because he's unpredictable.

He uses the simile "like a king" to describe how death came into the child's home to get him. Like a king means power because most commoners like us can't stop a king--he goes where he wants and does what he does.

The poet uses the word "warm" to describe the child's "warm brown feet across the floor." Actually the word "brown" is also important: both words describe a living thing: warm and brown. Living things have heat and color--dead things do not. This contrast between the stated "living" thing, and the implied "death" of the child makes death seem even more powerful. He doesn't care that his "victim" is a child full of life. That's the horror of death. We never know who will fall under his wing.

Metacognitive Discussion:

When I first read the poem, I breezed through it quickly because it's simple and short. But this activity forced me to go back and re-read, paying attention to what the poet wanted from me, and looking carefully at how I knew this. What did the poet do in language to manipulate me?

I found a lot of tools he used to do just this. He repeated an echoing phrase "No more" three times, twice in the first stanza and once in the last. This constant refrain with the long o sound gave the poem a sad haunting effect. He used powerful language like "mother" and "child" to make me see the heartbreak of the mother when her child dies. He shows an implied contrast to make me believe that death is horrible. He does this by using "warm" and "brown" to describe the child when he is alive. This implies that when he dies, he is no longer warm and brown, but cold and pale--an absence of life. And the poet choosing to "kill off" the child first, before the mother, manipulates me into believing how horrible death is, especially when it comes to a child. Does the author do a good job of manipulating me through his language? Yes, because I didn't find myself resisting the poem. I didn't think, "How trite!" or "How dramatic!" I think this works because he deliberately avoids using gushy, mushy, sentimental words. He simply describes the mother, the child, and leaves me to decide how I'm to feel. It did work for me.

Hooking Up Significant Quotes with the Center(s) of Gravity

In your transaction with text, certain quotes will spring out at you for one reason or another: they may be beautifully and thus memorably crafted; they may say something that immediately fills you with resistance; they may spark a connection to some prior line or thought; they may offer a clue or hint of some upcoming event; or they add still further details about character, conflict, theme, or setting.

Whatever the case may be, a quote is significant if you notice it. But is it enough to simply identify it as significant? Or will it be made even more significant if you can somehow relate it to the bigger picture&endash;the overall reason for which the writer has written the piece? I suggest that this second concern has some validity. Therefore, this strategy was devised to help you see for yourself whether textual understandings can be broadened by looking for relationships between individual quotes and overarching centers of gravity.

1. Read the text completely through for a sense of overall meaning. Then, write a paragraph or even make a list of what you see as the centers of gravity; a center of gravity will answer the following questions: Why did the author write this piece? What is the main point(s) being made about life, or characters and relationships, or issues in general?

2. Below this paragraph or list, write down quotes and their significances as you go back into the story.

3. Skip a line and explain the "hook up" between the significance of the quote and the center of gravity of the piece.

Example:

Quote: "God dictates."

Significance: This quote suggests that Alipio is not a proactive man. He seems to place much importance upon pre-destination, the idea that whatever happens, happens for reasons beyond our control.

Hook-Up: This relates to the writer's purpose of using the story to illustrate the importance of picture brides in the Filipino immigrant's experience. Because Alipio is not a proactive man, he is content to bide his time; rather than throwing out Mrs. Zaffra and Monica from his home, he invites them in and allows them to make their purpose for the visit known. During this time together, Alipio studies Monica carefully and he begins to develop an affection for her. At the end, the reader is left with the sense that he will marry Monica and both he and Monica will benefit from this. In a sense, their successful beginning underscores the writer's point that picture brides did result in some meaningful relationships.

A Checklist of Understandings

This reading strategy is a useful one for obscure, elusive texts, especially those written in an avant-garde manner (a revolutionary, non-traditional manner). But it is also useful for more traditional texts as well. In essence, it is asking you to identity, distinguish, and articulate text you "know' from text you don't know or are unsure about."

Here, then, are the categories:

1. What do you know for sure? Look closely at text and make some observations you feel certain about. These should be observations that leave very little or no room for resistance or debate.

2. What inferences can you make based on the observations you have made? Again, because your base information is straightforward, these inferences should be coming straight from textual data, thus leaving very little or no room for "stretches."

3. What are you unclear about? List these ideas in the form of questions. These can be both clarifying and reflective questions. They can be specifically about text, or about a writer's intentions for doing what he does.

4. Brainstorm some possible answers to the questions you have enumerated in item #3. Keep in mind that the more perspectives you include, the greater your chances of finding some answer that will be plausible and in tandem with the rest of the text.