The exercise “fill in the gaps” in the article by Mellor, Patterson, and O’Neill was thought- provoking. I did not realize how much I automatically fill in the gaps when reading a text. This exercise could be used in a classroom to gage not only students’ thoughts on how they automatically filled in the gaps, but their perspectives on a story. The students’ cultures and environments would influence their perspectives and be apparent during the class discussion. By implementing this exercise in a classroom the teacher gains valuable insight into her or his students’ thought processes, comprehension levels, and perspectives.
This tool could be used in conjunction with Andrea Tange’s method of reading and unpacking a long novel over an extended period of time. As the class unpacks each section the students could also look at where they “fill in the gaps,” and how that impacts their impressions and understanding of the text. Mellor, Patterson, and O’Neill discuss how there are “dominant readings” in texts; by this they mean readings that the majority of society agree about, or in a classroom setting the majority of the class agrees with. The small groups that disagree are called “alternative or resistant readings.” I wonder if assigning the exercise “fill in the gaps” in conjunction with reading more slowly would show students how their cultural, environmental, and societal beliefs impact their thought process, thereby falling into one of the three readings, i.e. dominant, alternative, or resistant. Would Tange’s method of reading at a slower pace lend itself to the exercise of “fill in the gaps,” or would the combination of the two be too cumbersome?
I really enjoyed Andrea Tange’s presentation last Monday. I have lamented for many semesters about not being able to read a text more slowly or at least have more time to unpack one of the texts assigned. I know we miss many small details during class discussion in order to touch on the main points in a text. While reading a variety of texts in one semester does give each student a sampling of the many books out there to read, it saddens me not to be able to explore an individual text completely. I want to see what others think about each section and learn other perspectives on a text. As it was stated by Tange and others in class, many times students are reading multiple texts for other classes, so reading one book over the semester while reading others at a faster pace would not be an issue to me. I like the challenge of reading and annotating the smaller sections in great detail.
That's interesting that you made that connection of "filling in the gaps" with Dr. Tange's slowed down method for reading the novel. I would not have thought of that connection, but when you think about it, slowing down a text can provide the teacher a myriad of opportunities for analysis. I don't think it would be too cumbersome if completed sporadically, not an everyday thing.
ReplyDeleteApropos your desire for more time to read a literary work: I was absolutely stunned when I first came to the US as a student, about the amount of reading assigned in a semester, in just one course. 8 novels in an American Literature course. In a German seminar, we would have been assigned three novels; the entire emphasis was on in-depth reading. Not that I liked the courses better because of that; they were still entirely lecture oriented and did not give a lot of room for discussion. But students at my university would have revolted against reading 8 novels in a semester.
ReplyDeleteI am never sure I like the categories we invent--"resistant," "dominant," "alternative." Of course, I can see their uses, but do we want students to self-describe? And are there ever responses that are purely one or the other?