Why is response to literature so important

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4. Required Tools. Abstract Reader-response theory shifts the critical focus from a text to a reader. To understand an object is to place the importance of its circumstances above the importance of your own. Only the wonderful reader has an interest in interpreting a text.

The emotional reader wants to be moved by the text, while the ignorant reader believes that textual interpretation is not an efficient use of time given his or her priorities. Skip to main content. Lindner, Carl M. Rosenblatt, Louise M.

Literature as Exploration. New York: MLA, Thurber, James. William Vesterman. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, Tompkins, Jane P. Jane P. Skip to main content. Module 4: Literary Analysis. Search for:. Reader-Response Criticism Summary We have examined many schools of literary criticism. The Purpose of Reader-Response Reader-response suggests that the role of the reader is essential to the meaning of a text, for only in the reading experience does the literary work come alive.

Thus, the purpose of a reading response is examining, explaining, and defending your personal reaction to a text. There is no right or wrong answer to a reading response. Nonetheless, it is important that you demonstrate an understanding of the reading and clearly explain and support your reactions.

Thus, do not summarize the contents of the text at length. Instead, take a systematic, analytical approach to the text. Write as a Scholar When writing a reader-response write as an educated adult addressing other adults or fellow scholars. Instead, they may conclude that you are dull and boring, that you are too immature or uneducated to understand what important things the author wrote. Does the text unreasonably puts down things, such as religion, or groups of people, such as women or adolescents, conservatives or democrats, etc?

Does the text include factual errors or outright lies? It is too dark and despairing? Is it falsely positive? Is it too emotional or too childish? Does it have too many facts and figures? All responses are immediate or deferred and the timing of a response can vary considerably.

An immediate response can be good or problematic as when it interrupts the flow of understanding and involvement. A deferred response, can be good if it is deferred until a discussion starts.

Or sometimes it might be even years later when it might be recalled and related to something else. Deferred until another influence sparks a memory, making those responses valuable. However, sometimes the source, as being literature has been forgotten. A person's response to a piece of literature will always include an internal or personal response, this quality is important for creating and sustaining personal involvement with literature.

Without it, people stop interacting, and voluntary involvement with literature is halted. The choice to be involved and maintain involvement, usually lead to a positive emotional responses or positive feelings toward literature, which is required to establish a life long love of literature.

As important as the internal and personal response is the external. An external response is required to communicate information about the piece of literature. Examples include: body expressions, oral remarks, written remarks, drawings, diagrams, webs, creative movement, dramatics, play activities, and many other kinds of activities.

It is vitally important for educators as it is the only way to communicate about literature and to assess a person's understandings and feelings about a piece of literature. It provides the information needed for teachers to model critical analysis and appreciation of literature to facilitate an individuals and groups better understandings and appreciation of its value.

Therefore, it is critical to learn how to encourage students to share their responses socially so they can develop their self-efficacy to enjoy literature at their choosing alone or with peers. These responses are related to different ways literature is experienced.

While a literate adult may wonder about the inclusion of physical it is most likely the physical responses young children enjoy that encourages them to continue to seek literature for enjoyment. Responses that can be supported directly with evidence from the text, pictures, illustrations, charts, diagrams, music, sound, or action without making an inference. Interpretive or inferential responses: Are interpretations that go beyond the specific information provided by the author or illustrator.

He or she make inferences about the story and the author's motives usually by reacting to the elements: plot, setting, style, mood, point of view, tone, and the genre attributes of the work. While these responses are interpretive or inferential they are also supported with evidence. If a child says that a character should do something.

You wouldn't know if it was an evaluative response unless it's explained in relation to a standard. The standard for being aesthetically beautiful is what we we call art. Personal involvement is required to create meaningful responses and to communicate those responses externally.

It is the external responses which are evaluated by others which may result in others desire to increase their involvement with the same literature or to share their personal responses as a result of their interactions with others.

It is listening to learners or looking at the artifacts they create that we can gather information to make decisions to offer readers choices to facilitate their literacy by helping them to respond with increased understanding: literal , interpretive , or critical analysis to evaluate and appreciation literature. Responses and interactions which can be complex and wide ranged as illustrated in the responses model.

It is important for educators to celebrate and encourage learner involvement with literature. The best time to facilitate better understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of literature is when learners communicate their response from their personal transaction. Teachers make and take advantage of these through the questioning strategies they use to encourage and scaffold deeper thinking through critical analysis.

As learners achieve higher quality responses they will also develop a greater appreciation of literature and desire to communicate with others to share their transactions and ideas. As they have more experiences with quality literature and outstanding teachers their responses can improve from novice to emerging, to mature, to critical responses as described by the outcomes on this scoring guide.

Additionally as students are introduced to story elements and genre they will also develop their abilities to use these ideas to understand, interpret, analyze and appreciate literature. To better understand and predict students' responses to literature and how to anticipate how they might development it is interesting to consider different developmental theories and how they might be applied to facilitating literacy as learners develop from childhood to adolescence.

A child's development to tell stories begins with a response of retelling a story beginning with a restatement of words, then phrases, and eventually a literal retelling of the story. All of these responses can be sprinkled with short interpretive responses laughter, smile, or descriptive words or phrases. Later interpretive responses are added to the retelling narration when I was With practice the responses become a more comprehensive personal retelling of the story with emotional , interpretive , and evaluative responses.

In the elementary school these emotional and interpretive responses are critical as they allow readers to enter into a story and make it their own. Resulting in better evaluative responses through increased comprehension literal , inference , critical analysis , and evaluation , and appreciation.