Reader Response Journal #1

The journal this week will be in response to the opening chapter in Content-Area Reading (titled, Literacy Matters), and the opening chapter in Content-Area Writing (titled, Writing in the Content Areas).  I really enjoyed reading these two chapters, especially the latter, because they expressed the topics and information in a way that is easy and enjoyable to read.  I particularly like the mock conversation between the three authors and a typical content-area teacher.  The opening line of the teacher reads: "So, I really have to have my students write?"  OF COURSE!  I realize the authors were using this as an extreme example, but as a student I have taken the occasional class that I simply did not have any writing to complete.  (Middle school math classes come to mind).  The reality is that ALL teachers need to require critical writing in their subjects.  Not only does it help students become more actively engaged in the subject matter, it gives them a sense of responsibility to their learning process.

When I look particularly at my own content-area, I don't see too much difficulty in finding time to read and write in the class.  Unlike mathematics or science, theology requires a very large amount of reading and writing.  That being said, theology requires that the student be actively and critically engaged in both.  Look at scriptural or Biblical readings, for example.  There are a couple different approaches theologians can take when reading scripture: literal interpretations and contextual interpretations.  Literal interpretation (most often associated with the fundamentalist and evangelical movements) typically means that you take the text to mean exactly what it says.  A good example would be the book of Jonah.  A literal interpreter may believe that Jonah really did live in the belly of a "great fish" for three days. (Did you know the Bible never mentions the word, whale?  There's your fun fact for the day!).  One who reads scripture contextually, on the other hand, believes that there are multiple ways to interpret the text, and they recognize that often the authors used such stories for effect.  As you can see, these two approaches can be both helpful and harmful in certain situation, because they can account for radically different ideas.

 After reading those explanations, you can probably see the importance of teaching students to read critically and differently from subject to subject.  A teacher shouldn't expect a student to sit down with a psychological research study and read it the same way he or she would read a Jane Austen novel.  One golden rule for me in my classroom will be: ASK QUESTIONS!  From the very first day of class I will stress the importance of question asking when reading theological material.  Questions before, during, and after completing the reading is essential to understand and grapple with the text.  One of my professors last year told us, "If the margins of your book aren't filled with penciled-in questions and observations, you aren't reading critically, and you won't get anything out of it."  Now, I am not going to suggest writing in textbooks because that is generally frowned upon in a high school setting, but you get the picture.

I hope the future readings are as stimulating as these were, because as you can tell I get pretty into these kinds of discussions.

Take-Home Lessons for the Day:
1. Ask questions!
2. Unless you own the book/textbook, don't write in them! That's vandalism!
3. Jonah did not live in the belly of a whale for three days. Sorry...

Until next week...