We frequently hear critics argue that U.S. students can’t write well and that there is a “literacy crisis” in the U.S. What is the origin of these discourses? What do they have to do with immigration, national security, and economics? How does the notion that Americans can’t write drive the national push to test writing? Here we explore the history of writing and testing in the U.S., the “science” and technology of testing approaches, and how the rhetoric of assessment impacts the lives of Americans today.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

interpreting literature our own way

Postman put into words everything that I’ve been questioning in my English classes since high school. She wrote, “Our job as teachers, then, is not to decide what things should mean to our students but to help them deepen and strengthen their individual readings of texts and, at the same time, to show them that other equally valid readings exist” (166).

Countless times I’ve said to my English teachers in high school, “but how do you KNOW that was what the author wanted to say?” And every time I’d asked, I’d get a vague or snippy answer to my ignorant question. Postman, in this chapter, finally answers my question! She writes that even if we did get an explanation from the author himself about what he meant in his text, it still shouldn’t matter! As times change, interpretations of the text will too. Readers should be able to get out of the text what they want, and teachers should only be there to open up their minds to other interpretations. There should be no wrong interpretations, only ones that differ from each other. Ultimately, it is up to the reader to decide which interpretation they feel is most right.

Yes, this makes grading on tests multiple choice tests difficult as there is no right or wrong interpretation, but tests can easily be remade to accommodate this idea, perhaps with the use of essay tests.

I think reading critically and for individual interpretation is one of the most important elements of literacy. Don’t we take the time to read something so that we can understand the material and not have someone just give us the interpretations? Shouldn’t we want our students to read and interpret it their own way, use our guidance if they want, chose what they want to believe, and retain what they read because it makes sense to them?
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kelsi, you're right. Reading should not just be about how one person sees a text. However, especially in high school, I think it is important to realize that perhaps the teacher has a bit more experience with the text (or analyzing texts in general). This is not to say that student responses should be discredited. Teachers do not know everything...no one does. True, and perhaps more importantly COMPLETE understanding of a text comes from considering more than one interpretation. If a student goes through English classes thinking that the teacher is just narrow-minded, he/she him/herself is also being narrow-minded, not accepting and incorporating other interpretations into his/her own.
Teachers should be there to encourage student interpretation, while guiding them with experience. We don't want students to only look at their own interpretations. It is by looking at what several other people think/believe that students can make an informed decision about a text and/or their beliefs in general.
As students its easy for us to say that the teachers aren't being open-minded to other view points. It is important for us to stay open-minded to their (the teachers) views as well as develop our own. I believe that this will lead to fully informed individuals that not only have the ability to think for themselves, but also to remain open to interpretation, allowing them to reevaluate their beliefs/interpretations in order to incorporate new or different thoughts.

March 16, 2011 at 6:30 PM

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