Writing Effective Reading Responses

 

Rationale:

Reflecting on your reading is a sound way to help you both remember what you’ve read and to help you construct meaning from it.  Posting the responses will give me and others a chance to see what the general feelings are about a work and will therefore promote lively continued discussion on it. 

 

For each book assigned, we will post three times.  See suggestions for writing these posts below.

 

1.  First Impressions (post on the discussion board)

As you read the selection, read it in your usual way.  Some people use margin notes, sticky notes, or other methods of reflecting on their reading, and I encourage you to do that in this course.  After you finish the book, take about 15-20 minutes and write about what you’ve read (notice it’s a time limit and not a word limit).  Please don’t be overly concerned with grammatical correctness or formality.  I want this to be a relaxed type of response.  I’m most concerned that you just get your thoughts down first and foremost, and then that you get them posted so that we all have an opportunity take a look at them.  Here are some suggestions for what to write about although feel free to take off on other thoughts, too.

 

a)  What are your initial thoughts on this text?  How did you respond to it as a reader?  What did you enjoy?  What puzzled you?  What did you want more/less of?  What questions do you have about the text?

b)  Connect the assigned text to other articles, books, and authors you have read.  How does this text inform others' writing, or spring from it?

 

2.  Second Thoughts (post on the discussion board)

After everyone has posted (or the majority of people) go back to the discussion board and read what everyone has written on a particular text.  Then post another piece of writing that puts you in the class conversation about the text.  Discuss others’ responses to the texts, give your thoughts on their questions, and respond to their responses.  This post should show that you can engage in a dialogue about literature (a course goal).

 

3.  Final Answer (post on the discussion board)

After we have read all the texts, write one final reading response that puts all the texts in conversation with each other (This will be one post only after we have read everything).  You might address similar themes or techniques in the works.  You might notice similar reactions to different texts by you or classmates.  You might have strong feelings about which texts are worth keeping in the course and which ones you would drop.  Or you might have suggestions for other texts to complement the ones we’ve read.  Whatever you write, it should show that you have thought about the texts collectively, as a whole instead of just individual works.   This will obviously be a “longer” post, and will count as a “paper” for the course, demonstrating your appreciation of literature from various times, places, and cultures (a course goal).