Critical Issues: Reading and Responding to Literature at the Level of Activity

Beach, Richard

doi:10.1080/10862960009548075

Cited by 23 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…For example, in responding to a story portraying a high school English teacher's highly personal reaction to a student's essay, a group of English teachers enrolled in a graduate methods course interpreted the teacher and student as caught within a range of competing systems by drawing on their own participation in the worlds of the methods course, their experiences as teachers, and their own families (Beach, 2000).…”

Section: Constructing Texts As Cultural Worldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Being noncritical…means seeing individuals as outside of… [and] separate from systems and therefore separate from culture and history. (p. 28) Given their attentiveness to cues implying narrative conflict (Rabinowitz & Smith, 1998), readers note tensions between status quo systems that serve to protect existing systems and potential systems that emerge out of the creation of new tools or objects that challenge these status quo systems (Beach, 2000). As Bruner (1990) observed, narratives "mediate between the canonical world of culture and the more idiosyncratic work of beliefs, dreams, and hopes" (p. 52).…”

Section: Constructing Texts As Cultural Worldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In responding to texts at the level of activity, students learn to go beyond the usual pedagogical focus on inferring characters' acts or dialogue (what is the character doing or saying), beliefs (what do characters believe about each other), and goals and motivations (what is the character trying to accomplish and why) to interpret and contextualize characters' actions or dialogue as involving various social practices within activities (Beach, 2000). These social practices include (a) defining/constructing identities, (b) including/excluding/positioning others, (c) building relationships, (d) influencing others' actions or beliefs, (e) representing/serving institutions/systems, (f) establishing group allegiances/stances, (g) coping with conflicts/differences, (h) engaging in shared rituals, or (i) constructing/sharing knowledge.…”

Section: Constructing Texts As Cultural Worldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A s recent research reviews (Beach & Hynds, 1991;Marshall, 2000;Martinez & Roser, in press;Sipe, 1999) on response to literature demonstrate, this body of research has expanded exponentially in the past 30 years. What do we know about response and how has this knowledge changed over the years?…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Response to Literature as a Cultural Activity

Galda

Beach

2001

Reading Research Quarterly

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The authors review the research on response to literature and on classroom implementation of reader response activities. In so doing, they explore what we have learned over the years, and how research may influence classroom practice in the future. [Note: This article is reproduced as chapter 31 of the fifth edition of Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading. http://www.reading.org/publications/bbv/books/bk502/]

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Section: Constructing Texts As Cultural Worldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Constructing Texts As Cultural Worldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Constructing Texts As Cultural Worldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Response to Literature as a Cultural Activity

Galda

Beach

2001

Reading Research Quarterly

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“…These theories focus on meaning as evolving from a transaction between an individual reader and a text in a social context. Current sociocultural theories of reader-response focus not on readers and texts as unique, individual entities, but on how readers, texts, and contexts are shaped by practices related to beliefs, attitudes, and norms that are acquired through participation in social and cultural worlds (Beach, 2000;Faust, 2000;Galda & Beach, 2001;Lewis, 2000;Schweickart & Flynn, 2004;Sumara, 2002aSumara, , 2002b. Smagorinsky (2001) explained that meaning emerges through a "joint accomplishment, not just of readers and texts but of readers and texts in conjunction with the cultural practices through which both have been produced and through which the two become engaged" (p. 141).…”

Section: Theoretical Frame Sociocultural Perspectives On Response To mentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying the History and Logic of Negative, Ambivalent, and Positive Responses to Literature: A Case-Study Analysis of Cultural Models

Thein

2009

Journal of Literacy Research

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This paper begins with the assumption that the interpretive practices people acquire in social worlds often transfer to their stances toward and interpretations of worlds encountered in literature (Beach, Thein, & Parks, 2007). The goal of this paper is to identify the history and logic behind one student's negative, ambivalent, and positive responses to classroom texts. This paper joins socio-cultural theories of response to literature (Galda & Beach, 2001) with theories of identity (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 2002) and cultural models (Gee, 1999) to understand the social and cultural history that this student, Molly, drew upon in her interpretations of texts. More specifically, this paper examines Molly's interpretations of her lived-worlds and the worlds of texts that she read outside of class as locations for investigating social and cultural practices that were relevant to her. This paper develops a case study that looks closely at the cultural models (Gee, 1996, 1999, 2004) that Molly drew upon in her interpretations of her lived-worlds and worlds of texts she read outside of class in order to better understand how social and cultural practices and beliefs mediated her responses to classroom literature. Findings from this study suggest that teaching students to identify, acknowledge, and value the stances that they bring with them to the classroom, while at the same time teaching them to understand the usefulness of other theories for interpreting texts, has the potential to engage students in more critical and thorough interpretations of literature.

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Popular Psychology Myths as a Frame for Character Analysis in High School English

Heron-Hruby¹,

Johnson²

2019

J Adolescent & Adult Lit

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In this classroom study, the authors examine the use of popular psychology myths as a frame for literary analysis in high school English. The study reflects a cultural studies approach to teaching that attends to students’ cultural awareness in interpreting what they read. Previous research has demonstrated that students’ cultural awareness, in general, offers a rich framework for literary interpretation. Students in an Advanced Placement junior English class wrote analytic essays in which they used popular psychology myths, pervasive cultural tropes about human behavior, to evaluate whether characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘s novel The Great Gatsby perpetuate or challenge the myths. Analysis of the essays demonstrated that the myths provided a compelling frame for character analysis, prompting students to consider nuances in character behavior. Moreover, the analysis indicated that the myths offer a way for teachers to prompt students’ understanding of how readers and fiction authors can perpetuate or challenge simplistic notions of human behavior.

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Critical Issues: Reading and Responding to Literature at the Level of Activity

Abstract: MINNESOTA Drawing on the sociocultural activity theory of learning

Cited by 23 publications

References 18 publications

Response to Literature as a Cultural Activity

Response to Literature as a Cultural Activity

Identifying the History and Logic of Negative, Ambivalent, and Positive Responses to Literature: A Case-Study Analysis of Cultural Models

Popular Psychology Myths as a Frame for Character Analysis in High School English

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