Cultural Construction of reading in Anglo-Saxon England

I found it interesting how Howe begin his article by citing Wallace Stevens poem, "The House was Quiet and the World was Calm". This poem is a great introduction to his article and sets the foundation for the underlying purpose of the article. Howe examines how reading was constructed in Anglo-Saxon England. He begins to interpret lines from the poem and from what he believes the author's meanings to be in those lines. Howe states: "Under these conditions, the poet's claim that the reader became the book expresses a sense of causation that turns on the double meaning of become: the reader takes on the form of the book by suiting or completing it." I concur this belief. Many times I find myself relating to the characters so that I could better comprehend their demise. the cliche, "Before you judge someone, walk a mile in their shoes.", certain applies here. The reader is able to have empathy for the characters when they are able to relate to the character and acknowledge the author's purpose. Howe goes further to examine how cultures interpret how individuals read. Howe states: "The House was Quiet and the World was Calm asserts our shared belief that we read best alone, at night, becoming our book, desiring to be the perfect reader we honor as the scholar." Howe asserts that readers perform better when they are able to sit alone and read the literature. He further establishes this theory when he discusses how Ambrose reads. Howe states: "What surprises us, however, is that Augustine does not identify the works read by Ambrose but rather describes the silent and self-contained manner of his reading. In those moments when Ambrose was not fulfilling a public role, he would refresh his body by eating and his mind by reading. But, the full force of Augustine's "sed" must be registered, Ambrose reading silently, but when he reads, his eyes followed the pages and his heart pondered the meaning though his voice and tongue were still. Augustine is careful to specify that Ambrose would read silently to himself even when others were present and might have approached him in conversation." By using Augustine's example of Ambrose, Howe is able to assert his theory about solitary reading. Solitary reading is great when the reader is trying to initially get a grasps on the reading material, however this is the perfect opportunity for the reader to draw questions from the text. When the opportunity arises for the reader to share their questions and insight with others, they are able to gain more insight into the text. Group discussions is definitely a crucial benefit to reading. I was somewhat baffled to that Howe did not go in depth with this aspect in his article.

Ideology and Theory: The Moral Basis of Discourse and Analysis" Douglas Meyers

I love how Meyers starts the article off with a quote from Adams Phillips about questioning.  Phillips stated that questioning develops in two stages, (1) imperative, and (2) interrogative. The imperative stage is suppose to represent the immature stage, the reader makes demands of what they want out of the book where as the interrogative stage reader begins to question the book. The interrogative stage represents the mature stage. The reader learns when to question and not to question. I believe that Phillips was trying to say that teachers are imperative because the questions are derived from them; students are not able to produce their questions and them out there in a true spirited class discussion. In order for a reader to truly get the most out of their reading is to generate their own questions. Meyers is an advocate of student generated questions. He developed ten ways to involve students in creating questions to be used in literature discussions. The ten methods that he mentioned were: (1) creating one key question about a literary work, (2) creating one key question and explaining its importance, (3) creating a list of important questions about a literary work, (4) creating a list of important questions and rank-ordering them, (5) creating a list important questions and rank-ordering them with an explanation, (6) creating questions based on Purves and Ripper's four catagories of response, (7) creating a set of questions focused on literary elements, (8) creating a set of questions based on the questioning circle, (9) creating a set of questions focused on literal and inferential levels of questions, and (10) creating questions based on particular critical approaches. Meyers states: "Knowing how to ask questions inspires lifelong learning. Knowing how to ask questions about literature empowers lifelong reading, the promotion of which, I believe should be our ultimate goal teachers." Meyers' beliefs are that students if students are allowed to generate their own questions from their readings they will gain more insight in reading. I agree with Meyers' tactics. Students can feel inhibited when they are not free to question or express themselves.