Reader-Response


Group Members:
 * Jessica Clements
 * Joy Rhan
 * Jessica Piazza
 * Justine Shubert
 * Ryan Beauvais

Ideas:  Reader Response: (taken from the TLA book)
 * pre-reading
 * possibly assume that this has already been done?
 * slow-motion reading
 * select passages from the text
 * come back to initial pre-reading activity
 * support different student responses, show validity in various interpretations
 * 1) Assumptions:
 * 2) An author's intentions are not reliably available to readers; all they have is the text.
 * 3) Out of the text, readers actively and personally make meaning.
 * 4) Responding to a text is a process, and descriptions of that process are valuable.
 * 5) Strategies
 * 6) Move through the text in superslow motion, describing the response of an informed reader at various points
 * 7) Or describe your own response moving through the text.
 * 8) React to the text as a whole, embracing and expressing the subjective and personal response it engenders.

Purpose: This uses the Reader-Response critical analysis as a lens through which this controversial book may be interpreted. As the novel deals with the conflict between different views and values, the Reader-Response critique allows students to explore their own varied and differing ways of interpreting the text.

This critical lens is particularly important when studying //To Kill a Mockingbird//. As Atticus says to Scout: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." By applying this perspective when reading //To Kill a Mockingbird//, students will have first-hand experience understanding the text from their personal perspective while hearing the perspectives of their classmates. It will help them identify and better understand the variety of interpretations of this text (among others), noting the validity of each one.


Students will be able to analyze their individual responses to a text. Students will be able identify Themes in the text and take a personal critical stance. Students will be able to make connections between the text and their personal lives.


Explain that each student's interpretation is valid if it can be supported in the text and not contradicted//.// We cannot always know an author's intentions. We each construct our own meaning of text through certain envisionment processes. -Being out and stepping into an envisionment. --Being in and moving through an envisionment. -Stepping back and rethinking what one knows. --Stepping out and objectifying the experience. Embrace and express your personal response to the text.

Resources for Overt Instruction  (list no more than 4)
//Have fun and be selective. What will you use to help students understand O.I.? Two of these resources can be a primary resources that you would be valuable to you as a teacher. The other two should be resources that you might use to give students practice or to spark dialogue. Be selective. You can paste links here or videos!//

Summary of Classroom Activities / Situated Practice
Students will complete pre-reading activity: reaction to controversial statements Students will choose a passage that resonates with them and react to it. Students will connect their reaction to the text with their personal lives and analyze why they reacted the way they did referencing specific details of the text. Students will complete post-reading activity: reflection on how reaction to controversial statements has changed - or how it hasn't. Students will discuss in small groups how their reactions have or have not changed in reaction to the text (and why - include textual evidence)
 * - Are people really innocent until proven guilty?
 * - How can a jury be unbiased?
 * - Are appearances misleading or can they tell you a lot about a person?

Overt Instruction during Situated Practice
//Overt Instruction includes intervention in student learning that originates in paying attention to students and to how they are developing understandings. What will you look for in the students' work or actions that will help you think of how to intervene--to challenge students to think more deeply or to assist those who are struggling?//

Student work that will be assessed  in the future that is related to this lesson
//Describe the student work that will be used to evaluate the success of the lesson and to assess//

Assessment Plan
//Explain in detail how you will evaluate student work. What is the difference between an A and a C, for example.//

At the very minimum, students will be assessed through their use of textual support to justify their interpretations, changes of opinion, and overall meaning taken from the text. Specific page numbers, scenes, and quotes will be acceptable for this.

Accommodations/Modifications
//Intervening with Overt Instruction during Situated Practice is one aspect of accommodation that is relevant to __**all**__ students. Describe at least two different types of accommodations that you will consider for this lesson.//