Response to Literature

Response refers to the connections students are able to make between what they have read and their own personal lives. Thus it is important that we scaffold both comprehension and comparisons in children's lives while we read stories to them.

Teachers may want to develop and support literary response by practicing the following:

• Interactive read alouds where teachers stop during the read aloud to think out loud about how they feel and respond to the piece being read. Next, teachers may want students to (Think, Pair, Share) and express their own personal responses to the literature being read. Be sure to model several times for your students, especially for English Language Learners and for timid and shy students who are hesitant to share their personal lives and responses for a variety of reasons. If students refuse to share, do not try to force them to share their thoughts.  Perhaps responding in writing in the form of a poem would provide reluctant students a better venue.

• Dialogue journals are where students are asked to divide a piece of paper in half. One side of the paper can be labeled "Parts of the Text that Interested me" and the other column labeled "What I Think". Students write sentences or phrases from the text that interest them and respond to the text selected in the other column. This process must be modeled for students multiple times in order for them to understand what a quality response sounds like.

• Talk about the book where students sit in a small circle with a group of trusted colleagues. In this circle each student says:

  • At least one thing about a connection he or she has made between his personal life and the story.

  • How he or she connects the story to other stories read.

  • How he or she can connect what was read with a movie or television show.

• Make connections with social issues where students in literature circle examine current events and/or social issues in their community that are related to the story they are reading. In this process the teacher should model for students and help students:

• Select a group leader

• Decide on the roles of the students in the group

• Think of ways to include every student in the group in the conversation

• Keep the conversation on topic

• Decide on current events or local social issues in which students are interested

• Keep focused on the current events or social issues selected

 

• Use visual representations to help students develop responses and make connections. For example, students might draw an open mind portrait in which they write or draw what they are thinking about while they are reading a specific story. Students may also label their drawings. the open mind portrait serves as a kind of map students can produce as they respond to what is going on in their heads while they read a specific story.