Approach to Reading Literature

Literature has a way of speaking through its stories. I never knew there were so many ways of thinking about literature. “Readers. . . have an overall sense of the whole meaning they are reading, writing, or thinking about; but they orient themselves differently to the ideas they are creating because their expectations about the kinds of meaning they will gain or create are different.” (P. 2) There have been many times that I have read something expecting one ending and totally getting another whether it be in a play, short story, and novels. Wanting people to end up in a certain place or a story to end a certain way but it is funny when stories are based on history and the endings are more real and I want to separate reality from fiction. But it is taking the reality and putting them into context. Even poems by John Keats; his poetry bothered me and I just thought they were sad and depressing but it was not until I studied his life that I completely understood why he wrote the way he did. “When we finish reading we rethink our interpretations.”

When bringing literature into the conversation there must be an answer to all questions but many directions a conversation can go even when they are planned one way which is what lesson plans seem to do. I really liked how this article approaches literature with a solid look at how it is focused for the students. “Codified interpretations and particular points of view are discussed and considered, they are usually introduced and analyzed only after the students have had an opportunity to explore their own interpretations.” Students are free to interpret and discover answers to why stories are written the way they are meant to be interpreted giving the students free range to figure out and dive into literature with the help of a teacher.