(09/23/2012) What makes a reader?

In comparison to all of the readings we have sorted through thus far in the semester, I find the three chapters (4,5, & 6) of Dr. Bomer’s “Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s English Classrooms” the most practically applicable literature we have encountered to date. Throughout the reading, I found myself consistently referring back to the memory of my own schooling and asking myself to think about how I “learned” to read.  Using the past tense when referring to my reading development is a bit misleading because-as Dr. Bomer explains- “we learn to read again and again across our lives, as we encounter new forms of text and new practices in reading that count in different communities” (Bomer, 77). Thinking back on the beginning stages of my continual reading development, however, serves a very self-revealing purpose.

I have very little memory of my elementary reading experience. In fact, the earliest memories I have of really reading and developing my necessary “reading strategies” are not from school at all, but from home (Bomer, 89). I am the middle son of three boys, and I remember vividly how before bed each night my dad would read aloud to all three of us. One or two chapters at a time, my dad probably read every “Mrs. Piggle Wiggle” book there was, along with countless other books. I would climb onto the top bunk, close my eyes, and  “envision” the books that my dad would read to us (Bomer, 91). I would listen to my dad’s voice, envision the images coming to life in my mind, expect and predict future information, monitor the reading by asking my dad clarifying questions, and ultimately activate the knowledge into a real-world setting (Bomer, ch. 5). As I look back on those experiences now, I realize that my dad (whether fully aware of it or not) was establishing the relationship between “reading” and “thinking” (Bomer, 89).

As I got older, I never doubted this relationship and I became a very active independent reader (as I assume most English majors are!). But more importantly, I viewed reading in a community setting. Yes, the community began very locally (just me and my brothers) but still it was always an experience that was meant to be shared. As I entered the high school ranks, however, reading really became more of a learning task aimed at exposing students to a specific text. We read Shakespeare because we were supposed to read Shakespeare. We read “A Tale of Two Cities” because we were supposed to read “A Tale of Two Cities.” This list goes on, but you get my point. I have little recollection of any significant “student choice” in regards to what we actually read in class. We also approached reading almost exclusively in a “whole-class” setting (Bomer, 85). There was no time given to independent reading within the classroom, there was almost never any small-group or partnered reading tasks, and every new text we read was chosen by the teacher and then assigned to the entire class. We would read a few chapters each night, come in to class in the morning, discuss what we had read, and then repeat the process throughout the entire year. This process definitely bored me and I remember that I always had an outside “reading agenda” to fulfill my desire to read(Bomer, 71). Biographies of famous sports stars and musicians were always my high school favorites, and it was not unusual for me to spend the first half of the night faking my way through a school reading assignment with very little interaction with the text, only to pick up the book that I was reading independently after I finished my homework and then continue to read all night. Shamefully, there was almost a guilt that accompanied this literary experience, because I thought I was engaging in a sort of wasteful reading. Looking back now, however, those nights of independent reading probably had a bigger impact on my overall commitment to furthering my education than anything I ever read in class. They gave me a passion for literature that was independently mine.  I had control over my own literacy and that control led me to college, and now graduate school.

As I progress as a teacher and eventually have my own classroom (I hope at least!) I don’t ever want to forget what my true purpose is as an English and Language Arts teacher. Instead of summing up what that purpose means to me, I will leave you with perhaps my favorite definition of an English teacher’s purpose I have read to date. Dr. Bomer writes, “We [English teachers] want to graduate readers who can give themselves intense experiences of beauty in literary art, who can participate in communities of readers, who can try to improve their own lives and those of others by engaging with texts” (Bomer, 71). I think this is a truly worthy goal.