Framing the Problem

Reading instruction in an for students of the 21st century challenge us. What is it that we need to know to help us develop curricula that will provide students with information and practices that will guide them as readers, viewers, listeners, etc. that are demanded. What does my book offer teachers that they do not have access to now? How can I write to learn? There is not a language that easily allows us to translate or transfer what we know to other texts and demands.

Reading Defined
Reading is an intransitive and a transitive verb; therefore, a person can say, "I am reading"; but more importantly for this discussion, reading implies an object: "I am reading a novel." And the act of reading a particular text suggests that the reader is engaging in ways of reading for particular purposes, under specific conditions, and for certain outcomes. For example, I may read one of the Harry Potter novels in the comfort of my favorite chair for the purposes of enjoying the story. However, reading is not simply an individual act, and reading isn't simply reading across all contexts.

Jonathan Boyarin shows how what counts as reading over the last 2,000 years has changed. At one time having a person read to an audience constituted "reading." In another book, changing literacy (NCTE book), the author shows that reading, or being literate has changed. At one time, writing your name counted as being literate.

During the 1980s-90s reading strategies were key. For the 21st century, this is changing. It's not simply comprehending, or saying back what you read to prove that you understand. McHoule showed that there are only "readings"; Chalkface showed that readers fill in gaps, and these actions are influenced by our background experiences and knowledge. For example, in Reading Fictions, they point to an example text and show that readers make assumptions about texts based on particular cultural stories or information. Readers bring perspectives or literary lenses to make meaning with a text (Appleman; Blau). So reading is more than comprehension.

Experience as a Teacher
Recently, I prepared to discuss with students a graphic novel. I had read the novel and planned to raise questions about the visual components of the text. Yet, as I reread the novel I found myself skipping the visual texts and focusing on the print. As an English major years ago and as a former high school English teacher, I have concentrated on the printed text. Visuals at one time suggested an illustration of the print, not an addition to it. However, as [ ] points out, the visual text and printed text can work together to create with the reader meanings beyond either of the two modes of texts. So, as I read and recognized my ignorance of the value of the visual text, I realized that I was used to particular reading practices, e.g., seeing visual texts as a bonus, not part of a combination of modes that communicate more than only one mode. How would I "teach" students how to read and discuss graphic novels when I was most prepared for the verbal?

Reading as Inquiry
This experience with graphic novels led me to think more about reading in the 21st century. Reading is not simply moving eyes left to right, top to bottom (in English); rather, it depends on the text and what constitutes texts (in Manga, readers of the translated texts must read right to left). So I discussed with students a process I initiated to arrive at a way of reading and understanding multimodal texts, at least the graphic novel. In other words, the old patterns of reading did not fit the new expectations.

As I write this, what does this approach provide that others don't? How can we prepare to teach students in the 21st century when we were educated in the 20th, at times when reading often meant discrete skills, or strategies, etc. [Unpack this.]

The Changing Landscape of Reading
Today we face challenges. No longer is reading reading; rather, reading is almost a metaphor for constructing meaning with multiple modes of texts. Texts can be consider oral, auditory, visual, print, etc. (see Golden for semiotics discussion). We are preparing students to read for jobs and technology that do not exist. The growing value of social networking, e.g., Facebook, does not mean that we should shift our classrooms to similar approaches of communication and learning; however, the expanding use of this technology has implications and we must think about the opportunities or ways of thinking it offers--and other technologies.

Instead of only reading printed texts, we must prepare students to inquire into texts, to read, view, listen and inquire into how composers constructed, etc. In turn students will begin to learn how to design (New London Group).

In fact, we can look at the Periodic Table as a metaphor: there were elements that scientists discovered and recognized. However, there were other elements that theoretically existed, although had not been discovered. In reading scholarship, discrete skills were identified: if a reader could predict, summarize, question, etc. he could understand a text. Then people began to talk more about the context of reading a text, the author, literary lenses, etc. However, what also appeared true is that there were types of texts, genres with conventions that readers could learn and engage with. Now, mixed genres are prevalent and in fact new genres are being constructed. For example, the genre of a blog, etc. Individuals determine what they want to post to their communities or virtual, invisible communities.

Ways of Learning
Inductive, deductive learning; now, abductive learning.

Dilemmas that English Teachers Face
How to teach multimodal texts when don't know particular texts. In the past some teachers chose not to teach poetry for reasons. Now, visual texts are a challenge; however, students engage in multimodal texts without instruction.

How to teach what we don't know.

How to guide students to compose texts that are unfamiliar. Cathy Fleischer and Sarah Andrew Vaughan have written a book about the unfamiliar genre project. The principles are key.

Guiding Students to Assess Texts
How can we show students how to inquire, to asses texts, etc. Judith and Audra wrote an article where they examined the claims of a particular writer and found different evidence. John Stewart has shown how to juxtapose videos to demonstrate how a person says one thing and then does something different.

Background
As a teacher who returned to school to earn a PhD, I learned first about how much I didn't know I didn't know. But more importantly, I had to learn ways to read that counted in the communities I now found myself in. I had to learn how to read wihtin disciplines and to learn how to compose texts within these disciplines. I had to learn how to read, again. Of course, what counted as reading appeared different, but it was because of how I learned how to view texts, etc.

As an undergraduate student in my first Shakespeare course, I didn't understand the language, or even the questions that my professor asked. I had to learn how to read within that context, not only the Elizabethan language, but the ways of talking about it.