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Written Reader Responses

Summerlin Page

Description

Reader responses can be done in numerous ways. Students can be given a topic to write about, or they can come up with a topic on their own, or merely pen their ideas and feelings about an assigned text. Responses can be private with only the instructor reading them and responding, or they can be set up as a class journal. While the instructor’s response to a student’s journal can be helpful, they should not be graded or graded only on participation, as “low-stakes writing,” in order not to hinder the student’s writing (McKeachie, 1999, p.133).

A class journal allows students to see one another’s responses to the material and allow them to respond to each other. This can be done quite easily now through posts to a discussion board. This type of response encourages a dialogue outside the classroom and allows students who may not speak up in class the opportunity to do so in a written forum.

The Journal Book, edited by Toby Fulwiler, is an excellent resource about the use of journals in teaching all ages, kindergarten to college, across numerous disciplines.

Major Concepts

One of the most important aspects of the written response is it allows the student time to think and process their thoughts in putting them to paper. Seeing ones thoughts in print and obtaining feedback from a classmate or instructor can help clarify one’s thoughts and questions (McKeachie, 1999, p.133). A journal entry can be a brief exercise, and it can be the beginning of something larger. Beginning to put thoughts on paper can assist the student in forming a topic for a larger writing assignment like a term paper. Two of the best reasons to utilize written responses is to encourage the students to think about the course content both outside of class and to motivate them by allowing them to tie the coursework to their own experiences and to things that interest them (McKeachie, 1999, p. 133).

Relationship to Teaching Perspective

Reader responses are best suited for the Developmental and Nurturing perspectives as described by Pratt. The journals are developmental in that they give the students a start on writing and can be a step toward more sophisticated writing, and they enhance skills the students will need in the future. Also, the journals are useful for Nurturers as the instructor gets to see a bit more about the student’s background and better understand their responses to the text in addition to giving feedback to help them toward better work.

Benefits

The group journals allow for a dialogue outside the class and give the more introverted students an opportunity to express their ideas in what may be a safer forum. Students have time to think topics over and return to them rather than being pressured into a quick answer that is not thought through. Private responses only seen by the teacher are also a way for students who express themselves better through writing than orally to participate more fully in class work.

Drawbacks and Cautions

As Allen Carey-Webb points out in Literature and Lives, a response may be geared more toward the student than to the text (p. 7). There is a danger of students being more engaged with their experience or opinions rather than applying them to the text.

Final Thoughts

I have been in several classes in which reader responses were implemented. I must say that I retained more knowledge about the material I wrote on in those courses, and I definitely participated more in discussions online and in class journals than I did in class. Having the time to collect my thoughts was valuable. Also, I have had a much easier time writing papers in classes where I first had to write responses. Having an instructor’s insight on what is essentially a “free” assignment has helped me form better paper topics. Classes where these responses were used were some of my best experiences in college.

References

Carey-Webb, A. (2001). Literature and Lives. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English.

Fulwiler, T. (1987). The Journal Book. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.

McKeachie, W. J. (1999). Teaching students to learn through writing: Papers, journals, and reports. In McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers (pp. 132-142). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.