Summa Cum Laude

Our personal response to a text as a critical reader is the second component of a critical, comprehensive reading. If our reponses are to be informed, we must understand what we have read, which is why our first job is to understand. The overall goal of reading to respond is to identify and explore our reactions to a text. More specifically, these goals are as follows:

1. Reflect on our experiences and associations with the topic of a text, i.e. know what you feel about a text and know your emotional response.
2. Let the text challenge you.
3. Use the text to spark new, imaginative thinking.

We can achieve the goals of reading to respond when we approach a text with a set of questions that continually returns our focus to us and our reactions. Here is a sampling of such questions:

• Which one or two sentences did I respond to most strongly in this text ? What was my response ? Explore our reasons for being excited, thoughtful, surprised, or threatened. Keep the focus on us.
• What is the origin of my views on this topic ? If we are reading on a controversial topic, explore where and under what circumstances we learned about the topic.
• If I turned the topic of this text into a question on which people voted, how should I vote and why ? Try getting involved with the text by locating a debate in the text and by taking sides.
• What new interest, question, or observation does this text spark in me ? Use a text to spark our own thinking. Let the text help us pose new questions or make new observations. Use the text a basis for speculation.