“‘ Tis the good reader that makes the good book . . . One must be an inventor to read well . . . There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. Every sentence is doubly significant, and the sense of our author is as broad as the world.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
When I teach composition studies to future teachers or even introduction to composition to young adults, one of my favorite assignments to give is a literacy history. I ask students to tell the story of their becoming literate through certain representative artifacts and their reflections on those examples- what inspired them in their journeys to literacy and what challenged them, what opened their eyes and what might have closed the door.
The stories they tell in these histories are of people, places, books, and ideas that moved them, compelled them to action, and ultimately shaped their identities. Students often testify to the works that got them excited about reading, that surprised them, intrigued them, con-fused them, and stuck with them. A variety of texts compete for our students’ attention and multiple literacies are required to remain competitive and fluent today. But literature and narrative still have a place in our students’ lives, whether Harry Potter or Hamlet, Stephen King or ” Story of an Hour,” Facebook or Faulkner.
writes Elizabeth Howells in Literature: Reading to Write.
As a teacher, your classroom library can be a literacy history museum for today’s students. It should includes works that already resonate with students and works that can speak to them with a little guidance. Engaged reading can be fostered through thoughtful writing and demonstrates how literature can be made ” luminous” through the connections we make.
Howells weaves together critical thinking skills, writing, and reading instruction through the use of writing prompts, literary selections, and intriguing discussion points. The book helps students transition from being an active reader to a critical writer through a series of reading prompts and unique writing exercises. This process helps them find meaning in a broader context by forging connections between literature and their personal experiences.
The book includes an eclectic array of classic and contemporary voices in literature, as well as sections devoted to newer genres, such as graphic novels.
The interactive approach of this textbook requires, encourages, and teaches students to produce their own writings as samples in their own classrooms. In other words, this text is student driven and challenges students to respond to bring the literary works to life in their classrooms through Pre- Reading prompts, Focused Free Write questions, and ideas for developing contexts in Context Boxes in each chapter of Part I. It is a dynamic text that calls for engagement of prior knowledge and the contribution of new and diverse knowledge; therefore, teachers and students should be expected to contribute their own responses, contexts, and approaches. Part III uses texts with which students are familiar to introduce them to genres they might like to study in innovative ways.
Literature: Reading to Write actually teaches writing, thinking, and reading as well as research in a detailed and focused way. The process is broken down and instruction attends to every step through examples and exercises.
Howells presents a conscientious choice when it comes to composition and literature instruction- she is selective and thus recognizes the value in a thorough and thoughtful, careful and creative discussion of reading and writing.
“Think of our lives and tell us your particularized world. Make up a story. Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created.” – Toni Morrison