I have two differing opinions of Blau. I enjoyed the ideas presented but did not enjoy the style in which it was written. Reading about the experiements was interesting but tidious. I do have to admit that it may have been tidious because I was reading often with a sick infant in my arms which can make most tasks tidious!
I enjoyed chapter two and felt that a lot of the observations made were interesting and followed my thinking on rereading and interpretation. I must agree that there is a difficult balance in teaching students that there are many interpretations of texts that are acceptible but not all interpretations are. I know many adults that will say “English is ridiculous because you can say whatever you want.” I also thought that chapter 4 made a good point about background knowledge.
I had trouble reading each of the lesson/ workshop/ experiments but they were nice to have in the book. It seems like a teacher could take the different lessons from the text and plug them into different pieces of literature that are taught through out the year. After reading this a teacher could walk away with a variety of units to teach reading. I think that is an important aspect of “teaching” books. The lessons also seemed like they were a good balance of student participation, lecture, group work and the final product seemed valuable to student learning. I know that the focus of each lesson was realitiviely simple but each was a topic that can be difficult to translate to students- interpretation, rereading, incoportating background knowledge.
Reading the section in background knowledge about “A Modest Proposal” did make me laugh as I know that is how the reading was taught to me and I think I taught it that way my first year teaching. I do see Blau’s point and I think it is important to present to students other readings that support the reading they are doing. It is important to let our students into our thought process and not just give them knowledge but help them learn how to learn.