Reading, Readings, and the Teaching of Reading

A sticker if you know where that title comes from. A dollar if you guess why I chose it.

Bloome – Reading as a Social Process

1. Bloome says that reading contexts help regulate group interactions. Is there anything unique to reading that makes it influence group interactions/identity differently from interpersonal communication, speech, or writing? What special properties does reading have to influence our relationships?

2. Is reading always a social process? When students read independently and in isolation with no intention of reporting their findings to other students, where is the social dimension?

3. “What kinds of social, linguistic, and cognitive demands are recurrently made of students during reading events?” (Bloome)


Hirvela – Chapter 1
“An Overview of Reading-Writing Connections”

1. What is it about reading that makes it such a powerful resource for writing? What is fundamentally going on during reading that links the development of its skills with writing? We can draw a parallel that listening is a resource for speaking, but doesn’t the technology of texts create a vastly more complex interaction?

2. Given your teaching context, what is the best kind of reading for you to assign to your students? You can think of this in terms of genre or modes or anything else. Why do you assign those specific texts (or why does your administration)? What do they hope students will gain? The recurring debate over whether we should assign literature or non-fiction, essays, cultural products pops up occasionally. Make your case.

3. “[Reading] needs to be incorporated into the writing classroom, but what has not been made clear is what proportion of a writing course the reading component should occupy. What recommendation would you make for the proportioning of reading and writing?...On what basis should such a decision be made?” (40).


“We must be careful not to answer the questions too quickly. Our initial impressions and answers may reflect our own biases and ethnocentric ways of thinking about reading and the world” (Bloome).