reader response assignment

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How to Write a Reader Response

Last Updated: March 19, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Diane Stubbs . Diane Stubbs is a Secondary English Teacher with over 22 years of experience teaching all high school grade levels and AP courses. She specializes in secondary education, classroom management, and educational technology. Diane earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Delaware and a Master of Education from Wesley College. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 444,992 times.

A reader response assignment asks you to explain and defend your personal reaction to an assigned text. Reader response papers can be difficult because they force you, the reader, to take responsibility for giving meaning to the text. Often these assignments feel open-ended and vague, but don't worry, a good reader response paper will follow a standard essay format that you can easily master. This guide will walk you through the creation of a well-crafted reader response paper that's sure to wow your instructor and earn you an awesome grade.

Writing the Reader Response

• It is often helpful to use the first body paragraph to include more information about the text, the plotline, major themes, etc., and then use the rest of the paragraphs to provide an analysis of how you felt about the text.

• Remember that a reader response is meant to be personal, so it's OK to incorporate personal anecdotes and opinions into your analysis.
• Example: "Forcing Hester Prynne to wear the scarlet "A" reminded me of a time when I was cyber-bullied in eighth grade, and my "friends" spread rumors about me online where the whole school could see."

• Example: "At the end of The Old Man and the Sea, Manolin promises to once again fish with Santiago, so the old man no longer has to be alone. This was Santiago's greatest wish, but it was a different kind of success than he initially set out to achieve."

• Example: "'My big fish must be somewhere,' said Santiago. This is exactly how I felt after I received my third rejection letter, but like Santiago, I kept trying, and eventually I was accepted."
• Make sure and cite your examples per class directions. You will usually be required to note the page numbers of any quotations or specific examples in parentheses at the end of the sentence.

• A great way to think of your conclusion is that it's one last chance to explain to your reader how you see all of your points fitting together.

• Sometimes it's hard to see our own mistakes, so it can really help to exchange papers with a friend, and proofread each other's work.

Drafting the Reader Response

• "Even though I found The Scarlett Letter hard to follow at times, Hester Prynne's story is still relatable, and made me think a lot about the effects of publicly shaming people online."
• "Some people believe the Old Man and the Sea is a book about failure, but it is really a story of perseverance that teaches us that success may not always come in the form we expect, and even disasters can lead to positive outcomes."

• Introduction: 1 paragraph.
• Analysis/Body Paragraphs: 3-4 paragraphs. How you organize these paragraphs will depend on the parameters of the assignment.
• Conclusion: 1 paragraph.

Reading the Text

• Do you like or dislike the text?
• Can you identify the author's purpose?
• Do you agree or disagree with the author?
• Does the text relate to you and your life? If so, how? If not, why not?
• Does the text agree with, or go against your personal world view?
• What, if anything, did you learn from the text?

• Taking a bit of extra time during this phase will save you a lot of time in the writing process. [9] X Research source

• I think that...
• I feel that...
• I see that...
• I have learned that...

Sample Reader Response

Community Q&A

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• ↑ https://penandthepad.com/rules-writing-reading-response-essay-3968.html
• ↑ https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-jefferson-english102/chapter/reader-response-criticism-american-literature-i/
• ↑ https://writingstudio.gsu.edu/files/2021/02/Reading-Response.pdf
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/proofreading/steps_for_revising.html
• ↑ https://faculty.washington.edu/momara/Reader%20Response.pdf
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/essay-outline/
• ↑ http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/rwc/handouts/the-writing-process-1/invention/Writing-a-Response-or-Reaction-Paper
• ↑ http://education-portal.com/articles/Step-by-Step_Guide_to_Writing_a_Great_Reading_Response_Paper.html
• ↑ https://www.hunter.cuny.edu/rwc/handouts/the-writing-process-1/invention/Writing-a-Response-or-Reaction-Paper

About This Article

To write a reader response, develop a clear thesis statement and choose example passages from the text that support your thesis. Next, write an introduction paragraph that specifies the name of the text, the author, the subject matter, and your thesis. Then, include 3-4 paragraphs that discuss and analyze the text. Finish up with a conclusion paragraph that summarizes your arguments and brings the reader back to your thesis or main point! For tips on analyzing the text before writing your assignment, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Introduction

CDHE Nomination

AUCC Requirements

Course Description

Sample Policy Statements

Syllabus Sequencing Strategies

Sample Daily Syllabi

Lesson Plans

Reading Selection Recommendations

Assignments

Response Papers and Discussion Forums

Presentations

Discusssion, Group, WTL Questions

Variations, Misc.

Curbing Plagiarism

Additional Teaching & Course Design Resources

Guide Contributors

Response Paper Assignment Example

This example of a weekly response assignment asks for students to submit a one page paper every Friday. The instructor posts specific questions each week during the first few weeks to give the students an indication of what they might pay attention to while reading. After the first few weeks, the instructor encourages the students to come up with their own topics for the responses. Included below is a list of general questions for those students who lack a specific topic for the week. The majority of the questions focus on formalist or traditional literary devices while the last question opens up the possibility of the responses by inviting students to comment on other critical approaches (i.e. feminism, reader response, etc.). One interesting twist for this assignment is the coin flip to decide whether the instructor will collect the response or not. This strategy allows students the possibility of missing a response paper without consequences to their grades and lessens the grading burden for the instructor.

Weekly Response Papers:

For every assigned reading, you should annotate the text. These annotations will help you complete the response paper that you are expected to write every week (once a week). The first few weeks of the semester, you should check the course calendar on Wednesday (from the ‘Calendar’ in our class Writing Studio program) to find questions that you may use to guide your short responses to the fiction we read. After the first few weeks of the semester, you are required to come up with your own writing topics.  On weeks when we read two or more fictional pieces, you should choose one of the selections to respond to in writing. These short responses ( double-spaced and 1 page in length ) must be typed and brought to class every Friday (unless otherwise stated).  At the beginning of class on Friday, I will flip a coin: heads means the responses must be submitted for a grade; tails means I will not collect them. These response papers, while informal pieces of writing, should still be grammatically and syntactically correct; I expect you to use language precisely, to support your response with specifics from the fiction using cited quotations, to write with style, focus, and, yes, correct spelling. Be sure to specify which selection you are responding to in the title or heading. No late responses will be accepted for any reason (you may submit them early if you anticipate an absence), but I will drop the lowest response paper before averaging the others to figure the 30% of the final course grade .  I reserve the right to issue a pop-quiz or an alternative assignment in place of the week’s response paper. No email submissions are accepted .

Response Papers Dos and Don’ts:

A response paper should be fairly formal and should genuinely attempt to shed light on one or more aspects of the work. You may discuss the significance of character, plot, setting, symbol…whatever catches your fancy. Overall, I am looking for interesting and original insights concerning the reading assignment.

An ideal response will be about 1 page in length and typed. Your paper will explore a problem or point of interest created by a work of literature (this includes, but is not limited to, character motivation, thematic elements, symbol, irony, poetry conventions, etc.). Your ideas and insights will be based on information from the pages in the text we have read so far, calling upon specific examples to illustrate the idea or issue you are exploring. Your grade will be based on the quality and depth of your insights, and on the use of specific textual evidence as support. (Avoid the obvious! Take risks! Make it interesting!)

Possible starting places for your response include an author's life, politics, the social context of the work, philosophical musings, how and why the work evokes a particular feeling in you, cultural relevance, or the components of the text such as the significance of form, setting, narrative voice, imagery, or symbolism. Or, perhaps you will apply a critical approach to the text. Or, you may wish to explore the relationship between elements of the text (How does setting influence character?). As we move on into the later weeks of the course, you may even wish to direct your responses toward identifying patterns between texts, and asking what the significance of these patterns might be.

The Dos and Don'ts of Response Papers:

**Remember : Response papers must be submitted on time. They will be evaluated on the basis of focus, development, use of evidence, creativity, and level of insight. They will count as 30% of your final grade, and be graded on a 10 pt. scale each. Additionally, I will drop your lowest response.

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Engaging Resources for Teaching Literacy

By Sara Marye Leave a Comment

10 Engaging Reading Response Ideas For Upper Elementary Students

Are you teaching your students all the steps in the reading process ?

The reading process is something I came up with to help my kiddos understand that REAL reading is soooo much more than just reading the words in the text.

If we want to really understand what we read, we need to engage in all steps of the reading process each and every time we wit down to read a text… and one of those key steps is responding to reading.

Reading response is an important part of the reading process. When students respond to their reading it helps them to apply key comprehension strategies and also assists them with internalizing what they read – think of it like reading the actual text is the input, and creating a response is the output… responding to a text we read is evidence that thinking took place during the reading process. 

It’s not uncommon for students to lose interest or get bored with their “respond to reading” routine, which means as teachers, we need to constantly be thinking about ways we can keep our students engaged and excited about responding to reading.

In this post, you’ll get 10 ideas that will keep your students engaged and excited about responding to reading.

But first, let’s talk about WHY we want our students to respond to reading.

Purpose of responding to reading:

We want our students to be THINKING while they are reading and assigning a reading response activity/prompt/assignment reminds students to think, while they are reading. 

Reading response assignments provide accountability – Independent reading is one of the best ways to help our students become stronger readers, but since there are 20 something students and only 1 teacher, we don’t always have time to listen to or monitor daily independent reading and regularly assigning or providing reading response assignments holds kids accountable to their independent reading. 

Responding to reading reinforces other important language skills: writing, listening, speaking, presenting… reading responses are one way that we can connect multiple key communication and language arts skills. 

1. Sticky Note Templates 

I love giving kids sticky note templates to use for their reading response assignments. If you haven’t figured out how to print on sticky notes yet, check out THIS blog post and THIS resource. These little graphic organizer templates are the perfect size for students to quickly jot down their thoughts while reading, but not overwhelm them or take up too much time to complete.

And one of the things I love about them is that students can stick them directly in their independent reading text or reading journal… they are one of my students all-time-favorite ways to respond to reading.

2. Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are such a great reading response assignment, and they really help students boost their comprehension as well. Here are some of the perks of using graphic organizers as your reading response assignments:

They help students visually organize their thinking

Students don’t have to write in complete sentences so writing doesn’t become a roadblock to responding to reading

You can usually find graphic organizers that are aligned to specific reading standards or skills (if you’re looking for some, check THESE out).

You can teach students how to create their own which means they will ALWAYS have the ability to respond to reading… all they will need is paper and pencil.

3. Choice Boards

Anytime you can give your students a choice in how they respond, you will see an instant increase in engagement… which will lead to an increase in comprehension. I love giving kids choice boards with a wide range of reading response activities.

I especially like to give kids options that appeal to a variety of learning styles… summarize the text you read…create a social media profile for the main character…create a comic strip to communicate the theme… draw a timeline of key events…write a letter to the author… the possibilities are endless.

If you regularly use choice boards in your classroom, one thing you can do to spice it up is let your students come up with the reading response ideas. You can have them all submit an idea on a notecard and then you can pick the 9 best options and turn them into a choice board.

Anytime students can give input, you’ll see an increase in investment and motivation… and this way your students are the ones doing all the hard work.

4. Response Question Stems 

I LOVE giving students a set of question stems/starters or thinking stems as an option for responding to reading…Question stems/starters are a great way to get students to naturally apply the skills/strategies you want them to become confident and independent readers. 

When we ask ourselves questions, our brains naturally want to find out the answers, so the more questions our students ask about the texts they are reading, the harder they are going to work to find the answers. 

This can be such an easy way to get students to respond to their reading:

You can give students a set of question stems on a book mark or a question ring and they can select which ones they want to answer in their reading journal…or on a sticky note… or on a note card. It’s a quick and easy way for them to respond to their reading.

OR you can have your students help you brainstorm a set of questions for a particular skill or read aloud and you can let your students pick the ones they want to answer. 

5. Book Review

Having students write a book review can be a quick, easy, and fun way to have them respond to their reading. When they are writing a book review, they have to apply a variety of reading skills to complete the book review:

Students have to summarize the key events in the text.

Students have to evaluate the author’s writing and determine if the text is worth reading.

Students have to think about the characters, setting, and key events and what made the text enjoyable/not enjoyable to read.

Students have to think about what they liked and didn’t like about the text.

6. Book Talks

I love using book talks as an option for reading response for a few reasons:

A book talk is a great reason/purpose to get students to intentionally reflect on and think about their reading.

It’s a great way to combine so many key communication skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking).

Students have fun putting together a book talk and sharing it with their classmates.

It’s a really easy way to introduce students to variety of book titles.

If you’ve never used book talks in your classroom, you can learn more about them in THIS blog post.

7. Thinking Routine Prompts

I love using thinking routines all throughout my instructional day and giving students the option of using a thinking routine as a reading response assignment was always a great way to get them to think meaningfully about what they were reading. A few of my favorites include:

Draw Label Caption – This prompt really appeals to students who like to draw or are really creative. Students will draw an image that captures the theme or a really important part of the text, then they will add in labels to point out key details in their illustration, and finally they will add in a caption for what they drew.

Sentence, Phrase, Word –  With this prompt, students would pick out the most important sentence, the most important phrase, and the most important word from what they have read. It’s a great exercise to get them to think about the most important details/main idea of the text.

I used to think, but now I think – This one works great for non-fiction. Students simply respond to this prompt after they have read something to share how their thinking about that topic has changed.

8. Coding a Text

This is an option that I would give students on occasion and all it is is letting them create a set of symbols to show their thinking about a text. Students could come up with a set of symbols to show their thinking….

? = I asked a question

Heart = my favorite place

! = something surprising

Letting students code a text is a great way to have them share their thinking about a text, but in a way that saves time and doesn’t put a TON of dependence on their writing ability – it keeps the focus on reading, while reminding them to think while reading. 

check out these resources!

9. Talk with a Friend 

Responding to a text doesn’t ALWAYS have to show up in written form. You can let your students talk to a friend as a form of reading response. One of my favorite ways to end my reading workshop was to give students 2-3 min to talk with a classmate about what they read and what they were working on. 

Students would take their independent reading text and go find a friend and they would each share their title, what reading skill they were working on, what they thought about the text, and just have a short little conversation about what they were reading. It was a quick and easy way to get them to talk about a text…. and I love that it was a chance for them to work on their speaking and listening skills.

10. No Response

Ok, ok, ok… so maybe this one isn’t really a reading response idea, but here me out… In case no one has given you this permission, let me go ahead and tell you that it is ok to have your students read just for the sake of reading… no response required.

So often we feel like we NEED to account for every single minute of our instructional day with some form of assessment or student product… and accountability is such a buzz word in education, that we forget our goal is to inspire and create life-long readers… and if that is what we are working towards, then we need to remember it is ok to let kids read just for the fun of it and not always respond. 

As much as we want our students to respond to reading (and we really do), more importantly, we want them to LOVE reading and in order to achieve that goal, sometimes we need to be ok with them reading just for fun. A few ways you can give your students a free pass with their reading response assignments, but still be intentional about it are with the following ideas:

Free Read Fridays – let your students read whatever they want just for fun on Fridays. No assignments needed. This is also a great way for you to get caught up on grading or assessments.

3 out of the 5 days of IR must have some form of reading response – this is another great option that gives students some choice. They know that they get 2 days of free choice reading and 3 days of reading response assignments, but they get to pick which days they are.

By the end of the week you must have…. I love using this option. This lets students decide when and how they want to complete their reading response assignments. You set the assignments, they decide when they want to get them done… they just have to have them done by the end of the week.

Just a few reminders…

Now that you have all these ideas for reading response assignments, let me end with just a few reminders:

Make sure you regularly switch up your reading response routine. If you are intentional about introducing new options for reading response assignments, or regularly assigning new options, your students will remain engaged and motivated…. and with so many ideas in this post, try to introduce a new idea each month.

Teach it before you assign it. No matter what the assignment is… if its a sticky note, a graphic organizer, a choice board, or a book talk. Make sure you clearly and explicitly teach your students HOW to complete the reading response assignment before you assign it.

Give students choice. With so many options available, try to give your students a choice in which reading response assignment they want to complete whenever possible. Choice is such a great way to engage your students and ensure they are putting forth their best effort.

Happy reading. Happy responding.

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5 Reader Activities That Invite Higher Thinking

by MiddleWeb · Published 07/12/2015 · Updated 05/30/2023

You’ve taught students to read closely, to annotate, to discuss—now what? How can we get kids to interact with texts in creative ways that require an even higher level of understanding? Here, I’ll share five of my favorite post-reading reader-response activities.

1. Written Reading Responses (RRs)

Doing Reading Responses (RRs) is one of the most effective techniques I know to get kids to formulate new ideas about a fiction or non-fiction text while referring to the text as they do so. It is a logical next step to annotating. This technique can be adapted for middle or high school students.

In the beginning of the year, I give students a list of 10-15 RR “types” with descriptions for each. Some of the types include Give an Opinion, Ask a Question, Prove a Character Trait, Dissect a Significant Passage, Make a Connection, Spot the Setting, Find the Figurative Language, Evaluate the Intro, and Mark the Motivation. The rules for writing an RR are as follows:

How To Write an RR

• Label the type of RR you are writing.
• Write at least four sentences.
• Have an original idea; don’t just summarize.
• Quote and cite something in the text to support your idea.

These rules force students to think of an original idea about the text or to elaborate on something they may have briefly annotated. My handout gives them ideas about how to do this. [Editor’s note: Marilyn’s handout is reproduced in her Scholastic book 50 Common Core Reading Response Activities . Used with permission.]

For example, for the Spot the Setting RR, students shouldn’t merely give details about the setting; they should speculate about why the author chose that particular setting, and how it contributes to plot or mood.

The four-sentence rule is required even for questions: I tell students to write a question and then three sentences about what they understand about the question so far. The labeling makes students deliberately acknowledge how they are framing their thoughts about the text.

I usually have students do RRs for homework, and then use their RRs as a springboard and compass for discussion. I often begin class by asking students to share their RRs. As individual students speak up, the rest of us jump to their cited text and follow along. I merely facilitate the conversation, highlighting important points and asking deeper questions when needed. The students themselves will eventually hit upon all the important points of the text; often they will make observations or ask questions I had not thought of myself.

I rarely collect RRs. Instead, after our discussions, I give students another activity to work on, and I circulate to check that the RRs have been done. On days when we haven’t had a whole-group discussion, I might ask each student to summarize his or her RR for me as I walk around. I love this method because it enables me to have a 60-second reading conference with each of them.

Occasionally, though, I will have students complete a “Polished RR,” for which they must choose one of their particularly insightful or interesting RRs, type it up, expand upon it if necessary, and hand it in for a larger grade.

At the end of the first semester, I have students write an RR Analysis Paper in which they examine their reading response habits: Do they always gravitate to one type of RR? Do they have to fight the urge to only summarize? Is there an RR that they have deliberately avoided? What does this say about them as readers and thinkers? This metacognitive exercise helps students see themselves as active participants in their own learning. It also helps refocus and challenge them for the next semester.

2. Concrete Found Poems

I’m combining two poetic forms here: the “concrete” or shaped poem that middle school students are probably very familiar with, and the “found” poem, which they may not know. Each is a legitimate form in its own right; each can be done with sophistication and deeper meaning. Combining them can push students’ thinking and analysis to a higher level.

To create a concrete found poem, students must only use words, phrases or even whole sentences “found” in their text. Then, they must shape these words into a visual representation on paper. They are not drawing; they must arrange the words, phrases, or sentences into an image on the page.

Students can create concrete found poems about a character, setting, or theme (using a symbol for the concrete structure). They should turn in not only the finished image but also a sheet with the cited words, phrases, or sentences they used to create the image. I require a minimum of ten of these. Below are some examples using the stories of Prometheus and King Arthur:

3. Postcard Home

Most main characters embark on a journey of some kind; this archetypal plot pattern lends itself to a postcard home activity. Have students write in the voice of a journeying character. You could designate a specific recipient or have students choose their own. Here are some questions to get students thinking:

            Postcard Brainstorming Questions

            Where are you?             Do you like it? Why or why not?             What has happened to you so far? (one or two sentences)             What are you struggling with?             What have you learned so far, about yourself or others?             What will you do?             How do you feel about the recipient?

4. Character To-Do List

We all have many things we want to accomplish in the near and far future, and characters are no different! Tell students to choose a character from the text—or you can assign characters so all the characters are represented. Challenge them to get inside that character’s head to create a to-do list. They can think about the following questions:

            Character To-Do List Brainstorming Questions

            What does he or she have to do on a daily basis?             What does the character want to do or achieve?             What are the character’s responsibilities?             What are the character’s goals?             Where does the character have to go?             Whom does the character need to speak to?

Students should use actual information from the text, of course, but urge them to also infer information and supply text evidence to support their inferences. It helps to set a minimum number of tasks, such as ten. You can suggest that if a character has a large goal on the list, that goal can be broken down into smaller tasks. For example, if a character’s goal is to “win karate tournament,” smaller steps might include, “Practice 2 hours a day” and “Watch opponents compete.” This activity will measure students’ comprehension, their understanding of a character’s underlying motives, their ability to draw inferences from existing information, and their ability to predict a character’s future actions.

For an extra challenge, have students cite the pages containing information from which they drew inferences. Below is an example using Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian .

5. Write a Twitter Conversation

Students love this! Have them work with partners to rewrite part of the text as a Twitter conversation among the characters. They do not have to actually use Twitter; they can just write out the conversation on paper, perhaps using Twitter’s 140-character maximum length. This is not merely a summarizing activity—deeper understandings can surface with this exercise.

For example, students’ choices of Twitter handles for each character may reveal character traits; their use of hashtags could express inferences about personalities and themes. I am always amazed at the humor and wit of the students when we do this activity, and the students themselves are often gasping with laughter by the end of it.

Below is a Twitter conversation between Daedalus, Icarus, and the shepherd that saw them flying.

Keeping It Real

Applying real-word literacy practices, like Twitter chats and To-Do Lists, to in-class texts engages students and deepens understanding. For more ideas, or to view full assignment sheets and rubric possibilities for the assignments suggested here, please see my book, 50 Common Core Reading Response Activities (Scholastic, 2014). [ Read MiddleWeb’s review. ]

If you’d like to explore the topic of this post in more depth, Marilyn’s most recent book is Reading with Presence: Crafting Meaningful, Evidenced-Based Reading Responses (Heinemann, 2018). She can be reached at http://marilynpryle.com/ .

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Tags: character diary Common Core concrete found poem marilyn pryle postcard home Reading Response activities reading responses to-do list Twitter conversation

MiddleWeb is all about the middle grades, with great 4-8 resources, book reviews, and guest posts by educators who support the success of young adolescents. And be sure to subscribe to MiddleWeb SmartBrief for the latest middle grades news & commentary from around the USA.

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Great list, thanks for sharing!

Can’t wait to try the concrete found poems for reading science texts. A great way for students to build conceptual ideas about what they are learning. Thanks!

Very good content, we will do this on our own blog site. Many thanks for sharing.

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Reader Response in Hypertext: Making Personal Connections to Literature

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

In this lesson plan, students choose four quotations to inspire personal responses to a novel that they have read. Students write a narrative of place, a character sketch, an extended metaphor poem, and a persuasive essay then link all four texts to the quotations they selected. If desired, students incorporate photos into their presentation then publish the collected texts on their website. This lesson is used with novels that contain a strong sense of place, that focus on closeness of characters, and that are metaphorical in character, such as A River Runs Through It , Montana 1948 , and The Bean Trees.

Featured Resources

Writing Rubric : Teachers can use this rubric to evaluate the content, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency, and conventions of their students' writing. Interactive Venn Diagram : Students use this online tool to compare and contrast the details of two books, to organize ideas for a compare and contrast essay, and a variety of other compare and contrast activities. Persuasion Map : Students use this online tool to map out and print persuasive arguments. Included are spaces to map out the thesis, three reasons, and supporting details.

From Theory to Practice

This lesson asks students "to develop and explore their personal responses to literature," which Allen Carey-Webb identifies is the basic teaching strategy that "put[s] the ‘reader response' theory into practice" (6-7). As Carey-Webb explains in more detail, "Rather than lecture, recitation, or the discovery of some predetermined meaning, reader response teachers favor small- and large-group discussions, literature circles, creative writing, and dramatic and artistic activities that help students engage actively with what they read and express their individual responses and understandings" (7). This lesson adopts the reader-response techniques of asking students to engage with the texts that they read and respond individually in multiple genres. Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

Texts with a Sense of Place booklist

• Quotation Journal Recording Sheet
• Daily Response Journal instructions
• Hypertext Response Project
• Hypertext Response Planning Sheet
• Essay of Place assignment
• Character Sketch assignment
• How to Write a Character Sketch
• Grandma Atkinson character sketch example
• Sample Character Traits
• Persuasive Essay assignment
• Guiding Questions for Peer Feedback
• Writing Rubric
• Self-Reflection

Preparation

• Choose book(s) from the booklist or similar novels, and decide whether to complete the project as a whole class activity or based on books that students read in literature circle novel or independently.
• Familiarize yourself with the Web editing software available for students to use to publish their final drafts.
• Decide how you will structure the lesson. The instructional plan included here asks students to read the book and gather quotations using Quotation Journal Recording Sheet before they begin the project. If you'd prefer to have students work on the project while they are reading, you might use the Daily Response Journal instructions rather than the recording sheet .
• If desired, make copies of handouts for project and writing assignments or arrange for overhead. Most of the assignments can also be given verbally.
• Choose a poem to use as a model for the extended metaphor poem. Possible titles include Emily Dickinson’s “ There is No Frigate like a Book ,” Jane Yolen’s “ Fat Is Not a Fairy Tale ,” or Eve Merriam’s “ Willow and Ginkgo ."
• Test the Persuasion Map on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.

Student Objectives

Students will

• demonstrate their understanding of setting, character, metaphor, and theme by writing responses based on each literary element.
• show their personal connections to a piece of literature by keeping quotation journals.
• write short papers in various genres (description, character sketch, extended metaphor poem, persuasive essays) showing personal connections to the novel.
• publish their project to a personal or school Website or to a disk or CD.

Reading the Novel

• Before students begin reading the book(s) you’ve chosen, pass out and explain the Quotation Journal Recording Sheet .
• As a group, choose a few quotations from the novel and complete sample entries on the recording sheet to model the technique for students.
• Emphasize that student responses to the text are the goal of this part of the process. Students are choosing quotations that are meaningful to them. It’s likely that students will choose different passages as they read the texts.
• After students understand the process of recording quotations, read and discuss the novel(s) chosen, as whole class or in small groups.
• Have students use their Quotation Journal Recording Sheets to stimulate group discussion.

Session One: Project Overview

• Ask students to review their Quotation Journal Recording Sheets , looking for quotations they found particularly meaningful as they were reading.
• Working in small groups or as a whole class, invite students to share the quotations that they identify and to explain why they have chosen them. This process can serve as a review of the elements of the novel in order to prepare students for the writing project they will complete in subsequent sessions.
• As students discuss, ask them to pay particular attention to how the quotations relate to the literary features of setting, plot, and metaphor.
• After students have had a chance to review their entries, pass out the Hypertext Response Project .

Create a Web page with four quotations from the book and four photographs that illustrate the quotations. These quotations each communicate a different piece of information about the novel: a quotation that shows the importance of place (the setting) in the novel a quotation that shows the relationship between two characters (e.g., for A River Runs Through It , the two brothers) a quotation that helps establish the metaphor explored in the book (e.g., for A River Runs Through It , the river or fly-fishing is a metaphor for life) the quote of the novel, the one passage or quotation that captures the essence, the true meaning, of the novel for you Next, write four hyperlinked pieces—an essay of place, a character sketch, an extended metaphor poem, and a persuasive essay explaining the quotation you've chosen as the quotation of the book.

• In the process of explaining the project, make connections to the Planning Sheet , which uses a table to help students organize their ideas and the details for their projects. Explain that all the items under the "Main Page with Illustrations" column belong on the first page. The "Four Subpages" column is for the topics and the filenames for the four pages that link to the quotations on the main page.
• Explain any filenaming guidelines (see example ) that you want students to follow and connect these guidelines to the rows where students record their filenames on the Planning Sheet .
• As a class, identify an example of each type of quotation, using a text that they are all familiar with to provide a model for students’ work.
• Remind students that these quotations are individual and there are many options, so their choices will likely be different when they work on their hypertext project. There is no single correct quotation to choose.
• Share the Writing Rubric that will be used to evaluate the final projects and answer any questions students have about the requirements.
• In the time remaining or for homework, ask students to choose four quotations for their project and to use the Planning Sheet to begin thinking about their project.

Session Two: Essay of Place

Write a descriptive essay about a place that has had some special meaning in your life—a place that is still a part of you. Provide specific physical details about the place, and explain how this place helped form you into the person you are today. As you get started, take a few minutes to think about how you want to order your essay: What will you summarize? What will you dramatize? Will you use chronological order or flashback? Publish your essay of place on a new Web page. Link the page to the quotation of place that you've chosen from your novel.

• Provide an example from a book or short story that all the students are familiar with to work through the process of choosing a focus and gathering details for the piece. For example, in the novel A River Runs Through It , the characters Norman and Paul have a strong sense of place. They are part of Montana and the river, and the river and Montana are part of them.
• Review information on description using your textbook, LEO: Descriptive Essay from The Write Place, or Descriptive Essays from the Purdue OWL.
• Think of a place that you want to describe—why is this place important to you? why do you want to tell someone else about it?
• Now that you have a particular place in mind, focus on your senses. First, what do you see when you look at the place?
• Next, talk about what you hear in the place. Try to describe the sounds (e.g., gurgling water or the buzz-z-z-z-z of the motor).
• What do you smell and taste in this place?
• How do you feel when you are in this place? What emotions does this place bring to mind?
• Would someone else feel the same way? What would someone else notice? Would someone else see, hear, and smell the same things that you do?
• What do you want someone who reads your essay to know about this place? What is the most important thing that they learn about it?
• After gathering their ideas by responding to these prompts, students can begin drafting their essay and creating Web pages, following the instructions in the Essay of Place assignment to publish their work. Remind students to return to their Planning Sheets to check the relationships among their files and the filenames.

Session Three: Character Sketch

Write a character sketch of someone who has had some special meaning in your life. Provide specific details about the person and your relationship, and explain how this person helped form you into who you are today. Publish your character sketch on a new Web page. Link the page to the quotation that you've chosen from your novel, which shows the relationship between two characters.

• If desired, review the adjective part of speech, using the Capital Community College “Guide to Grammar and Writing” Website or your grammar textbook as a reference.
• Brainstorm a list of character traits or provide a short list on the board, to provide a sample for students.
• Working from the information on adjectives and the sample character traits, compose a class definition of the literary term.
• Using a character from a work that students have read, demonstrate the process of compiling a list of character traits, using online resources such as an Internet dictionary or thesaurus or the thesaurus in Microsoft Word. Share the list of character traits with students, if desired.
• Introduce the character sketches by asking students to think of a person who is important to them in their lives. Provide an example that students are familiar with, from a reading, movie, or television show. For instance, in A River Runs Through It , the relationship between Norman and Paul is full of conflicts but still extremely close. Even though he is the younger brother, Paul has a profound influence on Norman's life. If Norman were writing in response to this assignment, he might write a character sketch of Paul.
• Think about the person you want to write about—why is this person important to you? why do you want to tell someone else about him or her?
• Now that you have a particular person in mind, focus on giving your readers a strong image of the person. First, what do you see when you look at the person? How does the person dress? Describe the person’s gestures or facial expressions.
• Next, talk about how the person talks. What topics does the person talk about? What kind of words does the person use? What makes you recognize this person’s voice?
• What values are important to this person? What does the person care most about, and how can you tell?
• Think of a specific time you were with this person. Briefly tell the story of your time together—just get your ideas down. You can expand on them later.
• What kind of emotional reaction do you want your reader to have to this person? How do you want your reader to feel after reading about him or her?
• After gathering their ideas by responding to these prompts, students can begin drafting their essays and creating Web pages. Remind students to return to their Planning Sheets to check the relationships among their files and the filenames.
• Distribute the How to Write a Character Sketch handout to give students additional support as they write.
• If desired, explore the sample character sketch with students, pointing out the characteristics that make the example successful.

Session Four: Extended Metaphor Poem

• Read the poem you’ve chosen aloud to students, asking them to listen to the words only during this first reading.
• Pass out copies of the poem or display the poem using an overhead projector.
• Read the poem aloud again, asking students to follow along.
• Ask students what they notice about the poem, and list their responses on the board or chart paper.
• If students have not yet identified the elements in the poem, ask a student to define the literary terms metaphor and simile . Alternately, you can point to a definition in your textbook, or use the following definitions: A metaphor compares two things by stating that one thing is the other. For example, in the novel A River Runs Through It , the river or fly-fishing is a metaphor for life. A simile compares two things using like or as .
• Read the poem through another time, asking students to listen for these literary elements.
• Ask students to identify how the poem uses an extended comparison to make its point.
• Using the poem that you’ve chosen as a model and their observations, ask students to create a list of the characteristics of an extended metaphor poem (e.g., the first line typically states the comparison, the poem focuses on one comparison).

Write an extended metaphor poem based on a comparison similar to that explored in the book that you've read. Your poem can include both metaphors and similes. Publish your poem on a new Web page, and link that page to the quotation that you've chosen from your novel to represent the metaphor that is explored in the story.

• Ask students to create a T-chart , with one column labeled for the metaphor and the other for what it stands for. For instance, for the novel A River Runs Through It , the river is the metaphor (column one) and it stands for life (column two).
• To demonstrate the idea-gathering process, ask students to brainstorm descriptive words and phrases under each column.
• As a class, shape the words students have gathered into a poem, pointing to the list of characteristics the class has gathered.
• To begin work on their own poems, ask students to identify the metaphor explored in the novel they are focusing on for this project.
• Have students brainstorm a list of alternative metaphors that could stand for the main issue (e.g., metaphors for life might be a football game, a great party, or a garden).
• Ask students to choose one item on their list and gather ideas for that metaphor.
• Have students create two columns, as they did for the example, and brainstorm details and images.
• If desired, students can use the two-circle Interactive Venn Diagram to organize their comparisons.
• After gathering their ideas in these two columns, students can begin drafting their extended metaphor poems and creating the related Web pages and linking to the quotation from the novel that establishes its overarching metaphor. Remind students to return to their Planning Sheets to check the relationships among their files and the filenames.

Session Five: Persuasive Essay

Focus your essay on the reasons that the quotation you’ve chosen is “The Quotation of the Book.” Persuade your readers that the quotation captures the story’s essence, or true meaning. Explain the reasons why this one passage should be saved if the book were ever lost or destroyed. Publish your persuasive essay on a new Web page. Link the page to the quotation that you've chosen from your novel.

• Have students brainstorm a list of reasons that they chose the quotation. Encourage them to take this opportunity to record initial ideas, which will serve as a springboard to further discussion.
• Once students have had time to gather their ideas, divide students into small groups.
• How does the quotation impress, intrigue, or puzzle you?
• What about the author’s use of language is appealing or powerful?
• What makes the language grab your attention? Is it beautiful, descriptive, or graphic?
• Why is the passage particularly meaningful?
• How does the passage relate to the book’s message, meaning, or theme?
• As they share ideas, have students take notes on their conversations to use later as they write their essays.
• Demonstrate the Persuasion Map , explaining how to use the tool to organize notes for the completed essay.
• Allow students the remainder of the class to complete the Persuasion Map for their quotations and work on their essays. Remind students to return to their Planning Sheets to check the relationships among their files and the filenames.

Additional Work Sessions

Allow students additional sessions to work on their projects. Students should be given enough time to complete their writing, publish their pages, and check their links. Once their drafts are complete, students should share their pages with at least one other student, who will check students’ links and share reactions and suggestions.

Session Six: Sharing and Peer Feedback

• Give students five minutes to make last-minute preparations and to check their sites.
• Have students share the addresses for their files with the class or in their groups.
• Of the four pieces included (essay of place, character sketch, extended metaphor poem, and persuasive essay), which did you like the most and why?
• Which of the four pieces had the strongest connection to the quotation? What made the connection so strong?
• Which of the four pieces did you like the most and why?
• What suggestions do you have for the author?
• After students have responded to the texts of all group members, ask students to read the feedback and use the information to make any final changes to their texts before submitting them for final evaluation at the beginning of the next session (or later if you want to allow students additional time to work on revisions).
• Remind students of the requirements included on the Writing Rubric , which will be used to evaluate the final projects, and answer any questions students have.
• One that shows the importance of place in the novel
• One that shows the relationship between the two brothers
• One that helps establish the metaphor explored in the novel
• One that focuses on the quote of the novel
• Group Publications In a classroom with limited computers, have students work in groups to complete the project, with one group homepage linked to related photos and quotations. Student could link their individual essays to this home page.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Part of this lesson can be evaluated by the students. Using the Self-Reflection assessment handout, ask students to compile a reflective narrative tracing the steps they took in the process, what they had problems with, how they worked out their problems, and how they feel about their final project.
• Teachers may evaluate both the process and the final project by keeping anecdotal records of students' participation in the process. They may also wish to use the Writing Rubric for the written artifact.
• Calendar Activities
• Student Interactives
• Lesson Plans

The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.

This interactive tool allows students to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles, enabling them to organize their information logically.

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Jenna Copper

Teaching Secondary English Language Arts

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How To Engage Your ELA Students with Reader Response Lens

In this article series, I’m going to outline different literary lenses that you can use in your English classroom to engage your secondary ELA students with multiple perspectives. Start by reading this article about what are literary lenses and why you should use them in your classroom. Today’s article is all about Reader Response Lens, or as I like to call it reader lens.

Reader Response Theory, or reader lens, is a perspective that I bet you already use in your classroom. Anytime you ask your students, “What do you think this story means?” you’re validating their perspectives and their connections to what they read in your classroom, which is reader lens. Let’s dive deeper into the basis for reader lens and then explore ways to maximize student engagement with this literary analysis strategy.

Reader Response Theory Background

Reader lens is inspired by reader response theory, a school of literary criticism. To give you a little background, reader response theory has roots in ancient Greek philosophy. In fact, it is based on Plato and Aristotle’s concern about the passive reader. It wasn’t until the 20th century that Reader response theory became a formal school of literary criticism. It started when Louise M. Rosenblatt took Plato and Aristotle’s ideas a step further by insisting that only an active reader could discover textual meaning.

Therefore, the primary goal of reader response theory is to validate the reader’s own feelings and interpretations when reading a text. To center these principles on the reader, I call this lens reader response lens or reader lens. This simple title reminds students that this lens is all about them.

Reader Lens in the Classroom

An ela lesson on mood.

In the classroom, reader lens encourages students to make connections to the story, characters, and situations. Mood as a literary device is an important lesson to discuss with reader lens. To teach mood, I love using movie trailer re-mixes on YouTube. These short YouTube videos take a famous movie trailer and re-mix it to change the mood of the piece. My favorites are Elf as a Thriller , Dumb & Dumber as an Oscar-Worthy Drama , and Frozen as a Horror Movie . If you search “Movie Trailer Re-Mix” on YouTube, you’ll find so many more. Since the videos are short, I suggest choosing three to five popular films so that your students will be familiar with at least one of them. Once you’ve chosen a few re-mixes, here is how the lesson works:

• Make a list of movie titles on the board or on a slide.
• Ask students to choose at least one that they are familiar with to identify the mood of the piece. You could potentially show the actual film trailer for a great comparison.
• Discuss the mood of each trailer as a class.
• Then, one by one show the trailers.
• Ask students to reflect on how the mood changed for them and why.

This is a great way to introduce reader lens since so much of this discussion focuses on viewer’s perceptions of the atmosphere of the trailer. To transition to reading, encourage students to tap into their mood and mood shifts as they’re reading to help make connections with the story. Literary bookmarks are a great way to engage students with active reading by tapping into their connections with the plot, characters, themes, etc.

Reader Lens Activities

Once students have read a work with an eye for connections, then there are several in-class activities that can help engage students in their reader lens analysis:

A free write is a low-stakes writing activity that encourages students to make instinctive connections to their reading. During a free write, students should write for a set amount of time (five to ten minutes works well with secondary students) with no regard to structure or conventions. The point is to get ideas, namely connections to the work, out of the head and onto paper. This exercise is a great way to brainstorm and would serve as a good starting point for the next two activities. I find it helpful, especially with younger students, to give them an overarching reader lens topic or focal point to guide their free write.

Journaling is more formal and structured than a free write, but is still low stakes versus a formal essay. A journal could be a stand alone activity, or it can support the rest of your lesson a bellrigner or exit activity. It can be helpful to provide a word limit and guided reading questions for more focused responses. Here are some examples:

• In what ways did you connect with the experience of the main character?
• Have you experienced anything similar?
• In their position, what would you have done differently?

Because reader lens is all about personal interpretations, it can be really helpful for students to hear their peers’ interpretations. Panel discussions , silent discussions, and Socratic Seminars pair nicely with reader lens. In fact, reader lens is a great way to prepare students for other academic discussions because they often find it easiest to talk about their connections before diving into other lenses.

Guidelines for Strong Reader Lens Analyses

There are a few caveats with reader lens that are important to clarify for our secondary ELA students. While reader lens accepts that all interpretations are valid, it clarifies that they’re not all equally valuable. In other words, it’s valuable to give our students a way to connect and interpret. Still, they should understand that their use of expression, detail, and sources can strengthen their responses. This distinction is important because we want to empower students to make meaningful connections to the work. There are a few ways to encourage meaningful responses:

• Are my connections to the work based on a solid understanding of the plot?
• Did I consult credible sources, when I was confused, to enhance my understanding of the story?
• To what extent did I provide examples from my own experiences to support my connections?
• Did I provide rationale that explains why I connected to the work in this way?
• Model your own reader responses. Showing students an exemplary example can help them make sense of the guidelines.
• Encourage self-assessment. Giving students time to reflect and revise their responses (either verbal or written) is a valuable activity for any assignment but especially with reader lens.

Upping the Engagement With Reader Lens

Reader lens is versatile because it’s all about the reader. Therefore, you can get creative with how you engage students with the lens.

In fact, one of the main reasons I use the term lens is because it helps students assume a role to “see” the analysis. In fact, some of my favorite ways to use this lens is through role play. For example, I love using this fun twist on literature circles with a role play for reader response. You can read more about how I facilitate literature circles here . To get a feel for what I mean, download my free literary lenses novel roles.

Reader lens is valuable on its own, but the magic really happens when you challenge students to analyze with a variety of diverse perspectives. For example, this novel study uses reader lens as one of six literary lenses to analyze a text.

Finally, if you’re looking to teach students about all of the different lenses, check out my Literary Lenses Workbook . This workbook includes student-ready 12 different lenses activities that can be applied to any text.

Sources and Further Reading

• Critical Encounters in High School English
• Teach the How: Critical Lenses and Critical Literacy
• Reader-Response Criticism Purdue Owl

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1. Create a Collage

2. try microblogging, 3. use audio, video, and animation, what’s next.

Microblogging is a powerful way to transform a traditional reading response into an engaging interactive experience.

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In terms of writing, this may be where many parents find themselves really butting heads with their students. Many kids don’t see the point of writing outside of school, or they have a very narrow writing lens. Widen their horizons with some of our fun activities based on various types of LEARNING STYLES , which will likely appeal to your student’s unique personality. A written report is only one way to show comprehension. Have your student/child pick from this list of engaging activities for reading grouped by learning style and MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES . (Don’t forget that children may have strengths in more than one intelligence. Encourage them to pursue any activity they are interested in!) Read on for a Huge List of Engaging Reading Response Activities Based on Learning Styles.

Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence

These students love writing, reading, and speaking.

• Write a letter to the main character.
• Write a persuasive letter or essay to the antagonist in a story to convince them to switch sides or change behavior.
• Write an acrostic poem, haiku, or bio poem for a character in the book.
• Create a “Newspaper” for the town or city where the book takes place.
• Create a magazine or e-zine with contributions from different characters. (For example, one character might write a sports column, another gives advice, a third reviews the newest movies, etc.)
• Create a series of “text messages” between two characters.
• Write state legislators about important issues in fiction or nonfiction books.
• Write a book report .
• Write a book review.
• Give a speech about an important topic in the book.
• Create a blog post or video-blog as if the student is the main character in the book.
• Perform a monologue as one of the main characters or villains. 
• Re-tell the story to others. 
• Does the book involve food in any way? Write a menu or recipe. 

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

These students enjoy logic puzzles, numbers, interpreting data, and analyzing patterns.

• Create graphs and charts for nonfiction stories.
• Analyze a character’s motives and represent them on a chart.
• Create a timeline of events in the book.
• Create a timeline of life events for after reading a biography or for the author of a fiction book.
• Write math problems using characters and events as variables. Have them provide an explanation of the meaning for each equation. (Example: Harry Potter + 2= True Friendship. I made this equation because Harry Potter plus Ron and Hermione equals friendship. This equation rescued Harry from a lonely life. Friendship is a big theme in the Harry Potter books.)
• Make a math game using themes and events in the book.
• Design and/or Build a 3-D model of a character or setting.
• Design a science experiment based on a problem in the book.
• Prepare a recipe of a meal mentioned in the book or a meal for a main character.

Spatial Intelligence

These students enjoy using pictures and images to process information. They interpret visuals including maps and puzzles and are often skilled in building, designing, and creating art.

• Design a photo collage for a main character.
• Build scenes from the book out of Legos, building blocks, or other materials.
• Create an art exhibit for the book using a variety of materials and mediums.
• Make models of the main characters and important scenes out of clay or dough.
• Create a flow chart of the main events in the book.
• Draw a map of a fictional setting or study and recreate a map of a nonfiction setting.
• Build a topographic map or model of a landmark or building in a book.
• Make a vision board for a character.
• Create a homemade jigsaw puzzle of your favorite scene from the book using wood or cardstock.
• Create a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast character actions, characteristics, settings, etc.
• Draw a movie poster with a cast of actors who would play the roles in the book.
• Turn a favorite scene into a comic strip.

Musical Intelligence

These students enjoy listening to music and creating music. They learn through sound and feel strong connections to sounds and music.

• Create a playlist for the book or for a character from the book.
• Compose a song or lyrics for the book, a scene, or a character.
• Find a musical adaptation of the book or compare and contrast a musical with a similar theme.
• Write a musical version of a story (especially works well with picture books).
• Create a “mood playlist” of music that sets the mood for different scenes in the book. 
• Take a familiar song and write a parody—retell the story using the tune. 
• Take a children’s song or rhyme and rewrite it to reflect events in the story.
• Create a list of songs that were popular during the time period of a story, research the songs and composers of that time. 
• Create a rap or poem set to music about the main characters, story as a whole, or theme of a story.
• Choreograph a dance that represents the plot or theme of a book.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence

Body smart students love to use their bodies to learn. They relate strongly to touch, movement, and the release of physical energy. They are often expert dancers, athletes, gymnasts, and more.

• Acting out scenes from books.
• Create an obstacle course to represent the plot in the book. 
• Create a physical game that represents the book. 
• Create and act out character monologues.
• Make and complete a scavenger hunt with friends using items related to the book.
• Play charades with vocabulary words and events in the book. 
• Build sets and scenes from the book and explain their significance.
• Sew or craft models and costumes for characters in a book.
• Walk trails of historical fiction books or complete walking tours of areas where books are set (or similar to where they are set).
• Reenact battles, performances, etc. from nonfiction books.
• Build dioramas that represent scenes from the book.
• Choreograph and/or perform a dance that represents a character or a plot in a book.

Interpersonal Intelligence

These students have a good grasp of interacting with others, understanding the feelings and needs of others, and are usually able to get along well with others. They’re excellent at persuading people to see their point of view as well as understanding another person’s viewpoint.

• Write a letter to a main character in the book.
• Write an opinion essay as the main character.
• Write a persuasive essay to persuade a character in the book to change their ways or minds.
• Create a personal growth table or chart to show how characters grew over the course of the book.
• Start a book club with peers and adults who want to read the same book or books in the same genre.
• Create a shared reading journal with a parent, peer, or adult. (The student reads and shares thoughts on one side of the page while the partner responds and asks questions on the other. The student will incorporate the partner’s comments into their next response.)
• Interview people who have interests, experiences, or jobs that the main characters have. Interview people who are knowledgeable about subjects encountered in nonfiction books. 
• Put on a play or puppet show adaptation of the book for friends and family.

Intrapersonal Intelligence

These students understand their own feelings and are well aware of their own needs, strengths, goals, and are passionate about their own ideas. Most self-smart students like time to work on their own so they can focus and process.

• Keep a personal reflection journal about their individual thoughts and feelings about a book.
• Make a journal of self-to-text reflections.
• Write “autobiographies” as people from certain time periods or places related to nonfiction reading.
• Set personal goals as if they were a character in the book.
• Write a book review, giving their opinion.
• Write an opinion essay based on an issue or theme in the book.
• Keep a diary as a person from a historical time period from a nonfiction book or from a fantasy land/fictional town from a fiction book.
• Make a scrapbook of items and images related to the book.
• Create a poster or artwork that shows a personal connection to a character, scene, or book as a whole. 

Naturalistic Intelligence

Nature-smart students enjoy the natural world and have a keen interest in the environment. They enjoy being outside and often enjoy being with animals or observing animals, birds, and insects. 

• Research the natural surroundings related to nonfiction books.
• Plant a garden in honor of a fictional character or a real person from a nonfiction book.
• Research the animals and plants of areas where a book is set.
• Create a “field guide” of animals or plants from imaginary or fantasy worlds.
• Categorize and sort items from nature that pertain to nonfiction topics. 
• Create a reading fort in a natural area.
• Sponsor a park, pond, or block clean-up to raise awareness for a topic or theme from a book.

For More Tips Check Out This Blog:

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Reading Response Activities

What are reading response journals.

Reading response journals and menus are the perfect way to have your students writing about what they read. All you need to get started is a notebook! In this notebook, students respond to books, articles, and texts through writing.

What do students write about in reading response journals?

Choice, choice, choice! I think it’s important that students get to choose what they write about when responding to reading. I have monthly reading response menus that can be glued inside of notebooks so students can choose how they respond!

Let’s be honest, sometimes we forget to change our monthly menus, so I also included some generic reading choice boards . This allows you to switch them out whenever you want or need to!

Printable Graphic Organizers

Sometimes when we want students to all respond to the same text, it’s helpful to have printable graphic organizers you can have students use. This allows you to easily collect them (no one wants to take home 25 notebooks!) and take a grade if you want!

For every monthly (or generic) response menu, there are corresponding graphic organizers! You can even print them at 80-85% so students can glue them into their notebooks!

How often should students respond to reading?

Please, please, PLEASE don’t require your students to this after everything they read. Honestly, would you want to write about what you read all the time? I don’t think so!

Remember, students need time to ENJOY what they’re reading!

Maybe you use reading response journals a couple times a week.

Maybe you just use it as a quick formative assessment. Find ideas here on how to keep students accountable (and take formative assessment data) without stacks and stacks of papers!

Find an ideal balance for your classroom and your students!

Want to try a reading response choice board & activities with your class? Just click HERE and leave your email to get them in your inbox!

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12 What Is Reader Response?

Reader response criticism is a literary theory that focuses on the individual reader’s experience and interpretation of a text. It asserts that the meaning of a text is not fixed and objective but rather subjective and dependent on the reader’s interpretation and response to it.

According to this theory, readers bring their own experiences, values, and beliefs to the text, which shape their understanding and response to it. This means that each reader’s interpretation of a text is unique and can vary depending on factors such as their cultural background, personal experiences, and emotional state. We call this  subjective reader response.

Reader response theory originated in the 1960s and 1970s as a reaction to the dominant New Criticism approach, which focused on the text itself rather than the reader’s response to it. Proponents of reader response theory argue that by emphasizing the role of the reader in shaping meaning, this approach offers a more democratic and inclusive view of literature.

Reader response theory can be applied to any genre of literature, from poetry to novels to plays. It is often used in conjunction with other approaches to literary analysis, such as feminist or psychological criticism, to explore the ways in which a text can be interpreted and experienced by different readers. When we consider how the implied reader might read a text, we are thinking about reader responses that might be different from our own. Steven Lynn notes in Texts and Contexts: “For people who rejoice in the diversity of experiences and responses and opinions, reader-response criticism will be especially interesting, not only because of our different orientations and abilities, but also because of the different ways that we partition and perceive our experiences” (p. 86).

Prominent practitioners of reader response criticism include Louise Rosenblatt, David Bleich, Stanley Fish, and Wolfgang Iser .

Learning Objectives

• Become familiar with a variety of approaches to texts, in the form of literary theories (CLO 1.1)
• Use a variety of approaches to texts to support interpretations (CLO 1.2)
• Understand how formal elements in literary texts create meaning within the context of culture and literary discourse. (CLO 2.1)
• Understand how context impacts the reading of a text, and how different contexts can bring about different readings (CLO 4.3)
• Demonstrate through discussion and/or writing how textual interpretation can change given the context from which one reads (CLO 6.2)
• Discuss the significance and impact of multiple perspectives on a given text (CLO 7.3)

An Excerpt from Reader Response Scholarship

Read the following excerpt from Louise Rosenblatt’s 1978 book,  The Reader, the Text, and the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work. before proceeding with this chapter. (The entire book can be read at the Internet Archive )

Critics and literary theorists, who have traditionally lavished attention on authors and texts, have only recently begun to consider the reader. A few have reacted to the point of insisting on the predominance of the reader’s personality. Others focus on the readers response—but to the literary work of art still assumed to exist “out there” in the text. What, in fact does the reader respond to? What does he interpret? Such questions lead me in the following pages to discriminate between the reader’s activities in “efferent” and in “aesthetic reading.” This cardinal distinction generates new light on the multidimensional process of evoking a poem and on the dynamic “mode of existence” of the literary work of art. Analysis of both the openness, and the constraint offered by the text clarifies its complex role in the transaction with the reader. The theoretical foundation is thus laid for dealing with such persistent and controversial problems as validity in interpretation, criteria of evaluation, and the relation between literary criticism and other disciplines…. As early as 1938, I wrote: “There is no such thing as a generic reader or a generic literary work…. The reading of any work of literature is, of necessity, an individual and unique occurrence involving the mind and emotions of a particular reader….” The transactional approach is listed the challenges and has incorporated the sustenance brought by the intervening years. During World War II, for example, when I found myself associate chief of the Western European Section of the Bureau of Overseas Intelligence (OWI), the problem of eliciting meaning from texts took the form of propaganda analysis and the derivation of economic, social, and political information from the Nazi-dominated media. As a result, I became keenly aware of the differences between “intuitive reading” and such techniques as content analysis; this contrast had repercussions in my later thinking about critical method and critical theory….Ironically, since I was not caught in the pendulum swing disillusionment with the New Critics, the transactional theory expounded here repudiates recent efforts to make the reader all important…. (Rosenblatt ix-xiii) The long history of the theory of literature, from Plato to the present, records certain well-known shifts of emphasis. In surveying these changes, I find it helpful to visualize a little scene: on a darkened stage I see the figures of the author and the reader, with the book—the text of the poem or play or novel—between them. The spotlight focusses on one of them so brightly that the others fade into practical invisibility. Throughout the centuries, it has become apparent, usually either the book or the author has received major illumination. The reader has tended to remain in shadow, taken for granted, to all intents and purposes invisible. Like Ralph Ellison’s hero, the reader might say, “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” Here or there a theoretician may start to take him seriously, and the spotlight may seem from time to time to hover over him, but actually he has never for long held the center of attention…. As we survey the field of literary theory, then, the reader is often mentioned, but is not given the center of the stage. The reason is simple; the reader is usually cast as a passive recipient, whether for good or ill, of the impact of the work. He is still, in a sense, invisible, even when he is treated as a member of something referred to under such collective rubrics as “the audience” or “the reading public.” Thus readers are viewed mainly en masse, as in studies of Shakespeare’s audience or accounts of the emergence of the middle-class reading public in the eighteenth century, or analysis of categories of fiction, and their respective types of readers in the twentieth century. The individual reader has seldom been acknowledged as carrying on his own special and peculiar activities. There is a great difference between the concept of the reader as a passive “audience” and the kind of visibility that I claim for the reader. Within the past few years, the spotlight has started to move in the direction of the reader. Sometimes the reaction has been more against the socio-political implications of the New Criticism than against its aesthetic theory. Sometimes the rehabilitation of the reader takes the form of a rather extreme subjectivism or Freudianism. Thus, some preoccupied with the author’s text, have seen the reader as a tabula rasa, receiving the imprint of “the poem.” Others, in reaction, see the text is empty, awaiting the content brought by the reader. Rejecting both of these extremes, the discussion that follows begins with readers encountering a text and proceeds to meet the basic questions that flow from this event. The purpose will be to admit into the limelight the whole scene— author, text, and reader. We shall be especially concerned with the member of the cast his hitherto been neglected—the reader. (Rosenblatt 1-5).

Subjective Reader Response: A Tool to Use with Many Types of Analysis

Subjective reader response puts you—the reader—in the spotlight. This critical approach emphasizes the role of the reader in creating meaning, arguing that meaning is not inherent in the text but is rather constructed by the reader through their own experiences, beliefs, and emotions. In subjective reader response, the reader’s personal interpretation and reaction to a text is just as important as the author’s intention or the formal qualities of the text itself. Subjective reader response is a process of engaging with a literary text in a personal and individual way, allowing your own experiences, emotions, and beliefs to shape your interpretation of the text.

To engage in subjective reader response, you can follow these steps:

• Read the text: Begin by reading the text closely, paying attention to the language, structure, and themes. This should feel familiar from your experiences with New Criticism.
• Reflect on your own experiences: Think about how your own experiences and emotions relate to the themes and characters in the text. Consider how the text makes you feel and what thoughts or memories it evokes.
• Respond to the text: Write down your thoughts and reactions to the text, either in a journal or as annotations in the margins of the text itself. Consider how your interpretation differs from or aligns with traditional interpretations of the text.
• Consider how your response might differ from others’ responses.  Share your responses with others and engage in discussion and debate about the different interpretations and perspectives that the text can generate.
• Reflect on the process : Reflect on how your personal experiences and emotions influenced your interpretation of the text and consider how this approach differs from other approaches to literary analysis.

Overall, subjective reader response is a highly personal and subjective approach to literary analysis that emphasizes the importance of individual experience and perspective in the process of interpreting and analyzing literature. We will continue to use this tool as we interact with texts throughout the semester. From now on, as you read a text, consider your own response to that text. What role do you as a reader play in the creation of the text’s meaning?

Receptive Reader Response: The Implied Reader

The implied reader is a term used in reader response criticism to refer to the hypothetical reader that a literary text addresses and assumes. This implied reader is not an actual person, but rather a constructed persona created by the text itself. The implied reader is the reader that the text expects and anticipates, and this reader is shaped by the text’s style, tone, language, and themes. The implied reader is not necessarily the same as the actual reader who reads the text, but instead represents the ideal reader who will respond to the text in the way that the author intended. The concept of the implied reader emphasizes the importance of the reader in the process of literary interpretation and analysis, and it highlights the ways in which texts shape and influence the expectations and responses of their readers.

When practicing receptive reader response, the reader tries to put aside their preconceptions and expectations and to enter into a state of empathetic engagement with the text. The receptive reader is attuned to the language, tone, and style of the text and tries to understand the text on its own terms, rather than imposing their own perspective or interpretation onto it. Receptive reader response emphasizes the importance of the reader’s emotional and affective response to the text, as well as their cognitive and intellectual engagement. This approach to reading acknowledges the complexity and diversity of responses that a single text can generate and emphasizes the importance of individual subjectivity and interpretation in the process of literary analysis.

Some forms of receptive response to texts consider the responses of individual demographic groups. For example, see Catherine Broadwell’s poem “Dear Phantom Children” in “Practicing Reader Response. ” How might Millennials read this poem differently than Boomers or Generation Z? Would women read this poem differently from men? What about a religious person compared with a nonreligious person? Each of these are examples of specific receptive readers. A scholar might consider how a particular group would respond to the text and also examine whether that group’s response would be different from the text’s implied reader response.

Applying Subjective and Receptive Reader Response Techniques to Literature

As Louise Rosenblatt noted above, putting the spotlight on the reader does not necessarily mean that anything goes in terms of our approach to texts. As with New Criticism, we still need evidence from the text to support our argument, but with subjective reader response, we will also use evidence from how the text affects us to consider its meaning. With receptive reader response, we’ll keep our own reactions in mind, but we will also consider ways that our personal reading of the text might differ from the text’s expected reader. This requires you to come up with some sort of implied reader. For  whom was this text written? What would that person expect or anticipate from the text? Start with a close reading of the text, just like we practiced in our previous section. But this time, in addition to looking at the poem’s formal elements, pay attention to your reaction to the text.

What an Indian Thought When He Saw a Comet

By Tso-le-oh-woh

Flaming wonderer! that dost leave vaunting, proud Ambition boasting its lightning fringed Immensity—cleaving wings, gaudy dipp’d In sunset’s blossoming splendors bright and Tinsel fire, with puny flight fluttering Far behind! Thou that art cloth’d in mistery More startling and more glorious than thine own Encircling fires—profound as the oceans Of shoreless space through which now thou flyest! Art thou some erring world now deep engulph’d In hellish, Judgement fires, with phrenzied ire And fury hot, like some dread sky rocket Of Eternity, flaming, vast, plunging Thro’ immensity, scatt’ring in thy track The wrathful fires of thine own damnation Or wingest thou with direful speed, the ear Of some flaming god of far off systems Within these skies unheard of and unknown? Ye Gods! How proud the thought to mount this orb Of fire—boom thro’ the breathless oceans vast Of big immensity—quickly leaving Far behind all that for long ages gone Dull, gray headed dames have prated of— Travel far off mystic eternities— Then proudly, on this little twisting ball Returning once more set foot, glowing with The splendors of a vast intelligence— Frizzling little, puny humanity Into icy horrors—bursting the big Wide-spread eyeball of dismay—to recount Direful regions travers’d and wonders seen! Why I’d be as great a man as Fremont Who cross’d the Rocky Mountains, didn’t freeze And’s got a gold mine!

Cherokee poet Tso-Le-Oh-Woh, also spelled Tsoo-le-oh-wah published this poem in The Cherokee Advocate shortly after the Klinkerfues comet passed through the skies in 1853. We know little of his life beyond this poem.

Here are some questions to consider as you analyze the poem using subjective reader response:

• How does the poem’s vivid and imaginative language impact your emotional response to the comet described in the poem? Do the descriptions evoke feelings of awe, wonder, or fear? How does your emotional response influence your interpretation of the poem’s themes?
• The poem seems to explore the idea of perspective and the contrast between the vastness of the universe and the insignificance of humanity. How does the speaker’s perspective on the comet change throughout the poem? How does your own perspective as a reader affect your understanding of the poem’s message about the relationship between humanity and the cosmos?
• The poem mentions the concept of “vast intelligence” and the idea of experiencing “wonders seen.” How do these notions of intelligence and wonder connect with your personal beliefs or experiences? Do they resonate with your own sense of curiosity and exploration, or do they challenge your perspective in any way?
• The poem references historical figures like Fremont and alludes to exploration and discovery. How do these references to real-world events and individuals influence your interpretation of the poem’s themes? Do they make the poem more relatable or provide a historical context for the speaker’s thoughts?
• The poem combines elements of both admiration and potential dread regarding the comet’s significance. How does this duality in the speaker’s attitude toward the comet resonate with your own complex emotions when encountering the unknown or the extraordinary? How does your personal background and cultural context shape your response to the poem’s portrayal of this celestial event?

Note: Make sure to support your analysis with specific textual evidence from the poem to support your response. Use line numbers to refer to specific parts of the text.

After completing your subjective reader response, you’ll want to come up with a thesis statement that you can support with the evidence you’ve found.

Example of subjective reader response thesis statement: Reading “What an Indian Thought When He Saw a Comet” by Tso-le-oh-woh, I feel connected to our nation’s past through a common experience of celestial wonder as I recall how the 2017 total solar eclipse influenced me. This common experience of wonder can serve to unite us in our humanity.

With receptive reader response, we will want to think about the audience for this poem when it was published in 1853. Would they have expected a poem like this from a Native American poet? How would the audience have thought about the comet of 1853? Consider how two different audiences–Cherokee Nation members and American settlers of European descent–might read this poem in different ways. Do both audiences have the same expected response to the poem?

Here are some receptive reader response questions to consider:

• How might the poem have been received by Indigenous communities or individuals who were familiar with the cultural and spiritual significance of celestial events in their own traditions? How would their prior beliefs and experiences have influenced their reading of the poem?
• Considering the historical context of the poem’s publication (late 19th or early 20th century), how might readers from various backgrounds have perceived the poem’s references to exploration and figures like Fremont? Would readers with an interest in or firsthand experience of westward expansion and frontier exploration have a different perspective on these references?
• Given the poem’s references to intelligence and wonders seen, how might readers from diverse intellectual and educational backgrounds of that era have responded to the poem? Would scholars, scientists, and those with a more formal education have engaged with it differently than individuals with limited access to formal education?
• How might religious communities and clergy members from the time period have interpreted the poem’s references to religious imagery and the potential connection between the comet and divine forces? Would different religious denominations have varying interpretations or responses to the poem?
• Considering the historical and sociopolitical context of the poem’s era, how might readers who were influenced by ideas of American exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny have perceived the poem’s exploration themes? Would they have viewed it as a celebration of American exploration and expansion or as a critique of these ideas?

Example of receptive reader response thesis statement: In the poem “What an Indian Thought When He Saw a Comet” by Tso-le-oh-woh, the celestial event serves as a prism through which Indigenous communities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries would have interpreted themes of cosmic interconnectedness, the clash of cultural worldviews, and the implications of encountering the unknown, offering insights into their unique perspectives rooted in spiritual beliefs and historical experiences.

Limitations of Reader Response Criticism

The most obvious criticism leveled at reader response criticism is its complete opposition to the goals of New Criticism. If we center the reader, does this mean that any interpretation of a text is a correct one? Literary scholars such as Rosenblatt and Iser strive to overcome this criticism by emphasizing that rigor is still required in analyzing texts. We don’t completely abandon the tools of New Criticism when we do reader response. Instead, we augment these interpretations by understanding that a text’s meaning is shared, a joint creation of both the author and the reader.

In some cases, the reader’s interpretation may overshadow other aspects of a literary work, such as its formal qualities, language, structure, and historical significance. This may result in a narrow analysis that neglects important aspects of the text. When you do your own reader response, start with a close reading, and continue to notice the formal elements that support your reading. It’s also important to identify and consider the role of personal bias when approaching a text.

In general, while reader response theory offers valuable insights into the role of the reader in interpreting literature, its subjectivity and emphasis on individual responses can limit its applicability and objectivity in certain analytical contexts. Researchers and critics often combine reader response insights with other critical approaches to provide a more comprehensive understanding of literary texts.  We tend to see more receptive than subjective reader response publications from scholars.

Reader Response Scholars

These are some influential practitioners of reader response theory.

• Bleich, David. Readings and Feelings: An Introduction to Subjective Criticism . (1975).
• Fish, Stanley.  Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretative Communities.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP (1980).
• Iser, Wolfgang. The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett. (1978).
• Rosenblatt, Louise. The Reader, the Text, and the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1978.

Further Reading

• Harding, Jennifer R. “Reader Response Criticism and Stylistics.” The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics . Routledge, 2023. 69-86.
• Harkin, Patricia. “The Reception of Reader-Response Theory.” College Composition and Communication , vol. 56, no. 3, 2005, pp. 410–25. JSTOR , http://www.jstor.org/stable/30037873. Accessed 6 Sept. 2023.
• Regis, Edward. “Literature by the Reader: The” Affective” Theory of Stanley Fish.”  College English  38.3 (1976): 263-280.
• Rosenblatt, Louise M. “What facts does this poem teach you?.”  Language Arts  57.4 (1980): 386-394.
• Rosenblatt, Louise M. Writing and Reading: The Transactional Theory . No. 416. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988.
• Schmid, Wolf. “Implied Reader”.  Handbook of Narratology , edited by Peter Hühn, Jan Christoph Meister, John Pier and Wolf Schmid, Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014, pp. 301-309.  https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110316469.301
• Tompkins, Jane P. (ed.). Reader-Response Criticism: From Formalism to Post-structuralism. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1980.

Critical Worlds Copyright © 2024 by Liza Long is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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