I just wanted to let everyone know that I really enjoyed our conversation yesterday. It really helped me make sense of all the thoughts I had while reading. Instead of just concepts, I was able to see each literacy in concrete, practical terms.
I was also thinking more about New Criticism. I reflect back to the interpretations we were required to do in high school, and I think it was actually more of a recitation type of literacy we were engaged in rather than a translation/critical literacy. The teacher would tell us her interpretation in class, and on tests we received good grades if we repeated that back to her. I remember thinking early on that there was a right and wrong answer because whenever I seemed not to write what the teacher had said and instead write what I thought the meaning to be, I would get the question wrong with the assumption that I hadn't been paying attention in class. So, I think it's important to remind ourselves not to really have a predetermined response in our heads when we ask open-ended questions about interpretation.
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I enjoyed our conversation too. So many things to think and talk about.
And you are right that the persistent idea of a correct interpretation is hard to shake. How often after asking a question of a class, once we've heard the right answer to a question, do we keep collecting answers?
I know I would often stop because I'd gotten the answer I was looking for. Thankfully, at some point in my teaching, I kept collecting answers. Threw the kids for a loop at first, but eventually it worked and so many more of them wanted to contribute to discussions.
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