WK 4.1 _ Reader Response Theory (1)

TSLB3453: LITERATURE FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

WEEK 4.1 : Stories for Young
Learners

● Reader Response Theory -
“Transactional Approach"
by Louise Rosenblatt

Adapted from ppt by Dr Sharmini Gnaguru and Mdm Ooi Choon Meng
Prepared by Mdm Ezatul Hanizam binti Mohamed Fauzi

Discuss.

“Text is just ink on paper
until a reader comes
along and gives it life”
- Louise Rosenblatt

Reader Response Theory

•Rosenblatt’s (1938) reader response theory –

Reader and text must transact to produce meaning…in
which meaningful ideas arise for readers from their own
thoughtful and creative interpretations; this
intermingling is a creative act.

•The reader should:
•live through reading (evocative)
•consider perspectives (alternatives)
•apply experiences to own life (reflective thinking)
•make judgments about value (evaluation)

DEFINITION - Reader Response

-explore and seek to explain the diversity (and often
divergence) of readers' responses to literary works.

Louise Rosenblatt:
"A poem is what the reader lives through under the
guidance of the text and experiences as relevant to
the text."
" Literature was written to provide an aesthetic
experience for readers because literature invites
readers to consider their diverse cultures, background
knowledge, and personal experiences when analyzing
texts."

Reader Response Theory
Louise Rosenblatt

Efferent Responses Aesthetic Responses

▪ gaining info (informational ▪ reader is absorbed
reading) ▪ draw on past experiences
▪ participate in the story
▪ all learn the same info ▪ identify with characters
▪ share conflicts
▪ Does not call for a variety of ▪ reader is important
interpretations ▪ enjoy the reading process
▪ reader constructs literary meaning
▪ "the reader's attention is primarily ▪ "In aesthetic reading, the reader's attention
focused on what will remain as a
residue after the reading -- the is centered directly on what he is living
information to be acquired, the through during his relationship with that
logical solution to a problem, the particular text.“ (p. 25)
actions to be carried out.“ (p.23)

Readers in Action

Literature as a transactional process

1. The reader brings their version of the world to the reading process.
• Literacy skills
• Life experiences
• Educational experiences
• Beliefs

2. When the text is brought into the reader’s mind - symbols in texts
evoke images, emotions and concepts.

3. Happens in the reader’s mind - it does not take place on the page
nor in the text, but in the act of reading.

What do you think this book is
about?

Have you heard of Dr. Seuss?
What was your guess?

What did you base your guess on?
You can read the flipbook here:

https://fliphtml5.com/tzpim/atui/
basic

Source:
https://www.kiddycharts.com/printables/dr-seuss-wocket-in-my-pocket-activity/

READING Practices

1. Read the text slowly, describing the response of an

ideal reader – what is anticipated? what is
experienced?

2. Or, move through the text describing your own

personal response.

3. Focus on details -ask how the reader’s response/

your own response would change if a detail was
changed.

WHY Reading Reflections?

1. Provides learners with the tools to develop metacognitive

awareness or to “think about thinking” (Soldner, 1997) which
promotes students’ affective as well as cognitive growth

2. Further, educators gain “important information about how

students are feeling about reading and learning” (Soldner,
2003).

3. Hong-nam (2011) asserts that rather than maintaining a

passive approach to reading, students must develop a
sense of “learner agency”

With the redefinition of literature as
something that only exists meaningfully
in the mind of the reader, and with the
redefinition of literary work as a catalyst
of mental events, comes a redefinition

of the reader.

Nearly every reader supplies
personal meanings and

observations, making each
reader’s experience with a work
unique and distinctive from every
other reader’s experience with the

same work.

❏ The differing interpretations produced by different
readers can be seen as simply the effect of the
different personalities (and personal histories)
involved in constructing meaning from the same
series of clues.

❏ Not only does the reader “create” the work of
literature, in large part, but the literature itself may
work on the reader as he/she reads, altering the
reader’s experience, and thus the reader’s
interpretation.

Reader response theorists believe in the
importance of

recursive reading

(reading and rereading with the idea that no
interpretation is carved in stone).

A second or third interaction with the text
may well produce a new interpretation.

2 basic beliefs of RR:

▪ The role of the reader cannot be omitted
from our understanding of literature.

▪ Readers do not passively consume the
meaning presented to them by an objective
literary text; rather, they actively make the
meaning they find in literature.

•Can a child respond to a text based on Rosenblatt’s
definition of RR?

•How can we help young readers to enhance personal,
academic and aesthetic values using children literature ?

Personal and aesthetic values of literature to children

• Focus on author – intended meaning of the author as well
as meaning in literary experiences of the readers.

• Texts- read aloud text , `readerly text ‘ and `writerly
text’.

• Reader- acceptance and resistance – culture , social
factors

What is
your

response
to this

version?

e-Learning Task (2 hours)

▪ Select any famous children’s story ( gingerbread boy/man, Jack and

the beanstalk etc) .

▪ Assume that you are going to present the story to a group of primary

school children. Make changes to the original story taking into
consideration the children’s needs and interests. Present your modified
story in the form of an Anyflip e-book.

Tutorial Task (1 hour)

▪ Present your original and modified story to the class. What changes did
you make?

▪ Discussion Question:
Which was the preferred version- original or modified version?

References

Rosenblatt, L. "Efferent and Aesthetic Reading." The reader, the text, the poem: A
transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1978.
22-47.

Transactional Theory in the Teaching of Literature. ERIC Digest.
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-926/theory.htm

Woodruff, A.H. & Griffin , R.A. (2017). Reader Response In Secondary Settings:
Increasing Comprehension Through Meaningful Interactions With Literary Texts.
Texas Journal of Literacy Education, Volume 5 Issue 2, Winterb2017. ERIC Digest.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1162670.pdf