Reading and writing are both acts of composing. One act informs and influences the other. That seems to be the suggestion in this chapter. It’s amazing how differently we think about the act of reading in comparison to the way they thought in 1983. How could reading ever be passive? I am a very active reader. Either I’m actively engaged in a text, or I am actively resistant to reading a text but I’m never a passive reader. The best texts are the ones that coax you to be an active reader and get engaged in a dialogue with the text or the author or the concepts presented in the text.
This is why I wish I could give my students a required reading list like I was required to have during my summers in high school. Reading a variety of texts helped develop my writing skills, my vocabulary, my form, and my style. I love to read; partially because I love the way my reading is reflected in some of the things that I write. Reading allows me to observe and take note of what other writers do in their texts and invites me to try on some of those ways of writing and meaning-making. I can barely fathom the thought of “reading teachers”. Who are they? It is hard for me to see reading and writing being taught in two separate classes. I mean, some people argue that this is what we have going in between composition and literature. Some people see literature courses as just reading a lot of different books, and see composition as just writing a lot of papers. Both of those things do happen, but they are definitely not happening in isolation from each other.
Hirvela says, “one of the best ways to improve writing is to improve reading” (11). I have been thinking what hirvela is saying for a while now. What is our job? This is an idea that Hirvela brings up in chapter one. I am constantly wondering, “What is our job?” It has become obvious that many college students are coming to us straight from high school with poor reading and writing skills. There is always a debate about what exactly our obligation is to these students. Personally, I want to make them read more, take vocabulary quizzes, and work on using academic English not only on paper but in classroom discussion. The reading, I think, will expand their vocabulary and provide them with more ways to express themselves and more ways to construct meaning.
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I definitely agree with you Kat concerning the passive reader idea. This idea has so much to do with the "banking" model where knowledge and ideas are poured into the reader's mind. It suggests that all readers are homogeneous and as if there is no schemata differences.
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