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Key
Points
 Reading
literature is about exploring universal human experiences, such
as love, the power of life, relationships, death, success, and
misfortune.
All
readers, no matter what their reading ability, can engage in
the envisionment-building process.
Literature
instruction must involve discussion and questioning.
Conversation
in an envisionment-building classroom provides opportunities
for respectful challenges and conflict.
Classroom
community members help one another to develop their own understanding
through dialogue and questioning, pushing along one another's
envisionments.
"Received
interpretations," or ones that are widely known in the literary
community, are still important in the envisionment-building
process, as long as students are first allowed to develop their
own interpretations.
There
are "misreadings" where students create a faulty understanding.
In these cases, students must be asked to back up their interpretations
with logical reasoning and with textual examples. The community
often reins in the misunderstanding through dialogue.
The
questions teachers ask in an envisionment-building classroom
are key to the process. These questions need to help students
enter the text, move around in it, take lessons from it, and
then objectify their responses from a critical perspective.
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