Sara Holbrook, a poet whose poems were used in Texas standardized testing, once wrote regarding the manipulation of her poems, “Texas, please know, this was not the author’s purpose in writing this poem.” In her article, Sara details how she perceived the use of her poems in the standardized testing was inappropriate in terms of poem choice, and proved to be erroneous assumptions of her purpose and intentions. In fact, she even stated that she “can’t answer the questions on her own poetry” (Holbrook). Pearson, the testing company responsible for the exams, surmised their answer options concerning Holbrook’s poetry, and they did so in a way that proved to be both incorrect and quite confusing for all degrees of english knowledge. Comparably, …show more content…
I can infer that, due to how different individuals may identify intentions and symbolism, my classmates will not always agree during class discussions. Even with logic-based argument, our interpretations may still end in divergent positions, and I believe that this is okay. Our personal views and experiences will precipitate different opinions, and these different opinions spike the beauty of a true discussion, organized debate in an attempt to better understand others’ understanding of literature. Additionally, when I read about how Pearson incorrectly identified the author’s purpose, the thought occurred to me‒ have I assumed the author’s intention wrongfully before or was I misled to these interpretations in the past? Additionally, another thought occurred to me‒ who are we to assume the author’s intentions? We didn’t write the literature, so how can we determine what an author really meant by a specific phrase? By pondering these phrases, I finally conjectured that we make these assumptions using the information provided in the text in combination with our prior experiences. Therefore, without an explanation from the author of every literature we will read, we make the foremost conclusions we can conceive based on how we interpret each novel regarding the author’s intentions, purpose, and use of
Laura Secord was originally an American. She was born in Massachusetts on September 13, 1775. Her father was Thomas Ingersoll. He was a major in the American army. They were well known because Laura's father was a clever man. In her family there were inventors, mechanics, merchants, magistrates, teachers and soldiers. Laura had three sisters. When she was eight her mother had died and her father had gone off to war, so Laura had to look after them. After two years or so Laura's father married someone else. A month later she got ill and died. Three years later he remarried a woman named Sarah Whiting. After Thomas Ingersoll became a young Republican and saw excessive violence in Massachusetts, he moved his family to Upper Canada. When Laura was eighteen they moved again to Bustling Port, which is near the Niagara River below the falls.
Michels, Patrick. "Testing the Limits: a Texas Mother’s Radical Revolt Against Standardized Tests." Texas Observer. N.p., 21 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. .
When reading someone else's work you need to be certain that you read between the lines. Author's, at times, will attempt to distort information in order to make their beliefs more prominent. In order to avoid this disinformation, you have to learn the difference between denotations and connotations and facts from opinions. Furthermore, you'll have to recognize figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, which can incite specific feelings onto readers.
She explains how standardized tests, such as the one her students took, were designed with numerous interference techniques, included questions which were above-grade material, and were administered with inadequate time to answer the questions being presented. Stahlman goes on to express her frustration with a standardized test which was administered to her students by saying "I watched in horror as my precious students, who were gifted poets and writers, inquisitive scientists and mathematicians, lovers of books, remarkable artists, and caring learners, were forced to silently attempt to master a test that was designed to trip them up." (Stahlman 242) The author also states how these standardized tests seem to be high-stakes in nature due to schools being labeled and ranked according to their scores and teachers being rewarded due to their students achievement in these tests. This article serves as one of my stronger arguments for my case compared to my other sources, due to its exemplification of how the proliferation of such tests is alarming and how the standardized testing of students at such a young age is not appropriate due to their cognitive development. The article is also useful in the sense that is provides a valid and sound argument for the opposition of standardized testing. I will be implementing this source into my argumentative essay by providing examples from Stahlman's text on how bizarre standardized testing might seem when it comes to the assessment of students, especially at such a young age. It will also serve as a good source for proving how much of a bearing standardized tests hold on the assessment of not only students but teachers as
He too quickly dismisses the idea of reading on your own to find meaning and think critically about a book. For him, Graff states that “It was through exposure to such critical reading and discussion over a period of time that I came to catch the literary bug.” (26) While this may have worked for Graff, not all students will “experience a personal reaction” (27) through the use of critical discussion.
Standardized testing is an unfair and inaccurate form of judging a person’s intellect. In many cases, people are either over- or underrepresented by their test scores, partly because America does not currently have the capabilities of fairly scoring the increasing number of tests. Additionally, many students today are not native English speakers, and their capabilities could be grossly underestimated by these types of exams. Although President Bush is a supporter, many influential people are against this bill, including the largest teacher’s union in the United States, which has formed a commission in opposition to the President’s proposal.
12. Many things in literature can be seen in different ways by different people. Usually there will be no distinct meaning, but places, events, and characters have a specific relationship.
reader creates “supplementary meaning” to the text by unconsciously setting up tension, also called binary opposition. Culler describes this process in his statement “The process of thematic interpretation requires us to move from facts towards values, so we can develop each thematic complex, retaining the opposition between them” (294). Though supplementary meaning created within the text can take many forms, within V...
It is noteworthy to be stated clearly at the outset of the present paper that literary theories are composed of a mere plethora of highly debatable ideas, concepts and assumptions. They are in other words, strikingly vague, opaque and of a typical flexibility. According to Wellek and Warren (1966, p. 30) }there are then, not only one or two but literally hundreds of independent, diverse, and mutually exclusive conceptions of literature, each of which is in some way right~. That is, the diversity of literary theories and even the contradiction between them sometimes, is something natural.
Hyatt H. Waggoner in “Nathaniel Hawthorne” testifies that Hawthorne’s ambiguity has proven to be an asset in the contemporary era when readers like such a quality in fiction:
Much of the student expectations outlined in the ELAR TEKS are concerned with students’ interpretation of a text’s meaning. The syntactical choices in the TEKS create a vague notion of “meaning,” as the outlined expectations alternate between using and omitting a definite article. For example, in the “Reading” strand, within the “Comprehension of Literary Text” component, students are asked to determine “the meaning” of a text as well as “how the author . . . creates meaning” (Texas Education Agency 19). An educator closely examining this text would be confused by the lack of syntactic consistency when it comes to “meaning.” The use of a definite article, “the meaning,” implies that there is only one accepted meaning to be found within a literary text. However, when the definite article is removed, it acknowledges the multiplicity of meanings within a text, as students simply search for “meaning.” If an educator were to interpret the TEKS in this way, consequentialist pedagogy would not only be possible, but encouraged by the TEKS itself. It is important to note that the ELAR TEKS does not explicitly instruct teachers to guide students towards the privileged meaning or to dismiss their alternative interpretations as invalid. However, this seems to be the consequence of the ELAR TEKS, as teachers continue adhere to rigid interpretations of texts in order to ensure student success on standardized tests. Many would contend that this is the only choice for educators who wish to successfully teach the TEKS; however, I would argue that just as the ELAR TEKS straddles the line between promoting a singular meaning and multiple meanings of a text, teachers can exhibit the same duality in their pedagogical
“1.The reader response is what counts. We can’t know for sure what an author intended, and the text itself is meaningless unless a reader responds.
In conclusion, I would say that the power of literature is connoted exactly in this unparalleled symbolic order of language that can never produce or pin down a definite meaning but nevertheless passes on "the desire and curse of meaning”. It is what the transcendent signification of the text that leaves the reader always anticipating and curious and at the same time delighted from the pleasure this play of the authors brings to her/him. On the other hand there is always this uncanny component of meaning that cannot be clarified or rationalized but nevertheless is an intrinsic part to our reading experience.
Literary criticism is used as a guideline to help analyze, deconstruct, interpret, or even evaluate literary works. Each type of criticism offers its own methods that help the reader to delve deeper into the text, revealing all of its innermost features. New Criticism portrays how a work is unified, Reader-Response Criticism establishes how the reader reacts to a work, Deconstructive Criticism demonstrates how a work falls apart, Historical Criticism illustrates how the history of the author and the author’s time period influence a text, and last of all, Psychological Criticism expresses how unconscious motivations drive the author in the creation of their work as well as how the reader’s motivations influence their own interpretation of the text (Lynn 139, 191). This creates a deep level of understanding of literature that simply cannot be gained through surface level reading. If not one criticism is beneficial to the reader, then taking all criticisms or a mixture of specific criticisms into consideration might be the best way to approach literary
This activity is reached when students can make inferences the text through the background information and the context clues in the text. Moreover, based on Syatriana (n.d.) interpretive comprehension is categorized in higher levels of thinking ability because of the question and answer that is not directly stated in the text but it will imply in the text. However, in this activity, students should be able to identify and infer the author's point of view and infer the author's attitude of the topic that has been written in text. It is supported by Sonja, et all (2014) in interpretation, students learn to identify the details of the author tone or the authors’ feelings in a text.