Reading Together: Exploring Texts with Adolescents

By Lavanya Murali

Introduction

As their hands rolled cigars in quick succession, minds remained focused on the voice from the podium – the voice of the ‘lector’ who dramatized passages from the works of Tolstoy, Dickens and updates from newspapers – a tradition that started in the 1860s in the Cuban cigar factories to educate the working class. Closer home, in the tea shops of Kerala in the 1920s, it was common to see a teacher, or a literate youngster read out from a newspaper to the unlettered gathered from the neighbourhood who listened intently to current events. The readings were rife with political implications. The power of communal reading as a tool became discernible in these historical contexts and inspiration for this study in the classroom context.

Reading and writing are social practices (not skills) that are shaped by the cultures in which they exist and the goals for which they are used. Historically, reading and writing in India were activities dominant in religious contexts and confined to authoritative texts. The purpose of reading itself was for memorizing religious verses, through which the text was possessed, and for sharing it with a wider audience (Venkatachalapathy, 2012).

Krishna Kumar in the ‘Political Agenda of Education,’ analyses the conflict in the way reading was viewed in the mid-nineteenth century when the colonial policies came to be introduced. Arnold from the British administration made observations on the existing reading practices: ‘The prevailing perception of reading was that of a process of sounding out the text without relating to it.’ (Kumar, 2005)

Historically, readers were introduced to the graphic forms of text and the sounds they stood for were considered sacrosanct. This was followed by a vocal ‘reading,’ which was confined to a decoding process; meaning-making and interpretation were missing from these processes or limited to the interpretation given by teachers. The meaning was contained in the text and it would be the same for all those who read. In the early days of colonial education and printing, practices such as silent reading and deriving the meaning of texts by individuals, initially, threatened the authority of texts.

In contemporary India, though the purpose of reading-writing has shifted, certain aspects of reading and writing remain faithful to their historical roots – several educational institutions continue to emphasise the rote-recitation method where learners learn alphabets, recognize the corresponding sounds, and decode words smoothly.

But at the policy level, there has been a shift. The National Literacy Mission (NLM) defines literacy not merely as a tool for reading and writing, but as a broader one encompassing the readers’ understanding of their social contexts and why they are deprived, disrupting ideologies by relating the texts to their own situation (Bordia & Kaul, 1992).  The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) touches upon the need to improve access to books for communities by strengthening library networks.

Most of the existing programs in India focus on improving basic literacy and reading skills. Reading skills are limited to enhancing individual language skills by reading the textbooks and comprehending them. These are not adequate to address the critical approach as outlined by the NLM or the constructivist learning approach that has been given thrust in the National Curriculum Framework (2005).

This study emphasises the process of communal reading and how it becomes an integral and essential tool in the classroom for sharing different perspectives stemming from different people; the text, in a sense, being completed by a ‘society of readers’ is the focus. The following are the main questions examined in the study:

1. To understand the various interpretations, responses and reactions the text brings out in the audience. During this process, the impact of the readers’ existing knowledge, their background, moral perceptions and how they appreciate the text, and its reading will all become more explicit.
2. The ways and means to make the communal reading process more effective and fruitful.

Theoretical framework

The present study falls in the Reader-Response theory by Louise Rosenblatt, Stanley Fish and Wolfgang Iser. The focus of these theorists lies with the reader and the readers’ relationship with the text, in which, the reader is not a passive receiver of information, but actively engages with the text, creates and interprets knowledge through meaning-making and in turn ‘completing’ the text (Thomas, 2008).

Lawrence Sipe and others have previously done studies in the West around young reader’s response to picture books and how they construct literary understanding. This study is on similar lines, focusing on sharing of responses as a community, i.e. developing and studying an ‘interpretive community’ of readers to describe readers working together to become readers of literature. (Sipe, 1999).

Rosenblatt also emphasizes the importance of sharing responses in improving critical thinking abilities. The readers move from a limited individual interpretation to understand better and share multiple interpretations.

The Four Resource Model developed by Luke and Freebody is one of the frameworks used to analyse reader response. (Freebody, P. 1992) How readers become code-breakers, meaning-makers, text users, text critics, and how their effectiveness in all four stages can be improved, are components of this study. However, working with an adult group in this study who are at different stages of literacy, these four stages are not taken to be linear or hierarchical.

The study

The two-month-long action research was done in a non-government organization (NGO) with adolescents from a vulnerable slum community in Bhopal. These readers are from families of the Gondi tribe and work as rag-pickers.

This is a literary anthropology study done with a group of 15 to 17-year-olds. Twelve participants, 6 girls and 6 boys, visited the learning centre on a regular basis out of personal interest and participated in the sessions. The group had varying reading levels in their second language, Hindi, the medium of instruction in their school. The participants had previously been exposed to textbooks and short texts, but not engaged with longer narratives, like a novel.

For this study, the readers chose the book The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank translated to Hindi. It was read regularly for two months, one hour a day, by this group of adolescents. As they read, they discussed and interpreted the text relating it to their own situation. As the study progressed, newer elements related to the story, a movie on the theme and a history textbook were included. These gave a better understanding of the historical and political contexts in which The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank was written. The researcher was a participant-observer and facilitated the process.

Selection of texts

A primary list of books was shortlisted by the researcher based on the following criteria:

1. The book had to be of appropriate reading level, and cognitively challenging. It had to be suitable for a group that differed in its proficiency levels in reading Hindi.
2. The shortlisted works were all by authors from vulnerable communities in order to encourage critical thinking.

The books in Hindi that were available and shortlisted included Suno Meri Kahani: Meri Zubaan by Domitila Chungara (a translation of Let me speak), Salaam by Omprakash Valmiki, The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank by Anne Frank and Malgudi ka Chalta Purja by R K Narayan.

In discussion with the participants, the final book was chosen. ‘Because reading out loud is not a private act, the choice of reading material must be socially acceptable to both the reader and the audience. (Manguel, 1996). The summary and some additional information of each book were read out and to the participants. They chose The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank since the book was written by a young girl, while the other books, such as Let me Speak: Testimony of Domitila, a Woman of the Bolivian Mines sounded ‘serious.’

The process

In the classroom setting, the readers are used to the text being interpreted by the teacher. The process of reading together involves someone reading the text and the others listening, understanding, interpreting, and raising questions. To avoid a single-person interpretation, multiple copies of the book were brought to the classroom. This allowed the readers to pay more attention to what was being read out, comprehend from their own perspectives, and raise questions more effectively. Initially, the researcher raised questions and once the participants had an idea of how the sessions would be, they initiated discussions.

Factors that influence reader responses

Code-breaking
The first aspect of reading is code-breaking, where the reader tries to read the text. In reading together, the additional burden of having to read aloud comes in. It also becomes important for the code-breaking process to be smooth so that others are able to recognize what is being read.

The reading proficiency of participants in this group was of varying levels. There was a constant struggle to ensure that everyone stayed with the text and did not lose interest when the decoding was not smooth. Introducing multiple copies of the book helped.

Several readers said that they could read smoothly when it was a personal reading activity but reading aloud obstructed the process as the readers became more conscious of the way they read and often feared faltering. In the group, readers often helped each other.

Meaning-making
Next is meaning-making (Freebody, P. 1992). It is not enough that the participants are able to read the text; they should have semantic competence, i.e., they should be able to make sense of and comprehend it.

On many occasions, they did not understand specific words in the book. Certain words were understood by some readers who would then explain the meaning to the group. The readers were encouraged most of the time to discuss and guess meanings based on the given context, and at other times, wait for the text to unravel the meaning as they proceed. For instance, Priya, who joined late, asked for the meaning of ‘Margot’ when she heard it for the first time. The others encouraged her to read and guess what Margot could mean.

The readers were also encouraged to write down certain words and use the dictionary for meanings. Some of them did not know how to use the dictionary and learnt that in the process.

Vocabulary
Another important aspect of translated texts is that readers did not possess certain words (vocabulary) that were central to the story and the historical context. When the readers came across new Hindi words such as yatna shivir (concentration camp), yahudi (Jews), or English words such as black-out, they discussed what it meant because these words were repeated several times. These were words central to the diary and not grasping their meaning would render the entire exercise futile.

The idea was to encourage readers to become self-learners as much as possible. While working in the group, the techniques some readers used became an explicit and shared process.

Prior knowledge

The schemas or the prior knowledge that a reader comes with influence the way he or she learns new information. One of the schemas that a reader comes with is vocabulary, as mentioned. Besides this, locating the context – socio-cultural, economic, historical and political – within which the story occurs and having an understanding of it, influences the way readers comprehend a text.

The participants had not had any exposure to this time period or context. The crucial question was whether these contexts could be introduced before the text is read out. Developing a good reading habit requires that readers themselves are able to gradually recognize the context without too much external help as the text unfolds. Introducing the context from the beginning could prevent participants from developing their own imageries and they could lose interest or curiosity if they were told about the historical background and outcome of the war. At the same time, for those who are not voracious readers, it could become difficult to engage with the text and they can quickly lose interest if they are not equipped with any prior knowledge. Therefore, readers were given the experience of both—unfolding meaning as they read, and later,  providing some historical knowledge following which the nature of their interpretation changed.

Knowledge of the context
Reading The Diary of Anne Frank required a great deal of exposition because the readers were quite distant from the culture, lifestyle and other contexts that Anne Frank talks about. To imagine travelling on a tram, or the kind of clothes Anne Frank wore were new and exciting for the group.

Literary texts can encourage participants to make connections between the target culture and their own knowledge, perspectives, and experiences while discouraging them from developing rigid cultural stereotypes based on overgeneralized typographies.

Historical knowledge
The Diary of Anne Frank is not just a novel but a historical account. Knowledge about the events that unfolded during World War II, i.e., the historical, social and political scenario is crucial to reading the book. The question was whether the book would throw light on the political scenario or whether this had to be discussed separately.

Several important concepts and terms, such as Jews, Fuhrer or Hitler; names of places, such as Amsterdam, Poland and Austria had to become clearer for the book to become meaningful. The book engaged the readers but a few of them wanted to take the experience of reading an engaging novel and turn it into something academic and boring. So, a discussion had to be initiated.

I used a map to discuss what Anne had written as the postscript: The radio has just announced that Algiers has fallen. Morocco, Casablanca and Oran have been in English hands for several days. We’re now waiting for Tunis.

Following this, a discussion around the world war began. A common-sensical question would have been to ask, ‘Who do you think the Frank family must have been in favour of?’

They were more familiar with the Germans since Anne had written about them more often, so they decided to say, ‘Germans’. They had not heard much about the United Kingdom and so there was a need to talk about the various countries, Allies and so on in the war.

Extension to real life

The power of literature to enable a reader to empathize with the characters, connect to the incidents and ideas in a book and extend it to real life is often what makes it appealing. Participants drew the story to themselves by finding points of similarity between their experiences and those of the characters in the story, making life-to-text and text-to-life connections, and by commenting on what they would do if they were a certain character – what Sipe refers to as personal responses (Sipe, 1998).

Reading Anne Frank and the conflict among people of different religions that she has written about is something which readers could connect to with their own experience. They compared it with the Hindu-Muslim religious violence that happened in the colonies of Bhopal during the Gujarat riots. They had read about the experiences of their teacher who was a witness and a victim of the conflict.

Reader’s values vs. values in the text

Sometimes, the ethical questions and values a reader believes in may be in line with those in the text. But several times, there can be a clash between the two and the reader, then, experiences a disturbance. These conflicts lead readers to identify the norms relative to the times within which each event is set. Further, we can ask them to identify how those relative norms match the norms in their lives concerning the same topics (Thomas, 2008).

Morality
One of the girls, who read the book sooner than the others, came up to me and asked with concern, ‘Anne talks about her interest in Peter and their relationship. What kind of a book is this? How do we read it together with the boys?’ She was uncomfortable with what she considered ‘morally wrong’ behaviour that she was reading about in the book.

Aarti: ‘All these Germans should be killed.’
I: But not all of them can be bad. Some like Kugler and Kleiman helped the family despite the risk. In the movie too, the boy’s mother is German and yet she is against the killing of the Jews.’

The idea that all Germans were party to killings was addressed through such questions. While these were exercises of critical literacy and recognizing who the ‘powerful’ were, it was also important not to stereotype everyone from a group.

Efferent vs. aesthetic text

In addition to being a narrative of how Anne Frank views the events around her, the book is also a historical piece of evidence. Readers’ understanding of the events had to be supplemented with other texts too, and hence, we simultaneously read the class IX history textbook. Before this, a discussion was initiated on what problems could arise if only Anne Frank’s diary was read, or if just the textbook was read. It had to be explained that reading just the diary would not give a holistic picture. It would present only a Jew’s perspective.

Shiva: It is much more fun to read the textbook. Anne Frank unnecessarily talks about her personal issues.
Mona: I do not think so. It is much more interesting to read about the girl and understand her experiences. She has written in a simple way and we feel like we are watching a movie.

To understand the same cycle of events, Shiva valued an information-rich, efferent text while Mona preferred to read Anne’s narrative.

The purpose of different kinds of texts, information-rich and aesthetic, and a comparison of what each of these has or lacks, was a discussion that ensued. These discussions became necessary because one group of readers became completely fascinated with the textbook and found no value in the narration by Anne Frank. The other group easily got bored with the textbook contents and felt that it took away the aesthetic and enjoyable way in which Anne Frank had talked about the events during her lifetime. The significance of different forms of reading materials and exposure to the different experiences that each provides was the objective.

Drawing attention to the simplicity of the book, appreciating the language used enhances appreciation of literary works. The problem with exposure to only the textbook is that it lacks a personal element that provides a pleasurable reading experience. Also, the textbook is a secondary or tertiary source of information on the world war, while the diary is a primary source of evidence of the occurrences.

Doing this as a group, helped understand how readers found meaning and value in a certain form of narrative and could appreciate divergent views.

Critical literacy

The definition of literacy has gone beyond encoding-decoding by the individual into the social realm, where the reader examines the world, unpacks power structures in ways to transform society.

One of the reasons for shortlisting this text was that it was the narration of a girl from an oppressed community. Given that the participants were Gonds, a vulnerable and oppressed tribal community in terms of both the caste and class status, there was ample possibility to critically examine this position too. However, the session did not provide enough time and scope for such discussions which require a more rigorous engagement.

While conducting the group reading, it was a natural outcome for readers to discuss power relations in the society, especially for this text in which a specific community (Jews) was targeted. There were several questions raised regarding how and why certain religious groups are discriminated against and what can be the consequences.

As they examined the relation of the Nazis with the Jews, they reflected on similar behaviours experienced in their own lives and in the lives of people around them, for instance, religious violence between Hindus and Muslims in Bhopal, and the possibilities of violence in their own country.

Dhiraj: This (Hitler taking over and ordering mass killings) would not happen in today’s world. People would get together and kill such a person.
I: Is it really not possible? Are you sure it cannot happen in India?
Pooja: Maybe it happens when one person is very powerful.
I: What would happen if the army and police who should protect us are asked to attack the citizens? Can you resist?
Dhiraj: Maybe…
Anjali: They have guns and weapons, no?

In this manner, the readers not only thought about the possibilities of events unfolding in the novel but tried to relate it to their own lives and contexts. They started viewing the text and the author coming from a similar society and recognized the need for transformation of perspectives and relations even in an alien society. The group process accelerated such thinking.

Conclusion

A group reading activity, particularly one in which readers are comfortable in expressing themselves, is one of the most powerful engagements that help develop self-learning. For engagement with texts, it provides a conducive space in which the power equation is more balanced. While there is the freedom to raise questions and discuss, it also pushes the group to newer horizons that would have been limited in an individual process.

Reading together has helped share ideas and questions and work together to arrive at meaningful understanding.

1. Having an experienced facilitator initially who can raise the right questions and draw the attention of readers to their specific contexts and lives, can go a long way in creating a peer group that can independently facilitate powerful discussions. Readers relate the text to their contexts and experiences, and sometimes remain the third party to the text. In these cases, raising pointed questions or comments through discussions helps.
2. Communal reading provides the scope and opportunity to explore information and knowledge from various sources by different participant readers to enhance the interpretation of the text. The effectiveness of a text can be, to an extent, judged by its ability to encourage readers to seek further information.
3. Sometimes, the values in a text may not be in sync with the values portrayed in books. Reading together brings about rich discussions on morals, ethics and exposes the readers to varying viewpoints. Such differing viewpoints presented in the book and ingrained in each reader encourage critical thinking of the values held closely.
4. Aesthetics and information levels affect reader interests. A group reading process introduces readers to the idea that the same idea can be presented in different ways (efferent and aesthetic) and its impact on other readers can be different from that which one experiences. An appreciation and understanding of the significance of exposure to both types of texts are important to developing a healthy reading habit.

AUTHOR

Lavanya Murali is an alumnus of Azim Premji University (2012-14). Since completing her MA, Lavanya has worked on a few educational projects. Her last stint was at the Connected Learning Initiative (CLIx) as a Research Associate, where she was involved in content development, research, and writing.

Featured photo: Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash