As I read through the Salvatori text, I found myself resistant to the kind of teaching she is advocating. I think that there are two reasons for my resistance: the first is that I think that I, as a freshman, would have hated this type of class, and the second is that I, as an inexperienced teacher, am not convinced that I could successfully run this type of class. Granted, those objections don't undermine the validity of her work, but they do mean that my use of her ideas will most likely be somewhat limited.
I do think that it is important to teach reading, as well as writing, in our classrooms, and I think Bean gives good suggestions for how to do this, but I was put off by Salvatori's emphasis on self-analysis. Rather than asking students "to construct a reflective commentary on the moves they made as readers and the possible reasons for them," I would prefer to work with students to understand other possible readings of the work through class discussion (352). I think that my own understanding of my reading process and of other possible ways of reading has come more through class discussion than through analyzing my own readings. I think that I would be among the students who felt "resistance" to this type of "introspective reading" (353).
Salvatori acknowledges that "to teach--rather than just to understand-- that interconnectedness is a highly constructed, unnatural, obtrusive activity-- one that requires a particular kind of training that...U.S. eduational systems and traditions have neither made available or valorized," and, frankly, I don't feel that I'd do a particularly good job teaching this way (351). I'm not sure that I'd be able to pick up on the "clues" that students "offer that might make it possible...to develop a strategy that answers the need of the moment" (353). Thinking on my feet is not my strong point. I agree that we shouldn't be discouraged just because things are "'difficult,'" but I think that using Salvatori's strategies would not be the most effective way for me to teach.
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I felt the same way. I thought about how I had never taken class taught this way. It might be easier to teach my students this way of reading if I had at least seen it done. Nevertheless, I did like the idea of asking students to identify a problem with the text, a difficulty they found. I do remember believing that problems I found in texts were the result of my own poor reading. These are hard teachings, but I do think that if I could learn to read texts for problems, then I could better apply Salvatori's method.
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