Readers Define Books

Today in my TE 348 class (seems to give me a lot of topics to blog about) we had one of our biweekly discussions about a book. The book discussion today was on Seedfolks, a narrative told through the eyes of 13 characters. The book takes place in an urban city, where the city is segregated. Nine year old Kim, who is Vitenamese, plants some lima beans in a trash lot. Other diverse characters join, and it forms a story around the garden that they all take part in. The themes include character development, overcoming diversity, and the transition from a neighborhood to a community.

For this book, I was the personal facilitator. That means my role while reading and thinking about this book was to figure out why I read it the way I did. I had to think about, and discuss, why my personal background and experiences shaped the way I interpreted the novel. After a while of brain scratching, I came up with a few ideas.

I decided that I can understand that a garden would encourage character development due to my own experiences with my character. My personal experience is that I played softball, so taking part in such a sill ything seems unimportant, but I formed relationships, hardwork, and dedication just as the characters did in the book. Yet, my group members failed to see something as simple as a garden to alter life ways. They had no personal experiences that could make them more understanding, so we didn't really see eye to eye.

Another idea that I had was that I was shocked of all the diversity of characters in one area. There were 7-8 different ethnic groups mentioned (out of only 13 characters), which was a surprise to me. I came from a community that was so small I could count other ethnic groups within hundreds of people on one hand. In my high school there were maybe 3 people of another race (Mexican and African American). Due to this, it is safe to say that I am not used to diversity and any opportunity to explore it is something new to me. When I brought up this point in our discussion, another girl had gone to a high school where there were a diverse amount of students. She said sh probably had a majority of the ethnic groups listed in the book attending her high school. Reading the book to her wasn't as big of a culture shock to her as it was to me. She was used to the idea that there was a vast array of people in one area. Whereas I have had it stuck in my mind that in one area there are only a few "outsiders."

This whole idea of everyone reading the story really got me thinking for when I become a teacher. Teaching a book seems pretty simple. There are implied themes, character traits, morals, etc. The teacher just needs to make them known and discuss the importance. Yet, what happens when two students interpret a book totally different. Each student will think their interpretation is right. It may be confusing for them to understand that people read differently. Yet, if this were to happen, it would provide for a great learning experience. The studens could learn to understand each other. They could also learn to challenge each other. I feel that challenging and understanding are two very concrete ways to get through a book. The students can learn from each others ideas to either formulate or edit their own ideas. It will be a great way to get the students thinking critically and question why was the book read differently when it is the same words on the page for everyone. Overall, this process will provide the children with deeper analysis to better understand themselves, and to better understand each other.

Overall, I think this discussion really opened my eyes to reading. It is very appareant that background culture and experiences can shape the way we think about a book. It doesn't mean that we are right or wrong, it is just how we think. Through this process we can learn more about ourselves and about our peers. This process really made me enjoy reading more. I was able to critically think about who I am and what does that affect. At the end I had a better understanding of myself on character development, community, and diversity. All in all I really enjoyed this process of reading, and it really makes me want to read this way more often so that I can develop a stronger sense of who I am!