Colleen Hartnett

12/1/21

Giving Students an Interpretive Voice in the Classroom Signature Pedagogy

Manhattan College

Sister MaryAnn

EDUC 376

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 English language arts is a subject that requires a unique skill set of reading,

comprehension, interpretation, critical thinking, and creative expression. There can be many

difficulties in obtaining these many skills, particularly interpretation. Interpretation does not have

one clear cut answer which is why so many students struggle with this aspect of ELA. Learning

this skill takes a lot of practice and time from both the students and the teacher. Interpretation of

a text can be daunting for students because there is not just one answer, but that is also the beauty

of interpretation. Every student is entitled to their own opinions and their own perception of a

text. Perhaps one of the largest issues with interpretation of literature in the classroom is making

the students feel comfortable enough to voice their opinions. Students often shy away from

participating in sharing their interpretations of a text because they do not feel confident enough

to share with their peers. Another issue can be when the teacher is too vocal with their own

opinions that it takes away from students wanting to share their different judgments of a text.

Teachers can often overshare their thinking and lead students to believe that the teacher’s

opinion is the only opinion that is correct. In reality, there are no “correct” answers when it

comes to interpretation of literature. That is what makes it so interesting. For my signature

pedagogy, I will create a classroom that allows students to feel confident in sharing their

interpretations of a text, regardless if others disagree or agree, bring in literature that is in some

way relevant to the students' lives to make the content more engaging, provide students the

necessary skills, time, and information for students to become the best interpretative readers.

Finally, I will encourage students to participate in mature class discussions about their thoughts,

opinions, and interpretations in literature.

Based on my experience as an English student there have been many strategies that have

worked really well and many instances that have discouraged me as an English student. Some

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things that I noticed that work really well is class discussion. This seems fairly simple, but there

are some key aspects that are necessary for a successful class discussion. These things include,

prepared students, a clear topic, a prompting question or comment that images a conversation,

and students willing to participate. When all of these are included in a class discussion, I have

found that the interpretive discussion goes really smoothly and effectively. This stands out as my

favorite style of teaching because I learn the most through these mature class discussions. Some

things I have found that do not always work well in an ELA class are purely lectures and

listening to the teacher talk about their own interpretations of the texts. This is something that

takes away from the true meaning of class discussion and interpretation. The teacher clouds the

judgement of the students' own thoughts and opinions and it makes it frustrating for the student

to participate in sharing their own ideas and interpretations. When a teacher is the one doing the

talking the students are only getting one viewpoint and one opinion. However, when all of the

students are engaging with the text and sharing ideas, other students are able to hear their peers'

thoughts. It becomes more valuable to the students when they get the opportunity to hear other

students’ opinions.

As previously mentioned, there are some issues that arise when dealing with

interpretation in ELA courses and participation is one of those issues. Through various studies,

scholars have looked at various approaches to attacking these interpretation problems in the

classroom. While reading, “Analyzing Students' Self-Confidence and Participation in Class

Discussions” by Megan D Mallon, Nicole Meritt, and Suzanne Porath, these three scholars

approach the issues of encouraging confidence in student participation. The study began with

“The first observation of the three target students occurred prior to teaching any specific

strategies. During whole class discussions, all students either had zero participation in discussion

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or responded with only a basic response” (Mallon). The study begins with observing students

prior to teaching any strategy at all for participation. The next step was, “After students were

taught the strategy of Skillstreaming: Contributing to Discussion (McGinnis, 2012), they proved

to be more willing to participate in whole class discussions; however, most answers were still

considered basic responses. Sixty-three percent of the responses given, while unprompted, were

considered either no participation or a basic response” (Mallon). This step included slight

encouragement for the students to participate in class discussion. Finally, “Student responses to

the goal setting and self monitoring strategy (Sprick & Howard, 2012; Lee, Palmer, &

Wehmeyer, 2009) were even more encouraging. After setting their goals, 100% of student

responses during whole class discussion were unprompted, and 71% of those were considered

advanced responses” (Mallon). Clearly, when students set their goals based on how much they

want to aim to participate it created an incentive to become more active in class discussion. This

is something I would include in my classroom. Goal setting is really effective and perhaps each

unit I can arrange for my students to set goals for themselves in terms of participation.

There are also things that can be done on the students end to aid this issue of a stronger

discussion. According to, “Increasing Low-Responding Students’ Participation in Class

Discussion” by Lisa N. Foster, “The composite credit given in the study represented only about

3–5% of the course credit across the two semesters, permitting students to make an A in the

course without participating in class discussion” (Foster). Participation creates stronger learners,

it becomes clear through this study that without participation the chances of being successful in

class is very slim. It might be necessary to explain to students that their grade is going to be

dependent on their participation. This is not the main reason that students should participate, but

it will help the students recognize just how important participation in discussion is in an ELA

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class. According to the study, “for some low-responding students, their silence may partly be a

function of limited incentive to become involved in class discussion, with their silence indicative

of either disinterest in the discussion or lack of sufficient credit for participating” (Foster), it is

understood that incentives for participation can be beneficial to encouraging student

participation.

Another issue that makes interpretation difficult is when teachers put forward their

opinions to the point where it is the focal point of the discussion. According to “Building and

Justifying Interpretations of “Texts: A Key Practice in the English Language Arts” by Paul

Deane, interpretation is something that can not be done in solitude. He states, “interpretive

reasoning is not an easy skill to master, nor is it a skill that people can easily practice alone.

People generally learn how to interpret texts by participating in a local community of people who

care about what texts mean” (Deane). If a teacher uses class time talking about their own

personal interpretations, it takes valuable practice time away from the students. This skill

requires conversation and discussion among peers. Of course the teacher has to aid the

conversation, but to completely take control of the discussions eliminates any benefits the

students would have gained from a community interpretive discussion. Interpretation is a process

and “often requires the reader to distinguish multiple perspectives” (Deane). In order to gain

these perspectives the teacher must allow all the students to discuss their perspective of the text.

If the teacher is the one sharing their perspective the student is only seeing their point of view

and their teachers, unable to see how other students processed the text. From personal experience

as well as scholarly research it is apparent, “Oral discussion appears to play a particularly

important role in the development of literary interpretation skills. Group discussion creates a

space in which readers can explore interpretive possibilities (Langer, 1991a). It can highlight

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what readers value in a text, while encouraging them to take a more critical stance (Lehman &

Scharer, 1996)” (Deane). Discussion is vital to interpretation and the teacher must recognize this

before putting forth their own interpretations. As part of my signature pedagogy, I want to be

certain that my students get every opportunity they need to discuss literature and become

stronger literary analysts.

As previously mentioned, interpretation takes a lot of time and practice. Practicing this

skill can occur in many different ways according to, “Innovative Approaches to English-

Language Arts: How Two Teachers Teach High School Students to Use Multimodal Resources

for Interpretation of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet” by Lasisi Ajayi. Interpretation can happen

in many different ways and this study does a lot of great research based on interpretation. One

way students can really learn and enjoy this skill is, “critical reading such as texts (a) should

relate to students’ lives and life-world (the world as directly experienced in the subjectivity of

everyday life by individuals) and (b) are constructions which reflect the experiences,

perspectives, beliefs, and values of authors (Shor & Freire, 1987)” (Ajayi 77). Finding texts that

are relevant to students’ lives and the world they live in is a really useful strategy when teaching

interpretation. When students find something they can relate to in a text, it serves as a sign to the

teacher that they are already beginning to interpret the text. As an English student, it has become

abundantly apparent to me that when I read a text that I have some kind of link to, or I can shift

my perspective to something in my life, the interpretation becomes much more efficient. Not

every text is going to be easily relatable to, but if teachers have the opportunity to find

connections between the literature and the lives of the students it makes the interpretation of the

text more valuable to the students. In another study, “Making content relevant: a teaching and

learning experiment with replication” by Kevin C. Knoster and Alan K. Goodboy, they also

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found that when the content is related to the students lives it becomes more effective. The

researchers mention, “Based on our findings, one way instructors can stimulate content relevance

is by sharing personal experiences related to instructional material that may resonate with

students’ experiences” (Knoster). The findings from this research show that when students are

taught through a lens that highlights some kind of relevance to the students, it allows for higher

levels of engagement with the lesson or discussion. The study shows that students found the

lesson more valuable to their own personal learning.

Teaching my lesson and incorporating my signature pedagogy throughout was a

wonderful experience. One thing I think it taught me is that teaching and working with

interpretation will take a great deal of time. My lesson began with giving the historical context of

The Great Gatsby. Historical context is a huge part of being able to interpret and I thought it

would be important to start there. I know in my past high school experiences, my ELA teachers

would spend a great deal of time working with the historical context of a novel prior to reading

it. I always found this really helpful when trying to understand a text. As I taught my lesson I

wanted the students to work together to go through the various stations of historical context I set

up throughout the classroom. I wanted students to work in groups so that they could talk about

the history they are learning and begin to feel comfortable talking about the future content of The

Great Gatsby. After instructing the students that they will be going through the stations (3:00), I

realized that the students were not communicating during the group work. What I should have

done was go around and ask some prompting questions as the students were working. I did not

want the students to feel as though they had to work in silence which is perhaps something I

should have really emphasized. I will be sure to do this for future group work. At about 16:30 I

called the class back to discuss as a group. I think this was the best part of the lesson because I

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got to hear what the students learned and what stood out to them the most. This was a great

exercise because all of the students were able to vocalize what was interesting to them

personally. This was really important to this lesson because from learning about this history they

got the opportunity to pick and choose what aspects of the historical context was important to

them. They are now able to use this knowledge and apply it to their reading of The Great

Gatsby. At about 20:00 I explain to the students that we will watch a movie clip. The purpose of

the movie clip was to get the students to interpret the movie clip, set in the 1920s, and point out

what they recognized from their work with the historical context and apply it to the movie. At

24:48, one of the students had a great realization and it was a really great addition to the lesson.

The student mentioned that she knew, based on the historical context, this was a post World War

II setting and a character in the movie mentioned something about war. The student made the

connection between the two aspects of the lesson and this was ultimately my goal. The final

alteration I would have made to my lesson was my final commentary. I had more to say and I

kind of stopped short. In the future I would definitely try to incorporate more of a clear closing

statement to ensure the students knew the point of the lesson. I think at the end of my lesson it

would have been beneficial to show the students that they have done interpretative work with

this lesson, therefore they are able to do this same interpretative work while reading the novel.

Overall, I think my lesson was headed in the right direction. Of course, interpretation

takes a long time and the students are not going to be able to be professionals with this skill after

just one lesson. Historical context is extremely important for analyzing and interpreting texts and

starting with this lesson makes the most sense. In the future I will be sure to encourage more

conversation as the students work in groups. I can do this by including more specific questions,

or come together as a class every few minutes to have a small discussion about how the students

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are doing. This will ensure student conversation and facilitate a space in which the students are

comfortable talking with each other. This will also ensure more critical thinking about the

context of the novel. This experience was great to see the areas that I can work on and the areas

that I did well with. Interpretation is not an easy skill to learn and it is definitely not an easy skill

to teach. With time, practice, and research I think I will be able to shape my future students into

great interpretive and analytic readers.

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 Works Cited

Ajayi, L. (n.d.). Innovative approaches in English-language arts: How Two ... Retrieved

December 3, 2021, from http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/uploads

Deane, P. (2020). Building and justifying interpretations of texts: A key practice in the English

language arts. ETS Research Report Series, 2020(1), 1–53.

Foster, L. N., Krohn, K. R., McCleary, D. F., Aspiranti, K. B., Nalls, M. L., Quillivan, C.

Taylor, C. M., & Williams, R. L. (2009). Increasing low-responding students’

participation in class discussion. Journal of Behavioral Education, 18(2),

173–188.

Knoster, K. C., & Goodboy, A. K. (2020). Making content relevant: A teaching and

learning experiment with replication. Communication Education, 70(1), 4–26.

Mallon, M. D., & Meritt, N. (2020). Analyzing Students' Self-Confidence and Participation in

Class Discussions, 12(4).

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