1. Developing Awareness of Reading Processes
Questioning a Text
Langer’s Horizon of Possibilities

2. Directions Read the short story.
When you have a question, write it in the margin.
When you feel you are developing a new understanding, put a checkmark in the margin.
Try to maintain your normal reading pace.

3. After you finish reading:
Without looking back at the story, write a response to what you just read. Try to think on paper, keeping your pen moving for several minutes.
Find a partner who is finished and talk about the story. Share what you noticed and try to answer questions you may have.

4. The Value of Questions
How did articulating your questions help you as a reader during your initial reading?
How did your questions help you as you talked about the story with a partner?

5. Judith Langer’s Horizon of Possibilities
“When readers engage in a literary experience, their orientations can be characterized as reaching toward a horizon of possibilities….A literary orientation is one of exploration—where uncertainty is a normal part of response and newfound understandings provoke still other possibilities.”

6. Langer’s Horizon of Possibilities
“In contrast, when the purpose of reading is primarily to gain information…readers’ orientations can be characterized as maintaining a point of reference.”

7. Langer’s Horizon of Possibilities
“What readers come away with at the end of a reading is a final envisionment. This includes what they understand, what they don’t, and the questions they still have. Therefore, the final envisionment is also subject to change with further time and thought.”

8. More Directions Review your marginal markings.
Try to write a brief description of how the story unfolded for you on your first reading. What were your initial responses? What possibilities of meaning did you consider? What clues in the story helped you understand what was going on?

9. Partner talk
Comment on the value of discussing the story with a partner.
Comment on the value of discussing the story as a whole class.
When did you feel that you “got it”? That you had arrived at a rich and fair understanding of the text?

10. Response, Analysis, and Reflection
Response-Our initial feelings and envisionments developed with a text.
Analysis-Posing and answering questions about a text (how does the text evoke the response it does? How is the text effective?)
Reflection-Thinking about our reading processes helps us become more skilled readers.