1. The Transactional Theory of Reading and Writing
By: Louise M. Rosenblatt Presented by: Liz Guzniczak & Sue Ann Sharma
Edu 707
Dr. J. McEneaney

2. The Transactional Paradigm The essence of Rosenblatts’ philosophy
“The human being is seen as part of nature, continuously in transaction with an environment-each one conditions the other…Human activities and relationships are seen as transaction in which the individual and social elements fuse with cultural and natural elements.” (p. 1059)

3. Transactional Relationships “Unfractured observation of the whole situation”
Each element conditions & is conditioned by the other mutually

4. Language The Knower, Knowing & Known Public vs. Private Meaning
Semiotics
Peircean- Triadic Model (Transaction of Sign, Object & Mind)
Speech & Language

5. Linguistic Transactions Text is shaped by both the speaker and addressee
Transact With Non-verbal Signs
Text
Transact With Signs On A Page

6. Selective Attention Choosing An Activity
Owners of our own attention & focus through the use of kinesthetic, cognitive, affective, and associative domains
Thought triggers selective attention
There are degrees of attentiveness dependent on our emotions and desires involved
“…to be truly critical is to be selective” (Rosenblatt, 1994, p. 187)

7. Flying planes can be dangerous
The Reading Process
Evocation is not “in” the text or “in” the reader, but in the transaction between the reader and text
What theory is the new definition of reading based on?
Chomsky (1968) syntax and signs are parts of text that are dependent on transactions:
Flying planes can be dangerous

8. Reader’s Stance
Continuum from efferent to aesthetic reading that reader’s select
Efferent = Public Meaning
Aesthetic= Private Meaning
Metacognitively you set a purpose for reading (Selective Attention)

9. The Efferent Stance What am I gleaning from the text?
What am I going to do after reading the text?
Analytical structure of information

10. The Aesthetic Stance Lived through experience
Includes senses, feeling, and intuitions
Evocation (understanding) is the object of the reader’s response and interpretation both during and after reading
Metaphors can cue an aesthetic stance

11. The Continuum
Efferent satisfaction can come from someone else's paraphrase
Aesthetic satisfaction must come from within an individual
Middle ranges of efferent-aesthetic continuum are sometimes interwoven simultaneously – this is the messy area that tends to project the reader’s prior understandings
Expressed Response – a recapturing of the effect, i.e. Oprah’s Book Club-evocation is being clarified
Expressed Interpretation – report (parts to whole, analyze (prior understanding) and explain (interpretation) the evocation
Evocation effects our selective stance

12. The Writing Transaction

13. Authorial Reading a as Writer

14. Communication Between Author and Readers
Validity of Interpretation
Warranted Assertibility-agreement on shared criteria of validity of interpretation, i.e. Supreme Court decisions->Interpretation of Hamlet
Criteria based on purpose between the Efferent-Aesthetic Continuum
“Literary” Aspects of Efferent Reading, i.e. “Wave” theory of light & Shakespeare “Like as the wave makes toward the pebbled shore/So do our minutes hasten to their end”

15. Implications for Teaching
We cannot assume that the teaching of one activity, either reading or writing automatically improves the student’s competence in the other. It can affect the student’s operations
Big Point
The reading and writing connection reinforced with conversation and playing with ideas will result in what you attend to and how you construct meaning (The Transaction Process)

16. Thoughts to Ponder
“Despite the overemphasis on the efferent in our schools, failure to understand the matter of the public-private “mix” has prevented successful teaching even of efferent reading and writing”(p.1084).
What is the “main diet” of literature that a child receives in school?
Do we try to create environments and activities in reading & writing that result in a “lived through experience” for students?

17. Implications for Research
Piaget’s work exemplifies preoccupation with the efferent
Qualitative research is counterbalancing growing interest in the affective domain
Ethnographic studies of classroom practices can help understand more fully how teachers can facilitate learning better as a “guide on the side” rather than a “sage on a stage”
Rosenblatt believes in correlational research, do you believe that qualitative methods of research should become the foundation for any quantitative methods of research to answer “the why”?

18. Criticisms
Theorists see literary and nonliterary works as a dichotomy versus a continuum-this may generate problems of interpretation and evaluation (Rosenblatt, 1994)
Reader Response Criticism- Steven Mailloux reader/text distinction has been dismantled
Do we continue to accept dualistic theories or should we buy into Rosenblatt’s Transactional Model?