One critical lens or perspective we use to study texts is the reader response perspective. Through this lens or perspective, we make connections between the text that we are reading and our own experiences.
‘Experiences’ means not only things that have happened to us. Experiences also include things we learned in the past and are stored in our memories. These are ideas, principles, facts, and bodies of knowledge that we already have experienced and are now part of our cognition or thinking.
As you read your summer text, use some of the strategies you learn in this blog post to help you make connections between your own experiences and what you read in the text. Annotate and journal as you make those connections.
Strategy 1. Look at the big picture.