New Reader Response: An Examination of Three High-Achieving High School Readers and Their Literacies

Authors

Minkyu Kim, St. John's UniversityFollow

Abstract

Since its inception, reader response theory has battled misrepresentations. It was reduced to discursive anarchy, perceived as not rigorous, and set apart from important scholarship movements like critical theory. This research argues that by expanding the definition of “reader” in “reader response” to include digital (aka “new”) literacies, the reader-text transaction can be much more inclusive, dynamic, and most importantly, true to our students’ everyday literacies. This article also includes a discussion of why it is so important for teachers to include digital platforms as sites of interrogation in a safe educative setting. By studying the out-of-school literacy behaviors of three high-achieving high school students at a selective metropolitan specialized high school, this essay theorizes that New Readers engaged in a four-layered text transaction: (1) basic comprehension; (2) aesthetic or emotional response; (3) meta- or supplemental text engagement; and (4) social space engagement. The main finding was that the New Readers in this study immersed themselves in knowledge around their texts via an ever-expanding landscape of digital platforms (called the meta-text layer) to inform their engagement in social affinity spaces. This New Reader Response model should inform how teachers encourage their students to engage with in-school texts.

Recommended Citation

Kim, Minkyu (2024) "New Reader Response: An Examination of Three High-Achieving High School Readers and Their Literacies," Essays in Education: Vol. 31: Iss. 1, Article 1.
Available at: https://openriver.winona.edu/eie/vol31/iss1/1

Primary Author Bio Sketch

Minkyu Kim is currently a full time English teacher at Stuyvesant High School and an adjunct professor at St. John's University in New York City. He is interested in extracurricular literacies and learning.