Students also need to learn that other, perhaps opposing, viewpoints exist and are valid. We want to honor students' interpretations, and we may feel uncomfortable in challenging them at first . . . And, if Scotese is adamant about helping students learn to form such text-based conclusions, it's because he firmly believes it's a skill they'll use time and again. Langer found that the experience of reading literature is profoundly different than other kinds of reading. From the very moment the reading begins, students keep the author's thesis in mind.
Students ask a lot of questions, but their exploration is limited by a mandatory point of reference.
Questions that aren't related to the author's hypothesis are discarded until students finish with the initial set of questions. They continually question motives, relationships, and reactions all at the same time. And, although students may have an idea of how the story will end, the questions they ask along the way may change their initial impression. Even when students think they're finished, more possibilities emerge. It demonstrates the always-changing nature of understanding.