Strategy Response: Witness

Schema

“leanora sutter
i told daddy i wasn’t going back to school.
daddy said:
of course you are.
no low-down white boy’s gonna stop leanora sutter
from getting an education.”(Hesse 2001, 13).

Reading Witness I found many places that I was using my background knowledge to better understand the text. Through out the book I found myself making text-to-text and text-to-world connections with what I know about civil rights, racial prejudice, and religious persecution. What I know about racism in the south, and what I associated with the Klu Klux Klan helped me build a setting for the story that is not created in the format of the text. Particularly, I made a text-to-text connection when reading the passage above. Reading about Leanora Sutter’s experience at school made me think of reading about Ruby Bridges. Both of them were working to get an education and both faced with struggling to learn in a hostile environment. In addition, I made text-to-self connections subtly. I have never had to deal with the prejudice and hate that Leanora experienced, but I do know how hard it is to feel like you don’t fit in. I think every student has at least one time that they feel out of place. Making that connection and imagining how it must feel for Leanora, who is always battling feeling out of place, helps me understand how difficult it must be for her to go to school and face such a hostile environment each day.

Inference
“only the little girl form new york,
esther,
that funny talking kid,
only esther didn’t mind about me being colored” (Hesse, 3).

Reading from Leanora’s point of view about Esther I was able to infer more about Esther’s character. First, I observed that Esther was from New York, the north. The observation made me use what I know about the north, the racial tension was not as intense as in the south, to infer that Esther had not been taught to treat people differently by the color of their skin. With this observation and inference I when ont o predict that Esther may become friends with Leanora. As I read on I found that I was right, Esther didn’t mind that Leanora was colored, again I infer this was because she was from the north. I also inferred from the observation that Esther was a “funny talking kid” that her accent was different from the children in the south. Later reading from Esther’s point of view I found that Esther does have strange word choice and word order. Although, whether her “funny talking” is because she is the youngest character, or because of where she is from, I am not sure.

Questioning

“put a colored girl in the paper,
call her a hero,
just cause she saved a kid
from being hit by a train.
A jew kid.

I could have saved a kid.
I saw it, too. That train
Tearing along the track.
I saw it, too.
….
I’m not saying she did anything I couldn’t have done,
But when I think on it,
Maybe I didn’t try because something,
Something kept me in my place wathching that colored girl run.” (Hesse, 76).

Why does Merlin have so much hate? What is he trying to prove? What was the “something” that kept him in place when he could have been trying to save Esther? Whenever I read from his point of view my mind was flooded with questions. These questions helped motivate me to read on, I was curious about what would happen; curious to find answers to my questions. Questioning also helped me analyze and understand Merlin’s character better. Asking a question like “Why does Merlin have so much hate?” I was monitoring for meaning, using my schema, and trying to make inferences. First I was checking what I have understood about the book, was there anything that explained his hate? Second, I was thinking about what I know about prejudice to try and understand Merlin condemning Leanora for doing good. Finally, I was making inferences about Merlin’s character; he must have thought very little of himself if he needed to prove his worth by saying he could have done what Leanora did. Trying to answer the questions in my mind helped me think aobut the story. Some of my questions were answered; others were not but the process of questioning lead me to better comprehend the text.

Monitoring for Meaning

“bossie did stray from the pasture
into mr. hobart’s garden
where she had eatings of all the good green stuffs
and she did have happy goings up and down the garden rows.
when mr. hobart had wakings up,
he did see our bossie
in his garden,
and he did take is gun and fire at
bossie” (Hesse, 77).


Often when reading from Esther’s point of view I found myself skipping back to re-read to make sure I understood the text. For example, when I read the line “where she had eatings of all the good green stuffs” I skipped back to the first line and re-read. Each line I read I would summarize in a way I understood before moving on. “Bossie did stray from the passage” became “an animal escaped from their pasture” then “into Mr. Hobart’s garden”, then on to “where she had eatings fo all the good green stuffs”. I said the last line to myself as “where she ate all of the green plants”. Re-reading and summarizing is a common way I monitor for meaning. In addition, to re-reading I often checked back to the character profiles on the first page. The pictures and details helped me know who exactly was talking and how their position might influence what perspective they had, or why they might react in one way or another. Monitoring for meaning is for me the skill that envelopes schema, questioning, and inferring. I am monitoring for meaning by using all the tools I have to comprehend the text.