Overview

Synthesizing theory from literacy scholars with strategies derived from classroom inquiry projects, Rethinking Reading in College argues for more—and more systematic—attention to the role of reading comprehension in college as a necessary step in addressing the inequities in student achievement that otherwise increase over time. Through a critique of the philosophy behind the Common Core State Standards, Arlene Fish Wilner examines the needs of college-bound high school students and interrogates the nature of “remediation” in college, arguing that when supported by rhetorical-reading assignments, students in all first-year writing classes can and should explore complex and enduring texts. Addressing both composition and reading across the curriculum, Wilner demonstrates how faculty in all disciplines and at all curricular levels can improve student outcomes by first deliberately inhabiting the persona of novices, rethinking their assumptions about what students know and can do as apprentices in a field. She also illustrates the limitations of the literary vs. nonliterary text binary through a study of the demands posed by To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel commonly taught in both high school and college. An outline for a two-semester first-year general education course and examples of writing-to-read assignments from a range of disciplines are adaptable across subject areas and institutions.

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Arlene Fish Wilner, professor of English at Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, holds a PhD in English literature from Columbia University and was trained in the study of higher education pedagogy as a Fellow of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL). Inspired by the CASTL experience, she designed and directed BRIDGE (2001-15), a collaborative campuswide faculty development program that facilitated classroom-inquiry projects and supported participants in publishing their research. Her studies in literary theory and interpretation, composition pedagogy, and faculty development have appeared in venues such as Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Children's Literature, Modern Language Studies, the Journal of Narrative Theory, the CEA Critic, College Literature, Reader, Composition Forum, Pedagogy, Learning Communities Journal, Criticism, and New Directions in Teaching and Learning. Throughout her career, Wilner has been an advocate for more purposeful attention in higher education to the interdependence of reading and writing, with a focus on assignment design.

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