Theoretical Foundation
[ ELASTIC READINGS ]
[ ELASTIC READINGS ]
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The challenge to develop readers in this new era
Do you know how many books Brazilians read per year? According to the research “Retratos da Leitura no Brasil7”, we Brazilians read, on average, 2.5 books per year. The figures are alarming: over 40% of the population does not read at all, and 30% has never bought a single book! The place that gives people the most access to reading is the school. And here we are, teachers, talking about how we can keep this new generation’s interest and love for books and stories. It was because of this major issue that the concept of “Stretch Readings” was developed by Carolina Sanches8.
[7] FALIA, Zora (Org.). Retratos da leitura no Brasil. 5. ed. Rio de Janeiro, Sextante, 2021. 328 p.
[8] SANCHES, Carolina. Leituras elásticas: o desafio de formar leitores no novo tempo. Rio de Janeiro, Mapa Lab, 2021. 116 p.
Image: Istock - Credit: monkeybusinessimages
How can we develop readers in this day and age?
This is a powerful question that has multiple answers. And this is perfect because if we want to find solutions, it is necessary that we form three axes of change:
Questioning
Experimenting
Connecting the dots
Let us look for ways!
Elastic Readings is at the same time a concept and a strategy to develop a reader with divergent thoughts (i.e. being able to consider different ideas), with convergent thoughts (i.e. finding answers to their questions), with imagination (i.e. being able to conceive what does not exist), capable of developing integrative thinking (i.e. the ability of thinking of, balancing and reconciling different, contradictory ideas), and capable of finding enjoyment (i.e. learning and knowing more and more brings pleasure).
An "elastic reader"!
What if we Stretched Readings, expanding the fictional universe of the stories?
Image: Istock - Credit: Aleksej Sarifulin
To talk about the elasticity of readings, we need to talk about experience. The word comes from Latin - EXPERIRI - and it means "try" (experiment). And there is no better writer (to me!) than Spanish educator Jorge Larrosa. In his book "Tremores – Escrito sobre Experiências9", Larrosa defines "experience".
“Experience is everything that touches us, that passes us, or that happens to us, and as it passes us, it FORMS and TRANSFORMS us.”
In a world overfilled with too much information, too much work, too many opinions and too little time, we are faced with the dilemma that “Each and every day, many things happen, though at the same time hardly anything happens to us”. Larrosa hits a sore point when he alerts us to the fact that so many things have happened, while experiences have been rarer and rarer. What kind of experiences do children have that can contribute to rescuing symbolism and to fighting the illiteracy of imagination? What is going on in the field of sensitive knowledge (imagination, creation, perception, intuition, emotion) in this generation? Who is taking care of them? The excessive amount of reality is killing experience.
If I want to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary. If I want to stay up-to-date with current affairs, I read newspapers, portals, social media. If I want to dispel a doubt, I search on Google. And when I want to learn about myself? Where do I search? If I am a reader, I seek fiction, more specifically the literary text. That is why Larrosa reminds us of a statement by philosopher and educator Rudolf Steiner about experience and reading:
"Whoever has read Metamorphosis by Kafka and can look at themselves in the mirror fearlessly is technically capable of reading the written word, but is illiterate in the only sense that matters".
Steiner10
[10] STEINER, G. Lenguaje y silencio. Barcelona, Gedisa, 1994
Image: Freepik
With this statement, Steiner gives us the real dimension of the relationship between the reader and the book, for we can replace Kafka’s book in the sentence with any other book. If reading a book does not transform me, then it doesn’t offer me an experience. Since it is the experience that touches us and constitutes a relationship, what matters is not the text, but our relation to the text. The book itself doesn’t matter, but how reading it impacts us. And that is when I start thinking about stretch readings.
Our proposal is to qualify, broaden, and stretch children’s reading experience so that they can recover what was left behind by previous generations (all you have to do is look at the numbers of readers in Brazil). When we put aside the crucial function of constructing and reconstructing the narrative that makes us human, we lose our connection with literature. And deep down, we lose our connection with ourselves.
In elastic readings, we place the books in the center of the process. The stories invite the reader to broaden their experience of that fictional universe, extending it from the book and the reading activity to other formats and languages, which contributes to the expansion of their repertoire. The fictional universe expands, breaks through the physical barrier - the book -, going beyond the limits set by the pages.
So, what have we created here? The Aperte o PLAY!
From Aesop’s Fables, we will "stretch", we will expand the children’s reading journey to other languages. The fable is what is called the master narrative that leads to ramifications, expanding reading alternatives. This does not mean adapting the main story to our platforms. It means creating from the main story, inventing new contents in other formats, thus enriching the reading experience.
This is what you will find here: we will expand the youngsters’ reading experience with a touch of Maker Education. The stories will be read and then stretched to experiences specially designed for Early Childhood Education. We are forming maker readers: they plunge into the fiction, savor the narrative and expand it to hands-on activities to broaden the senses and feel more empowered to be agents of change in the real world.
Reflect-Make-Play, all at the same time. There is no splitting in think-feel-make when we combine stretch readings and Maker Education. All together now!
This dynamic is inspired by Master Henry Jenkins and his "Convergence Culture11". He initiates the discussion of transmedia storytelling, which uses a variety of media to sustain a common thread in the understanding of messages. This is a contemporary type of narrative, built from a diversity of contents independent from, and at the same time related to, one another.
This is a major turning point: new multimedia structures create elastic readers. Different ways of reading mean different ways of thinking. In his book, Jenkins states that “new and old media will interact in more and more complex ways”. Are mediators, educators, librarians, writers, illustrators and publishers prepared for this complex way of reading? We believe you are! Take advantage of this material and “stretch” everything with the kids!
[11] JENKINS, Henry. Cultura da convergência. São Paulo, Aleph, 2009. 432 p.
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