Chapter+4

Bomer says, "But difficulty is not really something contained inside the text; rather, it names something in the relationship between the text and the reader" (78).

What are some elements of this relationship that cause difficulty in reading?

== My teachers always stressed the importance of connecting to what you read in some form or another. But how was I, as a Pakistani-American, supposed to connect with a little Jewish girl's holocaust diary? It wasn't until I re-read The Diary of Anne Frank a few years later and really tried connecting with her work that I became enlightened. I saw the text in a new way. It was easier to read and I was able to talk back to the text as if Anne Frank was a close friend. I don't think most students understand just how much easier reading can become once you are able to connect with the text and build a real relationship with it. == == However, as Bowmer also discusses, if the text is a little harder for him to read but it is about a topic that he really cares about, then there is a good possibility that he will be willing to put in the work to understand and interpret the text. ==

== The relationship can, at times, prove unpredictable. Catering to the wants and needs of every student through literature could be impossible, unless teachers are able to inform and truly enlighten them. ==

== For an example: MAUS is a story in which takes place during WWII and how a young man’s father and his family survived Hitler’s Europe. The intriguing part of this book, which grabbed my attention as a child, was the fact that this story was a graphic novel, yet it taught me more about history than a history text ever could. In order to want to draw students into reading, we must first give them something they want to read. ==
 * || == I believe that difficulty in reading arises from the lack of either interest the reader has in the text and/or from a student lacking the knowledge necessary to fully comprehend the text. == ||

== Even more troublesome are unfamiliar concepts or historical events with which students may need to acquaint themselves. Reading Animal Farm, for instance, which students can still find shocking and humorous, can only be understood so much without the context of the Russian Revolution, Marxism, and Socialism provided as backdrops. ==