In Chapter 1 of Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines, Doug Beuhl focuses on our identities as individual people and the influences these identities have on us as readers. He focuses on 4 subcategories of human identity:
Individual human nature- aspects of our life that are not under our control
(I, for example, am a white female in my early twenties who is an older sister and who looks far more like her mother than she would care to admit)
Positions- attained and confirmed by groups/institutions
(I am a college student and a Michigan citizen.)
Personal traits- that others recognize in us and that characterise us as individuals
(I like mac&cheese, bright green, snow, and playing softball, but dislike mud, protein shakes, and litterbugs.)
Associations- that we have with particular people or groups
(I am a Detroit Tigers fan and a member of Sigma Tau Delta, an international English Honors society.)
Beuhl goes on to define being a reader not as someone who can simply read the words (ability), but as an individual with preferences of what, why, how, and even when and where they read. Humans are incredibly multifaceted, with hundreds of opportunities to develop as completely unique individuals. I wonder how many of the various elements that make up my self contribute to my preferences and capabilities as a reader. Probably all of them, though in varying degrees.
Classroom Applications:
Students read a lot of obligatory texts throughout their school years, and I believe students should have the opportunity for choosing their reading material in literature classes, at least to some degree. Not only does each student bring their own identity into a classroom, but that identity is constantly growing, evolving, and adapting, even more so than my own as an adult. Giving students a choice in what they read allows them to play a part in directing their own development as readers and as people. It also motivates their interactions with what they read, and the more practice they have with different texts, particularly different styles and genres, then the better they will become at adapting their abilities to new texts in various disciplines.
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