Benefits of Activating the Active Reader

It seems the theory behind teaching the Active Reader is less important than the practical payoff, as far as the reader is concerned.  However, from what I learned in class today, and from Katz's essay in Writing on Writing ("Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively"), we study Teaching to the Active Reader only in part to teach reading.  The other aspect, as Mark implied today, is that, by teaching structured reading, we train readers to become structured writers.  By making our students conscious of their own reading, and of the various parts of an essay, they have a greater perspective of the potential for communication in such a piece.  Thus, potentially, they're getting groomed for thinking about Point, Purpose and Audience.  The last point is especially driven home via Active Reading, as the reader is made to understand his role -- the Audience (what Kinneavy calls the Decoder) in the reading/writing process.

As to how to instruct the Active Reader about the concepts and the implementation, the answer to both is to show, rather than tell. Thus, before reading, the reader is asked to consider his habits of selecting a text, making inferences about it from the title, headers and photos, and to anticipate what's coming. Next, the reader is asked to be conscious about how his pre-existing knowledge helps frame the reading, how his reading experience orients him as he reads through the piece; he's asked to note in which passages he tends to speed up and where he tends to slow down and mull things over.  After reading, the reader is asked to reflect on the passage he's read; he's also asked to what degree he's impelled to read additionally on this subject, or to discuss it with friends or colleagues.  By becoming conscious of these techniques, the Active Reader can become more conscious of the role he plays in interacting with the text.  This consciousness alone has the potential to empower him, motivate him to read, since he's "in the driver's seat."  Beyond this, as he becomes aware of the power of Audience, he prepares himself for addressing such and audience in his own compositions.