Reading and Writing between The Lines: An Interactive Approach Using Computers

Author(s): Bill Bernhardt

Source: Journal of Reading, Vol. 37, No. 6 (Mar., 1994), pp. 458-463
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading Association
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Bill Bernhardt II workas a teacherof entrylevel college stu-
dents, educatorof graduatestudents enteringthe
teaching profession, inservicetrainerof teachers,
and consultantto literacyprojectsin the U.S. and
abroad.All of these are real world environments
in whichconditionsfor the applicationof technol-
ogy are far from ideal: There are never enough
computer stations for the learners-,the available
softwareis seldom what I would have chosen and
often differentfromwhat was promised;there are
always turned-offlearnersand at least one com-
puterphobein everygroup.
The challenge is to engage and
energize my students in orderto
promote learningin readingand

Readingand writingwithin the real world as I

encounter it. I can't wait until I
am moreconversantwiththe pro-
writing between fessional literatureor more profi-
cient in my own use of the per-
the lines: An sonal computer; I can't wait for
the right hardware, software,
motivated learners,etc., to come
interactive along. I have to use whatever
imperfect human and technical

approach
using resources are available to me
now. Aboveall, I need to develop
new ways of workingwith the per-
computers sonal computer (PC) that go
beyond what I can accomplish
withoutit.
Reading and writing between the lines is the
approachthat I have been developingsince I first
By manipulating text on a startedworkingwith computersin Englishinstruc-
computer screen, learners tion in 1985.Its underlyingpremise is that, due to
literally write "between" the fluidityof text on a computerscreen, certain
and within the lines, awarenesses that seem both obvious and funda-
mental to enthusiasticconsumersof printcan be
integrating their own
easily conveyedto all readers,includingthose who
thoughts with the text have neverbefore become active and engaged. Of
these awarenesses, the two most importantare
these:
1. The passage on the page or the screen begins
to makesense and matterto me only when I start
doing somethingwith it.

Copyright ©1994
International Reading Association
458 Journal of Reading 37:6 March 1 994 0022-4103/94/US$1 .25 + .00

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 2. Interestin the content of a passage comes as
a by-productof my activityas a readerratherthan
as somethingI can be expectedto bringwith me.
Let's get down to specifics. When a group of
people (of any age or degree of education)enter a
computerlab and see that there is some text dis-
played on the PCscreens, a few start readingjust
the way they would start readinga magazinein a
dentist'swaitingroom. They'rethe hardcoreread-
ers. The rest- by far the majority- just glance at
the screen and turnaway;they would much rather
"read" the otherpeople.
Both groups of people are engaged in a similar
inner dialogue of focusing perceptions, stressing
some aspects of what they see and ignoringoth-
ers, questioning, makinginferences, speculating,
evoking images from memory, entertaining
hypotheses- in short, engaging in all the mental
activities fundamental to reading. But only the
membersof the smallergroup (whichmay number
as few as one in a remedial course) are actually
applying this process to the comprehension of
writtentexts.
One waythat I can respondto this situation is to
try to persuadethe reluctantreadersin my group
that "youcan do it."That'swhat I might have done
30 years ago, when I firstwent into the classroom.
Lateron, before the advent of computers,I would
have tried anotherapproach:to help my students
observe and analyzetheir behavioras they "read"
each other on the firstday of class and then apply
these same techniques to the printed page. But
today I no longerneed to workin that roundabout
way because we have access to the PC,which per-
mits a muchmoredirectwayof working.
Getting readers interested
One way I can begin is to tell everyone to move
the cursorto the end of the first sentence that is
on the screen and then press the Enterkey repeat-
edly until the rest of the passage has more or less
disappearedfrom view. This focuses their atten-
tion on the single sentence that is left visible. I
can ask them to read it and, using the space bar,
to create additional spaces between phrases so
that each cluster or chunk of related words will
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stand out. They can also insert symbols such as
question and exclamation marks after words or
phrases that seem particularlydifficult, mysteri-
ous, intelligent,stupid,etc.
Followingthat, I ask them to start writingcom-
ments and questions in the space underthat sen-
tence. Finally, I ask them to write a comment
about what they have noticed about themselves
duringthe precedingexercise- not about the pas-
sage, but about themselves.
The purpose of the last directionin the exercise
is to help people see that they are doing some-
thing with themselves that, for some at least, is
not a customaryactivity.Theyare alreadyactively
"reading and writing between the words and
between the lines." And, in their commentary,
most usuallymakethe point that they are "getting
interested."In other words, they are doing what
real readersdo and getting the sense of engage-
ment that real readersget.
Using technology to invent ways
of looking at text
Reading and writing between the lines can take
manyforms,dependingon the natureof the learn-
ers. For example, sentences or paragraphsof a
given text can be rearranged to form a new
sequence that the learners,individuallyor working
in a group,considerclearer.Subtitles and internal
numberingof points can be inserted. Definitions
of difficult and or unfamiliarterminologycan be
insertedin bracketsor parenthesesafterkeywords
or even substituted for the original words.
Questions, comments, and other forms of reader
feedback can be inserted anywhere in the text.
However,the readers'interpolationsare writtenin
capital letters to signal their importance (for us,
the students' words are more importantthan the
book's) as well as to distinguish them from the
originaltext.
Specific word processing strategies are intro-
duced on a need-to-knowbasis over time. Initially,
learnersare presentedwith a booted-up PCwith a
document displayed on the screen. They apply
whatthey alreadyknowof typewritertechnologyto
manipulatethe text displayed. (Increasingly,they
Reading and writing between the lines 459
arrivewith some degree of computerliteracy;cer-
tainlymuch morethan I had the firsttime I walked
into a computerlab.)
The first session is fully focused on using the
computer for reading with no attention given to
saving, printing, exiting from the program, etc.
That all comes later. However,questions about
how to move the cursor,delete, etc., are answered
as simplyas possible.
Centralto this whole approachis the notion that
the more readersdo to a text to makeit their own,
the more likelythey will value both it and reading
in general.And the simpler the directions on the
part of the instructor,the more freedom for the
learnersto develop their own strategiesforwriting
between the lines. For example, some students
like to inventtheir own elaboratesystems for tag-
ging passages with which they agree or strongly
disagree.
Once the students experiencereadingand writ-
ing between the lines with a small sample of a
passage, they are readyto go forwardat their own
pace. Basically,they experimentwith breakingup
the passage into manageable chunks, isolating
particularlymeaningfulor difficultchunksfor spe-
cial consideration, tagging particular chunks,
reorderingand/or numberingchunks, and insert-
ing definitions,comments,questions, etc.
Sometimes, it isn't possible for the instructorto
enter the text in advance. When this occurs, the
students type the passage. Ifthe passage is short,
they will generallyenter it in as well as they can
with a minimum of grumbling. But when it is
longer, an interesting thing happens: They ask if
they can just choose the main points to type in. In
other words, they are spontaneously starting to
transferthe process of readingbetween the lines
to noncomputerizedtext.
I had been using the PC to teach writing for
some time before 1began to see its applicationto
reading.I took my first importantstep when I was
tutoring some undergraduatesin test taking. To
help them become more awareof the demands of
short answer,multiplechoice tests, I put a portion
of a sample test before them on the screen. Many
of the questions that they had troublewith were of
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this sort: "The word in line is best
defined as..." or "Theauthor is trying to argue
that...."
It occurredto me that some of the students'dif-
ficulty derived from the fact that the question in
each of these cases wasn't actually phrased as a
question. So I gave the students the choice of
inserting their own rewritingof each question in
whateverform and words they wished. Theirper-
formanceon the test improvedsignificantly.
Afterthat experience, I recognizedthat the PC
could be useful for teaching reading primarily
because it allows a substitutionof intellectualand
somatic efforton the learner'spartfor explanation
and modeling on the teacher'spart. I also recog-
nized that the simplest little movements on the
screen could be decisive in aiding the reader's
understandingof a text.
Forexample, some students didn't reallynotice
the significance of periods at the ends of sen-
tences and the separation of one thought from
anotheruntil they had introducedfouror five lines
of space between each sentence and the next and
numberedthe sentences. Otherstudents'compre-
hension was greatlyenhancedwhen they inserted
a brief comment on what they were visualizing
aftereach paragraphof a story.Writingabout their
mental imageryin between the lines of the story
they were reading was somehow more powerful
than doing a journalentryin a separate notebook
or computernotebookfile.
Integrating readers' thoughts with text
In October 1991, I gave a workshopfor the CUNY
Association of Reading Educators (CARE)at
BoroughManhattanCommunityCollege (BMCC)
using the approachI am outlining here. Because
these were experienced readers and teachers, I
had some difficultylocating a passage that would
challenge them in the same way as my first-year
students. I finallychose a selection in Portuguese
froma Brazilianacademicjournal.
The firsttime I went aroundthe room, I saw that
more than one person had written"whatdoes this
have to do with reading????" between the lines on
the screen. But as they wrestledwith the passage,
inserting their questions and conjectures about
the words and their meaning, sharing comments
and feelings with colleagues in the room,the edu-
cators'mood changed.AlthoughI nevertold them
whether they were right about the passage
(indeed, I don't knowPortuguese),they knewfrom
their own inner criteria that they were making
progress in terms of increasing comprehension,
greater engagement in the process of struggling
with a difficult text, and being less impatient to
find a right answer so that one could go on to
something else and forget about the difficultyof
the task.
The workshopparticipantscould also see that
one consequence of this way of working is the
integrationof the reader'sown notes with the orig-
inal text. Keepingthe two together (withthe notes
in caps to distinguishthem fromthe primarytext)
helps the jreaderto feel that he or she owns the
readingmaterial.It isn't only something in a book
that belongs to someone else. It's also mine
because I did somethingto makeit mine.

Necessary equipment
When I workedwith my colleagues at BMCC,the
machines at our disposal were ancient and the
software was almost prehistoric, at least in the
way history is measured in the computer world.
However,it really didn't matter because we were
still doing something that was impossible without
the PC as the instrument.This is not to say that
the sophisticationof the equipment I use is of no
importance.On the contrary,I welcome the oppor-
tunity to work with more advanced equipment
wheneverI can get it.
Forthe kindof exercises I have been describing,
a PCequipped with a mouse and softwarewith a
graphic interface are great assets. Using the
mouse, students can much more easily manipu-
late text on the screen.Greateruse can be made of
color and other visual cues. In the near future(as
in the case of some demo disks I have received
fromuniversityresearchprojects)it will be easy to
set up separate columns on the screen with the
originaltext in the center and the student's ques-
Photo by Laima Druskis
tions, comments, etc. in a parallelcolumn only a
mouse clickaway.
Technically speaking, the reading and writing
between the lines approachis computerbased but
not computer driven. It focuses on the learners
and on getting them engaged in workingwith texts
by the simplest means possible rather than on
technicalmastery.In fact, I don't considermyselfa
computer person. Perhapsfor this reason, I have
no difficultyworkingwith people who are comput-
erphobic and convincing them that this instru-
ment could have some utilityfor them. In the case
of computerphobicteachers,I share with them my

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own experienceof acceptingthat my students, not
I, become the computerexperts in the class. Such
loss of control is hard for us teachers, as I often
haveto remindmyself.
In the past, 1 tried to make my students into
more active readersby urgingthem to write com-
ments and questions in the margins of their
books,to underlineand circleimportantpoints, to
use highlightersand other visual enhancements.
Thesewere all successfultechniques up to a point.
But they had one inescapable limitation. When
the student had markedup his or her page it was
done- once and forever! There was no way to
undo it or redo it a differentway. However,with
the PC,most of these conventions of markingcan
be used and then modified, as with any other
manipulationof text on screen. Thus it is possible
to experimentwith a varietyof conventions either
suggested by the instructoror (preferably)invent-
ed by the students and discard those that don't
seem to workwithout permanentlyaffecting the
readabilityof the text. Students experiment and
discoverwhich kinds of markingactuallyworkfor
them on screen (a very individual matter, in my
experience) and only then transfer their chosen
techniquesto theirtextbooks.
Actually,I hesitate to introducestudents to the
use of certain functions (such as the underline,
bold and italics, columns, etc.) that may not even
appear in the text until it is printed out (unless
they are using the most advancedsoftware).These
formattingchanges, even with a mouse, can too
easily become time-consuming, labor-intensive
substitutes for other ways of reformattingor high-
lightingtext on screen that are much simpler and
just as useful, especially if one is not accom-
plished in word processing. Inserting spaces or
lines, bracketsor parentheses, numbers or sym-
bols, caps, etc., requiresmany fewerkeystrokesin
most wordprocessingprograms.As with any tech-
nology,there is alwaysa dangerof becomingover-
ly engagedwith mechanics.The purpose here is to
use the technology to make the student more
active in opening up the text, not to master the
bells and whistles of a particularword processing
program.
462 Journal of Reading 37:6 March 1994
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Students take control of learning
Whenthe students inventtheirown techniquesfor
tagging items in the text or introducingtheir own
comments and questions, they are showing me
that they want to own the process of reading as
well as the content of the particularpassage. Even
if I can thinkof a betterway (orwhat I thinkis bet-
ter) I need to give up controlso that they can gain
autonomy and confidence on the basis of their
own efforts.
At any moment, students are permittedto scroll
back to earlier parts of the text to modify their
comments and questions, to type in answers (if
they think that would be truly helpful),or simply
to reread the fusion of their own workwith the
assigned passage. They can also scroll ahead,
choosing only certain paragraphsor sentences to
workon. There is no requirementthat they work
throughthe text in a strictlinearsequence. In fact,
they can experimentwith skippingto the end and
then workingbackwardif they wish.
Althoughthe students are grantedconsiderable
freedom in this approach,one thing they are not
free to do is to daydreamin frontof the screen as
they might with a book or a page of hard copy.
Theyhave to keep focused on somethingand keep
enteringtheir own text between the lines. Andas I
go aroundthe room observingthem at work,I can
easily tell who is not doing enough by what
appearson his or her screen. Further,at the end of
each workingsession the learner must describe
the process that has been followed and list ques-
tions that still remainunanswered.
Worksessions are usuallysaved on the student's
own data disk in dated lesson files at the end of
the session, as soon as the learnersfeel sufficient-
ly comfortablewith the programto do their own
saving. Printoutsare restrictedto those occasions
when the students are (a) continuingtheir reading
of the same text at home (if, for example, they
have been workingon screen with the firstchapter
of a book they are readingout of class), or (b) writ-
ing about the same reading material outside of
class without access to their computer files.
Otherwise,the burden of printing(and consump-
tion of paper)becomes too great.
 Obviously,workingin a computer lab with stu-
dents can become very labor intensive for the
instructorif he or she lets that happen.Some stu-
dents are only too willingto relyon the teacherto
save and print or locate files in the directory.
However,if the instructorintroducesthe mechanics
of disk management,saving,and printinggradually
(whileallowingthose studentswho are alreadypro-
ficient the freedomto go on ahead) there will be
ample opportunityfor students to become as tech-
nicallyproficientas they need to be.
Finally,reading and writing between the lines
can be adaptedto the demandsof testing in sever-
al ways. The easiest is to ask students to convert
some part of their assigned reading into a cloze
test by omittingeveryfifthor sixth word. It is also
possible to give the students the opportunityto
makeup their own essay questions or even to cre-
ate conventionalreadingtests by the use of a tem-
plate such as:
Theauthorprobablythinksthat
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Themain point of paragraph is
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Readingand writingbetween the lines is avail-
able and valuableto anyone who teaches English
(reading,literature)or any practicalor academic
discipline to which readingand the interpretation
of written sources are central. Just as writingon
computersin English(and other) classes supports
an interactivemodel of compositioninstructionin
which people learn primarilyby doing and invent-
ing ratherthan through listening and copying,so
utilizingthe fluidityof the writtentext to readand
write between the lines provides the basis for a
more interactivemodel of readinginstruction.
Bernhardt teaches English at the College of Staten
Island-CUNY (2800 VictoryBoulevard,Staten Island NY
10314, USA).

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