• Before you read 
• While you're reading 
• After you finish reading 
• Reading boring texts 
• Reading hard texts 
• Reading literature

• A pot with water = Setting
• Pasta noodles = Characters
• Cheese mix, milk, butter = Background information (knowledge reader brings to the text, etc.)
• Heat from the stove = plot/conflict in the story
• Boiling water = plot arriving at the climax of the story

When the noodles get boiled in the water, they change and become softer. In a similar way, the characters in a story change throughout the story. Characters go through some sort of transformation, where they are different in the end of the story than they are in the beginning. 

The background information is what makes the story more interesting ó it gives the story more life. In the same way, the cheese mix, butter and milk make the Macaroni and Cheese dinner more tasty and enjoyable.

After we read something, we often tend to think about what we just finished reading. For example, after reading a novel I spend some time thinking about the theme of the novel -- hence, I am "digesting" the information in the novel. When we eat Mac and Cheese we digest the food in the similar way. 
 
 
Macaroni and Cheese Cooking Directions
(or, Text and Meaning Making Directions)
 
1. Boil 6 cups of the story setting. Stir in the characters. Add climax for 7 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
2. Drain. 
3. Add _ cup of personal experience, _ cup your knowledge of the world, and packet of values and beliefs. Mix well. Makes about 3 cups.
 
 
Examples from strong readers
These excerpts from studentsí blogs in English 294 might be useful to readers in making meaning and sense from texts, once readers are done with a text.

Scott

• I think about the events or plot of the story, the characters, and how they are all intertwined. Then I think about the thematic ideas I recognized and how they relate to the story and characters. By doing this I am basically trying to decide whether or not I am getting what the author intended. This, of course, is really impossible because you can't tell what the author really intended (unless you actually ask them, which is highly unlikely to happen), but you can carefully examine what you pulled away from the text based on themes, characters, and plot. I try not to think too hard about this simply because it is so difficult. I just try to read as thoroughly as possible and pull some sort of meaning from the text. Or, sometimes, I just put the book down and revel in the fact that I finished the book, I enjoyed reading it and then move on to something else. 

• I sit with the finished part of the book: do I feel satisfaction, wonder, dismay, agreement, sadness, or a wow feeling? I ponder why the author chose to finish the piece of writing his way. Then I begin the jotting down these immediate because I might forget them later. For example, in Man of Mode, which I just finished for a British literature class, I wrote, "Dorimant has had no epiphany or shown any changes in his behavior. Harriet has challenged him and managed to catch his affection and attention, but wonít they end up in one of the miserable marriages described in Restoration literature. I see Harriet feeling neglected and cuckholding Dorimant in the future. Dorimant will have access to her money and return to his philandering ways. This play is fun and made me laugh." 
• extra points about difficult reads:
• A plot summary will help sometimes but one must watch reading analysis from other people because then you have absorbed that personís perspective of the play rather than discovering your own. 
• I talk to fellow students who often can give a lot of help. 
• I have to make the notes on paper; if I go near the computer, my creativity is destroyed. 

• On the material for school, I just waited to be able to discuss the material in class. The material that I read for pleasure I talked about with friends and family. Throughout the week I was able to make connections with other readings with the reading that I had done for pleasure.  

Steini

• What I do and how I react after I read something depends on what I read. If I enjoy what I read, I think about it for days after I've read it, and I'll usually talk about it with other people, if I can. If I don't like the text, I'll usually forget about it pretty quickly and it won't affect me nearly as much. After reading a book I also spend a great deal of time thinking about the theme of the story. What does the story mean? What lesson was the author trying to teach the reader, if any? What can I learn from this? How can I relate the characters' experiences in the book to my own experiences? I would say that, primarily, what I do most after I read is a lot of thinking and pondering over these ideas. Then I start thinking about reading another book, and I move on with life. 

• After reading a text that was strictly for my own enjoyment, I usually put it down and think "Wow, what a great book" (if it wasn't a great book, I wouldn't be finishing it!) I don't spend anytime thinking about it much more, except to recommend it to a friend or something. The only thing I usually think is "Shoot, I'm done--now what I am I going to read?" I like it when there are a series of books about the same characters because I get into a book and then when it's over, I want to see what happens next. I at least, try to pick authors that have several novels written so I don't have to go out looking for a new one--that is so hard for me--and takes me sooooo long! This way, I just go and get what is next on their list. 

• After I finish reading a book, I canít wait to talk about it. I ask people if they have read it too, and if they have, I ask what they thought about it, but really, I just want to tell them what I thought about it. If I liked the book, I try to get my friends to read it. Trying to get friends to read a book requires talking about the book, telling what it was about, why I liked it and so on. I find that this talking about the book I read is almost as important as the reading of it was for understanding. 

• After I read something for pleasure I am still wide awake, ready to go, yet after I read something which was assigned then I am sometimes tired. Usually I'll go outside or clean or work out. I just cannot sit in one spot for hours after hours.

• Food may start in one form, but through the cooking process the food changes. When we eat cooked food, we start the digestive process. In like manner, we read a book by taking in the elements of the text. By doing this, we digest the text mentally.

Steini and Michelle