Reading Voices: Discerning the Reciting from the Conversation

 Reading Voices: Discerning the Reciting from the Conversation

In chapter 5 Tovani proclaims the importance of turning off your reciting voice and turning on your conversation voice when reading a text.  She explains that a reciting voice is, “the voice that reads the words but thinks about other things" ( Tovani 62). The reciting voice does not allow the reader to fully digest the material; it only reads the text but does not offer the reader to interact with it in a meaningful way.  Tovani asserts that using her conversation voice is a much more efficient means of absorbing the material that is offered in a piece of writing.  She explores her belief that her conversation voice allows her to enter into a dialogue with the text, “this voice argues with the author, or makes a connection to what the author is saying…this voice asks questions or agrees with what the author is saying" ( Tovani 62).

The notion of the reciting voice versus the conversation voice is a fascinating one.  When I think of a voice reciting something to me, I picture images of a boring speech that I am being forced to listen to through no desire of my own.  This image if far too similar to the way that many students view much of the work that is assigned to them in school.  However, the idea of having a conversation evokes feelings of excitement or intellectual growth that is thrilling and new.  By simply changing the perspective with which you attack a reading, you can completely alter the experience that is had with that text.   The distinction that Tovani makes between these two voices is an eye-opening one, and I will definitely employ this way of thinking in my own classroom.

Works Cited  

Tovani, Cris. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?: Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12.  

              Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2004. Print.