ABSTRACT
A student walks into History 101 and sees the evening’s assignment on the chalkboard-“Read Chapter 10 on the Mycenean Greeks.” Like many content-area teachers, the instructor believes that every student will interpret this assignment in exactly the same way. Yet, “reading” is a different experience for each person. To some students, this assignment will mean running their eyes over the text and looking at accompanying pictures of vases. For others, it will mean underlining and memorizing every name and date. For the history teacher, “reading the chapter” could mean either of these two. Or, it could also mean gaining an understanding of Mycenean Greeks that would allow students to formulate a thesis on how the Mycenean age contrasts with the classical age. “Reading” is a term so open to interpretation that without an exact frame of reference, “read the chapter,” could become an almost meaningless command.
