Sense-Making response

(see Phase B)

Another approach to active digestion is a "Sense-making" response (see endnote to this Phase):
a) I appreciated...
b) I learned...
c) I wanted to know more about...
d) I struggled with...
e) I would have been helped by...
f) My project connects with this in the following way(s)...
g) I disagreed with...
h) I think the author/presenter should consider...

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Note on sense-making

Brenda Dervin, in the Department of Communication at Ohio State University, has developed a "Sense-Making" approach to the development of information seeking and use. One finding from Sense-Making research is that people make much better sense of seminar presentations and other scholarly contributions when these are accompanied by the contextual information in the items below. Reference: Dervin, B. (1999). "Chaos, order, and sense-making: A proposed theory for information design," pp. 35-57 in Robert Jacobson (ed.) Information Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Author(s)
Title of paper
a) The essence of the project is...
b) The reason(s) I took this road is (are)...
c) The best of what I have achieved is...
d) What has been particularly helpful to me in this project has been...
e) What has hindered me has been...
f) What I am struggling with is...
g) What would help me now is...

This "Sense-Making" approach also leads to recommendations about forms of response that authors/presenters learn most from -- and readers/listeners also. The response format suggested for active reading both acknowledges different voices and facilitates connections.