ACTIVITY 3 — DISRUPTED CUE SYSTEMS
Russell Hoban in his novel Riddley Walker has chosen
to disrupt all four cueing systems—
- the orthographic cues are not the ones we expect
- the syntax is non-standard contemporary English
grammar
- a great deal of the vocabulary is unfamiliar
- we lack background information to bring to the text.
Needless to say that makes the reading difficult. However,
it's still possible to understand his writing. I found
the novel gripping once I'd adjusted to the way he'd
disrupted the cueing systems.
Read the excerpt. Try to make sense of what's going
on. Do a freewrite about what you managed to understand.
Reread the excerpt and build on your initial understanding.
Try writing a synopsis of what's going on in the excerpt.
What questions, insights, etc. about your own reading
strategies has this activity afforded you?
Self As Informant 3: Predicting, Confirming
& Integrating
