What is a 1Br Reader?
1Br versus 2Br readers are not distinguished by the difficulty of the text they read, but by the sophistication with which they can analyze author’s craft across a wide range of genres and forms. Of course, some Br books are harder than others, but which Br books will be difficult for which readers is more dependent on the background knowledge, genre knowledge, and vocabulary of individual readers than on the difficulty of the text. Students entering 1Br have read widely in Pu text and can handle a few of their most familiar genres in Br. In these genres they can identify choices the author has made as a writer, compare these choices to those of another author writing in the same genre or on the same subject, and critique the effectiveness of these choices. 1Br readers can determine an author’s perspective in a text and are just beginning to speculate on how the different perspectives of authors shape the choices they make.
In order to handle Br text, comfort with the 16–20 literary words per typical chapter book page and common literary constructs, extensive experience as a reader, and sufficient academic background in history and science are required.
