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Key
Points
 Being Out and Stepping In occurs when readers are entering the literary experience, beginning to create their envisionment. This process begins from the moment the reader encounters the text.
All
readers approach a text or Step Into a text by gathering clues
and predicting what the piece will be about.
Readers
may go back to Being Out and Stepping In if their envisionment
has been proven wrong, based on new information or if it does
not make sense. Then readers may need to rebuild that initial
hunch and begin the process again.
Readers' personal background knowledge and life experiences impact how they step into a text.
The tentative first steps readers take as they enter a text and the hunches they have about where they are going directly mirror the first steps writers often take to process an experience or idea.
The first impressions readers gather in this stance often stay with them throughout the reading experience. The impressions become an early road map that they constantly refine, expand, reject, or reconfirm as they continue reading and reflecting on the experience.
Readers need to have permission to try out initial ideas, refine some, and rethink others as they move forward within a text. They need to know that they are not just looking for an "accepted" interpretation, that posing questions are part of the process, and that answers to those questions can be multiple.
The
classroom literary community plays a significant role for readers
as they attempt to step into a text. For readers who have difficulties
stepping into a text because of unfamiliar subject matter or
because it is different from what they know, the community can
help them make sense of the text. Many times, a question serves
as a catalyst for the reader to enter the text.
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