When an author creates an effect, identifying it is relatively pointless if the reader doesn’t go on to ask the obvious follow-up questions of “Why?” and “How?” Depending on the text, these questions can take many forms, such as the following examples.
• Why would an author choose to develop a feeling of sadness?
• What is the effect of the author’s emerging purpose in the passage?
• Further, how is the author creating that feeling of ________?
• What word choice is the author employing?
• What imagery, symbols, syntax, and point of view is the author using?
• What is the specific effect of each choice on the reader, and what is the cumulative effect of the choices on the passage?
Once a student can accurately answer questions like these, he or she can be said to be close reading a passage.
Close reading allows the reader to participate with the author in his or her project, not simply as a receiver but as a thinking, feeling, responding, and intelligent human being. This has value for the reader. Students will begin to understand the power of the written word, the way the author’s agenda affects their world, and they will develop the ability to respond thoughtfully to an author’s ideas. If one of the purposes of K–12 education is to develop well-informed, reasoning, thoughtful citizens, close reading is an essential skill (Student Achievement Partners, 2016).
Let’s be clear about what close reading is not. Close reading is not a series of reader responses loosely tied to a text. The meaning the reader generates may or may not be valid. Validity emerges out of a close examination of a text in light of a reader’s response. If the text—through careful, accurate analysis—supports that response, then the reader’s response is valid and meaningful.
Close reading offers the analytical tools and the common nomenclature that can start a discussion about meaning. It is a technique with universal content-area application, but it takes years to develop in students. The aim of this book is to offer the methods and teaching suggestions that will allow students to gain this valuable skill, a skill that will serve them beyond their secondary education.
How to Use This Book
Educators can use Close Reading in the Secondary Classroom as a self-study text that provides an in-depth understanding of close reading as a process and an instructional strategy. Each chapter provides useful instructional strategies or ideas related to developing the ability of students to effectively close read. As you progress through the chapters, you will also find comprehension questions at the end of chapters 2 through 6. It is important to complete these questions and compare your answers with those in appendix A (page 101). Such interaction provides a review of the content and allows a thorough examination of your understanding. Groups or teams of teachers who wish to examine close reading in their classrooms may also use Close Reading in the Secondary Classroom. Team members should answer the questions independently and then compare their answers in small- or large-group settings. Appendix B (page 107) includes three examples of close reading: two literary and one informational. The examples observe a classroom and the teacher’s real-time interactions with students.
Chapter 1
RESEARCH AND THEORY
In this chapter, we start with why close reading is a very important skill for every secondary school student and describe one method for practicing close reading in the secondary classroom. As background for understanding the importance of close reading, we will also look briefly at the history of literary criticism—the foundational methodology behind modern close reading processes for secondary students. Then, to further define close reading for the purposes of this book, we’ll review some research applicable to the strategy of close reading. We’ll discuss the importance of two factors in considering close reading in the classroom: (1) research background and (2) instructional shifts. Finally, we’ll close on the steps of the close reading process.
The Need for Close Reading
Today, the written word conflicts not just with movies and television but also with digital texts that are lively and interactive, value action over thought, and provide a level of engagement with which the lightly encountered written word cannot compete. The written word demands more than a simple reading of the story; it demands work—questioning the text and interacting at an intellectual level that movies and video games often do not require. We could examine the value our culture places on such action-based encounters and the rejection—though perhaps not consciously—of intellectual life, but to what end? American culture is what it is, and it isn’t likely to change soon. In a culture that tends to preach activity over thought, sports over the arts, and the politics of action over the politics of contemplation, students may be unlikely to choose an evening with a good book over an evening with the latest video game.
Yet we live in a globally connected world, and students will grow up to compete for jobs with global citizens from very different cultures, many of which value great ideas, great minds, and the role of a thinking and reasoning human engaged with the world. As such, we as teachers have a responsibility to value critical thinking, model it for students, and ask students to make every attempt to fully actualize the brains they have.
Most educators are aware that the skill of reading well is essential for success in school, the working world, and life. But it may well be that we never examine the underlying question: Why? There are pedantic answers to that question—to be informed, to share information, to understand job responsibilities, and so on. But to go beyond these mundane responses we must ask the question, “Why should we read?” Susan Wise Bauer (2003), in her book The Well-Educated Mind, begins her chapter on the art of reading with the claim that most futurists believe and have declared:
We are a postliterate culture. Books are outdated forms of communication. Soon the flood of information that is now contained in books, magazines, and newspapers will be sorted by artificial intelligence and presented in multimedia formats. No more boring print. (p. 24)
Bauer (2003) goes on to explain that there is still a role for print in the world, but changes since the publication of her book suggest the futurists’ vision of the new nonprint world may be closer than she imagined. Anyone who has spent more than a few weeks in a 21st century secondary school classroom will agree that students today don’t read as much as those of prior generations.
Why should we read? When we return to that question, the real answer has less to do with pragmatic necessity in our now primarily digital lives and more to do with what reading print material does to us. The act of reading the printed word (more than just reading the words for surface meaning) is the process of taking words and unpacking their ideas and deeper meanings. Reading is an intentional action that helps create and influence our view of ourselves as thinking beings with values that are cultural, social, and even political and theological.
In a world of digital interactivity, students grow up expecting to engage with every experience by allowing the experience to engage them. This is fundamentally passive. Interactive video games and other digital media do the work of engaging users. Books, on the other hand, require readers to do the work, using their intellect and imagination to fully experience the text. When students are accustomed to digital media, they may bring those expectations to printed texts, and their reading experiences suffer as a result.
For some educators, the conventional wisdom is to adjust their instruction to meet students’ expectations of passive engagement. However, this does students a disservice. At some point, students need to experience the joy of actively engaging in a great essay or novel. At some point, they need to be able to read more than the story, more than the words