Entry 8: Reading Like a Writer/Close Reading

Articles used:

• "Where Does Rigor Fit?"
• "What is Close Reading?
• "Defining the Signposts"
• "Explaining the Signposts"
• Wondrous Words by Katie Wood Ray

Say:

This week's readings focused on close reading, writing, and how reading like a writer is a great way to help students with close reading.  The first four articles talk extensively about close reading and one word that comes up a lot in the first article is "rigor".  We learn that this term is often used incorrectly when talking about the intensity of academics, more specifically, reading.  The author says, "...rigor resides in the energy and attention given to the text, not in the text itself".  In other words, just because you read an incredibly long piece of literature, such as War and Peace as the author used as an example, does not necessarily mean you understand it and are ready to write a dissertation on it.  The point that the author is trying to make is that quality is better than quantity when it comes to reading literature.  The next three articles focus on ways to help our students with close reading.  One part that I really liked comes from the second article when the author references Rosenblatt and says that, "meaning is created not purely and simply from the words on the page, but from the transaction with those words that takes place in the reader's mind".  I have always thought this to be true and this is how I personally connect to anything that I read.  If I can't make a personal connection to the text, it becomes that much more difficult to enjoy it, much less analyze it.  This is why I believe Reader Response is one of the best ways to get students excited and enthusiastic about reading.  In Katie Wood Ray and Daniels and Steineke's works, they discuss the best ways in which to engage students in close reading.  Katie Wood Ray suggests using "sign posts" as a type of guidelines to help students as they read and even before they read.  I like that she talks about frontloading and scaffolding the work, especially if it is new. It is much less overwhelming to students if they are eased into a new work instead of thrown in the deep end.  

Do:

For my DO this week, I chose to use the sign posts.  I think this is a wonderful idea to help students with their close reading and something I would definitely have in my classroom.  I also think it would a good idea to make little bookmarks for my students with a shortened version so that they can continuously refer back to them as they are reading.  Having it right there will be extremely helpful, especially for the visual learners.  The bookmarks would look like this:

C & C (for contrasts and contradictions): "a character behaves or thinks in a way we don't expect, or an element of a setting is something we would not expect"

Aha! (for aha moment): an epiphany a character has

Tough Qs (for tough questions): "questions a character raises that reveal their inner struggles"

Wise words (for words of the wiser): life advice from an older character

Again and again; things that occur more than once throughout the novel

Memory moment: "a recollection by a character that interrupts the forward progress of the story"