Kuunari

A year ago I read the book A Close Look at Close Reading: Teaching Students to Analyze Complex Texts, Grades K-5 by Barbara Moss, Diane Lapp, and Maria Grant. This book was disappointing, never naming race or rarely discussing multilingual learners. It did explain what close reading is clearly, and as a tool, it has it’s place in a complete language arts classroom. I’ll be posting the essays for the next 11 weeks on Tuesday.

Reading is being able to read fluently and comprehending what is said in the text. As we begin to break down just what reading comprehension is, it becomes harder to understand. Is it reading to be entertained? Is it reading to understand directions or to analyze an opinion? Or for a myriad of other reasons? The authors suggest that “we might also read a text for a combination of reasons or approach it for different purposes at different times.” (1) The authors’ then go on to quote C. E. Snow:  “Good readers can do all of these, and can choose when each of these approaches to reading is appropriate.” (1) Such ability to both utilize all necessary approaches to text and be able to discriminate which approach is needed is not developed overnight. Close reading is a method of teaching that will allow students to develop these reading abilities. 

Close reading is repeated reading of a text to analyze and understand it deeply. This process allows students to develop the critical skill of analyse to enable to them to digest and understanding all the text they will be asked to read throughout their lives, whether it is a court opinion, a newspaper article, a set of directions, or an email from a family member. Close reading helps students move from learning to read to reading to learn. With the traditional dichotomy of K-2 being learning to read and 3-12 as reading to learn no longer considered absolute, K-5 students must be given the opportunity to analyze texts and draw deeper meaning from them. 

As an adult, I am surrounded by text. I see text through my social media, online news, in books, and the teaching manuals I am given by my school. I routinely get around 100 emails a day between my personal and professional email accounts that I need to quickly analyze and determine how I will respond. Every night I fall asleep to a book I am reading through my e-reader app on my phone. Each of these experiences require me to read in vastly different ways. My email requires me to analyze and respond when necessary quickly, or I am overwhelmed by the amount I get each day. My teaching manuals I open each day and analyze to determine how best to utilize the curriculum with my 4th grade students that day. I take careful pains to understand the perspective and the bias present in the social media and online news that I read, and I spend time making sure that my cis, male, and white perspective is complemented and challenged by a variety of other perspectives to better understand the totality of each issue. The book that I read at the end of the day is for entertainment and pleasure, but I often can only read for 10-15 minutes or so each night, so I need to be able to recall quickly the characters and the plot of the book, or otherwise I am lost and don’t enjoy reading the book.

These are daily reading experiences for me, and I must both be able to comprehend each of these types of text, but also discern how to read them. I need to prepare my students for a variety of reading experiences throughout their lives. I also need to give them the critical thinking skills be able to develop new reading skills or apply old reading skills to new reading experiences as they age. Even 10 years ago, much of the way I read now didn’t exist. At that time, I still read a print newspaper every day in the staff lounge as my primary source of news. I only read books on paper. Social media was in its infancy and I rarely utilized it as a tool to hear voices different than my own. Most conversations with other teachers and directions from my administrators came in person rather than by email. That has all changed just in the last 10 years. What will the next 10 years hold. As an educator, I must give my students the time to develop the skills and techniques to not only understand text as it’s currently written, but to be able to understand text as it changes. 

Reading is being able to read fluently and comprehending what is said in the text. As we begin to break down just what reading comprehension is, it becomes harder to understand. Is it reading to be entertained? Is it reading to understand directions or to analyze an opinion? Or for a myriad of other reasons? The authors suggest that “we might also read a text for a combination of reasons or approach it for different purposes at different times.” (1) The authors’ then go on to quote C. E. Snow:  “Good readers can do all of these, and can choose when each of these approaches to reading is appropriate.” (1) Such ability to both utilize all necessary approaches to text and be able to discriminate which approach is needed is not developed overnight. Close reading is a method of teaching that will allow students to develop these reading abilities. 

Close reading is repeated reading of a text to analyze and understand it deeply. This process allows students to develop the critical skill of analyse to enable to them to digest and understanding all the text they will be asked to read throughout their lives, whether it is a court opinion, a newspaper article, a set of directions, or an email from a family member. Close reading helps students move from learning to read to reading to learn. With the traditional dichotomy of K-2 being learning to read and 3-12 as reading to learn no longer considered absolute, K-5 students must be given the opportunity to analyze texts and draw deeper meaning from them. 

As an adult, I am surrounded by text. I see text through my social media, online news, in books, and the teaching manuals I am given by my school. I routinely get around 100 emails a day between my personal and professional email accounts that I need to quickly analyze and determine how I will respond. Every night I fall asleep to a book I am reading through my e-reader app on my phone. Each of these experiences require me to read in vastly different ways. My email requires me to analyze and respond when necessary quickly, or I am overwhelmed by the amount I get each day. My teaching manuals I open each day and analyze to determine how best to utilize the curriculum with my 4th grade students that day. I take careful pains to understand the perspective and the bias present in the social media and online news that I read, and I spend time making sure that my cis, male, and white perspective is complemented and challenged by a variety of other perspectives to better understand the totality of each issue. The book that I read at the end of the day is for entertainment and pleasure, but I often can only read for 10-15 minutes or so each night, so I need to be able to recall quickly the characters and the plot of the book, or otherwise I am lost and don’t enjoy reading the book.

These are daily reading experiences for me, and I must both be able to comprehend each of these types of text, but also discern how to read them. I need to prepare my students for a variety of reading experiences throughout their lives. I also need to give them the critical thinking skills be able to develop new reading skills or apply old reading skills to new reading experiences as they age. Even 10 years ago, much of the way I read now didn’t exist. At that time, I still read a print newspaper every day in the staff lounge as my primary source of news. I only read books on paper. Social media was in its infancy and I rarely utilized it as a tool to hear voices different than my own. Most conversations with other teachers and directions from my administrators came in person rather than by email. That has all changed just in the last 10 years. What will the next 10 years hold. As an educator, I must give my students the time to develop the skills and techniques to not only understand text as it’s currently written, but to be able to understand text as it changes. 

Reading is being able to read fluently and comprehending what is said in the text. As we begin to break down just what reading comprehension is, it becomes harder to understand. Is it reading to be entertained? Is it reading to understand directions or to analyze an opinion? Or for a myriad of other reasons? The authors suggest that “we might also read a text for a combination of reasons or approach it for different purposes at different times.” (1) The authors’ then go on to quote C. E. Snow:  “Good readers can do all of these, and can choose when each of these approaches to reading is appropriate.” (1) Such ability to both utilize all necessary approaches to text and be able to discriminate which approach is needed is not developed overnight. Close reading is a method of teaching that will allow students to develop these reading abilities. 

Close reading is repeated reading of a text to analyze and understand it deeply. This process allows students to develop the critical skill of analyse to enable to them to digest and understanding all the text they will be asked to read throughout their lives, whether it is a court opinion, a newspaper article, a set of directions, or an email from a family member. Close reading helps students move from learning to read to reading to learn. With the traditional dichotomy of K-2 being learning to read and 3-12 as reading to learn no longer considered absolute, K-5 students must be given the opportunity to analyze texts and draw deeper meaning from them. 

As an adult, I am surrounded by text. I see text through my social media, online news, in books, and the teaching manuals I am given by my school. I routinely get around 100 emails a day between my personal and professional email accounts that I need to quickly analyze and determine how I will respond. Every night I fall asleep to a book I am reading through my e-reader app on my phone. Each of these experiences require me to read in vastly different ways. My email requires me to analyze and respond when necessary quickly, or I am overwhelmed by the amount I get each day. My teaching manuals I open each day and analyze to determine how best to utilize the curriculum with my 4th grade students that day. I take careful pains to understand the perspective and the bias present in the social media and online news that I read, and I spend time making sure that my cis, male, and white perspective is complemented and challenged by a variety of other perspectives to better understand the totality of each issue. The book that I read at the end of the day is for entertainment and pleasure, but I often can only read for 10-15 minutes or so each night, so I need to be able to recall quickly the characters and the plot of the book, or otherwise I am lost and don’t enjoy reading the book.

These are daily reading experiences for me, and I must both be able to comprehend each of these types of text, but also discern how to read them. I need to prepare my students for a variety of reading experiences throughout their lives. I also need to give them the critical thinking skills be able to develop new reading skills or apply old reading skills to new reading experiences as they age. Even 10 years ago, much of the way I read now didn’t exist. At that time, I still read a print newspaper every day in the staff lounge as my primary source of news. I only read books on paper. Social media was in its infancy and I rarely utilized it as a tool to hear voices different than my own. Most conversations with other teachers and directions from my administrators came in person rather than by email. That has all changed just in the last 10 years. What will the next 10 years hold. As an educator, I must give my students the time to develop the skills and techniques to not only understand text as it’s currently written, but to be able to understand text as it changes. 

These are daily reading experiences for me, and I must both be able to comprehend each of these types of text, but also discern how to read them. I need to prepare my students for a variety of reading experiences throughout their lives. I also need to give them the critical thinking skills be able to develop new reading skills or apply old reading skills to new reading experiences as they age. Even 10 years ago, much of the way I read now didn’t exist. At that time, I still read a print newspaper every day in the staff lounge as my primary source of news. I only read books on paper. Social media was in its infancy and I rarely utilized it as a tool to hear voices different than my own. Most conversations with other teachers and directions from my administrators came in person rather than by email. That has all changed just in the last 10 years. What will the next 10 years hold. As an educator, I must give my students the time to develop the skills and techniques to not only understand text as it’s currently written, but to be able to understand text as it changes.