My 10th graders are, for the most part, at or above state standard reading goals for their year. They tend to be just fine when it comes to reading a 20th century text and figuring out what's going on. However, reading comprehension is only one piece of real reading. Figuring out who said what and who did what to whom is the first hurdle of really engaging with a text, but a real reader has to do much, much more.
For example, when we read the first chapter of Lord of the Flies, I asked the class to model the kinds of things a strong reader might do. I wrote character names on the board, and the students took turns naming physical and personal details associated with each character. Ralph is consistently described as having fair hair; Piggy is described in terms of his fat or his glasses; Jack is skinny and prone to violent outbursts.
An active reader is able to form a mental image of each character's looks and personality, and then when additional description and dialogue takes place, those pieces are continuously added to that catalytic first impression. An active reader is less likely to get two chapters in, see a name, and have trouble remembering which character is associated with that name or that hair color.
Character study is just one tool in a whole box of techniques that an active reader brings to the job. It's one of the tools that can turn an alienating reading experience into an enjoyable and successful one.
UPDATED:
I had a chance to read some of the posts from class and some of the comments, and I'm quite enthralled to hear my students really giving this book a fair shake and trying to use the techniques of character study and visualization that we talked about. Some students are writing "I agree, good point" sort of vague, friendly comments, but some kids really seem to be stepping back and examining their thought process and reading habits, and it's exciting to see. This first little exercise succeeded a bit beyond what I had hoped already, and there's more work to be done.
UPDATED:
I had a chance to read some of the posts from class and some of the comments, and I'm quite enthralled to hear my students really giving this book a fair shake and trying to use the techniques of character study and visualization that we talked about. Some students are writing "I agree, good point" sort of vague, friendly comments, but some kids really seem to be stepping back and examining their thought process and reading habits, and it's exciting to see. This first little exercise succeeded a bit beyond what I had hoped already, and there's more work to be done.
Actually, I'm so glad that you commented on that issue because I think one of the problems when kids read Shakespeare is that, while there's no issue with knowing who's speaking at what time, there's a HUGE issue with the fact that there's only dialogue and almost no explicit action.
ReplyDeleteSo while in a novel, one of the challenges is to identify and imagine characters, in a play, one of the challenges is to identify and imagine action. When Macbeth says "is this a dagger I see before me," you need to teach your kids to imagine a man who is hallucinating, shaking, and sweating, staggering about a cold room in the half darkness.
Even though each speech is labeled with a name, the act of imagination takes the same amount of effort and attention in both. The label "Macbeth," and the expanding scope of a human character across the arc of a play are VERY different.
This year, I'm asking my Juniors, after reading Act I, to "cast" a production of Othello by picking famous actors for each part. Highlights this year include Russell Crowe as Othello, Matt Damon as Iago, and a younger Alan Rickman as Roderigo.
I really think that I've been missing an incredible opportunity to teach my students to READ, not just to decode representational language.
Shakespeare didn't write books; he wrote plays. On our end, that provides an amazing opportunity to teach all kinds of reading skills through a genre that's really quite distinct from short stories and novels.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I never realized I should be teaching kids how to imagine.