Summary of NCTE Presentation
Based on my experiences in the English classroom, it seems to me that students get very good at playing the reading game. There are tricks to feigning reading, to giving the teacher what s/he wants to hear. We, as teachers, tend not to probe into the authenticity of students' reading. It's worth exploring the reality of students' lives as readers. Do they read when we assign them to? If so, why are they reading (to do well on a quiz, a paper, for pleasure)? If they don't, why aren't they?
Reading literature isn't something we can force students to do. They must choose to do it. That choice is at the heart of re-reading studies. Re-reading with students is one way to unpack students' experiences with reading. Rather than privileging the literary text in the classroom, re-reading gives us a chance to put the reader himself/herself at the forefront of our study.
One way to consider this is through the musical metaphor of the fugue. Fugues repeat themselves in ways that create newness. There is value and beauty in thinking beyond linearity and sequence and considering what happens when we repeat, step backwards, and move spatially. What might it mean to read fugally with your students?
Reading literature isn't something we can force students to do. They must choose to do it. That choice is at the heart of re-reading studies. Re-reading with students is one way to unpack students' experiences with reading. Rather than privileging the literary text in the classroom, re-reading gives us a chance to put the reader himself/herself at the forefront of our study.
One way to consider this is through the musical metaphor of the fugue. Fugues repeat themselves in ways that create newness. There is value and beauty in thinking beyond linearity and sequence and considering what happens when we repeat, step backwards, and move spatially. What might it mean to read fugally with your students?
Notes from Audience Discussion
During the talk, I asked the audience to talk with each other about their first fond memory of reading. Though we didn't have time to discuss at length, here is what I got down while note-taking:
- Breaking bedtime rule and reading comics after
- Mother reading the Little Read Hen, remembering identifying with character
- Dad would read Lion, Witch, Wardrobe in order to maintain English while living abroad
- Two green books from childhood, which a teacher reads to her AP English
Draft of Talk Introduction
If you could only have seen his finger. The way he rubbed his chin with it. The way he scratched his ear with it. The way he lifted it in the air with the kind of excitement reserved for teenagers who have found loopholes.
I had just given the homework assignment: “Tonight, for homework, I want you to read Book Two of The Iliad.” [Pic of blackboard with assignment] “Yes, Jake.”
“So, if I open the book, find the chapter, and read the words ‘Book’ and ‘Two’ then haven’t I done the assignment?” [Pics of Iliad, chapter, Book Two]
“What have you done when you had reading assignments in English in the past, Jake?” I now smiled the kind of smile reserved for teachers who have turned the table on a student’s attempt to get out of homework.
“Well, in 6th grade I would lock myself in my room, go under the covers with a flashlight, and not come out til I was done with the book.”
“Ah ha!” I exclaimed, my finger raised in the air—
“But that was when I read for school. I haven’t really read since middle school.”
My finger fell to my ear, to my chin.
“How many of you read for my class? Have you all stopped reading?”
Rachel says, “Reading for school changed when we started taking more tests on reading.” [Rachel speaks from audience]
Terrick interjects, “Yeah, at some point it became about literary devices: finding things in the reading instead of just reading.” [Terrick speaks from audience]
We tend to view reading a certain kind of way, don’t we. As something “developmental”, linear, sequential. That’s how New York State, for instance, views reading. You read certain books in certain grades. [Show the NYS .pdf showing when to read certain books.] Once covered, we move on. And on, in a straight upward aimed line. I suggest something different. I suggest making opportunities for students to go backward in order to move forward. I imagine a kind of repetition that spawns newness.
I had just given the homework assignment: “Tonight, for homework, I want you to read Book Two of The Iliad.” [Pic of blackboard with assignment] “Yes, Jake.”
“So, if I open the book, find the chapter, and read the words ‘Book’ and ‘Two’ then haven’t I done the assignment?” [Pics of Iliad, chapter, Book Two]
“What have you done when you had reading assignments in English in the past, Jake?” I now smiled the kind of smile reserved for teachers who have turned the table on a student’s attempt to get out of homework.
“Well, in 6th grade I would lock myself in my room, go under the covers with a flashlight, and not come out til I was done with the book.”
“Ah ha!” I exclaimed, my finger raised in the air—
“But that was when I read for school. I haven’t really read since middle school.”
My finger fell to my ear, to my chin.
“How many of you read for my class? Have you all stopped reading?”
Rachel says, “Reading for school changed when we started taking more tests on reading.” [Rachel speaks from audience]
Terrick interjects, “Yeah, at some point it became about literary devices: finding things in the reading instead of just reading.” [Terrick speaks from audience]
We tend to view reading a certain kind of way, don’t we. As something “developmental”, linear, sequential. That’s how New York State, for instance, views reading. You read certain books in certain grades. [Show the NYS .pdf showing when to read certain books.] Once covered, we move on. And on, in a straight upward aimed line. I suggest something different. I suggest making opportunities for students to go backward in order to move forward. I imagine a kind of repetition that spawns newness.
Pics Used in Talk
These pics were used to set the scene, which was my classroom in which a student confessed he didn't read for class. I assigned to read Book Two of the Iliad for homework, and he asked if he could read the words "book" and "two".
Linearity in Teaching Literature
Click herefor an example from New York State. Notice that certain books are suggested to be read at certain times, and there is nothing to suggest that one should go back and re-read any text. My argument is that this kind of approach to teaching literature puts the importance of the text before the importance of the reader. When you consider that reading is always a voluntary act, you'd imagine more attention would be paid to the readers themselves.
Music example, Bach's Fugue
This pic tries to illustrate, musically, the theoretical possibilities that open when we talk about teaching literature fugally.
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Re-reading in Your Own Classroom
There are a few resources available to you. First, I wrote a unit plan for Read Write Think, which is available here. Next, you can check out the article on which this talk and the unit plan is based by going here or emailing me. Finally, I've set up a group on the English Companion Ning called Re-readings, which you can access here. Also, if you'd like to read the book that sparked this project, click here to buy Anne Fadiman's Rereadings on Amazon.