What
do close reading and romance have to do with each other? A lot, according to S.I. Kishor, author of
the short story, “Appointment with Love.”
I
usually steer clear of the Common Core Wars and focus my blog comments on coaching-specific
topics. But this week I watched a short
(28 minute!) movie that exemplified my own view on close reading so well that I
felt the blog could take a detour. Math
folks, don’t stop reading – the main character in the movie is a high school
math teacher!
Without
being a spoiler, I’ll just say that the movie, called “The Book and the Rose,”
(and taken from the short story referenced above) tells the tale of a couple
who initially meets and eventually falls in love because of notes sprawled in
the margins of a donated book. A spunky
and insightful personality is illuminated by those marginal comments, providing
an authentic model for close reading.
Unfortunately,
with adoption of the Common Core, close reading has sometimes turned into a
very formulaic enterprise. “That’s not
how you do close reading,” I recently heard.
“You don’t think about author’s language use until the third read.” But what if
that idea happens to pop into your head the first or second time you read a
selection? Or what if it there’s one
sentence that is actually worth rereading four or five times, because you just
love the way it sounds, or the image it paints, or what it makes you think
about?
My
point is, close reading is a very good thing.
And it is exactly what the name implies: reading closely. It shouldn’t require a formula. It should
require an active mind and attention to things both big and little that are
hiding in the writing.
Can
you know someone’s mind and heart by reading their responses to a book through
the notes they wrote in the margins? I
suppose it depends on the book. And I
know it depends on the reader. Watching
a short romance movie got me thinking about how close reading can mean spilling
our thoughts – our conundrums, our querries, and our insights - onto the
margins of a page. If you want to
convince someone of the merits of close reading (and that someone is a hopeless
romantic!), you just might want to share the movie, “The Book and the Rose” (available
now on Netflix).
That’s
it for my blatant movie promotion – next week I promise to return to my more
staid comments about coaching!
This week,
you might want to take a look at:
The
text from the original short story, “Appointment with Love.” WARNING:
It doesn’t portray the essence of close reading – you’ve got to watch
the movie for that. And if you’re going
to watch the movie, don’t read the short story until after watching the movie!
I
bought the movie on Amazon so I could show clips at an upcoming professional
development meeting. You can find it at:
Okay,
now I’m really done with the movie promotion.
Here's video about acting out word problems:
Do
teachers need to switch things up now that spring is around the corner? Here’s a Pinterest board about the thinking
behind varying seating arrangements:
Tips
for professional development: What to do
when people are talking while you’re presenting:
That’s
it for this week. Happy coaching!
VIcki...
ReplyDeleteI have been reading almost everything I can get my hands on about close reading, because as a coach, I need to know what many voices are saying so I can wrap my head around it and figure out the best approaches to share with the teachers in my building and district. The four building-level coaches in my district recently decided to read a bunch of books about CR by different authors and discuss them, so that when we are doing PD in the district, we're all on the same page... not about the "right" way to do close reading, but instead about the theory and processes behind it and different ways to do this work with our students.
Thank you for the tip on the movie... I'm going to check it out!