During the past 15 years, I have taught all levels of English to ninth grade students, from remedial reading classes to Honors English II. Going deeper with a text is always a problem, no matter the level or student. Even my English II students who read regularly or on an 11th grade reading level sometimes fail to interact with the text on more than just a superficial level. "This reminds me of 'so-and-so'" as we are reading about the roaring '20s in The Great Gatsby, or "I once pulled a prank on my family" as we are reading "The Open Window." Making personal connections is great as we often retain information better when we can attach those details to something familiar; however, if we want our students to become better thinkers, speakers, and learners, we need to teach them to be more than "metacognitive readers," as Nancy Boyles calls them in "Closing in on Close Readers." In order to become those deeper thinkers, Boyles advises us to use shorter passages, aim for independence, and focus on observing and analyzing. The length of a text can be intimidating, both from the teaching standpoint and from the reading standpoint.
By using short texts, we can reiterate a close-reading skill numerous times in a short span of time, as opposed to hitting on it once or twice during a longer novel or work. I love teaching novels, but I often find that we aren't going as deep as I would like because I worry the novel will drag on and on ifI slow down. I believe it could be possible to still teach the longer novel and engage in some shorter close-reading activities within each chapter; my only concern would be that I wouldn't focus on the same skills each time and would want to hit on something different each day. This isn't, especially with the reluctant readers, going to strengthen the skills to the degree that I would like, though.
My ultimate goal as a teacher is to create independent learners; I want them to put me out of a job (sort of). As independent readers, students would not need me to point out where to stop and ask important questions. I often tell my honors students to ask the "What is this telling me about (character/conflict/etc.)?" "Why is (author) including this detail?" and "How is (author) showing us (personality trait/motivation) about (character)?" questions to go deeper into the text. I try to avoid too many guiding questions and push them to look for places to pause and ask questions. Both of these steps are crucial in nurturing those close reading skills our students need. I believe many students are uncomfortable with this, though, because the answers aren't always as concrete as they would like; many times the answers are based on personal interpretation of details connected with other details. Evidently, text-to-reader connections and close reading analysis must work in harmony.
Boyles includes a chart at the end of her article called "Craft Techniques and Related Questions for Close Reading" that I think could be useful to share with the students as a bookmark or a poster on the wall. This chart provides basic questions to encourage the students to go deeper, helping them make the connection between an author's craft and the text's meaning. Eventually, as the students continue to strengthen their close reading skills, they will create these questions on their own and become more aware of the deeper meanings of what they read.
As my Honors English II students wrap up their reading of The Great Gatsby and my English I CP students begin their nonfiction unit, I'm looking to take them deeper into the texts, pushing them to ask the tough questions that don't always have concrete answers.
Boyles, Nancy. "Closing in on Close Reading." Educational Leadership, ASCD, www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/Closing-in-on-Reading.aspx.
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