Close Reading

Close reading has become a kind of catchall term in recent years to describe a deep investigation into text.  However, for trained students of English Literature, the close reading is a technique of New Criticism, sometimes referred to as the Formalist approach.  While Formalism is a common way of investigating texts and is traditionally learned in schools, and a particularly good way to analyze poetry, it can have some drawbacks as well.  Therefore, I remain personally hesitant to say whether or not I am in favor of this approach taking such a dominant role in the classroom as a result of the Common Core.

As was mentioned in the book article from Text Complexity: Raising the Rigor in Reading, Reader Response criticism grew out of New Criticism as a kind of reaction to the idea that texts should be studied in a vacuum.  However, the ways in which we process art is colored by our own personal experience.  Furthermore, authors themselves are both consumers and producers of culture, and therefore create within the larger context of their world experience, sometimes in unconscious ways.  It is for these reasons that we must approach close reading with caution.  In my experience, close readings may be extremely insightful or they can be terribly superficial, devoid of any real substance or understanding. 

As with most of the Common Core, there is a huge window of opportunity which given talented, well educated, and creative teachers, can lead to deep understanding and incredible improvement in student learning and skills.  However, my fear is that a return to close reading, without a real definitive set of professional development on how to use it effectively, will only lead to history repeating itself.  As a secondary student, much of my literature education centered around close readings.  Much of that education felt uninspired, uncreative, and completely dry.  Making meaning without context can often make learning disconnected at best and detrimental to deep thinking at worst. During my undergraduate, most of my professors took an approach to literature called New Historicism, which as the name suggests, puts significant weight on the world within which literature is created.  For me, this approach to study made literature connect to life.  I was somewhat alarmed to see the Shanahan article suggest that the same kind of preparation that was so essential to my understanding, should be decreased significantly under the Common Core. While I understand that the goal is to have students interacting with text, context can make a huge impact on meaningful reading. 

While I like a lot of the ideas of close reading, I do hope to see examples of teachers conducting close reading lessons with some flexibility to employ effective teaching strategies such as background education on the author and an examination of context.  Without some flexibility, how can students truly be expected to evaluate text for validity and quality?  One must have an understanding of context and texts with which to compare to truly get at the meaning and value of a text.