Deeper Reading, Chapters 8 and 10

It isn't always natural or intuitive to reflect meaningfully on texts.  I struggle with it as a graduate student, even in the blog posts, so I can only imagine how hard students at the high school level are struggling with reflection and meaningful appreciation of text.  One of Gallagher's most insightful responses to this problem was that perhaps teachers have not always sufficiently illuminated the aspects of authorial craft that allow us to appreciate great text.  As he says, telling students that a book is great or important is not a sufficient reason to get students to read the assigned texts.  Not every student will love every text, but ensuring that they understand that elements that go into a text to make it great is at least a reason for why we are reading the text.  Ideally, reading should be a reciprocal relationship, not dissimilar from the relationship between teacher and student.  Exchange should happen between the reader, the author, and the outside world.  When the world of the text seems extremely foreign from the world of the reader, the ability for the reader to make this connection on his or her own becomes strained.  English teachers have to find ways to make the conversation about relevant and familiar ideas, themes, or issues.  I loved the table he used to demonstrate the connection between major themes in the text and real world issues.  Students at the secondary level often get excited to debate, especially when debates include questions of justice and authority.  Infusing discussions of old, classic, or just plain required texts with topics that require debate and questioning often spark students' interest.

In chapter 10, Gallagher discusses methods for getting students to reach deeply into text.  It's easy to think students must have a basic understanding of certain topics, but our students may surprise us.  What seems relevant and newsworthy to one generation may be something another generation knows nothing about.  Therefore, setting students up with a series of questions, ideas, or words, and giving them the opportunity to read multiple times and discuss their reading with others is an excellent way to set students up for success.  I loved that he reinforced keeping the end goal in mind when designing lessons.  Ultimately, we need to think of where student need to be successful, and work backwards to bring them to that point of success.