Talking to another English teacher this week we discussed our similar realization about students and their aversion to close-reading. In short, inexperienced readers grow impatient with text and do not want to go back and dare re-read anything they’ve think they’ve read before.
The problem is, inexperienced readers often do not understand what they read the first time they read it. This is partly because they do not ask questions of the text. To really become involved with a story, a reader has to chew on it similar to the way food lovers masticate over juicy steak. Yes, I just compared reading to the pleasure of food. Words have layers of flavor. They should leave some sort of after-taste in your mind, or you didn’t really read it. You might haven eaten it, but what’s the point if you can’t express or articulate about what you just ate? Where’s the joy in dining?
Earlier today, I came across the beautiful quotation below about close-reading. After all, what does it mean to study? I’ve come to believe that it means reading something new, then re-reading it, mulling over its meaning, adding personal commentary, followed by comparing/ connecting that data across background experience and other curricular disciplines, then, and only then, determining how it affects oneself and the world around. Information is supposed to lead us somewhere. We don’t read in vain. There must be purpose… or again, what’s the point?
“Study leads to precision,
precision leads to zeal,
zeal leads to cleanliness,
cleanliness leads to restraint,
restraint leads to purity,
purity leads to holiness,
holiness leads to humility,
humility leads to fear of sin,
fear of sin leads to saintliness,
saintliness leads to possessing the holy spirit,
the holy spirit leads to eternal life.”
– The Talmud, Tractate Avodah Zarah 20b:10
Studying brings life. Nice.
