Dynamic Teaching for Deeper Reading, Chapters 5, 6, and a little bit of 7

One of the aspects of  Vicki’s writing that I always love is the way she “wows” me by taking familiar ideas and applying them with a depth beyond what I’ve imagined. While what I’m reading in Dynamic Teaching for Deeper Reading (DTfDR) is in many ways a natural progression of what I’ve been working on as a teacher for years--Peter Johnston’s Noticing and Naming, Creating Cultures of Thinking and Making Thinking Visible with Ron Ritchhart, helping kids tease out the patterns as I first read about in What Readers Really Do by Barnhouse and Vinton and later applied to thinking about Beers & Probst's Signposts-- DTfDR reveals facets of these ideas I’ve never considered. My goal in my reflection is to zero in on specific refinements of my practice that will have the greatest impact on kids.

With that goal in mind, I’ve been taking lots of notes. In my notes there is quite a bit of verbatim cut and paste of ideas from the book that I want to be sure to implement. I've tried to include quotation marks, but if I missed any direct quotes it wasn't out of malice. Due to the nature of the reflection, these are overwhelmingly Vicki's ideas and words.

I’ve been categorizing my notes into three sections: 1) Teaching Moves for a Problem Solving Stance, 2) Setting the Stage/Classroom Environment, and  3) “Lessons to Teach Again & Again.” (Thanks, Mary Lee!)  There is lots of overlap among the sections, but after reading this liberating quote, I decided to share my notes from #3:

“Finally, don’t worry about offering a new teaching point each day. You can stick to a handful of basic ones that get at the core concepts of what readers need to do based on how writers and texts work. Limiting the number of things you teach will not only make your work easier but also give students more time to practice the thinking work of reading in order to ultimately internalize both the concepts and the thinking…” (68)

Lessons to Teach Again and Again/Problems Texts Pose for Readers:

 Analyze Indirect References (61, 63)

• Be aware of basic inferences necessary in stories with an “in media res” beginning.
• Writers often convey basic key information, like who, what, when, and where the characters are, indirectly rather than directly, and students miss these details in the subtlety. I appreciate the degree of clarity Vicki brings to this challenge, precipitating an “Aha” moment in me about what a “problem-based approach” means to the author.
• “Sometimes writers don’t come right out and tell us exactly what’s happening, so readers need to be aware of what they don't know and then try to figure out what hasn't been said by paying close attention to the details the writer gives them.” (65)

Consider Figurative Language (109)

• Figurative language is another example of a way authors convey important information indirectly.
• Ask “What does the figurative language suggest about the characters (feelings, traits, motivations) and/or themes?”
• When several instances of figurative language (about a character) are combined, what is suggested by the whole?
• Notice patterns and juxtapositions in the figurative language.

Keep Minds Open to Multiple Ideas/Revising Understanding when Confronted with New Evidence (120)

• Frame inquiry questions and stay alert for patterns.
• Chart patterns using quotes from text to make thinking visible/illustrate how thinking evolves across a text. “If you read these lines sequentially, you can actually see how writers develop patterns to convey meaning across a text.” (122)
• NEXT STEPS: Encourage students to choose a line of inquiry they want to follow and form groups to record thinking on that question, creating (& sharing!) their own chart.
• Use conditional, work-in-progress language to reinforce these are provisional, work-in-progress ideas.
• Set students up to notice patterns breaking.
• Set students up to consider how the ending fits in with the pattern or challenges them to revise their thinking.

Emphasize the Significance of Details (135) by Bringing in the Author (104, 120)

• Consider what might the author be trying to show us about people or life through their story.  

• Remind students that whatever's happening in the book is due to the choices the author made. The author did all that to show us something about The Human Condition that she wants us, as readers, to consider.
• Students need to understand that authors plant details intentionally for the reader to notice and question.
• Have students reread the introduction to a book they’ve already finished with the express purpose of noticing clues the author planted there.
• Encourage readers to read with this question in mind: “Why is the writer telling me this?”
• Analogy: It’s like when readers open a novel they set out on a long, demanding hike up a fourteener. The writer is aware that each detail they include in the story is like an item that hiker must place in their backpack and carry for the remainder of the book. Every detail must have a purpose, or the author will have to answer to the reader at the end, “What happened with this detail? Why have I been lugging it around?”   
• Write down and track questions/ lines of inquiry that arise in the prologue.

Create Opportunities for Readers to Interpret Patterns (113, 123)  

• "Writers use patterns to show us something about people or life that they want us to think about." (120) "Wondering about what character is or isn't doing something is actually what writers want their readers to do." (119)
• “We search for patterns, you see, only to find where the patterns break. And it's there, and that fissure that we pitch our tents and wait.” Nicole Krauss, Great House. "Writers convey meaning indirectly through patterns that change and break. It is precisely at this moment that we can see whatever and author might be trying to show us."(114) “So a big pattern broke here and I bet many of you are wondering why.” (123)

• Writers weave threads of details through texts that eventually create patterns. Once those patterns are in place, however, writers play around with them, developing, changing, and breaking them in ways that indirectly convey a deeper meaning.
• Notice and question patterns, then keep reading with those questions in mind, using them as lines of inquiry that lead to the deeper layers of a text.(115)
• “We need to hold all of these ideas in our heads as we continue reading and see how they might change and grow.” (125)

Creating opportunities for readers to interpret patterns while reading (and across the curriculum) has been my passion for years now. As an avid reader, this is often where I find the joy in reading. Yet Vicki found fascinating ways to stretch my thinking. Before reading chapters 5 & 6, I would have said that analyzing figurative language is also a strength for me, but now I realize that I've only been scratching the surface. I love how much I have to learn!