The Evolution of the “NEW DEFINITION”
of Reading of the 1980s to Close and
Critical Reading of the 21st Century
Michigan Reading Association
Summer Literature Conference
July 8th and 9th, 2014
Mackinac Island
Dr. Elaine M. Weber
Macomb Intermediate School District
Who among you remembers the New Definition of
Reading?
Reading is the process of constructing
meaning through the dynamic
interaction among the reader’s
existing knowledge, the information
suggested by the written language,
and the context of the reading
situation.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you+tube+Defintion+of+Reading&go=Submit+Q
uery&qs=ds&form=QBVR#view=detail&mid=C219F301B4B886C80B0FC219F301B4B8
86C80B0F
Research from the late sixties into the eighties
focused on schema theory, prior knowledge,
what good readers do when they read.
This led Michigan to create what they called,
the “New” Definition of Reading. It looked for
the first time at the active role that the
“reader” plays in constructing meaning from
text.
Reader
Text
Context (purpose)
This new attention on the reader grew
larger and larger …sometimes viewed as
more important than the text.
Prior Knowledge
Reader
Schema
Theory
Text
Context
And with the definition came the …
Reading Strategies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d5Xw9yoYCRY
The Reading Strategies survived the
purge of research with The “ What
Works Clearinghouse” of the Reading
First era.
P.David Pearson used the wisdom of
Kenny Rogers to caution us about the
use of the strategies “to know when to
hold them, know when to fold them,
know when to walk away.”
Stephanie Harvey put them to work in
“Strategies that Work.”
Reading
Strategies
Thrived!
We created a card game, “Stack
the Deck for Reading Comprehension.”
using the reading strategies of Stephanie
Harvey. Students were videotaped
using the card game with their text books.
It was while watching that video, I
realized the strategies, even synthesizing,
were only getting students to tell what the text said.
It was then that I looked for a protocol that would
take students beyond the text.
Success! I found a protocol on Dan Kurland’s
website called, “What is Critical Reading?”
The protocol uses three questions:
What does the text say?
How does the text say it?
What does the text mean?
These three questions with one addition,
What does the text mean to me?,
served as the structure for the development of the
Michigan Department of Education HSCE units for
meeting the MMC requirements
Since that time, Michigan literacy educators have used
the four questions to move students’ thinking about text
to ahas, new insights, and encouraged them to think
generatively about ideas in text.
Close and Critical Reading and the Common Core Reading
Standards
Key Ideas and Details
 What
does the text say?
1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical
inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to
support conclusions drawn from the text.
2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development;
summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the
course of a text.
Craft and Structure
 How
does the text say it?
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining
technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word
choices shape meaning or tone.
5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and
larger portions of the text (e.g. a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each
other and the whole.
6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
 What
does it mean?
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including
visually and
quantitatively, as well as in words.
8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the
validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build
knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take
Key Ideas and Details
1. Read closely to determine what the text says
explicitly and to make logical inferences from
it; cite specific textual evidence when writing
or speaking to support conclusions drawn
from the text.
2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text
and analyze their development; summarize
the key supporting details and ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and
ideas develop and interact over the course of
a text.
Strategies that Work with EVIDENCE
Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey and Ann Goudvis
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
asking questions
visualizing
determining importance
synthesizing
inferring
making connections
repairing comprehension
Turn to a partner and together decide
where you would use one of these strategies with this excerpt
from Letter from the Fringe.
Compare what you
and your partner
found as places in
the story where you
could use “strategies
that work” with the
sample handout of
the story that has
been analyzed for
strategy use.
The next three
standards
expect a
different kind
of reading.
Craft and Structure
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are
used in a text, including determining
technical, connotative, and figurative
meanings, and analyze how specific
word choices shape meaning or tone.
5. Analyze the structure of texts, including
how specific sentences, paragraphs,
and larger portions of the text (e.g., a
section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate
to each other and the whole
6. Assess how point of view or purpose
shapes the content and style of a text.
Excerpt from “A Letter from the Fringe” by Joan Bauer
Every kid at the fringe table has been a victim of cruel
remarks from the "in crowd," and Dana, who has been their
target too often, wants to change things. But does she have the
courage to tell the kids in school how they've made her and
her friends feel? And will telling them make any difference?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
"This letter could be from the nerd with the thick glasses in computer lab. It could be from the 'zit
girl' who won't look people in the eye because she's embarrassed about her skin. It could be from the guy
with the nose ring who you call queer, or any of the kids whose sizes don't balance with your ideal.
"You know, I've got things inside me—dreams and nightmares, plans and mess-ups. In that regard, we
have things in common. But we never seem to connect through those common experiences because I'm
so different from you.
"My being different doesn't mean that you're better than me. I think you've always assumed that I
want to be like you. But I want you to know something about kids like me. We don't want to. We just
want the freedom to walk down the hall without seeing your smirks, your contempt, and your looks of
disgust.
"Sometimes I stand far away from you in the hall and watch what you do to other people. I
wonder why you've chosen to make the world a worse place.
"I wonder, too, what really drives the whole thing. Is it hate? Is it power? Are you afraid if you get
too close to me and my friends that some of our uncoolness might rub off on you? I think what could really
happen is that learning tolerance could make us happier, freer people.
"What's it going to be like when we all get older? Will we be more tolerant, or less because we
haven't practiced it much? I think of the butterflies in the science museum. There are hundreds of
them in cases. Hundreds of different kinds. If they were all the same, it would be so boring. You can't
look at the blue ones or the striped ones and say they shouldn't have been born. It seems like nature is
trying to tell us something. Some trees are tall, some are short. Some places have mountains, others have
deserts. Some cities are always warm, some have different seasons. Flowers are different. Animals. Why
do human beings think they have the right to pick who's best—who's acceptable and who's not?
"I used to give you control over my emotions. I figured that if you said I was gross and weird, it
must be true. How you choose to respond to people is up to you, but I won't let you be my judge and jury.
I'm going to remind you every chance I get that I have as much right to be on this earth as you."
Guided Highlighted
Reading for Craft.
Prepare with a copy of
the text and a highlighter
pen to respond to the
prompts.
Standards 4, 5, and 6 are all about the
text! How it was developed, how it is
structured and from what point of view it
was written.
reader
TEXT
context
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
What
does
the
text
mean?
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in
diverse media and formats including visually
and quantitatively, as well as in words.
8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and
specific claims in a text, including the validity
of the reasoning as well as the relevance and
sufficiency of the evidence.
9. Analyze how two or more texts address
similar themes or topics in order to build
knowledge or to compare the approaches the
authors take.
Couple, A Letter from
the Fringe with diverse
media--Standard 7: Integrate
and evaluate content
presented in diverse
media and formats,
including visually,
quantitatively as well
as in words.
What does
the cartoon
say?
How does the
cartoon say
it?
What does
the cartoon
mean?
Standard 8: Delineate and evaluate the
argument and the specific claims in a text,
including the validity of the reasoning as well
as the relevancy and sufficiency of the
evidence.
What is the issue?
What is the claim?
What are the reasons?
What is the evidence?
What is the
counterargument?
What is the rebuttal?
What is the resolution?
Or put two texts together …
Standard 9: Analyze how two or more texts address
similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to
compare the approaches the authors take.
Quindlen, Anna. “A Quilt of a Country.” Newsweek September 27, 2001.
(2001)
America is an improbable idea. A mongrel nation built of ever-changing
disparate parts, it is held together by a notion, the notion that all men are
created equal, though everyone knows that most men consider themselves
better than someone. “Of all the nations in the world, the United States was
built in nobody’s image,” the historian Daniel Boorstin wrote. That’s because
it was built of bits and pieces that seem discordant, like the crazy quilts that
have been one of its great folk-art forms, velvet and calico and checks and
brocades. Out of many, one. That is the ideal.
Both pieces deal with the concept of
diversity.
In “A Quilt of a Country.” think of all
the ways the author let us know
America is made of diverse parts.
Share your findings with a partner.
How has reading changed in 31 years since the “new”
definition of reading?
the triangle has brought more attention to the “text”
– close reading, author’s craft, text structure, text-dependent
questions and evidence from the text.
Using text to read for different purposes broadens the reader’s
perspective and extends possibilities for thinking with the text:
Reading for argument, theme, theory, craft, and perspective.
Having students consider what the text says as well as how it
has been written, offers more insight for critical analysis of the
text.
Balancing
And just think, how
many times did you
read A letter from
the Fringe for
different reasons?
How many ways did
you “think” about this
text?