Letting the Text Take Center Stage

Jennifer Brickey

CA—Curriculum and Assessment

CA--Common Core Assessments

CO--Reading Workshops

Shanahan, T. (2013). Letting the text take center stage. American Educator, 37 (3), 4-43.

Retreived from

http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae/fall2013/shanahan.cfm

In his article, “Letting the Text Take Center Stage,” Shanahan underscores the importance of making the text central to student learning under the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS). What the CCSS do that the old standards do not is they acknowledge text complexity. Because of these new demands, Shanahan explains that students will experience more acute frustration when reading difficult texts and “teachers must learn to anticipate text challenges and how to support students to allow them to negotiate texts successfully, but without doing the work for the” (p. 6)--a difficult task for any teacher. In past practice, teachers spend ample time preparing students to read by connecting to prior knowledge and gathering background information on a text; however, Shanahan argues that this “daily reading ritual found in most US classrooms” (p.7) may not be the best approach for helping students access challenging texts. He promotes a hybrid approach--Shanahan acknowledges that background knowledge is needed to help deepen understanding of a text, but the time spent on building background should be minimal. Instead, he suggests that in order to maximize the depth of knowledge gathered a brief overview of a text and deep concentration on the text itself through close readings is the most important strategy. “Part of the CCSS (and of “close reading”) is that text must play a central role in reading and cannot profitably be ignored” (p. 8). In addition, teachers must decide what questions to pose to students that emphasize this focus on text. Teachers will need to ask questions that tap into higher order thinking such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluative questions; these questions should be text-dependent and ask “Why” and “How.” Lastly, Shanahan points out the questions related to the craft and structure of the text should be asked, since these frequently lend to a reader’s interpretation.

This article proves to be a useful source for rethinking one’s teaching under the CCSS, especially in the area of developing students’ reading skills. I believe Shanahan makes astute observations regarding how teachers can engage students in deep, meaningful reading to meet the demands of the CCSS. However, I would take his logic a step further: By making the text central to learning, not only will a teacher enhance students’ understanding of complex text, but it will also assist students’ writing abilities. When form, structure, syntax, and organization become part of the reading discussion, students can then begin to examine their own writing. This, I believe, will also be needed as well when tackling the CCSS.