Do you remember learning to, "push back" at an author or text? Well, I don't! But realizing it has brought to light that it's something we need to teach kids to do in order to be critically literate. Beyond breaking the code of the text we need to consider the roles of the reader as a text participant, user and analyst. In order to "push back"or challenge text, we have to think and talk about text through these lenses and read with active, questioning, perhaps even suspicious minds. As a text analyst and user of fiction, we must question the author and compare their point of view and experience through the characters to our own. We should be asking, "Should it be this way?, Is this a fair representation of the world?, Does everybody think this way about our world?" Teaching kids to think like this is necessary for them to participate in the democratic society that is our reality. We must prepare them to live smartly and justly in the real world. Questioning authors of nonfiction and what we read helps us develop our own understanding and opinion about what we learn and its application in the world. Maria Nichols says, "These are ways of reading that begin to build habits of mind."
This is no small task. With all of the demands teachers have on their plates, we often move at light speed, covering a breadth of knowledge at surface level. We need to consider the value of slowing down and looking at text closely and balancing that with reading voraciously and widely.
Thinking aloud for students about your interaction and response to the text shows them the metacognition necessary to "be the book". Showing them and inviting them to engage actively with you in deep discussion about text (PGW) is a great way to get this going in your classroom. Together, let's begin to build these habits of mind.
