Class Close Reading
When I introduced the Close Reading Framework, I did so in the context of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Where the Wild Things Are is a picture book about a little boy, Max, who, after being too wild, gets sent to his bedroom with no dinner and there imagines a world filled with wild things whom he has to deal with. Just as, at the beginning of the book, Max's mother tired of disciplining him, Max tires of disciplining the wild things and, eventually, travels home out of his imagination and back into his bedroom.
It’s a wonderful children’s book and especially suitable to a close reading. I read Where the Wild Things Are to the students and, as a class, they analyzed the pages below.
It’s a wonderful children’s book and especially suitable to a close reading. I read Where the Wild Things Are to the students and, as a class, they analyzed the pages below.
Excerpt from Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are
The class used each relevant framework to analyze these lines. They produced the following masterpiece:
The color of the notations correspond to the different stages of close reading as set up in the Close Reading Framework.
Stage 1 - Find the Literal Meaning
Stage 2 - Analyze Interesting Words
Stage 3 - Analyze Interesting Phrases
Stage 4 - Analyze Grammar, Punctuation and Tense
Stage 6 + 7 - Relationship between passage and text as a whole
As you can see, the students annotated everything from the lack of capitalization at the beginning of the lines to the repetition of the word "thing" in different manifestations.
I chose to introduce the class to the close reading framework with a study of Where The Wild Things Are for several reasons.
After completing the close reading of Where The Wild Things Are, students moved into close readings of passages from The Catcher in the Rye.
Stage 1 - Find the Literal Meaning
Stage 2 - Analyze Interesting Words
Stage 3 - Analyze Interesting Phrases
Stage 4 - Analyze Grammar, Punctuation and Tense
Stage 6 + 7 - Relationship between passage and text as a whole
As you can see, the students annotated everything from the lack of capitalization at the beginning of the lines to the repetition of the word "thing" in different manifestations.
I chose to introduce the class to the close reading framework with a study of Where The Wild Things Are for several reasons.
- I wanted to show them that almost anything could be close read and that those close readings could reveal interesting secondary meanings.
- I wanted to use a text that all students would feel comfortable and confident accessing. Going into using a new framework, I wanted all of my students to have a memory of being successful with that framework.
- I think that Max is a bit of a proto-Holden: simultaneously rebellious, infuriating and loveable.
After completing the close reading of Where The Wild Things Are, students moved into close readings of passages from The Catcher in the Rye.