Rereading has always been an important factor for me in the sense of grasping the concept of a book, article, etc. Knowing this, I've adapted to the process of reading books two to three times before I can understand the whole meaning. To me, rereading isn't just for misunderstanding and not understanding what it's about, rereading is to go even more in depth with the text and gives you another opportunity to catch a point in the book or an important factoid that you hadn't before. The act of rereading shows how great the book is because of the want and hope to learn something new every time you flip the page.
Especially in advanced courses, when you discuss books you just don't discuss basics and summarize it, you go in the details and talk about intertextuality, confusing parts and what you could go even further with. Rereading allows you to pick up on all aspects the book has to offer, not just trying to gain it all with one read through. In Thomas C. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor he relates the old stereotype "practice makes perfect" to the idea of rereading and literature. For myself, literature isn't my best suit when it comes to reading, so the idea of rereading lets me become better at not only reading it, but engaging with it and understanding it more in depth.
Entering AP Literature, I'm trying to improve on my reading skills by rereading and trying to discover new points in the text that I didn't discover my first time through.
Hi Ridge,
ReplyDeleteYes, you said it right when you said "depth." That is an important concept. Actually at my AP training a few weeks ago, this was one of the main points the trainer wanted to get across--we needed to really think about doing more with less and getting students deeper into the texts. This requires much more time and focus, and of course, re-reading!!!
P.S. You know we got second in the state for All Stars!!!!
Mrs. Mac
Yes, I heard! Huge congrats to Ben and the rest of the team!
DeleteRidge,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you one hundred percent that taking higher courses may lead to students needing to reread. I believe that while taking AP or Honors classes students will need to be able to identify and discuss more in depth topics that go beyond the general understanding of the text. To do be able to see beyond the basics of a book or text, for school, I need may need to read the book or text twice. For example, while reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck I decided it would be a good idea to mark chapters and passages to reread after I completed the book. More than likely I will be rereading a lot more while taking this course.