Reading with Presence: Crafting Meaningful, Evidenced-Based Reading Responses - Softcover

Newkirk, Thomas; Pryle, Marilyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0325088675 ISBN 13: 9780325088679

Publisher: HEINEMANN, 2018

Synopsis

“I don’t know.”
Is there a more frustrating answer when we ask students what they think about the texts they’re reading?  More often than not, they DO know; or at least, they have something to say but are afraid to say it.

Marilyn Pryle argues that we can help students find their voices and deeply understand texts when we invite them to write and share short reading responses.  “If you’ve read something, you must have a thought,” she explains. “The idea behind reading responses is simple: Read, and have a concrete idea about the text to bring to the discussion.  You don’t have to be ‘right.’  But you do have to have a thought from your own mind that is specific about the reading.” This kind of engagement with texts is what Marilyn calls “reading with presence.” Writing and sharing reading responses helps students look more closely at texts and their own thinking, while boosting engagement and self-confidence in their own voices.

Marilyn provides a clear framework for helping students embark on a year long journey of literary criticism and intellectual growth, filling notebooks with responses that are both personal and scholarly. Her suggested categories for reading responses allow for plenty of student choice, and the writing examples she shares throughout the book illustrate students’ deep thinking about a rich variety of texts both old and new, in a range of genres, from both whole-class and independent reading. “Reading responses put students on a road that leads to evidence-based interpretation rooted in personal experience, prior knowledge, and engagement,” Marilyn writes. “The road, perhaps, of personal growth. And isn’t that why we all teach in the first place?”

About this title

About the Authors

Thomas Newkirk is the bestselling author of Minds Made for Stories along with numerous other Heinemann titles, including Writing Unbound, Embarrassment, The Art of Slow Reading, The Performance of Self in Student Writing (winner of the NCTE’s David H. Russell Award), and Misreading Masculinity. He taught writing at the University of New Hampshire for thirty-nine years, and founded the New Hampshire Literacy Institutes, a summer program for teachers. In addition to working as a teacher, writer, and editor, he has served as the chair of his local school board for seven years.

Marilyn Pryle (@MPryle) is an English teacher at Abbington Heights High School in Clarks Summit, PA and has taught middle and high school English for over twenty years. She is the author of several books about teaching reading and writing, including 50 Common Core Reading Response Activities and Writing Workshop in Middle School. Learn more about Marilyn at marilynpryle.com.

Edition details

• Publisher: HEINEMANN
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0325088675
• ISBN 13: 9780325088679
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 184