I Read It, But I Don't Get It

Our reading selection of Cris Tovani's I Read It, But I Don't Get It could not have come at a more opportune time. Last Friday, I was teaching a lesson on the first act of Macbeth to a sophomore English class. While we read the first act aloud, with each part assigned to a different student, I could sense that the students were only reading the words on the page, not interacting with the text, forming any inferences, or following the plot. While I had guessed that this gap in student comprehension was due to the students' inability to form connections with the text, I wasn't at all aware of how to remedy the situation and get the students to a place of understanding. I kept finding myself simply feeding the students the information that they needed to know, and left at the end of the day feeling defeated and disconnected from my students. After reading Tovani's book, I realized that my class consisted of mostly Word Callers, who "have altered decoding and, as a bonus, also choose to read. However, they don't understand that reading involves thinking" (15). The students weren't thinking about what they were reading. I think the students are overwhelmed by the language in Shakespeare's works, not bothering to read closely and interactively, so they go on autopilot and wait for the explanation. I really enjoyed all of Tovani's strategies to not only monitor one's own reading, but also remedy the issue independently if possible. I certainly plan to use many of the worksheets included in the appendix in order to show the students how they can start making connections to the text. Rather than bombarding them with a whole act at a time, I also plan to break up the text so as to not overwhelm them with vocabulary. I will give them a few quotations at a time and prompt them to identify a connection they share with that text. Tovani's book allowed me to think methodically about how to best help a class of word callers who have grown up in a generation often uninterested in reading.