Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters

by G. Kylene Beers

Without those stories, and without the ability to read them responsively and responsibly, feeling at least some of the pain and the loss, our students will remain separate, distant, unconnected, vulnerable.

I’m not, not so good in school, you know? I don’t like it. [pause] My teacher, she’s real nice and everything. But, it’s just like nothing we do there is going to change anything here.” Marcus is referring to the landscape of his neighborhood, a landscape that suggests parents who work hard just to put food on the table. He continued: “This is my world. How’s the word-of-the-day help with this?

When a right answer is most important, students come to believe their thoughts don’t matter.

How often do you ask your students, “How did this reading change who you are?” If not often, explore with colleagues why that is. Do you believe that reading can

In this country, we kept slaves from learning to read. Additionally, for a while in our history, you were adequately literate if you could simply sign your name—or even just make an X. In developing countries today, girls are still educated less than boys. What do these situations suggest about the potential power of reading?

The responsive reader is present, in mind and heart, when he is reading the text. Rather than simply collecting facts or trying to remember information that, unless it matters, will remain pointless, he is trying to make sense.

Additionally, the responsive reader might be, should be, responsive to the thoughts and reactions of other readers.

The text broadens and enriches the individual’s experience; talking about it with others broadens and enriches the individual’s otherwise limited and narrow insight still further.

If the reader isn’t responsive, if she doesn’t let the text awaken emotion or inspire thoughts, then she can barely be said to be reading at

What’s happening in your classrooms and in your school to encourage responsive reading?

If the text is to provide anything beyond idle amusement, a distraction from the tasks and problems that confront us, or—worse—a way for others to manipulate us, then there must be an element of responsibility in the act of reading.

To encourage and expect nothing more of students than unexamined statements of feelings is to encourage intellectual laziness.

And to encourage only extracting of information, memorizing of

details, and the like, is to reduce reading to an unr...

What we see is that our young readers are inclined not to question a text. Parents and teachers and other adults they trust tell them things they need to know. Why wouldn’t a text do the same? Consider this conversation with a second grader. He’s discussing an article he just read titled “Are Trampolines Dangerous?

We encourage this responsibility to the text by asking kids to keep three big questions in mind. What surprised me?

What did the author think I already know? What changed, challenged, or confirmed my thinking?

ask children to “Show me what in the text caused that surprise” or “Where did the author need to tell you more?”

If that child wants to argue with the science presented in the article, that’s one thing. But to dismiss the article because it contradicts what a friend has previously stated is not responsible reading.

But to hold on to ideas when evidence and reason suggest that a change is sensible is to fail to be responsible to oneself.

Until we teach students to read responsibly, we run the risk of being a nation of readers who not only harm themselves, but potentially harm others as they share not just misinformation but blatant lies.

What’s the result for our society if we fail to raise readers who are both responsive and responsible?

We suggest that we’ve failed to become a nation of readers in part because we have made reading a painful exercise for kids. High-stakes tests, Lexile levels, searches for evidence, dialogic notes, and sticky notes galore—we have demanded of readers many things we would never do ourselves while reading. We have sticky-noted reading to death.

“This time, this time, I think I’ll make a diorama”? Or, perhaps on that cold Friday night with wine in hand when you finally had thirty minutes to yourself, you relaxed in your favorite chair, picked up that newest book you’ve been aching to read, and then shot out of that comfortable spot to retrieve your spiral notebook so you could record unknown vocabulary words.

Again, he may conclude by rejecting the text, but if he rejects it before encountering it, he can hardly be said to have read it at all, even if his eyes have passed over every word.

we want them to ask themselves, “How has this text changed me?

We argue that the ultimate goal of reading is to become more than we are at the moment; to become better than we are now; to become what we did not even know we wanted to become.

As you read today, we want you to think about what’s in the text and at the same time think about what your responses are to what’s in the text.

Finally: “Okay. Today, as you read, think about what’s in the book, what’s in your head, and what’s in your heart.” Kids looked up. No one said anything. We took that as a good sign and wrote three words on the board: Book. Head. Heart. One boy repeated, “Book. Head. Heart.” Another said, “Like what for the head?” We said, “Just ask yourself, ‘What surprised me?’ Then you’ll be thinking about what was in the book while thinking about what you already know.”

What’s a heart question?” We said, “Try ‘What did this show me about me?’ or ‘How could this change how I feel?

Do you think it’s important for students to think about how a text is changing them? Do you share with students how reading changes you?

To think about what’s in the book, focus on whatever it is that catches your attention. Simply read, asking yourself, “What’s going on in this text? What do I notice in it? What does the author want me to know?” Next, to think about what’s in your head, focus on one big question: “What surprised me?” Finally, to think about what’s in your heart, ask, “What did I learn about myself?” or “How will this change me?”

with younger students, we suggest trying something by Shel Silverstein such as “The Little Boy and the Old Man.

Do the conversations in your classroom already reflect these three aspects of the reading experience? If not, which aspect needs attention?

much more easily if we can get them to discuss any of the Three Big Questions that we present in Reading Nonfiction:

What surprised you? What did the author think you already knew? What changed, challenged, or confirmed your thinking?

You know that one of the signposts is Aha Moments. That’s when the character figures out something that will make a difference in what that character does next. Well, when you are reading and you have your own Aha Moment, then that’s something you have taken to heart from this book.

We know that purposeful writing, writing conferences, and writing portfolios are important, and yet too often teachers assign a topic, don’t confer with students, and think a folder with all the writing collected into it is a portfolio.

dialogic talk and yet most classrooms are still based in monologic talk

Are there practices you follow that cannot be supported by research? Why do you use them? Should you reconsider?

In three years, what would you like your school to be known for? What needs to happen this year, next year, and that third year for that to happen?

Getting their attention is about interest; keeping their attention is about relevance.

We told the teachers that as long as a preset curriculum guides our decisions, we will have a difficult time creating the learning environment that develops passionate learners.

Have you asked your students what issues matter to them? If not, why not? If so, what did they tell you?

He believed that it was during silent reading, not oral reading, that students had the opportunity to think about what was being read and to decide, on their own, what the text meant.

Focused Silent Reading

Simple prompts can help teachers quickly assess if the time spent reading that text in class is well spent:

Tell me what’s happening now in your book. Tell me about the person telling the story. What’s the most surprising thing that has happened? Are you enjoying the book? Why or why not? If not, is this a good book for you to continue reading? What have you learned so far about the character (or event)?

might see kids writing notes about what they’ve read in their reader/writer journal. Or, maybe he’ll watch kids turn and talk with a buddy about the skill they practiced as they read. Or perhaps he’ll see the teacher pull the whole class back together to ask students to share how they applied today’s focus lesson.

Focused silent reading recognizes that the time we have with kids is valuable and so we should spend it wisely. And that begins with reading. Reading for sustained periods of time. Reading what you choose to read. And reading with focus.