I Read It, but I Don't Get It

During my senior year of college I took a class called critical methodologies, and had to read Troilus and Cressida what felt like a million times. I remember sitting down to read it for the umpteenth time one night and thinking “How am I going to get anything more out of this play than I already have the first five times”? The thing is, the more I read Troilus and Cressida, the more I was able to pull out of it and create a better meaning of the story, why the characters do what they do, and developing more empathy and understanding for them. We dissected the names, the setting, and all of the words. I found a deeper meaning in the play than I ever imagined, and it’s because I read it more than once.

In her book, I Read It, but I Don’t Get It, author Chris Tovani talks about a student in chapter 8 who is upset after reading a book that doesn’t have a clear ending. The student felt like the book just left you hanging. In reality there are several clues throughout the story that allude that the protagonist has committed suicide. This student is among several others in Tovani’s class that just missed the indications, and none of the students really know or understand what happened to the protagonist or how the story ends.

I think it is very easy when we’re reading to miss important clues or ideas that can help you understand the text on a deeper level.  We get distracted easily, or are simply just not using critical thinking while we read. Tovani compares reading to “driving” (56). She explains that like driving, when we read we need to have awareness. We do this by monitoring our speed (slowing down and reading carefully), and correcting or stopping to fix a problem if it arises (stopping to look up a word, or rereading a sentence or paragraph when you don’t understand). If the students in Tovani’s class would have just slowed down, and used rhetoric while reading, they may have picked up on how the book ended and not felt so frustrated.

I think this is a huge dilemma in our students today. Tovani discusses in the first chapter of the book how students have little to no desire to read. If students are already unwilling to read, than of course when they are “forced” to read a book or text, they will fly through or even “fake read,” missing all of the valuable/important/necessary information. I wish Tovani would have focused more on how to make reading more exciting and interesting.

I did enjoy this book. The way Tovani connected analogies and the theories really helped me visualize and how to implement personal knowledge vs. personal experience, text-to-reader, questioning, guiding, and teaching strategies are among many many more. I also loved the access tools at the end of the book, and am excited to use them in my own lessons someday! Tovani has definitely given me a lot to think about, and I am certain I will keep this book on a shelf in my classroom to review in the future.