Reading fiction can be a chore for students, especially when they are not prepared to read. Our world would be a far better one if every student were to read carefully through Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book. That’s not going to happen, especially by younger students. Moreover, how many of our students bother to read much anymore? The number of my students who admit that they never read books is on the rise, & even when assigned stories & novels for class they have myriad ways of navigating around actually reading them. And this at a college prep school with a great academic track record & reputation. At any rate, here are a few thoughts that I give to my students when assigning fiction. Next semester my Art & Catholicism students will be reading a number of stories by Flannery O’Connor, “Babette’s Feast” by Isak Dinesen (along with watching the film adaptation), Peter Schaffer’s Amadeus (again, along with the film adaptation), while my Sophomore Great Books students will read Emma by Jane Austen. Hopefully this kind of thing will help them. I’d appreciate comments & observations from other teachers on what works, doesn’t work, etc.
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“The type of mind that can understand good fiction is not necessarily the educated mind, but it is at all times the kind of mind that is willing to have its sense of mystery deepened by contact with reality, & its sense of reality deepened by contact with mystery.”
—Flannery O’Connor, “The Nature & Aim of Fiction”
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1. Read the story straight through without distractions. No multi-tasking: turn off the computer, TV, etc. Having Mozart or Schubert on is a good idea, as it aids concentration. Try it & you’ll see. For this reading, don’t worry about whatever writing assignment you may have. Don’t read any study questions your teacher may have given just yet. If possible, read the story more than once.
2. Spend a little time just thinking about what you’ve read. What are your first impressions? What stands out to you about the characters, plot, writing? Did you enjoy it? Why or why not? It may be difficult to articulate your responses, but try. It gets easier the more you do it.
3. Try to summarize the story as if you were describing it to someone who hasn’t read it, highlighting what happens, the characters, & anything else that caught your attention.
4. Read the story again, keeping in mind questions 2 & 3 above. Yes, you’re busy, but this helps. Highlight with pencil anything that seems important, even if you don’t know why.
5. Attend to whatever assignment your teacher gave you.
Note to teachers: Go easy on the reading questions. Asking too many questions about plot, characters, vocabulary, etc. can ruin the reading experience by forcing the students’ attention away from the story itself & toward the artificial busy-work concerns teachers sometimes have. Keep the questions focused on the basics, such as the characters & why they do what they do. Ask the students to describe the main characters or briefly note their impressions of their motivations, along with the consequences of their actions. In addition, ask them to consider whether or not the characters should have acted in the ways they did, & to be prepared to justify their answers during class discussion.
6. Try not to judge the story too quickly. Many of the greatest works of fiction require the kind of careful, considered judgment that takes time to develop. Even if, perhaps especially if, you struggle with understanding the story, refrain from dismissing it or prematurely deciding you don’t like it. Your first reaction to a story may tell you more about yourself than the story. If a story bores you, perhaps it’s because you are boring? Or maybe just not paying close attention? That’s why a close reading is necessary, with no distractions. Give it a chance.
7. Do not try to find “the meaning” of the story. A story is not an essay, editorial, or homily. Flannery O’Connor, one of the great short story writers of the 20th century, said this about meaning in a story:
“The meaning of a story has to be embodied in it, has to be made concrete in it. A story is a way to say something that can’t be said in any other way, & it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. When anyone asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is is to tell him to read the story. The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning but experienced meaning, & the purpose of making statements about the meaning of a story is only to help you to experience that meaning more fully.”
In other words, don’t try to reduce a story to a few short statements. Abstract statements, like the kind that students use in essays, can often get in the way of the “experienced meaning” O’Connor mentions above. This is a strong temptation for students reading a story for class. The O’Connor quote at the top of the page is pertinent here, as a well-written story can plunge you headlong into mysteries that require contemplation, even prayer, to begin to enter into. Don’t expect that writing a paragraph on the main theme of the story or an essay on what it means will exhaust what the story can offer.
8. All of this can be applied to longer works of fiction, drama, poetry, & music. And, of course, films. All of these can open you up to realities & mysteries that can’t be found in any other way.
—Anthony DiStefano
Thank you for your post. I teach middle and high school English at a girl’s school in Washington, DC. Adler’s How to Read Book really isn’t accessible for students until they’ve recognized the problem with the way most people read, which usually isn’t until college, if they’re lucky. Thank you for providing a much more approachable list of ways I can use to help my students improve.
My first year teaching, I taught a class of third graders. I didn’t really know what I was doing or what was “normal” for eight-year-olds, so I taught them to close read. By the end of the year, I was getting beautifully insightful comments from them like, “Peter Pan wouldn’t be such a sad play if Peter was older. Then he could love Wendy. It’s only a tragedy because he can’t love her.” I had the pleasure of teaching the same group as middle schoolers this year. Their ability to read well far surpasses that of most of my oldest students. I came to the conclusion that we really need to teach students to read well as part of the process of learning to read. If we separate the act of reading from the act of thinking when students are young, it’s much more of a challenge to get them to join the two later.
Thanks for the comment. Have you read Mystery & Manners by Flannery O’Connor? She has 2 essays on the topic, “The Teaching of Literature” & “Total Effect & the Eighth Grade,” both of which are good. Actually, most of the essays are pertinent. Her perspective as a writer, particularly one who suffered through critics who often had little clue about what she was up to in her fiction, is invaluable & has helped me a great deal in thinking about both reading & teaching. Cheers.