Writing Well About Reading
- Read knowing you’ll write, seeing more.
- Read upcoming text with the ideas you wrote about in mind.
- Aim to notice more elements of the story. (Characters, plot, setting, mood, and repeated objects.)
- Push yourself to grow new ideas.
- Use your own thinking, exploring voice.
- Ratchet up the level of your writing about reading through revision.
Drawing on All You Know to Read Well & Interpret Text
- Read alertly to notice what stands out and find the meaning in specific details.
- To uncover a life lesson or message from a story, name a big problem or challenge faced by the main character.
- Look for a moment when something related to that problem shifts – a realization, feeling, or a relationship.
- Be open to seeing the text differently through other readers’ eyes and deepening or changing your interpretation.
- Connect ideas to form bigger theories, asking if there is a larger truth or life lesson to be learned.
Calkins, Lucy & Marron, Alexandra. Interpretation of Book Clubs: Analyzing Themes. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2015. Print.