Critical Reading and Interpretation Workshop #2

 

An Experiment in Reading a Poem

Please do exactly as I ask, following these steps. I will ask you to read a poem three times. With each reading, I will ask you to "notice what you notice." Don’t start talking to each other about the poem until we get to the point where I will ask you to do exactly that. It’s important for the experiment that we proceed step-by-step and complete each step before moving to the next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sonrisas
I live in a doorway
between two rooms, I hear
quiet clicks, cups of black
coffee, click, click like facts
budgets, tenure, curriculum,
from careful women in crisp beige
suits, quick beige smiles
that seldom sneak into their eyes.

I peek
in the other room senoras
in faded dresses stir sweet
milk coffee, laughter whirls
with steam from fresh tamales
sh, sh, mucho ruido
they scold one another,
press their lips, trap smiles
in their dark, Mexican eyes.

--Pat Mora

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 4: Write After you rate your understanding for the third time, do two more things: 1) Write a brief account of what happened to you as a reader and to your understanding over the course of your three readings. 2) Next, write out any questions that you still have about the poem

Sonrisas I live in a doorway between two rooms, I hear quiet clicks, cups of black coffee, click, click like facts budgets, tenure, curriculum, from careful women in crisp beige suits, quick beige smiles that seldom sneak into their eyes. I peek in the other room senoras in faded dresses stir sweet milk coffee, laughter whirls with steam from fresh tamales sh, sh, mucho ruido they scold one another, press their lips, trap smiles in their dark, Mexican eyes. --Pat Mora

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lesson Take Away #1:
Writing about your reading, even or maybe especially if it is only writing about what you don't understand, can be a useful way to assist you in your reading.

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Lesson Take Away #2:
Notice that although you still had questions about the poem, you saw yourself as understanding it. That is, we can understand a text and regard ourselves as competent readers of it even though we still have questions about it. Just having questions about a text should not paralyze your reading and understanding about the text.

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Lesson Take Away #3:
Our understanding of a text evolves and grows as we re-read and work on the text. It is important to be metacognitively aware--that is, think about our thinking--and moniter our thinking as our emerging understanding falters and progresses.

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Lesson Take Away #4:
Conversing with others about a text also is a powerful means of developing our understanding of a text.

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Lesson Take Away #5:
Confusion is natural and to be expected in the reading process. The advancement of learning and understanding is often not marked by latching on to easy answers and certainty, but by the lessening of certitude and the addition of questions through exploring problematic lines and interpretive inconsistencies. Launching into the abyss of uncertainty leads to a deeper understanding.

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Lesson Take Away #6:
Our interpretations of a text can be sustained only if they are supported by evidence located in the words of the text or in the world from which the text emerges. Our interpretations, even though coming from our own values and experience, depend for their plausibility on an interpretation that is itself plausible in its reasoning from evidence. In that way, the study of literature teaches discipline of thinking--of a practice of evidentiary reasoning--that is the basis for effective intellectual work in any academic field or profession.

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