Read Like A Detective

Back in 2011, Lauren Resnick was introducing the keynote speaker, David Coleman, at University of Pittsburgh's Institute For Learning and she reflected on the early days of manufacturing the Common Core ELA standards...

" I remember being with Tony, who was there, when he handed out a list of ten – handed out a list of ten proposed standards that – at that moment seemed as reasonable as anything else for the new English standards that were gonna be forthcoming.

The first one said, “Read like a detective.” That‟s it. That was standard number one – so powerful a one that it‟s driven out of my mind the other nine....And we look at this and my memory is there was a long moment of silence, right, Tony? Do you remember that, too, David?

And what I really want to say is that reading like a detective is now part of our core standards. It‟s not there in words, but it informs – that was a kind of inventive way to put an idea on the table that established a standard..."

What Must Be Done in the Next Two Years 2011 IFL Senior Leadership Meeting December 8-9, 2011 David Coleman, Keynote Speaker

In 2012, David Coleman spoke about "reading like a detective" at a summer conference for teachers...

"David Coleman stood at a podium reciting poetry. After reading Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” a classic example of the villanelle form, Coleman wanted to know why green is the only color mentioned in the poem, why Thomas uses the grammatically incorrect go gentle instead of go gently, and how the poet’s expression of grief is different from Elizabeth Bishop’s in her own villanelle, “One Art.”

“Kids don’t wonder about these things,” Coleman told his audience, a collection of 300 public-school English teachers and administrators. “It is you as teachers who have this obligation” to ask students “to read like a detective and write like an investigative reporter.”

"The Schoolmaster", Dana Goldstein The Atlantic October 20012

While the lead architects and writers of the Common Core ELA Standards may have been well intended, the main focus on "reading like a detective" and on a strategy known as close reading, has resulted in a discipline of thought in many classrooms that actually contradicts and constrains critical thinking and deeper learning that is "promised" in the Common Core State Standards.

The decision to couple standardized tests to the Common Core in order to satisfy test-based accountability policies further undermines the potency and effectiveness of the Common Core State Standards and their ability to "ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live."

While some defenders of the Common Core continue to claim that problems with standardized testing and the efficacy of the Standards are two separate issues, comments made by David Coleman during his 2011 keynote speech reveal that the lead writer of the Standards was fully aware and even complicit in the "arranged marriage" between the Common Core and standardized testing.

"Lauren, though, has challenged me over the years with some more ideas, and some I want to put on the table for you, all in the sake of striking back. One of them is that these standards are worthy of nothing if the assessments built on them are not worthy of teaching to, period...

It was Lauren who propounded the great rule that I think is a statement of reality, though not a pretty one, which is teachers will teach towards the test. There is no force strong enough on this earth to prevent that. There is no amount of hand-waving, there‟s no amount of saying, “They teach to the standards, not the test; we don‟t do that here.” Whatever.

The truth is – and if I misrepresent you, you are welcome to take the mic back. But the truth is teachers do. Tests exert an enormous effect on instructional practice, direct and indirect, and it‟s hence our obligation to make tests that are worthy of that kind of attention." 

When supporters of the Common Core criticize teachers for teaching to the test and claim to be surprised or "shocked" when they learn that implementation of the Standards in many schools is focused mostly on tedious test prep, I can't help but recall one of my favorite scenes from the movie Casablanca.

The deliberate choice to measure student proficiency and mastery of the Common Core State Standards using standardized tests should raise serious doubts and concerns regarding the sincerity of the claim that CCSS will improve critical thinking skills.

Critical thinking incorporates diverse cognitive skills and processes including; creativity, self-direction, open-mindedness, imagination, examining a problem from multiple perspectives, reaching original conclusions, and formulating novel solutions.

Regardless of how "new and improved" the next generation computer-based CCSS standardized tests are, there is little evidence to support the claim that they cultivate critical thinking, when these tests reward students who rely entirely on the text to answer multiple choice questions that have one correct answer. 

The lack of classroom teaching experience is apparent among the writers of the Common Core who have wholeheartedly embraced close reading or "reading like a detective" and they have mistakenly conflated training students to think critically about text with cultivating critical thinking skills. 

When students are trained to close read they must "stick to the text" and rely on the text alone to answer questions. They are instructed to refrain from using personal experience or outside information when reflecting on the meaning of the reading or responding to the questions.

This unhealthy discipline of students' thoughts and feelings is the antithesis of cultivating self-directed learners and independent thinkers. Overly regulated and rules-based literacy programs don't expand learning and critical thinking...they constrain it.

( "Book" created by polish cartoonist and satirical illustrator Pawel Kuczynski )

Learning is not done to you,

it is something you choose to do.

~ Seth Godin , “Stop Stealing Dreams”

The rejection of students' thoughts and feelings in responding to a close reading is really not surprising considering David Coleman’s infamous statement at a 4/28/11 Common Core conference in NY:

“As you grow up in this world, you realize people really don’t give a sh#@ about what you feel or what you think.”

This dismissal and disapproval of personal reflections is also apparent in the EngageNY teacher training video; “Preparing for Close Reading with Students” as evidenced by the following exchange with Secretary of Education, John King at 16:40 in the video…

Coleman: He moves to this very philosophical treatise on just and unjust law and what does it mean. And I think for students that’s very exciting cause he, I think the question of whether to follow a law is pretty interesting to them. What rules can they break, what rules can’t they break?

Gerson: And who’s rules are they?

King: But again, that’s one of those challenges right, because kids are gonna want to take that off into a conversation about rules and rule breaking…

Gerson: This uniform is an unjust law

King: Right, right…exactly, exactly. Again I think the discipline that you’re calling for is so important to stick with the text, stick with King’s argument, and try to avoid going too quickly to the easy connections…”

During my 28 years in the classroom I have learned the critical importance of designing learning activities and structuring lessons in ways that are personally relevant to students in order to engage, interest, and motivate them. 

Relevance seems to be the last thing on the minds of the speakers in the video as they are clearly advocating a “discipline” of thought in the classroom denying students the opportunity to make sense of challenging text by drawing upon their own life experiences and understandings.

Ironically, much earlier in the video (1:30) Secretary King is "free" to discuss his perspective and understanding of King's letter by drawing upon parallels between the challenges of the Civil Rights Movement and the “hard work” of implementing the Common Core in our classrooms.

Why should students be denied this same opportunity to “break away” from the text as they make comparisons to personally relevant and timely issues related to a broader and more lively discussion of who and what determines an unjust law such as not being able to wear a hat in school, consequences for opting out of state states, or banning the immigration of all people who practice a particular religion?

The speakers also fail to grasp that students’ thoughts and feelings matter a great deal. Successful teachers at any grade level are genuinely interested in their students’ lives and the classroom is a safe and welcoming environment where each person’s thoughts and feelings are highly valued and respected.

The Common Core is more concerned with rating and comparing students to "ensure" they are college and career ready when it is far more important that our children have opportunities to practice and learn how to be caring and compassion ready.

A healthy classroom culture encourages students to express their thoughts and feelings as they learn how to manage their emotions, not suppress them. 

The classroom should be a vigorous learning environment where emphasis is placed on personal connections and contributions, rather than a rigorous training program that emphasizes procedural compliance.

Trust is an essential ingredient of good teaching and learning will unfold and flourish in the classroom when the teacher takes time to learn about the individual needs and interests of each student. As veteran educator James Comer said, "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship."

Any person who does not respect the thoughts and feelings of other people has no business being a teacher in a classroom or being an architect and writer of national learning standards.

In a close reading Common Core world, the thoughts and feelings of the authors clearly take precedent over thoughts and feelings of students as David Coleman would have students painstakingly deconstruct the craft and structure of Dylan Thomas's work to ponder the writer's thoughts and feelings that influenced his word selection and sentence structure.

I believe many authors would take issue with Coleman's text-centric approach as they would expect teachers to focus an equal or even greater amount of class time on how the powerful ideas and images expressed in their timeless works are meaningful and relevant today, and how they are manifested in the thoughts, feelings, and actions of our students.

This emphasis on close reading and "reading like a detective" is also problematic and troubling considering the "shift" to informational text that is mandated by the Common Core as all students are expected to read much more informational text at every grade level.

Common Core enthusiasts readily admit that "reading like a detective" is a strategy that is only appropriate for literature that is "rich and worthy" of close reading.

To be clear, K-12 literacy instruction should ensure all students will be able to comprehend informational text as adults. For example, it is very important that adults fully understand the meaning and conditions of any lease agreement they enter into.

However, it would be foolish to suggest students will need to rely on close reading skills to compare the "craft and structure" of both a car lease and U Haul lease in order to understand each document.

Imagine these dutiful "detectives" as they ponder and speculate why the penalty for going over allowed mileage was mentioned in the 3rd paragraph of the U Haul contract but in the 4th paragraph of the car lease?

In college and careers students will often face the challenge of answering open-ended questions rather than text-dependent ones and much of the informational text they encounter in school and work will not be “rich and worthy” of close reading.

College students and employees may be required to determine a course of action and come up with a novel solution relying on vague, conflicting, or even incomplete data that is derived from a variety of sources other than text.

Higher learning standards should expect students to apply useful and transferable literacy skills in more challenging, purposeful, and novel ways, instead of applying impractical close reading skills in rigorous, tedious, and test-based ways.

Our students and our nation would be better served by learning standards that cultivate broadly applicable and transferable literacy skills, rather than focusing on a very narrow and specialized set of reading skills suitable for close reading passages on standardized tests.

The Common Core appears to be focused primarily on the testing, sorting, comparing, and rating of students to "ensure" each student is ready for college and careers, when education programs should be focused primarily on student learning to ensure that each child has the opportunity to achieve his or her unique potential.

The nonsensical test-based accountability policies coupled to the Common Core have resulted in growing numbers of experienced teachers leaving the classroom.

Many administrators, faced with increased pressure to improve school ratings, are less enthusiastic in their support of teachers who design nonroutine lessons and novel learning activities that are relevant to students and reward creativity, imagination, open-mindedness, independent thinking and self-directed learning. 

Reminicent of the war room scene from the movie "Dr Strangelove", I can almost hear a data driven and Common Core trained school administrator admonishing his teachers...

"Mrs. Brown, students can't learn in here, this is a classroom!"

Rules-based reading programs and "disciplined" thinking are cornerstones of education programs more focused on training students and measuring student achievement rather than engaging students and maximizing student learning.

According to the Common Core web site a Key Design Consideration of the English Language Arts Standards is...

"A focus on results rather than means" 

When the Common Core Standards are implemented foraccountability and results purposes, they function as a straitjacket to meet the close reading demands and needs of standardized tests.

When the Common Core Standards are implemented for learning purposes they function as a flexible framework to meet the academic, social, emotional, and vocational needs of diverse learners.

In a rigorous and standardized Common Core world, creative and independent thinkers are expendable. in the vibrant and vigorous history of America these imaginative leaders and innovative teachers were exceptional.

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

~ Steve Jobs

  "Creativity is putting your imagination to work, and it's produced the most extraordinary results in human culture."

~ Sir Ken Robinson

"I approached him in a humble spirit: “Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe.”

 And right then and there I got my first surprise. He spat in the middle of the floor and yelled out,

 “Hell! there ain’t no rules around here! We are tryin’ to accomplish somep’n!”

 September, 1932 Harper’s Magazine “Edison in His Laboratory” by Martin André