Teaching Strategies
Three-Read Close Reading
Under the influence of smartphones and social media, many high school students have difficulty sustaining attention on a text long enough to contemplate its full meaning and weight. Images are powerful, but they are often not exceptions to this problem. This reading strategy uses ekphrasis (detailed description of visual art) and close reading techniques to encourage close reading that digs below the surface. You can apply this strategy to any image and then modify it for close reading of literature. Explain the process to students by telling students what they should be looking for and asking in each reading of a text. The first read should focus on concrete observations and surface-level meanings of the text. What is happening in this text? What do I see? What images are prominent? What is the setting? What colors are dominant? are all questions students might answer in a first read. In summary, the goal of the first read is to identify, literally, what the text says or what it is “about.” The second read should push towards meaning and themes. Push students’ observations and thinking to answer these questions: What does the text/image mean? What are the big ideas or questions this image is trying to convey? In the third read, students should consider the connection between form and meaning by considering the question, How is it said, and why? In this reading, students should return to their initial observations about the text and consider how the creator’s specific choices and techniques, such as color, size, shading, facial expression, diction, figurative language, symbolism, etc., create the intended effect and message. When leading students in this process, make sure they realize that the process is not necessarily linear. For example, students might jump back and forth between the second and third stages of reading, commenting on the effect of a particular image and then expressing a message the overall text conveys. Or realizing a certain theme might prompt students to notice additional details that they did not observe in their initial first reading.
When first introducing this process to students, a way to help them distinguish the stages of the process is to allow them to view the image for a set amount of time (30 seconds, for example) for each reading. Tell students they will have thirty seconds to observe as much as they can for the first read. Show them the image, and then give them some time to record their observations in their notebooks before discussing; challenge them to record at least ten observations. (See the Harvard Project Zero thinking routine “Looking: Ten Times Two” for more instructions on this part41.) Then, after discussing their first read, show them the image again for their second read. Take the image away and discuss their second read. Repeat for the third read. This method will also help them increase their stamina in studying an image.
Three-Column Analysis Template
When students are examining art without direct teacher guidance—in collaborative groups or independently, use the Three-Column Art Analysis Template to help them work through the reading process. The template consists of three columns, one for each part of the three-read process: First Read – literal observations and thoughts on what the work is about; Second Read – comments on the themes and big ideas the work is communicating or exploring; Third Read – connections between the creator’s technical choices and intended effect and meaning. Encourage students not to be too concerned about placing their notes in the “correct” column. They can always draw arrows or color-code their notes in a way that makes sense for them. The idea of the template is to guide their thinking through the close reading process. Before they move away from a text, though, the goal is to have content in each column, even if the content consists of a question about what the creator might be trying to say. Students should also apply this note-taking process to their reading of Gem of the Ocean.
Illustrated Literature Annotations
As students read Gem of the Ocean, encourage them to reflect the three-read close reading process by taking three-column analysis notes on each scene of the play. If students have copies of the text they are permitted to write in, they may reflect the three-read process by color-coding their annotations and margin notes to reflect comments on each part of the process. In addition to their notes, students should add a visual or art connection to their notes on each scene. This connection could be an original sketch inspired by a quote or moment in the scene or a reflection on how an aspect of the scene connects to a work of visual art—one already studied with the class or a different piece that the student is familiar with. Students should briefly explain how their image connects to the themes, characterization, symbolism, or imagery of Gem or the Ocean.
Best Representation Awards
As students read the play, there are several opportunities in which they will view images that present different representations of characters or events, such as Aunt Ester, Black Mary, or the journey to the City of Bones. Encourage them to make connections between the images and the text and to evaluate the intentions and techniques of each by selecting which image is the best representation of a particular moment or character. Students should justify their selection with a paragraph that analyzes evidence from both the text and their image selection to prove their argument.
Creative Ekphrasis Writing with Gem Quotes
A more creative way to allow students to represent the connections they see between the artwork and Gem of the Ocean is for them to write an ekphrasis poem or paragraph. Ekphrasis writing is poetry or prose written about or inspired by a work of visual art. Literary examples include August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, inspired by Romare Bearden’s painting by the same title, and Anne Sexton’s “The Starry Night,” inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting. Push students to creatively express the connections they see between a work of art and Gem of the Ocean by requiring them to blend quotations from the play into their ekphrastic writing.
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