Thomas C. Leaf
Text Rendering is a technique promoted by the Connecticut Writing Project which essentially is a means to teach students a schema of specific habits and skills for effective reading. The first trick to Text Rendering is getting students to re-read the text without them realizing that they are re-reading. The next major step is get students to take ownership of the text by creating their own questions about the text and then answering them for each other rather than the teacher providing a set of questions and having the students answer them individually. The dynamic of dialogue and dialectic between students is the means through which students really learn these skills because they are generating their own inquiries and answering them for each other.
Here is a brief outline of tasks to accomplish in order to make Text Rendering happen. These tasks are scaffolded from basic tasks to more advanced tasks.
Crucial/Golden Words: Have students read through a
brief
selection of the text and write down a list of what they deem to be the most important words. Make a list of these words on the board for everyone to see.
Crucial/Favorite Lines: Have each student read through the same passage again and pick what they think is either their favorite line or what they think is the most crucial line to understanding the whole passage. Again, these should be written on the board for everyone to see.
“I wonder why…”: Have a student read the passage aloud and then have each student write one to three questions that begin with “I wonder why”. These questions then could be written on the board or butcher block or collected and compiled and used a ready base of open ended questions. Each student should also attach his or her initials to the question so that the respondent can directly address that person. This is very helpful because the questioner can then go back and respond to the answer that he or she received from the respondent.
The question and answer aspect of Text Rendering is where the real learning begins and this is flexible enough to take place in the safety of small group but is also a lot of fun in a large group where students can riff off each other in a meaningful way that directly relates back to the text. The trick to text rendering is practice and safety. The first few times you try this the students will not get it and need a few chances to really practice the techniques and understand the flow in order to feel safe enough to really get into the whole process. It is highly recommended that these practices and skills be modeled an front loaded before the unit is taught and that clear guidelines be spelled out or else you’ll find yourself with a classroom of blank faces staring back at you. In the end, it must be realized and accepted that Text Rendering is a means of kids teaching each other based upon their own inquiry
and
their written responses to those inquires to each other which provide for what amounts to a written conversation. That is what the “I wonder why” questions are very important and should be written down and compiled and students do not necessarily just have respond to the person answering them, they can comment on what another student responded to another student’s question.
For example: John asks the question “I wonder why the First Amendment is so important to some people but not important to others.” Sally reads this question and writes to John: “Because the 1st Amendment allows you to speak your mind and some people treasure the ability to speak up while some people don’t know what it means to think for yourself.” Carl see Sally’s response and adds: “In many other countries the Right to Free Speech is not given to the people and many of those people try to come to this country just so they can have the right to speak freely which reminds me of something Jane wrote to me about my question…” This entire exchange should happen on a piece of paper in a classroom almost as if the students were passing a note amongst each other. It seems odd but truly works and promotes good close reading habits especially for students who are below grade level and this manner of dialogue among students promotes direct reference to the text.
