Deep Reading: Teaching Reading in the Writing Classroom

by Sheridan Blau, Patrick Sullivan (Editor), Howard Tinberg (Editor)

2019 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Outstanding Book Award in the Edited Collection category Arguing that college-level reading must be theorized as foundationally linked to any understanding of college-level writing, editors Patrick Sullivan, Howard Tinberg, and Sheridan Blau continue the conversation begun in What Is “College-Level” Writing? (2006) and What Is “College-Level” Writing? Volume 2: Assignments, Readings, and Student Writing Samples (2010).  Measurements of reading abilities show a decline nationwide among most cohorts of students, so the need for writing teachers to thoughtfully address the subject of reading, especially in grades 6–14, has become increasingly urgent. Curriculum and state standards often reflect an impoverished and reductive understanding of reading that views readers as passive recipients of information, fueling the widespread use of standardized tests to measure proficiency in English literacy, and ignoring decades of reading scholarship that positions readers in more complex relationships with the texts they read.  Contributors to this collection—high school teachers, college students who discuss the challenges they faced as readers and writers, and composition scholars—offer an antidote to this situation. These   The volume concludes with letters written directly to students about the importance of reading, not only in the classroom but also as a richly complex social, cognitive, and affective human activity.

386 pages, Paperback

Published May 30, 2017

Reviews

[Meghan Brannon-Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the essays in this book. So many pages are flagged, not just for good points from the authors, but also with my own marginalia.

My own pedagogy has included reading in my courses for a long time, but the essays here got me to re-examine what I’m doing and why I’m doing it, as well as suggest new approaches to writing in my dual credit classroom. This is definitely worth a read. It prompted me to order another book by Patrick Sullivan (who edited the collection): his “A New Writing Classroom.” I found his essay particularly enlightening and inspiring in this book.

If you teach at the upper secondary or post-secondary level, this is one worth considering. Not only does it have good insights in theory, pedagogy, and research, but often practical suggestions and scaffolds are discussed so readers can imagine how to borrow or incorporate strategies for their own classrooms. Often I find pedagogy books are long on theory and research and short in practical applications. This book has a great balance. It’s given me a lot to think about. I’m glad to have picked it up at NCTE.