Download Reading for Meaning

Reading for meaning
My aim now is to help you to
engage with a story (i.e. ‘getting
stuck in’). I also want you to
practise identifying and
sequencing (putting in the right
order) the main events in a story.
First you will need
to select a book to
read.
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Here are some guidelines :
• Bring a book you haven’t read before.
• Choose carefully: once you start you must stick with
it.
• It will help if it has plenty of characters, dialogue and
action.
• It needs chapters which are not too long. Sometimes
you will need to be able to read one and write about it
in one lesson.
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You will also need to keep a reading log.
Sometimes I will suggest activities for you to
do in this log. However, whether I do or
don’t, you should record your thoughts,
feelings, questions, speculations etc. as you
read each chapter.
The record should reflect your emerging
understanding of the book you are reading.
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Now I want you to think about this.
Is your book written by a character in the
story (the 1st person: “I thought this. I did
that.”)?
Or is it written by a narrator (the 3rd person
“He thought this. She did that.”)?
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As we become more mature in our reading we
begin to judge the characters and the person
telling the story.
As you have just seen, you don’t have to agree
with what a character thinks, feels or does.
You have also seen that narrators don’t have to
agree with everything the characters they are writing
about, feel or think.
Even if they did, that wouldn’t mean that YOU had to.
Not everything in a book is a fact. They are full of
opinions, half-truths, lies, mistakes etc. You must be
prepared for these.
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Stories tell us of events that happen, usually to
people but sometimes to animals. But often they
have a message or something they want to explore
or think about.
We call it the THEME.
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Remember the story of the race between the hare
and the tortoise?
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The hare became over-confident because he thought
he would win easily. So, he kept stopping. In the end,
the tortoise won.
The story has a theme.
What do you think it was?
It is that perseverance can lead to success.
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So, you understand that narrators and characters
are only giving their point of view.
You may agree or disagree.
You understand the difference between fact and opinion.
You know books have themes.
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Believe it or not, sometimes writers don’t mean
what they say.
In fact, they mean the exact opposite of what they
say.
A very crude form of this is called sarcasm.
For example, somebody drops something and
somebody else says, “Oh, that was clever!”
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Irony is the same type of thing but much subtler. It is
often rather funny. You can miss it sometimes.
A really famous example is the opening
line of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
This is what she says:
‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single
man in possession of a good fortune, must be in
want of a wife.’
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She appears to be saying that everybody knows that
any bachelor who has a lot of money MUST be
looking for a woman to marry.
But, as we read the story we learn that these
words are spoken ironically.
They aren’t really Austen’s opinions. She is
paraphrasing the thought processes of a rather silly
woman who has several daughters she would like to
marry off to a rather rich man who is visiting her
neighbourhood!
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You understand that the writer has a point of
view. This may or may not be the same point
of view as the characters s/he is writing
about.
You have seen how books are concerned with
themes, for example love or revenge.
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Let’s look at our example about love again. Writers try to
show different types of love.
Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ shows the love that can
exist between parents and children.
Barry Hines’ ‘Kes’ examines the love that a person can feel
for an animal.
Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ looks at love between
young people.
In ‘Antony and Cleopatra’, Shakespeare looks at love
between two people approaching middle age.
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Plenary
Careful readers do not just sit back and
let the story flow over them. They think
about what they are reading. They make
deductions. They consider the attitudes
expressed by the author and the
characters. They watch out for irony.
They compare how different writers
approach the same themes and subjects.
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