In the Age of Analytic Reading: Understanding Readers’ Engagement with Text by Colleen Pennell

Fluidity of the Text

A second element that was central to the intervention was the positioning of the text. Unlike the method of close reading where meaning is discovered by the reader within the four corners of the text, our process of philosophical inquiry assumed no intrinsic meaning to the text. In this regard, the text was considered fluid, not fixed, due to the various lenses and socially informed practices that readers used to transact with it. Contrast this with the CCSS, where the text is context free and positioned in a fixed state with the intent to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge (Coleman and Pimentel, 2011). However, in philosophical inquiry the text is socially situated and positioned dialogically (Bakhtin, 1986) with the intent to facilitate the co-construction of meaning. Thus, the text’s importance lay in its ability to serve as a conduit for philosophical interpretation.

For example, consider the book Little Blue and Little Yellow (Lionni, 1959), where two best friends (illustrated simply as circular splotches of yellow and blue paint) temporarily merge to become a new color, green. A CCSS text-based question might ask “How did Little Blue and Little Yellow become green?” But in a philosophical discussion the inquiry shifts as readers consider the deeper notion of what it means to be. If Little Blue and Little Yellow have now merged, have their essential qualities of being also changed? In the following vignette, students began to grapple with this question:

TEACHER

So, is Little Yellow still Little Yellow or is he someone new now?

JACOB

Still Little Yellow.

LUCAS

Um, someone new.

SEAN

Someone new because he’s different colors.

TEACHER

Talk into it. You’re seeing things differently. You’re saying he’s someone new, you’re saying he’s still the same.

MICHAEL

Cuz he has the same name.

SEAN

And he does the same stuff. He’s the same but the color, he just looks different. He’s the same still.

So here students began to explore the deeper meaning of self by considering what essential elements define someone (their name, their physical color, their actions). The answer didn’t lie fixed within the text but rather the text was base camp for interpretation; the launch for philosophical exploration of characters’ actions, traits, and sense of being:

TEACHER

They’re the same but a different color?

JACOB

Yeah. Everything that is… yes. It’s the same but different color.

MICHAEL

The same doesn’t mean you change color.

SEAN

Same means what you do on actions.

So, as the discussion evolved, Sean described the essential quality of action as a defining characteristic of being. Interestingly, as the discussion continues below, students turned to reflect on the “sameness” of identical twins Jacob and Sean which propelled an examination of their being as brothers: