What Does It Really Mean to Read a Text?
When I think about reading, I (and everyone else, I'm pretty sure) usually think about words on a page. Maybe a textbook, an article, a novel, or even a test problem. But that definition of reading is actually limited. We are constantly reading things that are not necessarily made up of traditional sentences and paragraphs. We read images, graphs, facial expressions, sounds, gestures, symbols, and even the way information is organized.
Hair Love is an interesting example of this because so much of the story is communicated without explicitly telling the viewer what to think. The short film follows a father learning to do his daughter's hair, but we understand much more about the storyline through the different ways the film communicates that information, like the examples I gave earlier.
So what really counts as text? If we can "read" a video, what else can we read?
The Buehl reading made it clear that different disciplines have different ways of communicating knowledge. We cannot necessarily approach every text in exactly the same way because the conventions and structures change depending on the discipline. A science text might rely heavily on diagrams, explanations, data, and cause-and-effect relationships. A social studies text might require us to interpret primary sources, timelines, maps, and competing perspectives. A literary text might ask us to pay attention to characterization, symbolism, point of view, and narrative structure. As for my field of study, math has its own way, like equations, graphs, tables, symbols, and different vocabulary. So when the topic of students becoming better readers gets brought up, we have to ask: Better readers of what????
Hair Love uses so many modes of presentation at the same time. There are visual images, animation, music, sound effects, dialogue, facial expressions, movement, setting, and sequencing. None of these modes exists completely on its own. They work together to create a meaningful film.
Thinking about reading this way honestly changes how I think about literacy in the classroom. If students are constantly being asked to make sense of information in different forms, then teaching reading cannot be separated from teaching them how to interpret those forms. Reading changes depending on what we are trying to understand, and recognizing that difference can help us give students more meaningful ways to engage with what they are learning.
I loved that you mentioned the point about Hair Love using multiple modes working together to tell its story. It relates to the fact that each discipline has its own way of communicating meaning, but I think it’s important for students to understand that each discipline is also connected. In a math word problem, you have to understand context, and make sense of what’s being asked, these are skills that are needed with reading in science, social studies, or English. I don’t want students to feel like each subject exists as its own separate thing, because math shows up in science, history shows up in math, and art shows up in social studies. As teachers, we’re learning about how each discipline has its own way of “reading”, but I think it’s also important that we share this understanding with students. When students struggle to read a math problem, they might think they’re the issue, which can lead to comments like “math just isn’t my thing.” Helping them see that different subjects require different kinds of reading can reduce that frustration and build confidence. Basically, my point is that different disciplines have similarities and differences with other disciplines when it comes to “reading”, and I think students should have that understanding.
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