In my last "Bookish Nectar" blog, I wrote about what reading levels are important to provide students. In this blog, I want to write about a topic that is probably simpler, really, but it's also a topic that I think is most important to demystify and this is the importance of rereading. We should read everything through more than once.
It's a funny hang up. I have even heard an adult say, "I just was told that I should read a book a second time. It never occurred to me to repeat read a book." I stayed silent in the group I was in, but I was also a little shocked. In everything else that we are learning, we know that we should repeat the process to learn it. For example, in math, when a student is learning, say multiplication or long division, we have them repeat the process in a few different problems to get the skill committed to memory, almost create a muscle memorization of the steps. We certainly hear discussion of repetition and muscle memory in all sports. If anyone plays a musical instrument, they not only practice skills like scales, but if that person is performing a piece, they would certainly practice that very piece multiple times. In fact, in music "sight reading," playing a piece on first sight, has its own name because it's an entirely different skill.
We seem to expect that our brain would commit to memory, grasp full themes on our first, let's say "sight reading," of a book. In the extremely rushed and crunched for time schedule of a public school, I know I barely had time to get students through a book. I remember reading entire novels aloud to some of my students just so that I knew they at least heard a text and heard my analysis of a passage. The idea of reading through a second time with students would probably make some public school teachers snort in exasperation -- it's just not possible!
Rereading is also necessary for improving fluency and accuracy while reading. My daughter's curriculum had her read one simple little poem three times in a row for the very goal of teaching her that if she would reread the little poem, she would read it better and faster each time.
This task of rereading I would not suggest for every single thing you ever read. I would reserve "rereading" for those important texts. Who determines what is important? You. I'm not going to sit here and play literary judge.
I had one of my most favorite Victorian literature professors recommend that we should reread a favorite book every ten years. Why? His point was not comprehension as I've discussed. His point was that I'm a different person in ten years, and my experience with the book will be totally different in ten years. This is especially fun when we think of rereading our favorite texts. Imagine rereading your high school favorite novel in your 30s. I've found that there are whole characters that I once sympathized with that I feel are bit out of bounds in my 30s. One silly example is actually a movie, Dirty Dancing. I read a hilarious meme where a 30 something year old said, "somebody absolutely should have put Baby in a corner!" It makes me laugh, but it's also the point. We grow and change, and our perspective of a text will certainly grow and change, too.
I've been working on a list of novels that I would deem, for me personally, worthy of a reread.
Here is what I have on my docket to "reread" that was a favorite of mine 10 years ago. Former students may recognize some of these titles:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Fahrenheit 451
Pride and Prejudice
The Secret Garden
Emma
Paradise Lost (admittedly, I've read this one a few times in less than 10 years, but it's still on this list.)
Emily Dickinson poetry collection
Shakespeare -- I'm wanting to reread the history plays. It's been more than 10 years since my beloved undergraduate Shakespeare course
Alice in Wonderland & Through the Lookingglass
The Chronicles of Narnia
Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Edith Hamilton's Mythology which I haven't read since the summer of 9th grade Pre-AP English
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