Developing Critical Thinking Skills and Analyzing Texts – Start Young

It is important to teach our kids to be thoughtful about the information and stories they read. Each time you read something you bring your personal experiences, thoughts, and beliefs to understand the text. This can make your reading experience very different from someone else. Read on to hear about one of our recent experiences and ways you can help your child develop as a thoughtful reader.

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My children and I were in the bookstore recently browsing for some new reads when we came across a huge display advertising a book that I had seen recommended numerous times by several literacy-focused Instagram accounts. My daughter and I picked up the book and decided to read it before purchasing it. I am so glad that we did.

As we read the first part of the book, I thought there was great potential for a fantastic lesson (something else I had read all over Instagram). When we got to the end, I was surprised. The ending left me sad and confused. As I read the book to my daughter my heart hurt for the message I hoped she wasn’t receiving. Every time we read something, we bring our personal experiences, our beliefs, and our thoughts to the text.

While many people read this book and got a sense of empowerment from the message they read, we looked at it in a completely different light. See my daughter was recently in a really challenging situation that made her sad, angry, and withdrawn. My husband and I watched our usually outgoing and confident daughter display behaviors that were not her norm and we watched her become withdrawn and extremely cautious. We removed her from the situation and now she is thriving in that she has regained her confidence and understands what it means to be a friend and to respect others and their differences. This book did not give her (or me) the message of acceptance and empowerment. Instead, our reading of the same book gave us the message that no matter how bad your situation is, suck it up and accept it.

When I closed the book, I looked at her and asked her how she was feeling about it. She looked at me sheepishly as if she wasn’t sure how she should feel. Recognizing that she might be worried about sharing her dislike, I offered her another chance to share her thoughts by saying “That didn’t end how I thought it would. What are you thinking?” She sighed with relief and said, “Yeah, I didn’t really like the ending.” I reminded her that we can disagree with the author and we could think about how we would do it differently. Together, we went back into the text looking at the pictures and the word choice and thought about how we would write it differently. We talked about how we thought the book should end and why we thought our ending was a better message of acceptance and respect for others. This exercise helped her think critically about the book and analyze the message that the author was presenting. These reading skills are so important for readers, especially this day and age when there is so much information easily available. Children need to be able to think critically as consumers of information.

This experience was also a huge reminder that we all bring something different to the reading of a book. Every time we read, we bring who we are, what we believe, and what we know to the reading. We can all interpret a book in really different ways which is amazing and contributes to the beauty of books. Noted literacy researcher, Louise Rosenblatt is most well-known for stating that a reader is active, drawing on a reservoir of past experiences to interpret the marks on a page (the printed words). I hope to always honor different interpretations and perspectives. I also want to encourage my children to recognize the experiences, knowledge, and perspectives they bring to each text they read.

We did not purchase this book and I will never recommend it. While I don’t think the author intended to say bullying was okay, that is exactly how we read it. Even though, I did not like this book, I love that it gave us a chance to think about what we bring to a book as the reader and how we can closely examine and analyze a book. I hope that the conversation my daughter and I had about this book and the process that we went through to “rewrite” a different version will help her become a more sophisticated reader and writer.

In addition to having conversations with your child, here are a few ways you can help your child understand that there can be multiple perspectives on a topic:

My favorite strategy is comparing several texts on the same topic with different view points. It may be helpful to start out with texts that have very clear differences and then move to comparing texts with subtle differences.

For example, I like comparing the way lions are portrayed in Deadliest Animals by Melissa Stewart versus how they are portrayed in Face to Face with Lions by Dereck and Beverly Joubert.

My kids love that variety of versions of the Three Little Pigs. Reading many versions has helped my kids think about different perspectives. Some of our favorites (you can click on each book image to learn more and/or order):

Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne is a beautifully written and illustrated book that shows how several characters view the same event. This is a fascinating read that encourages children to think about how different characters may interpret events differently.

As you read the book, you can help your child notice:

– the kinds of images that are used

– the words used to describe the topic

– the title, subtitle and headings (as applicable)

You can ask your child questions like:

What’s the perspective on the topic in this book?
What’s different about the ideas the author is presenting in each book?
Which idea do you think is more logical, persuasive, or compelling?
Which idea can you back up with the most detail?

Another option:

Help your child determine whether their main idea about the text is most important to them, to the author, or both.What your child thinks is the most important idea and what the author thinks is the most important idea may not always be the same.

In order to help your child identify the author’s message, you can ask them to do the following:

Write down what they think is most important
Then, write down what they think the author thinks is the most important idea.
Look back at the text to see which of those is supported by more of the details from the text.