Spirit Reading

Confederated Salish and Kootenai College education professor Tammy Elser recently introduced me to a reading strategy that she called Spirit Reading. (She credits Mary Jo Swartly, an extraordinary teacher and educational consultant, for introducing the technique to her, which she says has been published and used by many notable educators.) 

Spirit Reading has nothing to do with ghosts and everything to do with honing in on the spirit of a piece of writing. Here's how it works:

1. Give students a document about a page long. Have them read it to themselves silently.
2. Then, give them a focus question/something to look for and have them read it through a second time, highlighting three to four key words or phrases.
3. Arrange chairs in a circle, and have students take turns reading their phrases in random order. Students should just chime in whenever there's a space. It's okay if students have chosen the same words or phrases (the repetition is part of what gives this activity its spirit.)
4. After everyone has read all of his or her words and phrases, compliment your students: Tell them that what they created was like a poem, bringing out the essence of the piece.
5. Then have students write for two minutes about how the exercise changed their experience with, or understanding of, the document.
6. Finally, discuss the document, reflecting on new understandings you've gained about the piece of writing.

Tammy has done this with the Fort Laramie Treaty (the focus question was "What did the Indians get?") and Thurgood Marshall's decision in Brown v Board of Education, which overturned "separate but equal" in education. 

We talked about using the strategy with an excerpt of an Indian boarding school narrative, with "what are the author's emotions" as the focus question. We also talked about using it with this 1921 letter from Shelby attorney to Governor Joseph M. Dixon describing the plight of drought-stricken farmers in his community with the focus question being "what's the problem and what's the solution?" (Tammy suggested that students could be given two different color highlighters, one for words and phrases relating to the problem and the other for words and phrases relating to the solution and, during the read, the teacher could ask students to alternate reading words/phrases relating to the problem and words/phrases relating to the solution.) 

Tammy notes: the key piece of this technique "is repeated reading for unique purposes of a complex text and the social construction of knowledge created by hearing the impressions of others.  There are dozens of ways teachers can vary this activity."

If you try this in your class, especially with a text relating to Montana history, drop me a line. I'd love to hear how it went. 

P.S. I've summarized some of the other strategies Tammy introduced me to in Struggling Readers and Informational Text so there's more for those who want it.

P.P.S. I'm still looking for 4-6 grade teachers to test Montana and the Twentieth Century, which integrates ELA and uses several Tammy Elser-approved strategies to teach about homesteading, boarding schools, allotment, post-1920 immigration to Montana and the 1972 Montana State Constitution. Interested? Email me!