Lens: The viewpoint(s) through which you read a text(s). You can read a text through the lens of a character, a theme, a question, or a literary device. You can jigsaw several readings through a single lens (for example, each of several small groups reads a different poem with a similar theme).
As English teachers, we tend to want to show students EVERYTHING in a text, especially a text that is rich and full of things to discover and analyze. However, for struggling readers especially, this can be overwhelming and it can result in you explaining what they should be seeing in the text rather than them being able to dig things out for themselves. Reading through lenses shows students the process of deep diving in a text without requiring that they be looking for multiple things at once.
As English teachers, we tend to want to show students EVERYTHING in a text, especially a text that is rich and full of things to discover and analyze. However, for struggling readers especially, this can be overwhelming and it can result in you explaining what they should be seeing in the text rather than them being able to dig things out for themselves. Reading through lenses shows students the process of deep diving in a text without requiring that they be looking for multiple things at once.
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Preparing for Lenses
1. Determine whether students will be reading one text through a variety of lenses, or several texts through a single lens. Decide whether everyone will read the same text(s) or whether it's okay that different groups will come to the final assignment or discussion having read different texts. Either one makes for a rich conversation. In the conversation where students have read different texts, they will get opportunities to verbally "cite" their source and make connections with different texts, whereas in the conversation where everyone has varied interpretations of the same text, students will be able to peel back layers of the same text to gain a richer understanding of it.
2. Determine the logistics of this. Will students stay with the same group throughout? Will they rotate? Will they start individually as they read for surface meaning, then get into pairs to analyze, then get with another partnership to make cross-text connections, etc.? What will the structure of the analysis be? What will the end product be?
3. Determine the lens(es). Will students analyze a section of The Great Gatsby through the lenses of imagery, symbolism, diction, and syntax? Or the same passage through the lenses of fear, hope, greed, and despair? Or will there be 5 different poems, each sharing the theme of the American Dream?
2. Determine the logistics of this. Will students stay with the same group throughout? Will they rotate? Will they start individually as they read for surface meaning, then get into pairs to analyze, then get with another partnership to make cross-text connections, etc.? What will the structure of the analysis be? What will the end product be?
3. Determine the lens(es). Will students analyze a section of The Great Gatsby through the lenses of imagery, symbolism, diction, and syntax? Or the same passage through the lenses of fear, hope, greed, and despair? Or will there be 5 different poems, each sharing the theme of the American Dream?