Questions, Sticky Notes & Holding Thinking in "Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?" By Cris Tovani

The reader need not even open the book to discover that asking a question is integral to author Cris Tovani.  The title of her book arrests the reader with one inquiry:  Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?  While I found Tovani’s book to grapple less with this question and more with the query of how to teach reading – the theme of making inquiries remained a constant.  However, I found myself asking my own questions at the conclusion of the book:  Is asking a question sometimes more important than answering it?  What part does the teacher play in answering the question?

I was particularly struck by the role questions played as a means of holding and marking thinking.  One of the many ways that Tovani encourages her students to mark thinking while reading is through the use of sticky notes.  Tovani references the use of sticky notes by one student named Kim:  “As she read, she jotted down ten different places where she demonstrated thinking.  Reading her examples, I can tell that she is asking questions that don’t have simple answers” (83).  Indeed Tovani is right.  The reader is able to view a figure of Kim’s thirteen sticky note responses on the very next page.  While some of Kim’s questions are more straightforward (She asks for a definition of coup de grace) – others are very complex (She ponders the purpose that light and shadow serve in the story).  Tovani acknowledges this:  “Perhaps her group can help her draw some conclusions.  She asks what a coup de grace is.  I can answer that one for her” (83).  Sure enough, Tovani has written a definition of coup de grace upon the sticky note.  But of greater intrigue to me are the sticky notes with complex questions that Tovani does not address.

Tovani does mention Kim might be able to pose some of her more complex questions to her fellow students when they break down into small clusters and complete a group double entry diary.  Tovani goes on further to acknowledge that she will be “sharing the group tool as on overhead” at which time questions the group recorded will be discussed (85).  But what becomes of Kim’s sticky notes that are neither addressed by Tovani nor by Kim’s group of peers?  What becomes of Kim’s complex question regarding the role of light and shadow?  Is it merely enough that Kim asked the question, illustrating that she was engaged in the text and holding her thinking? 

Tovani writes, “The concept of holding and marking thinking is new to a lot of students because they’ve been taught that it’s the teacher’s job to ask the questions, and the student’s job to answer them.  But when I’m trying to learn something new in the real world, I’m the one asking the questions” (68).    This is true.  And in the real world, Tovani would be responsible for seeking out her own answers through whatever means she deems necessary as an adult.   I wonder what responsibility Tovani bears as teacher in the “school world” to address the many student questions as solicited through her sticky note strategy to hold thinking while reading.

 Works Cited

Tovani, Cris. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?: Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12.  Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2004. Print.