Reading the Word, Reading the World

Reading the Word, Reading the World

“Reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world.” -Paulo Freire

Children are sponges that have been soaking from the moment they are born.  Before they ever begin to speak or decode words on a page, they are learning from the world all around them.  They are watching, listening, analyzing, and mimicking.  Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, famously introduced the concept of reading the word and reading the world when writing about how we as social beings develop our critical consciousness.   At its core, reading is more than just manipulating letters and sounds, but rather the connection between language and how we make sense of the world around us.  

Have you ever read something and thought- “That’s exactly what I’ve been feeling and just didn’t have the words to express it!” That is the magic of reading the word and reading the world!  Books allow us access to better understanding ourselves, each other, and our environments.  This is why the practice of literacy is so fundamental to the work of social change. Literacy teachers are not only teaching the rules of phonics and the appropriate grip of pencils; they are teaching children how to take in new information, digest it, think critically about it, talk about it, and do something meaningful with it. Children not only need to understand and master the building blocks of reading, but they need to feel the connection between the text they see on the page and how it applies to bringing meaning, shape, and color to the world around them.  

Here’s how you can help your readers link text to context:

Mirrors and Windows

In 1982, Rudine Sims Bishop coined this phrase as a metaphor to describe the different kinds of experiences readers can have while reading.  A book that is a mirror gives readers the opportunity to reflect on themselves, their own experiences, their identity markers, and their culture.  For many of us as adults, we didn’t get the chance to see our identities reflected back to us in the stories we read at school or found at the library growing up, and it took us all the way to adulthood to have that experience.    “When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part,” Dr. Bishop reminds us.  If we want kids to read the word and read the world in a meaningful way, we have to give them opportunities to start with themselves.  Books that act as mirrors validate their experiences, help them begin to make text-to-self and text-to-world connections, and give them an entry into building empathy while reading about characters and settings that feel familiar to them. 

Books that act as windows create opportunities for readers to understand others’ experiences.  This is where readers put themselves in other’s shoes, and where they can feel a sense of connection to our collective identity as human beings sharing time and space on this planet.  If readers only have access to books about characters that feel familiar, they will develop an overgrown sense of righteousness in their own identities.  If everything they read is about people that look like them and share their lived experiences, readers can’t make sense of big concepts like inequality, standing up for others, and working together across lines of difference.  Again, Dr. Bishop reminds us, “books may be one of the few places where children who are socially isolated and insulated from the larger world may meet people unlike themselves.”  Books that act as windows give readers access to the world beyond their backyard, and in doing so, help us all grow closer in community with one another. 

Choosing Texts with Intentionality

The first step in supporting your readers with building the connections between reading the word and reading the world is to choose the books you share with intentionality.  Books with animals and creatures as the main character can still share meaningful insights and lessons learned, but they should not be the only books that occupy your shelves.  Readers need to see real people doing real life things while holding all different types of identity markers reflected in the stories they read. For example, all stories about characters with disabilities don’t need to be about them overcoming a great feat- sometimes the story can just be about how a little girl went to the grocery store with her dad who just so happens to be in a wheelchair.  Choosing texts intentionally simply means putting on a critical lens while looking through your tbr pile.  When searching for a new bedtime story, mentor text, read aloud, or library book, consider some of the following:

• • Who are the characters in this book?  What is unique about them?
  • Will this book act as a mirror or window for my particular readers?
  • Are the character’s identity markers being tokenized or just represented as a matter of fact?
  • What values, life lessons, and cultural connections can my readers take away from this text?
  • What might my readers need more context about before or after reading this text?
  • Why am I choosing this text for this particular set of readers?  What am I hoping they will gain from reading this text?

Making Text-Based Connections

There are three main types of connections readers can make as they are reading the word and reading the world: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world.  In text-to-self connections, readers are linking something they read about directly to themselves, their family, and their lived experiences.  “Ohh that’s just like me!” they think, as they get hit with the warm affirmation of seeing themselves reflected in some way.  These connections can help us celebrate our heritage, problem-solve troubles, and deepen our understanding of ourselves.  In text-to-text connections, readers are making connections across different texts- and texts in this case can mean media, articles, infographics, or anything else that they “read” and analyze.  These connections help readers to build their knowledg base and find meaningful links from one source to another.  Text-to-world connections help readers make connections to bigger ideas and happenings the world over.  These connections help readers see patterns of events throughout time and around the globe to better understand why things work they way they do and how people’s choices impact the world around them.  

When reading the word and reading the world, readers are taking what they can off a page and using it as a lens to analyze the world around them, and vice versa.  Making text-based connections is the how of this work.  Once readers are able to make their own connections, they are able to really begin putting the pieces of their own beliefs and values and ideas together.  And from there, the potential for impacting their world in new and remarkable ways is limitless.  

References

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

Shadow and Substance: Afro-American Experience in Contemporary Children’s Literature (NCTE, 1982) by Rudine Sims Bishop

“Mirrors, Windows, Sliding Glass Doors” by Rudine Sims Bishop

https://www.slj.com/story/culturally-diverse-books-selected-by-sljs-review-editors