The Tell Me Framework

In this course we are asking you to stretch your ideas of what it means to read. What passes for reading pedagogy in this age of "No Child Left Behind" is that the best readers are readers who can read a text quickly, accurately, and only once, and be able to recall the basic points of the story. We are going to challenge that notion of reading in this course. Our ultimate goal for readers of children's literature is for children (and you) to discover that reading isn't always fast and it isn't always accurate, and that readers often don't know exactly what is going on in their stories. We especially want them (and you) to discover that reading something two, three, or more times can bring its own pleasure. And, this is the key point, if we want children to learn to read more richly and deeply, we adults must become deeper and richer readers, because the ways that children learn to interpret are taken from adults and other older readers. This isn't about getting the meaning "right" or imposing our ideas on children. It's about readers, young and old, telling the stories of their reading. This brings us to Tell Me.

The Tell Me framework is deceptively simple. It hangs on what Chambers calls "the three sharings," enthusiasms, puzzles, and patterns. Here is what he means by them.

Enthusiasms

We want children to tell us what they liked about a story. We all hope that children will find delight in their reading. When they do, we ask them to tell us. We hope that their enthusiasm will be contagious to other children. Most of us have asked a child if they liked a book and what they liked about it, that's very commonplace. What isn't asked very often is what, if anything, a reader didn't like about a book. Asking what a reader disliked about a book is potentially far more powerful than asking what a reader liked. First, readers need to know that it is acceptable not to like a book or not to like something about a book. There is no book that is loved by everyone and there is no one who loves every book. Second, it is often those things about a book that we don't like that make for interesting discussion. So, even if you don't like a book, it can still be worthwhile to finish it and discuss it. Third, when readers can tell you what they don't like, often you learn something about how that reader reads. A commonly heard dislike is: "I didn't understand it." A little probing can reveal that a reader has encountered a textual feature such as a flashback for the first time. Fantasy and science fiction stories can throw some readers who have difficulty imagining something that does not exist in reality. Because "What did you dislike?" is such a powerful question, we can break the sharing of enthusiasms into two parts, likes and dislikes.

Puzzles

Equally powerful is asking readers if there is anything about the book that confused them, that they didn't understand, or were puzzled by. Generally, in school the "good" readers always know what's going on; it's only the "poor" readers who are confused. But all readers become confused from time to time and that's okay. In fact, often in stories it is that which puzzles us that is most compelling. What we don't know can make for interesting conversation. So questions such as, "Was there anything that didn't make sense to you?" "Was there anything that seemed wrong or out-of-place?" "Were there questions you had that the story didn't answer?" can provoke a lot of rich discussion.

Patterns

Patterns and other connections are another rich area to probe with other readers. Are there recurring elements within the story? Does the story remind you of other stories? Does the story bring up issues or connect to questions you might have brought into the book? Now we are at the heart of reading literature, connecting what you read with what you've already encountered either in that story itself or in other stories you have read or even life experiences.