The Art of Slow Reading: Six TimeHonored Practices for Engagement

Tom Newkirks call to appreciate the value of slow reading is both timely and important, especially in an era where skimming and clickandgo reading have become the norm for our students. Newkirk reminds us that our deepest reading pleasures are often found when we slow down and pay close attention, and this book clearly demonstrates how slow reading deepens the thinking of both teachers and students. A mustread for anyone concerned about the state of readingyou will enjoy reading The Art of Slow Reading slowly. Kelly Gallagher, author of Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About ItThis beautiful and hugely important book overflows with advice and wisdom about readingenjoying it, teaching it. Newkirk reminds us why words matter, that words on page or screen are not there just to be processed, but to savor and enjoy, to help us think and see more clearly, to touch our hearts and help us touch the world. Mike Rose, author of Why School?: Reclaiming Education for All of Us(Read Mike Roses blog)If someone were to ask me who to read, what to read, and how to read it, I would say, without hesitating, they should read Tom Newkirk, read The Art of Slow Reading, and read it slowly, again and again. He is to reading and teaching, literacy and learning what Michael Pollan is to food and eating. Tom Newkirk gives us permission to take our time when we read, to remember why we read, and to take from that reading not just the nutrients and knowledge but the pleasure we sought to cultivate in our studentsand ourselvesin the past. Jim Burke, author of The English Teachers Companion and Whats the Big Idea?This book challenges popular notions of readingthe idea that quick, extractive reading is the goal for students. I argue that traditional acts of slow readingmemorization, performance, annotation, and elaborationare essential for deep, pleasurable, thoughtful reading. Thomas NewkirkThis important book rests on a simple but powerful beliefthat good readers practice the art of paying attention. Building on memoir, research, and many examples of classroom practice, Thomas Newkirk, recuperates six timehonored practices of readingperformance, memorization, centering, problemfinding, reading like a writer, and elaborationto help readers engage in thoughtful, attentive reading.The Art of Slow Reading provides preservice and inservice teachers with concrete practices that for millennia have promoted real depth in reading. It will show how these practices enhance the reading of a variety of texts, from Fantastic Mr. Fox to The Great Gatsby to letters from the IRS.Just as slow reading is essential for real comprehension, it is also clearly crucial to the deep pleasure we take in readingfor the way we savor textsand for the power of reading to change us.Toms Washington Post article: Reading is not a race: The virtues of the slow reading movement