The Joy of Text?

I'm working with a couple students on SAT Critical Reading. Some are native English speakers. Some aren't. They all generally do better in science and math, though some are quite accomplished in the humanities.

But all of them -- all of them -- struggle with critical reading passages from the 19th century.

It's not just the diction -- though that, I'm sure contributes. The meanings of certain words have evolved a bit, and at least, have taken on different primary meanings in conversational English. And yet, it's a minor reason -- the SAT, by its nature, includes words that students may or may not know, and an entire class of reading passages questions requires students to determine the meaning of a phrase or word in context.

It's not just subject matter. Yes the passages are narrative and often divorced from the social, cultural, and racial reality of my students. But so are, say, the philosophical passages, or passages focused on a particular minority group. Some of the students struggle on these as well, though to a lesser extent.

I've decided that the primary challenge is due to the fact that these passages are heavy on dialogue.

I've reviwed nearly a score of official SAT tests of the current variety. And it appears that more modern narrative reading passages are characterized by omniscient narrators, detailed prose descriptions, and a boatload of adjectives.

The older passages, on the other hand, consist almost entirely of dialogue.

That got me thinking: why should that make it harder for students? Isn't this generation infamous for communicating via text messages? And although behavioral psychology suggests this leads to a loss of over 90% of the information provided by nonverbal (or at least non-linguistic) cues from direct, personal communication, haven't they adapted by becoming closer readers of dialogue?

But it's not an issue specific to millennials. I have trouble with these passages. Older SAT tutors I know -- people who don't text at all -- have similar issues.

Maybe then it has to do with a phenomenon that spans a couple generations.

Round up the usual suspects!

1. Television

Television is a favorite whipping boy. But it might be at least slightly responsible. Why? Well, it provides the viewer with abundant visual cues, which a block of text doesn't supply. So although a screenplay may need explicit directions for the actor, the gap between the naked dialogue and the viewer's brain is filled with a raft of nonverbal cues supplied by the directed actor.

We don't read dialogue. We watch it.

2. The decline of plays in classroom instruction

I read a lot of Shakespeare in the classroom. Although one of my more perceptive English teachers told us (correctly) that Shakespeare wasn't meant to be read silently, we often did. And yes, the dialogue was often witty, and monologues and chorus provide at least some narration and background. But it's hard, unless one already knows the general plot, to understand what a given piece of dialogue means.

In order to interpret the dialogue, you need to understand the plot. But in order to understand the plot, you have to know how to interpret the dialogue. It can be done, in an iterative process. But who has time for multiple re-readings, especially on a standardized test?

3. The decline of poetry.

We don't read poetry. There are lots of reasons. I loved poetry, but realized it was making me overly pretentious. Some hate its indirectness and subtlety (the very things that others, including myself, love it for).

But what it does do -- at least when done well -- is force us to appreciate the subtleties of language. It demands, upfront, vocabulary, and historical sensitivity to connotation. Narrative prose does this too, though the lower restrictions on structure often lead even great authors to be a bit lazy and less economical with words. Clarity, not brevity, is often the emphasis, which lowers the barriers to comprehension.

In other words, the very inaccessibility of poetry makes it better training for tests that seek to differentiate students based on reading comprehension ability.

I don't know if any of these are true. It's possible that culutral context matters way more --  I find it boring to read about the upper-middle class Victorian lives of Jane Austen's characters. But it's something that I'm mulling over, especially as it is currently a roadblock for some of my students -- a block I have to figure out how to move quickly.

SAT Critical Reading Guidelines - in progress

Note: this is a draft, and will be updated. But as I know some people are taking the test in a couple days, this might be a helpful last-minute refresher.


SAT Critical Reading Guidelines
By Ryan Yamada

General Critical Reading test-taking strategies:

1. Take Notes.

You might want to consider taking notes as you read a passage. It might help clarify the main idea, secondary ideas, tone, type of passage, and narrator perspective (omniscient, objective, subjective). In addition to reducing the load on your short-term memory, it may help you think more critically and actively engage with the passage.

2. Use Cross-Consistency (carefully).

Occasionally, you have enough similar questions in a problem that you can check for cross-consistency. As mentioned, this is potentially very dangerous and can backfire. Still, if you're reasonably sure on two questions and struggle with a third, you might be able to help clarify the answer to the third.

3. Use line references.

By identifying the line references before you read, you may improve your focus. Be advised, however, that you should start focusing somewhat before the line reference starts.

4. Depend only upon what is written.

Leave outside knowledge, your emotional response, and your moral judgment at the door. They will not help you with the passage. Everything you need is written, and excessive internal commentary as you read can cloud your judgment and cause you to miss key bits of information/language.

Main Idea Questions:

1. Read the introduction to the passage.

Sometimes this gives a major clue as to the main idea.

2. Read the first paragraph or two carefully.

The main idea will definitely appear in the first 1-2 paragraphs. The first paragraph might be introductory, which can lead to a confusing impression of what the main idea is. It’s better to continue reading carefully through the second, just to be sure.

3. Take notes for each paragraph.

This is a general tool, but it does help with the main idea. As you read the passage, your notes will indicate the content of each paragraph. Find the common thread, and you have the main idea.


Secondary Idea Questions:

1. Use the main idea as a partial guide, but do so carefully.

The secondary idea will be connected with the main idea. But it won’t be the same as the main idea. In fact, the secondary idea might make a point seemingly opposed to the main idea (especially for an informative essay discussing two sides to an issue). Even so, the main idea might give you a clue as to whether or not you’re on the right track.

2. Don’t confuse main idea and secondary idea questions.

Main idea questions cover the entire passage. Secondary ideas cover a specific paragraph or line references (usually a few lines long). The secondary idea has to address the specific reference/paragraph, regardless of what the broader passage is saying.

If this sounds similar to (1), that’s because it is, But it’s doubly important.

3. Pay attention to all the sentences in a paragraph.

Sometimes, you will be given two plausible answers. The better answer will often hinge upon a single sentence or phrase. It helps not to project your own emotion, experiences or motivations into the answer – everything you need will be there, in the paragraph.


Vocabulary or phrase in context:

1. Break apart the sentence.

Pay careful attention to conjunctions and conjunction-like phrases like “…, as is” (which indicates that the information following  is distinct from the material preceding it). This gives you a clue as to the structure of the sentence, and therefore a clue as to whether the word or phrase in context applies to the entire sentence or just a part.

2. The correct answer is usually a secondary definition.

It makes little sense to create a context question for which the correct answer is the obvious definition. Usually, it’s a secondary definition. Occasionally, the word is being used as a metaphor for something else.

3. Read the lines preceding the reference.

Sometimes you will be given the phrase or word in the problem statement, which makes it look like you don’t have to go back and read it in the actual passage. BIG MISTAKE! You need to go back, and read prior to the line reference. Depending on time, start from either the beginning of the paragraph or at least 1-2 sentences before the reference. Sometimes, the definition will be given to you in the preceding lines.

4. Use roots.

Although 1-3 should get you the answer, you can use roots if you have no idea what a word means. As with sentence completion, sometimes roots can help you distill the meaning of a word in context. But this probably won’t help much, as the word is probably being used with a secondary definition in mind.

Inference Questions:

1. Read like a third-grader.

If the inference cites a specific line, then read that line like a third-grader, paying close attention to subtleties of language (usually simple words).

2. Use only what is in the passage.

Make certain that you are not projecting your own feelings/background/knowledge into a passage/inference question. You have everything you need on the page.

3. Distinguish between author’s intent and any characters in the passage.

Similarly, It is particularly important for certain inference problems (and other problem types) to distinguish between what the character is feeling/thinking and what the author is thinking/feeling. Some answers that seem plausible actually confuse the two. 

4. Tone and main idea can help.

If you understand the main idea and tone, then it might help you with an inference question. That’s because main idea and tone give you a sense of the author’s intent, and therefore what devices/points the author might be trying to make, albeit indirectly.


Passage Comparison:

1. Treat this initially as two single passage sections.

Read passage 1, then do passage 1 questions. Do the same for passage 2 and its questions. Then answer the comparison questions. The reasons are obvious: this way, you don’t get the information from one passage confused with the other for questions specific to a single passage.

2. Take notes as you read.

You should be doing this for the longer single passages anyway. But this becomes doubly important for double passage problems. Your notes will help you quickly identify information that you might need, and in the correct passage, that would otherwise take a complete re-reading to discover.

3. Pay careful attention to the degree implied by verbs and adjectives when comparing passages.

Problems that have possible answer choices like “Passage 1… while Passage 2…” are potentially quite challenging. Often, the answer has to do with the degree to which it applies. There’s a difference between “cites” and “focuses”, and so pay careful attention. (In some wrong answers, the threshold is just too high.)

4. The entire answer has to be correct.

This is true for all questions. But it applies in particular to passage comparison. You can eliminate incorrect answers by realizing that they are making an incorrect statement for passage 1. Then eliminate more by eliminating those that incorrectly characterize passage 2. If you’re lucky, you’ll be left with one correct answer. If not, then use what you know about each passage to choose the best answer.

Tone Questions:

1. Tone is generally consistent with passage type and main idea.

Informative = objective, interested, appreciative (neutral to moderately positive/negative)
Argumentative = subjective, passionate, wry (stronger emotions)
Narrative = can be anything, pretty much.

2. Make sure you distinguish between author’s tone and a character’s emotions.

The characters could be undergoing intense emotions. But the author may choose to convey that in a very objective tone. Make certain you don’t conflate the two. Also, obviously, make sure you don’t project your own emotional response into the tone of the article.

Structure Questions:

1. Similarity questions

There are questions that ask for an example that “resembles” or “is most similar to” a cited example. These problems can be tricky, because they require you to (1) understand the reference, (2) understand the key relationships/properties of the reference, and (3) determine the answer choice that possesses all of the key relationships/properties in the original reference. Usually there will be two properties to identify.

Here’s how you solve these.

(a) Break apart the original reference into parts (probably two).

(b) Identify the relationships or key ideas in the parts.

(c) Check each answer choice and see if it conforms to both parts.

In some ways, this is like a double-blank sentence completion problem, except that you’re after the concepts and relationships embedded in the line reference. In some ways, this is the spiritual descendent of the “analogy” questions that plagued SAT students until sometime around 2005.

2. Identifying the purpose of a specific device

You should know about rhetorical devices: comparison, exaggeration, contrast, examples, etc. Each of these can be used to strengthen or develop an argument, analysis, or a narrative.

To solve these, you need to understand the connection between the line reference and the surrounding text (and, sometimes, the overall passage). This means figuring out why the author uses a specific piece of language.

Remember: why, not what. Do not confuse what is literally being said with its purpose.

3. Additional information that would strengthen an argument

To solve these questions, you need to make certain that you understand what the argument is. There should be only one answer choice that works. You can disregard the others because they will not relate to the specific argument being made in a paragraph, or because the form of the evidence is wrong. What do I mean by form? If the article is an informative scientific article, an opinion piece will not effectively support the argument.