Reading Growth: Reading Creatively (1968)

[Music] here are two readers they look very much alike [Music] this one's a good [Music] reader but this one's a better reader even though this reader is skilled in understanding word meanings and in getting the big ideas as well as in adjusting his reading speeds he's not as good a reader as this reader then why is this reader the better reader of the two the answer of course is in the title of our film reading growth reading creatively what this means is that this reader uses his reading skills in a special way he's a creative reader this reader isn't of course what you want to find out now is what's the difference between a good reader and a creative reader it's a small but very important difference let's begin with a very simple example say the boys are reading something about Benjamin Franklin and learning many facts such as this one he invented bifocal glasses now our good reader will simply add this information to his collection of other facts and ideas about Franklin but before our creative reader stores this fact away way he does a very important thing he questions the fact you see he reacts critically to what he reads invented he might ask himself he knows from other reading he's done that people in China were wearing glasses when Marco Polo visited there in the late 1200s he knows that glasses were very common in European cities in the late Middle Ages so instead of the word invented he might think to himself shouldn't the writer have used perfected for as he remembers from still other reading he's done the W brothers who are often said to have invented the airplane really only perfected it and Marone who is often thought of as having invented the wireless Telegraph or radio as we call it really only perfected it so after temporarily questioning this fact the creative reader takes another important step he checks the fact in a reference book in this case he learns from an encyclopedia that what he had read was apparently correct bifocal glasses were indeed invented by Benjamin Franklin perhaps now you can see that for one thing a creative reader is a critical questioning reader who checks the important ideas he is reading Franklin and the bifocals were just one example now let's see a creative reader at work in other ways we'll start with a reading assignment the general subject is the American Revolution [Applause] both our readers have been learning a great number of facts and ideas about the war for independence as you would expect Give me liberty or give me death the British are coming the British are coming here once the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world when in the course of human events it becomes [Music] [Applause] [Music] necessary so both readers learn facts the good reader simply remembers them the creative reader uses them how well to grow as a person for instance but first you have to know that our creative reader's mother is making something new for dinner tonight she believes in Creative eating our creative reader doesn't usually like to try new foods now part of your growth is a person has to do with your attitude toward things that are new and I know you're wondering what a new food has to do with creative reading and the American war for independence well our creative reader has just read about the song Yankee Doodle he's learned that the British wrote new words to an old tune to make fun of the Americans here's one verse Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a pony stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni you see the Americans didn't look much like soldiers to the British they looked different they didn't have the neat uniforms in the soldierly discipline of the British so the British didn't think the Americans would be very good soldiers but the British learned to their regret that things that are different from what you're used to may be better than you expect the Americans were very good in battle even though they did seem to be only Yankee Doodle dandies to the British now the creative reader is reacting thoughtfully he's thinking American soldiers better than the British expected new food maybe it'll be better than he expects you see his attitude is changing and when he finds out the name of the food his mother is preparing won't he be surprised even in little ways like this one creative reading can help you grow as a person watch a creative read at work again here Paul River is being discussed in a textbook our creative reader has read about him before probably you have too listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul River that's from a famous poem by Longfellow but as our creative reader recalls the poem something seems odd to him the textbook says that William dos rode with him he thinks about the title of longfellow's famous poem it isn't called Paul R's ride and William Daws also why our creative reader is still asking questions about what he's reading but he is now also comparing more than one source on the same topic in comparing he's aware that the different author purposes are different he thinks of Longfellow and his reason for writing the poem although Longfellow based the poem on a real event his purpose was to entertain not to relate facts on the other hand the modern author of The Textbook meant to inform his reader faithfulness to facts was important to him the purpose of the poem is to entertain the purpose of the text is to inform but since there's still a question in our creative reader's mind he will check the facts in another source an encyclopedia yes both men are named the text is probably right not the poem but a signal was sent from the old North church just as the poem says in these lines but mostly he watched with eager search the belfrey Tower of the old North Church and lo as he looks on the belfry's height a glimmer and then a gleam of light now wait a minute that line now wait a minute isn't in the poem it's in the mind of our creative reader he's remembering something interesting he read in the encyclopedia although the poem says Paul Rivier watched for the signal the encyclopedia says that the signal was not sent to Paul Riv but from him that's quite different our creative reader has seen how Longfellow changed the facts to make a more exciting story that may be good narrative writing though not good history by comparing different sources by creative reading our creative reader has gained new information he also has a better understanding of the difference in purpose and style between a poem and a textbook our good reader has gotten the information from his text and stopped there our creative reader has been reacting critically and thoughtfully to Paul River's ride and now he's beginning to think the same same way about Revolutions in [Music] general there have been lots of them since the American Revolution there's even a story about a recent revolution in the newspaper if our good reader reads the story he might not relate it to his schoolwork as our creative reader will certainly do he's going to compare what he knows about the American Revolution with what he reads about this revolution who are its leaders he'll ask what do these men want compared with what the leaders of our American Revolution wanted what were the reasons why our Revolution was successful will this revolution succeed if it doesn't as ours did you can see that our creative reader May understand why now our creative reader is going to use his skills in reading about quite a different kind of Revolution at least this ad says it's a Revolution and the writer of the ad has other things to say about some new drink called pink do you have to agree with everything he says not if you're a creative reader because then you talk back to a writer nothing like pink what's the proof the the best who says on the other hand the creative reader may agree with an author's argument the point of this little example is just to show you that creative reading can be used on all kinds of reading materials that creative reading is simply a matter of reacting thoughtfully to what you read of comparing of asking critical questions the creative reader talks back to an author he Compares different sources on the same subject he uses what he learns to enrich his life even in small ways you see two ways of reading the good reader is not far from being a creative reader he's just a step away becoming a creative reader isn't easy but the reward is worth the effort you'll find that putting your own own ideas to work is Reading in its best sense it's creative reading [Applause] [Music]