“‘State in your own words’. That suggests the best test we know for telling whether you have understood the proposition, or propositions in the sentence. If, when you are asked to explain what the author means by a particular sentence, all you can do is repeat his very words, with some minor alterations in their order, you had better suspect that you do not know what he means. Ideally, you should be able to say the same thing in totally different words. The idea can, of course, be approximated in varying degrees. But if you cannot get away at all from the author’s words, it shows that only words have passed from him to you, not thought or knowledge. You know his words, not his mind. He was trying to communicate knowledge, and all you received was words.”
The above comes from Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren’s How To Read A Book. It was recommended to me by my son and then I saw it was on the Ambleside’s reading list so I decided it must be a good read. So far it has been a good read. It has offered some food for thought, has reinforced some things I already knew and caused me to think more deeply about something I typically do without thinking much at all.
This quote brought to mind the purpose of narration. I have never been that good at helping my children narrate although I do see the benefit. For the most part, they have been good at parroting back to me exactly what the author said. That seemed like a silly exercise to me and I didn’t quite know how to help them get beyond it. I think that after reading this I have a direction to point them towards.
It is similar to giving the definition of a word. If you can’t give the definition of a word without using the word or some form of the word in the definition, then you don’t really know what the word means. When you truly understand what an author has said, then you should be able to describe it in your own words, not just repeat his words.
Goal for the year with my 10 and 12 years olds: Encourage them to narrate with understanding not just parroting back what they heard.
Just an after thought: I had to chuckle when I was finding a link to the book above. Alongside the book there is a link to purchase the book on cassette. I’ve had plenty of people question why I would read a book about reading a book. If I don’t know how to read a book, how can I read this one. Problem solved, listen to it on cassette.
Hello,
We are a not-for-profit educational organization, founded by Mortimer Adler and we have recently made an exciting discovery–three years after writing the wonderfully expanded third edition of How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren made a series of thirteen 14-minute videos–lively discussing the art of reading. The videos were produced by Encyclopaedia Britannica. For reasons unknown, sometime after their original publication, these videos were lost.
Three hours with Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, lively discussing the art of reading, on one DVD. A must for libraries and classroom teaching the art of reading.
I cannot exaggerate how instructive these programs are–we are so sure that you will agree, if you are not completely satisfied, we will refund your donation.
Please go here to see a clip and learn more:
http://www.thegreatideas.org/HowToReadABook.htm
ISBN: 978-1-61535-311-8
Thank you,
Max Weismann
I had read this book before I even saw it at AO, but it is a book you can read several times and always extract new knowledge. I enjoyed your thought about narration. It is the corner stone of an education, to me.
Yes… that joke with the title of the book! LOL. People miss the multiple meanings of the word READ, or that this book is much more than a simple title about how to improve your so called “reading skills”. It is a great title before approaching college, if you have it under your belt, and you understand the different processes of real reading, you will do well when you have to read for research, for writing a paper, for learning in general. And the book on tape! I love audio books!
This book has been on my shelf for a couple of years now….unread. i think I will try to read it! Thanks for the review.