Conceptually Speaking
Conceptually Speaking is a show about exploring the cognitive processes and social practices that help us make sense of our world. As as teacher-scholar interested in the intersection of educational theory, practice, and scholarship, I host conversations with guests ranging from practicing educators to neuroscientists and literary scholars to YouTube video essayists. Each episode shares a common purpose: to consider, critique, and reconceptualize what we think and feel about education. If you enjoy the show and want to learn more, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, find me on Substack, and check out trevoraleo.com for more information, resources, and details on professional learning.
Conceptually Speaking
Drs. Dan Sinykin & Johanna Winant Talk Close Reading for the 21st Century
In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Dan Sinykin and Dr. Johanna Winant, editors of the new publication Close Reading for the 21st Century. While close reading is a foundational practice in literary studies, it’s also one that remains notoriously difficult to define. Dan and Johanna explain how they set out to do the “impossible” task of defining the term, ultimately framing it as the practice of paying attention to a passage of text to account for its meaning and argue how it works.
Key Concepts from the Episode:
The Five-Step Method: Dan and Johanna emphasize the distinction between close reading as a verb (the messy, non-linear process of thinking) and close reading as a noun (the polished genre of writing). To help students master the “noun,” they anatomize the practice into five movements:
- Scene Setting: A strategic summary that invites the reader in, choosing only the parts of the text necessary to follow the argument.
- Noticing: Stopping on a concrete, “finger-sized” detail that feels strange, unusual, or evocative.
- Local Claiming: Sitting with that detail to make a specific interpretation of how it works within its immediate surroundings.
- Regional Argumentation: Identifying patterns across the entire poem, story, or play to build a cohesive argument.
- Global Theorizing: The final, “wild” moment where the critic connects their argument to broader historical periods, genres, or universal themes.
The Pedagogical Disjuncture: One of the most striking parts of our conversation is the unfortunate gap between how close reading is practiced by professional critics and how it is taught in schools dominated by standardized tests and AP curriculum. While the discipline shifted toward historicism and theory in the 1980s, classroom pedagogy often remains stuck in a zombified version of New Criticism that is shaped by regimes of standardized testing and standardized curriculum.
Close Reading as a Democratic Practice: Rather than a solitary exercise in theme parroting or symbol hunting, close reading is reimagined as a dialogue between authors, theorists, and critics that unfolds across time and space. When presented this way, close reading functions as a set of tools that students can use to both appreciate and argue about aesthetic objects in ways that make them more attuned to the world around them and connected to those who share their passion for close reading.
Practical Implications
This conversation offers a vital bridge for educators looking to move beyond rote analysis. The five-step method allows students to move from simple observation to global theorizing without making specious leaps. Ultimately, Dan and Johanna remind us that when we ask students to close read, we are asking them to perform a feat of intellectual elegance. By reintroducing the beauty of the genre and treating students as active participants in a scholarly conversation, we can transform the English classroom into a place where students don’t just “do school,” but participate in intellectual and scholarly communities that not only read the word and the world, but intervene in it as well.
Check out Dan and Johanna’s work:
Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century
The Claims of Close Reading (Boston Review)