Full Circle Moment: Connecting with a Text from the Past

There’s something powerful about seeing a text you’ve lived with for years… come to life in front of you.

While in New York with my mentor and friend, Julie Manley and I visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art and finally saw Washington Crossing the Delaware in person.

This is a painting we knew well from close reading workshops we modeled in professional learning with teachers. We often used the OPTIC reading strategy to analyze this visual text—looking closely at the Overview, Parts, Title, Interrelationships, and Conclusion. We’ve done this analysis countless times. But standing in front of it—the scale, texture, and presence—was breathtaking in a way images never quite capture.

Then we noticed the museum’s pairing beside it: Mistikosiwak (Wooden Boat People): Resurgence of the People by Kent Monkman.

We immediately wanted to closely read this piece too—side by side with Leutze’s—and design a writing prompt or discussion inviting learners to compare perspectives, stories, and the messages each artist offers to the reader of the painting.

This is the kind of learning that sticks. This is the kind of reading I want to see in classrooms and our museums.