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In Dr. Reed’s 11th grade Advanced English class, students gathered for a Socratic seminar activity with a student-centered discussion on Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle.” The class has been practicing the technique of literary close reading, which means looking at what is actually on the page, rather than some idea “behind the text.” After a preparatory reading quiz that asked students to define a handful of unusual words from this unusual story, they discussed the one word that they found to be the most important. Prime candidates included “hen-pecked,” “azure,” “approbation,” “addled,” and “Babylonish.” No matter the word, the question was the same: why is this the most significant word in the story?