In the past few weeks we have done a lot of close reading, particularly with regard to The American Dream.  I find it really interesting to go back and reread the play, because there are so many things that I missed the first time around.  Sometimes, things are brought up in class that I know there was no way in a million years I would have seen originally.  Focusing so much on this play will help me when I read others, along with novels and poetry, in the future.  For example, it was pointed out in class that Albee does not use a lot of stage directions, so the ones that he does add in must be very important.  Stage directions (or lack thereof) were never really something I noticed when reading plays.  Now, I can notice whether or not a playwright puts stage directions in, where he does so, and most importantly, why.  This applies to all the things we noticed while close reading.