CLOSE READING FOR CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS FACILITATOR: ANTOINETTE JENKINS Bronx Education Conference June 4, 2015

*craft and infuse critical conscious questions into a close reading session/unit *examine a text for close reading “worthiness”

WORD SPLASH CLOSE READING IS.....

NORMED DEFINITION CLOSE READING  Paying close attention to the text through unwrapping the many layers of presentation and/or meaning  Characteristics include:  Repeated reading(s) of a short text and/or excerpt of a longer text  Annotations  Scholars strategically question and converse with the text as they read  Scholars doing the “heavy lifting” deriving meaning for themselves and/or with classmates – exploratory discussions  Returning to the text to provide evidence for student or teacher directed prompts CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

WORD SPLASH CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS/LITERACY IS.....

NORMED DEFINITION CLOSE READING CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS  Reading with a lens that forces one to question the perspective/authenticity of the author, relate the scenarios to real life, alter ones thinking when applicable and thereby alter one’s behavior to make a social change and/or fight for justice. – to be aware of how outside entities impact your thoughts, actions and livelihood  Characteristics include:  Questioning perspectives  Focusing on Sociopolitical issues  Examine the relationship of power through language  Teacher as facilitator that presents questions and/or additional resources from various perspectives  Scholars walking away with their own perspective of the idea/topic AND prepared to challenge/address the status quo  Building this curriculum alongside the scholars – in reaction to their shared experiences/thoughts as they unfold

NORMED DEFINITIONS CLOSE READINGCRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS  Reading with a lens that forces one to question the perspective/authenticity of the author, relate the scenarios to real life, alter ones thinking when applicable and thereby alter one’s behavior to make a social change and/or fight for justice. – to be aware of how outside entities impacts your thoughts, actions and livelihood  Characteristics include:  Questioning perspectives  Focusing on Sociopolitical issues  Examine the relationship of power through language  Teacher as facilitator that presents questions and/or additional resources from various perspectives  Scholars walking away with their own perspective of the idea/topic AND prepared to challenge/address the status quo  Building this curriculum alongside the scholars – in reaction to their shared experiences/thoughts as they unfold  Paying close attention to the text through unwrapping the many layers of presentation and/or meaning  Characteristics include:  Repeated reading(s) of a short text and/or excerpt of a longer text  Annotations  Scholars strategically question and converse with the text as they read  Scholars doing the “heavy lifting” deriving meaning for themselves and/or with classmates – exploratory discussions  Returning to text to provide evidence for student or teacher directed prompts

ROAD MAP

EVALUATING TEXT COMPLEXITY Criteria for Text Complexity  Meaning  Text Structure  Language Features  Knowledge Demands  Gradient pulled from engageny.org/CCSS website Is this text worthy of a close read?

JIGSAW *EACH GROUP WILL NEED A RECORDER AND A REPORTER 1) Everyone will spend 7 minutes independently reading and analyzing the text for their given criteria element  Table 1 – Meaning  Table 2 – Text Structure  Table 3 – Language Features  Table 4 – Knowledge Demands 2)As a group, share and record your findings – 3 mins  What level is your criteria?  What evidence supports your designation? 3) Each group will report out the level of complexity of their criteria element – 1 min per group TASK

EVALUATE A TEXT Stop & Jot Evaluating for text complexity means looking at a text’s quality in meaning, text structure, language features and knowledge demands. It ensures that we have scholars engaged in the rigorous task of deriving meaning.

After text selection and evaluation - What Next? Why is evaluating the text helpful for teachers?

SAMPLE TEXT-DEPENDENT COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS  What does the little girl on the train want Esperanza to show her?  How was this train ride a new experience for Esperanza?  What is the author revealing about Esperanza’s character?  Compare Esperanza’s perspective with that of her mother?  What themes have emerged so far?

WHY IS A CRITICAL CONSCIOUS APPROACH NEEDED? We need to  empower the young to be leaders in our most underserved communities  awaken both scholars and ourselves to biases and prejudices we have and then CHANGE them

CRAFTING CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS QUESTIONS Craft questions that ….  Allow students to name their beliefs  Challenge student beliefs  Introduce/awaken subconscious thoughts and beliefs  Ignite action How do we support our scholars in gaining awareness of thoughts, beliefs and actions?

SAMPLE GENERIC CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS QUESTIONS **THESE TYPES OF QUESTIONS ARE STILL STANDARDS BASED/CCLS ALIGNED** How did I feel when __________ occurred? Who did I identify with? Who did I despise and why? What stereotypes did you believe before reading the novel and how did these stereotypes influence the ways that you read it? Were some stereotypes challenged? If so, what is your current thinking? Were new stereotypes created? Which character did you find more believable? Why? How does the novel stretch your thinking about racial identity, discrimination, and/or race relations? How were words used by the characters to oppress another character or group? Who’s character’s voices are clearly heard and whose are silenced? Who is privileged and who is marginalized in the text? What questions would we want to research based on the text? What action might you take based on what you have learned from the text? How have you grown and/or what questions do you still have? **these question stems are suited for reading literature

PAIRS OR TRIADS *EACH GROUP WILL NEED A RECORDER AND A REPORTER 1) Every pair or triad will spend 5 minutes crafting a critically conscious question 2)The recorder will write the question/prompt on the chart paper that aligns with the “theme” of the question Sample Placement: discrimination TASK Sample: What word(s) was used to oppress and/or separate people? Are their any words that you say or hear that have the same connotation?

CRAFT CRITICALLY CONSCIOUS QUESTIONS Stop & Jot Critically conscious questions increase the ability of scholars to perceive social, political and/or economic oppression, alter and refine their thought processes and then hopefully take action that will make a positive impact in their lives, their communities and our world.

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THINK TANK What do we want to raise consciousness about? What problems do we want to pose? What topics might our scholars want to be more conscious about? How can we infuse critically conscious questions into our day, unit or year?

ANTOINETTE JENKINS EAST NY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE LITERACY COACH Thank you for your participation!