PD September 11 Close Reading

What is it? Close reading describes the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. Such a reading places great emphasis on the single particular over the general, paying close attention to individual words, syntax, and the order in which sentences and ideas unfold as they are read.

Questions for Analytic Thinking What is the author telling me here? Are there any hard or important words? What does the author want me to understand? How does the author play with language to add to meaning?

What to Look For.

How to Begin 1. Read with a pencil in hand, and annotate the text. "Annotating" means underlining or highlighting key words and phrases—anything that strikes you as surprising or significant, or that raises questions—as well as making notes in the margins. 2. Look for patterns in the things you've noticed about the text—repetitions, contradictions, similarities. 3. Ask questions about the patterns you've noticed—especially how and why.

An ELA friend of mine who has used these techniques for years regularly gets cards from kids that have been annotated!

Students who practice get really good at it and take pride in their skills.

Different Strokes… Close reading will look different for different types of prose. Informational science articles will be good for questioning, vocabulary, and identification of a theme or author’s purpose. Narratives and speeches, meant to be heard, are musical in nature and lend themselves to the identification of figurative language.

A Close Read used in science.

My Procedure Students are asked to make a prediction before reading. They read the text through asking questions or making comments in the margins as they read. They define given and unknown vocabulary. Finally, they read for figurative language before being given guiding questions for text dependent answers.

Prediction: This speech will be about the 9/11 attack Given at night. On the news? Or special report? This is an emotional word to use. Short clauses to deliver a “punch”? Reference to the World Trade Center I like this imagery.

INSTRUCTIONS AND QUESTIONS FOR THE STUDENTS

Sources Boyles, Nancy. "Membership." Educational Leadership:Common Core: Now What?:Closing in on Close Reading. N.p., Dec. 2012. Web. 09 Sept. 2015. Kain, Patricia. "How to Do a Close Reading." |. Writing Center at Harvard Univerity, 1998. Web. 09 Sept. 2015. And my stuff. And Laurie’s stuff ;) And George W. Bush. OK. Think that’s it.