Close reading strategies Getting to the Core Superior standards Supportive school climate Successful students Close reading strategies Certificated Learning and Achievement Specialist Monica Curiel Staff Development Department judith barden, director September 26, 2012

Today’s Objective: Learn new Close Reading strategies to help students access complex text.

Students’ success or failure in school (and out of school Students’ success or failure in school (and out of school!) is closely tied to their ability to comprehend expository text (Kamil, 2003). 6

“Every book has a skeleton hidden between its covers “Every book has a skeleton hidden between its covers. Your job as an analytic reader is to find it.” Adler and Van Dore, 1940/1972

Teaching Complex Texts Identify the complex text and evaluate it Determine bundled standards for text Identify the required performance task Do backwards planning Consider text demands-cognitive and academic language Use close readings to dig deeply into the text

Creating a Close Reading Use a short passage “Read with a pencil” Note what’s confusing Pay attention to patterns Give students the chance to struggle a bit Creating a Close Reading

For good readers, “close reading” happens internally. Most students need training with this “Closeness” occurs with the students’ engagement with the text, NOT submission to the teacher.

How to Read Closely… Read this passage silently: There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know. ~ Donald Rumsfeld

Effective First Readings What did you just read? Why is it necessary to reread this text? What will you do to address your “confusions” as you reread? Common sense to us, but students just keep reading when they find text difficulty instead of trying to figure it out

Strategies for Close Reading KEY WORDS Strategies for Close Reading Students can highlight key words. Read the poem “Hard on the Gas” by Janet S. Wong *Identify one or more words you consider to be central to the meaning of the poem. *Be prepared to explain your choices. *Why do you think the author chose these words instead of another? *How do these words capture the centrality of the text? Highlight key words that are confusing, that pop out, or have special significance/important in the text

“Hard on the Gas” by Janet S. Wong My grandfather taught himself to drive rough, the way he learned to live, push the pedal, hard on the gas, rush up to 50, coast a bit rush, rest, rush, rest- when you clutch the bar above your right shoulder he shoots you a look that asks, Who said the ride would be smooth? photocopy

Strategies for Close Reading PULLED QUOTES Strategies for Close Reading Magazines often pull and box important quotations from articles to attract reader attention. Requiring students to pull quotes helps them determine significance. *Work with your table to identify a significant quotation from the article “Mass Grave Mystery”. Write a short justification for the quotation you selected. Why is it significant? Doesn’t have to be from an article. It can be from the text or a story in Holt

Strategies for Close Reading WRECKING A TEXT Strategies for Close Reading Highlighting the choices the author makes in the text. Then Mr. Fox chose three of the plumpest hens and with a clever flick of his jaws he killed them instantly. (Roald Dahl) How could you rewrite this sentence? Why do you think Dahl made the word choices he did? Discuss author’s purpose and the use of figurative language. Good to show revising in writing and how and why writer’s “up” their language.

“Mass Grave Mystery” With expository text… By Matthew Brunwasser found in Archaeology magazine With expository text… Highlight key words/ideas in the text Summarize the text in your own words-Wreck the text! With expository, you can “wreck the text” by putting the information into your own words-SUMMARY

Strategies for Close Reading TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONS Strategies for Close Reading Standards based questions answered through reading the text Should be higher level Give attention to different levels of discourse --text structure --voice --main idea or message --vocabulary --sentence structure --academic vocabulary Require teacher preparation and student thought

Text Independent Text Dependent What do you know about ancient Rome? What is the little red hen planning? Do you think mass killings like this are okay during war? What just happened? In what other cultures has this type of thing happened? How does the hen feel about others’ response to her request for help? What makes you think so? What is your opinion on what happened to these people? How does the author help us understand what a mill is? If you could go to Rome, what historical places would you like to visit? What does the hen do once her bread is ready to eat? Why? What other mysteries have you read about? What do you think the author is telling us? We’re used to building background and asking students to make connections to their lives. Although that is still important in certain cases to increase motivation, we need to focus on questions that require evidence from the text

Text Dependent Where was this grave found? Text Independent Text Dependent Have you ever seen a hen? Where was this grave found? Have you ever eaten freshly baked bread? According to the article, what is the only thing that is certain about these deaths? How do you feel when you ask for others for help and they don’t help? What is your favorite animal? Who in your life works really hard? How might you help him or her? Remember our trip to the high school farm? What animals did we see? Start with simple recall to have student success, but make sure to move up to critical thinking-use handout as a guideline (gate close reading and dok)

Text Independent Questions Text Dependent Questions Write at least two more text dependent questions for this piece of text

Strategies for Close Reading TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONS Strategies for Close Reading Standards based questions answered through reading the text Should be higher level Give attention to different levels of discourse --text structure --voice --main idea or message --vocabulary --sentence structure --academic vocabulary Require teacher preparation and student thought

Another strategy in our toolkit Use Close Reading to: access complex texts analyze poetry and fiction gain a deeper understanding of the reading

Use a piece from your text, article, primary source…to create a Close Reading activity. Bring back the lesson and some samples from your lesson to the next staff meeting. Email me lessons on Big Idea/Essential Questions and Close Reading and I can upload those to my website for everyone to access. Build a bank of good lessons