Cedric Gerald, M.Ed. CSZ Title Literacy Specialist

Read Closely

The Common Core & Close Reading The reality is that the Common Core challenges us to help students (and teachers) understand that reading is not about them.--- Catherine Gewertz, Curriculum Matters The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate the uses of the instructional strategy close reading when teaching the R1 and R10 power/anchor standards.

Dr. Doug Fisher: A Close Reading & The Common Core

B IG I DEAS OF C LOSE R EADING "Prezi" "Prezi"

4 big ideas B ALANCE P RE - READING ACTIVITIES. G UIDE LESSONS WITH TEXT - DEPENDENT QUESTIONS THAT REQUIRE STUDENTS TO USE THE AUTHOR ’ S WORDS TO SUPPORT THEIR RESPONSES. D ON ’ T FOCUS TOO MUCH INSTRUCTION ON READING STRATEGIES. D EVOTE MORE TIME TO EACH TEXT BY READING AND RE - READING FOR UNDERSTANDING.

How does this reflect the current reality of your reading instruction? Turn and Talk

B ALANCE P RE - READING ACTIVITIES Pre-reading activities should not take away from instructional time. Giving students to much background information about the text may encourage students to regurgitate the teacher’s words when answering questions, rather than actually absorbing and critically analyzing what the author said.

G UIDE LESSONS WITH TEXT - DEPENDENT QUESTIONS THAT REQUIRE STUDENTS TO USE THE AUTHOR ’ S WORDS TO SUPPORT THEIR RESPONSES. The Common Core asks that teachers develop questions—and demand answers—that use evidence from the text to support responses, to defend opinions, etc. This is perhaps the most significant difference between what the Common Core demands and the practice that is in place in classrooms across the country.

Adapted from The Art of Close Reading by Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder (The Foundation for Critical Thinking) Practice at close reading is essential to learning to write well. Close reading is a fundamental strategy of critical thinking.

I T LOOKS LIKE …

D ON ’ T FOCUS TOO MUCH INSTRUCTION ON READING STRATEGIES Few people will argue that teaching students how to identify the main idea or to understand the difference between cause and effect has no place in an ELA classroom. That said, the importance of teaching such reading skills and strategies has somehow taken precedence over the importance of actually reading. David Coleman, an architect of the common core curriculum standards says, “We lavish so much attention on these strategies in place of reading. I urge us instead to just read.”

D EVOTE MORE TIME TO EACH TEXT BY READING AND RE - READING FOR UNDERSTANDING Teach lessons over time that expose students to the same content or reading again and again. The Common Core asks students to read texts that are sufficiently complex and grade-appropriate, that may often push students—perhaps even to their frustration level. In the end, “close reading” means making lessons simplified, though not simplistic. Streamlined, though not rushed or short. Focused, but not narrow. And, more than anything, the Common Core challenge to spend class time engaging in “close reading” of texts asks teachers to focus reading on actually reading. Essentially teachers must craft the kinds of text-dependent questions that will help students break down the text, that will draw their attention to some of the most critical elements, and that will push them to understand (and later analyze) the author’s words.

In Conclusion… The standards promote a range of types of studies of complex selections both fiction and nonfiction while insisting that all such readings be grounded in textual evidence. For instance, develop sets of questions that bring readers to talk and write about the central ideas of a speech and its uses of rhetoric.

In order to answer questions on the central ideas in a speech, a reader would still have to… dig into the sentences, cite evidence from across the speech on his or her way to making a case, explain how that evidence contributes to the case, and finally to pull it all together into an explanation of the central ideas.

Classroom Snapshot: (Informational Text in 6–12) When visiting middle schools/high schools and grade 6–12 subject-area classes, you would see... Teachers explicitly teaching and using generic comprehension strategies. For example, teachers showing students how to interact with texts by monitoring their comprehension, posing questions, drawing on background knowledge, making and confirming predictions, summarizing, and making connections. Students using generic comprehension strategies when reading. You would see comprehension think sheets or prompt sheets, note-taking organizers, question charts, etc. Teachers modeling and explicitly teaching discipline-specific comprehension strategies. For example, in sciences, students must fully understand experiments or processes. Close connections exist among prose, graphs, charts, formulas, etc. Students are taught to read back and forth from the text to tables, graphs, etc. Corroboration and transformation are major reading strategies.

Explicit subject-specific vocabulary instruction. Multiple texts used during a lesson. Teachers using ―precision partnering ‖ (e.g., student partner discussions with a designated first speaker, use of sentence starters, accountable listening, and teacher monitoring). Task-based accountability built into every lesson task or activity—there is clear accountability with every student doing every task (e.g., students all required to say, write, and/or do something as an evidence check of engagement). Teachers using engagement to structure discussions (e.g., responding of all students, everyone does everything—no bystanders) versus structuring discussions using traditional hand-raising (i.e., teacher poses a question, and students raise their hands to respond). Continued

You would hear... Teachers and students using language, academic and content vocabulary, questions, and content-specific talk! Teachers and students using content-specific vocabulary during text-based discussions. Teachers and students using academic language and use of target vocabulary in a structured context (e.g., using words in sentences). Academic, content-specific discussions. Teachers modeling discipline-specific comprehension by thinking out loud. Teacher and student discussions about how pictures within text differ in their role. For example, some pictures may highlight describing/defining nouns, verbs/processes, relationships, etc. Also, differences exist between technical drawings and other drawings/photos. High-quality discussions with questions such as ―What is the author trying to say here?,―Does this information agree with the other information?, or ―What did John do to Alex in this story? Teachers modeling reasoning by thinking out loud. Students expressing opinions with explained positions and reasoning. Teachers acknowledging clear student reasoning. Teachers/students summarizing a discussion when it closes.

Working With Informational Texts Informational Text: Teacher Hot Tips

Resources NCDPI LIVEBINDERReading Literary Non- Fiction Literary Non-Fiction in the Classroom: Opening New Worlds for Students Text Genres Making Informational Texts Accessible

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