1. Close Reading in the Classroom
Slides minutes
Time estimated for all slides is 56 minutes.
Office of Curriculum & Instruction
Tucson Unified School District
Curriculum & Student Engagement: MODULE 8
6-12 ELA and Content areas

2. Connector Silently, make a list of the features of close reading.
At the signal, share with your elbow partner.
Did you remember the same ideas?

3. Outcomes
Understand how close reading helps students access complex text and “pushes” student learning to deeper levels
Gain understanding of the use of text-dependent questions, including progression, complexity and connection to the standards
Outcomes and norms 2 minutes

4. Norms Equity of Voice Active Listening Respect for All Perspectives
Safety and Confidentiality
Respectful Use of Technology
There are five collaborative norms. Remind the participants with a brief example of each as you click on each one. 1. Equity of Voice: hear all voices in the room and self-monitor Active listening: Really listen to what people are saying and thinking about how to respond while someone is talking, suspend inner dialogue Safety to share different perspectives: We all have different experiences and come with different points of view. We broaden our understanding by listening to a diversity of perspectives. 4. Commitment to the work: We want to agree that all of us are willing to make connections to our personal work – regardless if you came voluntarily or you were “voluntold.” 5. Deferment of checking s, texts, and the Internet: We know that our lives continue as we engage in the learning. Please step away from the learning arena to take care of your needs and then quickly join us.
Ask the participants to pick one norm they would like to focus on for our time together. Remind participants of a signal to get everyone’s attention (chimes, hand signals, etc.).

5. * Features of Close Reading
Use a short passage.
Re-reading
“Read with a pencil.”
Text-dependent questions
Students respond to the text.
3 minutes Quick review of features of close reading.
There is no quantitative measure for a “short” passage in all of the professional literature.. In general, if you need a staple, the text is too long!
Re-reading can be accomplished by changing the task, asking interesting questions and asking for evidence. All 3 will require re-reading.
Research shows that re-reading does increase comprehension and fluency.
Just a few basic marks are all that is needed. These should be consistent across grade levels and content areas.
How does this list compare with your connecting to your own prior knowledge activity that we began with?
Text dependent questions that drive collaborative conversations will be our main focus for today’s session.
* Bring out in discussion how each of the features of close reading is culturally responsive in that the choice of text, annotations, text dependent questions from collaborative conversations all are created and executed in a sense of who the students are and what their experience is.
* Features of Close Reading

6. Which of the following questions require students to read the text closely?
If you were present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, what would you do?
What are the reasons listed in the preamble for supporting their argument to separate from Great Britain?
Slides 6 and 7--2 minute

7. listed in the preamble for supporting their argument
If you were present at the
signing of the Declaration of
Independence, what would
you do?
2. What are the reasons
listed in the preamble for
supporting their argument
to separate from Great Britain?
Second question requires going back to the text for an answer. Not just recall but analysis.
Why is first question NOT a text dependent question?
Do not need to go back to the text for an answer.
May need to analyze other info known about the time in history, but no need to reference the text.

8. Text Dependent Questions
Answered through close reading
Evidence comes from text, not information from outside sources
Understanding beyond basic facts
Not recall!
8 minutes for table talk and whip around
What makes a question text-dependent? Talk at tables and come up with 3 or 4 ideas that you think are features of text dependent questions. As a table group, write each idea on a post-it and put in the middle of your table.
Do a whip around by asking the first table to share one of the ideas. Record on a chart. If other groups have that same idea, they remove that post it. Next table adds a new idea. Continue going around all groups until all ideas are on the chart.
Then click to fly in general responses from Doug Fisher.

9. 1877
Time: 8 minutes (2 minutes to set up, 2 minute to read silently and annotate, 4 minutes to share)
Give background and pass out handout of Chief Joseph’s speech (one page).
Direct participants to silently read and annotate. Quietly share and discuss your annotations with your table.
What were your insights? What are your questions that are still unanswered?
Background info:
In 1863, some Nez Perce chiefs signed a treaty with the US agreeing to surrender their ancestral lands and be moved instead to a reservation in Idaho.
Chief Joseph the Elder (Chief Joseph’s father), as well as other chiefs, refused to do so. This lead to an uneasy standoff for 14 years, during which time the non-treaty Nez Perce were allowed to remain.
In 1877, the US Army decided to take action to end the standoff. The Nez Perce War was the name given to the U.S. Army's pursuit of the over 800 Nez Perce and an allied band of the Palouse tribe who had fled toward freedom.
Initially they had hoped to take refuge with the Crow nation in the Montana Territory, but when the Crow refused to grant them aid, the Nez Perce went north in an attempt to reach asylum with Sioux Chief Sitting Bull and his followers who had fled to Canada in 1876.
For over three months, the Nez Perce outmaneuvered and battled their pursuers traveling 1,170 miles across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.
General Howard, leading the opposing cavalry, was impressed with the skill with which the Nez Perce fought, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications. Finally, after a devastating five-day battle during freezing weather conditions with no food or blankets, with the major war leaders dead, Joseph formally surrendered to General on October 5, 1877 in the Bear Paw Mountains of the Montana Territory, less than 40 miles south of Canada. (Source: Wikipedia)
The battle is remembered in popular history by the words attributed to Chief Joseph at the formal surrender.

10. * Foundational Annotation Skills
Underline the major points.
Circle keywords or phrases that are confusing or unknown to you.
Write margin notes (restating the author’s ideas or own insights)
And, do not spend more time on organizing colored markers than on reading and discussing!
Just a few basic marks are all that is needed. These should be consistent across grade levels and content areas. Then each content area can add to the list as need for specific passages. Margins notes could included individualized markings and some specialized teacher-directed markings.
And do not spend more time on organizing colored markers than on reading and discussing!
* Review how the process of annotating a text is a culturally responsive strategy as the process allows for individual response based on own culture and experience.

11. Progression of Text-dependent Questions
Opinions, Arguments,
Intertextual Connections
Inferences
Author’s Purpose
Vocab & Text Structure
Key Details
General Understandings
Standards
What does the text mean?
8 & 9
3 & 7
How does the text work? 6
4 & 5
Slide 11—10 minutes Now let’s look at a way to analyze text dependent questions.
Students can reach higher levels of Bloom’s or Depth of Knowledge structures with comfortable texts (re readings).
Students need to understand the literal level (what does the text say?) before they can work with the inferential level (what does the text mean?)
The other level is structural (how does the text work?).
Literal after the initial read of the text.
Structural after at least one reading of the text.
Inferential after later reading of the text or related texts.
Look at their margin notes for literal comprehension. Add questions at the literal level if not coming out in their conversations. The questions we ask are for scaffolding and going deeper. Text dependent questions drive the experience with the students. Teacher can have some pre-made, but be ready to scaffold (which means adding and/or skipping some questions you though you would ask!)
Pass out handout of possible text dependent questions (table format). Leave this slide up while elbow partners discuss and label each question with one of the 3 text questions on the left and a question type from the middle. Then show connections to reading anchor standards---click to fly in reading anchor standards
Key Ideas and Details includes anchor standards 1, 2, and 3 Craft and Structure includes standards 4, 5 and 6 (how does the text work?) Integration of Knowledge and Ideas includes standards 7, 8 and 9. Anchor standard 10 is the umbrella over all of the others (read proficiently at grade level)
Speaking and Listening 1 Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners…
Writing 1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
Language 6 Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening… 2
What does the text say? 1

12. What does the text say? General understanding
Who is delivering the speech? What happened?
Without yet knowing who Looking Glass and Toohulhulsote are, what can we say about their roles in this decision?
Key Ideas
What concerns does Chief Joseph have about the health and welfare of his people? How do you know?
Slides minutes
Show “answers” one at a time allowing for confirmation and discussion.

13. How does the text work? Vocabulary and Structure
What does Chief Joseph mean when he says, “From where the sun now stands?”
What is the tone of this speech? What words and phrases support your claim?
What is it about the use of the word forever in the last line, “I will fight no more forever” that makes this statement so memorable?
How does the text structure convey Chief Joseph’s mood?
Author’s Purpose
none from this list!

14. What does the text mean? Inferences
Who is Chief Joseph referring to when he says, “I want to have time to look for my children”? What other parts of the speech support your claim?
Opinions, Arguments, and Intertextual Connections
None from this list!
After sharing the last question from the table, ask participants to look at the table again and write at least one question that could be used with the text.
Ask for volunteers to share question type (literal, structural or inferential) and where it fits on the pyramid.

15. Questions to consider
Do the questions require the reader to return to the text?
Do the questions require the reader to use evidence to support his or her ideas or claims?
Do the questions move from text-explicit to text-implicit knowledge?
Are there questions that require the reader to analyze, evaluate, and create?
Slide 15 4 minutes
Use this lens with questions that come with a text and questions that teachers create that go with the texts they are already using.
How do text dependent questions help the learner to deepen his or her understanding?
Text explicit to text implicit knowledge is the progression we looked at earlier. General understanding to inferences. Literal to inferential.
Look at our chart of questions for Chief Joseph’s speech. How do they move the reader and “push” his or her understanding of this complex text?

16. Resources Rigorous Reading by Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher
fisherandfrey.com
Lots of useful videos of teachers doing close reading
in different content areas
1 minute
Have you found any other useful resources for close reading?

17. Outcomes
Understand how close reading helps students access complex text and “pushes” student learning to deeper levels
Gain understanding of the use of text-dependent questions, including progression, complexity and connection to the standards
1 minute

18. Closure Complete this sentence and add 2 or 3 of your own to summarize
your learning.
Examining the use of text dependent questions in close reading was valuable because
Slide minutes
Time for quiet writing.
Share at your table groups. Ask for a few to share with whole group (yours or one you heard at your table).

19. Summarizing our Learning
1 minute Please write 2-3 post its and put on the delta chart
Suggestions
What’s Working
Questions