1. Diving Deep Into Close Reading Presented by Paula Jones

2. Learning Objectives
Understand the close reading process and text-dependent questioning as aligned to the CCSS.
Experience a close reading lesson with understanding to classroom applications.
Plan to apply close reading strategies and text-dependent questioning into upcoming lessons.
How do we help kids make inferences without a lot of hand holding? We need to help students become independent with information that they do not have a lot of experience with.

3. Roadmap for the Afternoon…
Defining Close Reading and Simulation
Text-dependent Questioning

4. What is Close Reading?
“Close reading is an instructional routine in which students critically examine a text, especially through repeated readings…the primary objective of a close reading is to afford students with the opportunity to assimilate new textual information with their existing background knowledge and prior experiences to expand their schema.” (Fisher and Frey, 2012)
How does this definition compare with your “Wordle”? Turn and talk. Wordle, biggest words are most frequently used. What stands out? Why? Any surprises? Take notes on chart paper about what they think close reading is. Then have someone read the definition out loud and see if we can add anything to this definition or pull out a phrase. Take notes on chart paper. What we just did here is a text-to-text comparison. Wordle and this definition.
How does this definition compare with your “Wordle?” Turn and talk.

5. Anchor Standards
How does close reading connect to CCSS?????? Pulls together all of the reading standards.

6. The ELA Standards Ladder
ELA Standard 1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific
textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Standard one as left side of ladder and standard 10 right side of ladder. Most important standards anchor and standards 2-9 are the rungs of the ladder. Close reading will ALWAYS draw on standards 1 and 10.
ELA Standard 10: Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

7. Unpacking the Standards, Briefly
Step 1: Read #2 on the page 2 silently, as I read it aloud. “Reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from text both literary and informational”.

8. Unpacking the Standards, Briefly
Step 2: Underline the *most important* words or phrases.
Give yourself a 10 word limit.

9. Unpacking the Standards, Briefly
Step 3: Share the word(s) you chose with the person sitting next to you and explain why you chose them.

10. Unpacking the Standards, Briefly
Step 4: How does the author of this passage describe this common core shift? What language does s/he use to explain the way common core has changed the current expectations of students?

11. Unpacking the Standards, Briefly

12. A Close Reading Simulation
Who am I as a reader during this experience?
p. 3

13. Be the Student: Close Reading
Read the poem silently as someone here reads it aloud
Jot down a rating from 1-10 that rates your understanding of the poem’s meaning.
1 = no understanding at all
10 = understand completely
Have them read the poem, give 5 mins.

14. Be the Student: Close Reading
Re-read the poem, JUST ONCE, a little slower this time, making notes to yourself and underlining anything that seems important to the meaning of the poem
If you can, write a sentence or two about what you think the poem means

15. Be the Student: Close Reading
Rate your understanding of the poem again, 1-10

16. Be the Student: Text-dependent questions
I am going to ask a few text-dependent questions, so you’ll need to literally look back into the text for the answers.

17. Line 1
The phrase, “They were women then” is a bit strange. The LITERAL interpretation is that “they” are no longer women.
What is another interpretation?
Think. Re-read. Talk with a partner.

18. Lines 12-18
The narrator chooses to use war imagery in the first part of the poem: “led armies”; “headragged generals”; “minefields”; “booby-trapped ditches.”
Why did the author choose this language for imagery? What meaning might this convey?
Think. Re-read. Turn and talk.
ALL text dependent questions will guide us to the culminating question. They are deliberate, specific and force students to look crtically at the text and also have a great tool kit of evidence by the time you get there.

19. Beginning (lines 7-18) and End (lines 19-26)
The narrator draws a sharp contrast between what the women do at the beginning of the poem (lines 7-18) and what the women do at the end of the poem (lines 19-26).
Find the contrasts.
Write them down.

20. Be the Student: Culminating Question
What did the author believe is important about the “women” that she wrote about?
Answer the question directly, and use TEXTUAL EVIDENCE to support your answer.
Turn and talk with your partner.
Share your insights.

21. Be the Student: Write
In a sentence or two, write down what you think the meaning of the poem is now.
Share with a partner.
Rate your understanding of the poem, 1-10.
Compare previous rating to this new understanding rating

22. Overview of Process Read for Gist
Respond to text-dependent questions leading toward culminating question
Culminating discussion
Write
Highlight and connect back the activities with the stages we would take a student through

23. Reflect & Share Out What do you think the poem means?
What happened to your understanding of the poem throughout this exercise?
What did I do? What didn’t I do?
Reflect individually and share out either as a group or whole group.
Walk around, listen to the group. Asked clarifying questions. Pointed to specific parts of the poem. Text dependent questions were well crafted. I did not tell anything about poem. As people reflect, ask them to share thoughts. Have them go back into the poem to show evidence.

24. A side note, in case you were wondering…
Alice Walker has published several novels, including The Color Purple, The Temple of My Familiar, and Possessing the Secret of Joy (which featured several characters and descendants of characters from The Color Purple).
She has published a number of collections of short stories, poetry, and other writings. Her work is focused on the struggles of black people, particularly women, and their lives in a racist, sexist, and violent society. Walker is a leading figure in liberal politics.
–Wikipedia

25. Also…
Revolutionary Petunias (1973)
These poems are about revolutionaries and lovers-about how, both in revolution and in love, loss of trust and compassion robs us of hope. They are also about (and for) those few embattled souls who remain painfully committed to beauty and to love even while facing the firing squad.
If I frontloaded this information, how would the lesson have been different?

26. Reflection
The most rigorous reading the student can do involves more than simply drawing upon the basic definition of words; it involves exploring the understandings of those words that the students brings to the text and weighing them against the apparent understandings of the author…the most rigorous reading is to find what those words on that page mean in our lives.
Beers and Probst, 2013
What do words say? What is author trying to say? How does this fit in with me?

27. The Words are the Starting Place
Text-dependent questions allow you to answer the question without reading the text.

28. Define Text Dependent Questions
As the name suggests, a text dependent question specifically asks a question that can only be answered by referring explicitly back to the text being read. It does not rely on any particular background information extraneous to the text nor depend on students having other experiences or knowledge; instead it privileges the text itself and what students can extract from what is before them.
From pp. 4-6

29. Making an Inference Part 1: Information/Input Situation Picture Video
Text (Close Reading)

30. Making an Inference Making an Inference Making an Inference
Part 2: Inferences Conclusions you make using what you know

31. Making an Inference Part 3: Assumptions Beliefs you take for granted
Hidden/unconscious thoughts
Background Knowledge

32. Inferences and Assumptions
Information
Assumption
Possible Inference

33. Inferences and Assumptions
Possible Inference
Information
Assumption

34. Inferences and Assumptions
Possible Inference
Information
Assumption
I will not be hit by a car or bike if the sign says cross.

35. Inferences and Assumptions
Possible
Inference
Information
Assumption
I could be hit by a car or bike even if the sign says cross.

36. Three Types of Text-Dependent Questions
When you're writing or reviewing a set of questions, consider the following three categories:
Questions that assess themes and central ideas
Questions that assess knowledge of vocabulary
Questions that assess syntax and structure

37. Non-Examples and Examples
Not Text-Dependent
Text-Dependent
In “Casey at the Bat,” Casey strikes out. Describe a time when you failed at something.
In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King discusses nonviolent protest. Discuss, in writing, a time when you wanted to fight against something that you felt was unfair.
In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln says the nation is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Why is equality an important value to promote?
What makes Casey’s experiences at bat humorous?
What can you infer from King’s letter about the letter that he received?
“The Gettysburg Address” mentions the year According to Lincoln’s speech, why is this year significant to the events described in the speech?
Text-dependent questions require students to pay attention to the text at hand and to draw evidence from that text.
What does this look like in the classroom?
Teachers insist that classroom experiences stay deeply connected to the text on the page and that students develop habits for making evidentiary argument both in conversation, as well as in writing, to assess comprehension of a text.
Students have rich and rigorous conversations and develop writing that is dependent on a common text.

38. Tips for Writing Text-Dependent Questions
Identify the core understandings and key ideas of the text
Start small to build confidence
Target vocabulary and text structure
Tackle tough sections head-on
Create coherent sequences of text dependent questions
Identify the standards that are being addressed
This is not a formula – not every text will require the same process. These are guidelines.
Questions that directly address difficult sections of the text help with breaking down complexity. Help student to extract and create meaning where they otherwise wouldn't.
How many questions is enough? It varies from text to text.
Check “alignment to the standards" last, but use the language of the standards in the questions as much as possible.
Over the next few slides we’ll see examples of text-dependent questions that address various features of the text.
Refer to the handout – “Long Guide to Creating Text Dependent Questions”

39. Core Understanding and Key Ideas
Reverse-engineered or backwards- designed
Crucial for creating an overarching set of successful questions
Critical for creating an appropriate culminating assignment
When reading a text, clarify your own understanding regarding the core understanding, themes, and key ideas, so it can serve as your guidepost for creating questions. A coherent sequences of text-dependent questions will lead students towards understanding these ideas for themselves.
In literature the core understandings and big ideas can focus on the theme, interactions of characters, events in the story, important events, or any other features that are central.
In informational texts the core understandings and big ideas can be closely aligned to the important ideas, the author’s purpose, claims, or arguments.

40. Vocabulary Which words? Essential to understanding text
Likely to appear in future reading
Words that are related to concepts students are familiar with
By teaching your students the meaning of a word that is the member of a larger family of related words, you are giving them the power to learn many words from a focus on one.
Little in reading is better documented than the links between word knowledge and successful reading and learning outcomes. Concrete words are mastered much more quickly than are abstract words. Academic words are far more likely to be abstract and will need as much attention as you can provide. These words are also the ones that students are likely to encounter over and over again.

41. Vocabulary and Text Dependent Questions
From “Hot and Cold Summer” (5th grade fictional text) “To avoid someone means to keep away from them so that you don’t have to see them and they don’t have to see you. How did the boys avoid meeting Bolivia at first?” (pg. 23)
The first example provides the definition since there aren’t enough contextual clues provided in the text for student to figure it out on their own.
Both examples use the word knowledge to ask pointed questions about the text.

42. Vocabulary and Text-Dependent Questions
From “Hot and Cold Summer” (5th grade fictional text) Re-read the last two paragraphs on page 39. Rory had a “strong suspicion”. What is a suspicion? What details in the story made Rory suspicious of Bolivia?
The second example asks the students to figure out the word in context.
Both examples use the word knowledge to ask pointed questions about the text.

43. Syntax and Text-Dependent Questions
Syntax can predict student performance as much as vocabulary does.
Questions and tasks addressing syntax are powerful.
Example:
Who are the members of the wolf pack? How many wolves are in the pack? To answer this, pay close attention to the use of commas and semi-colons in the last paragraph on pg The semi-colons separate or list each member in the pack.

44. Structure and Text-Dependent Questions
Text-dependent questions can be crafted to point students’ attention to features of text that enhance understanding such as:
- How section headers and captions lead to greater clarity/provide hints regarding what is most important in informational text
- How illustrations add to a narrative

45. Structure and Text Dependent Questions
Examples:
“Look at the illustrations on page 31. Why did the illustrator include details like the power outlets in the walls?”
“Dillard is careful to place opposing descriptions of the natural and man-made side-by-side. How does this juxtaposition fit with or challenge what we have already read? Why might she have chosen this point in the text for these descriptions?”
Text structure can be addressed through text dependent questions.
See the examples in the slide.

46. Reading Strategy Instruction
Text-dependent questions generally call on students to employ reading strategies:
Ex: inferencing, summarizing, re-reading, comprehension monitoring
Strategies are not taught in isolation.
But
The text and readers’ need to comprehend it should determine what strategies are activated.
The text itself is the driver for what strategies would logically be employed to comprehend it fully. Text-dependent questions and tasks need to be created in such a way that they activate the reading strategies that would be useful and appropriate to solve some comprehension challenge a specific text presents. Reading strategies are taught in service to the reader's comprehension of the text.
In fact, the major reading strategies are contained in the Reading Standards 2 -9 for both literature and informational text. Other high value strategies such as, comprehension monitoring and rereading for understanding, are activated throughout the process of answering the questions because the demand for text evidence pushed the reader back to the text and constantly asks for a check on understanding.
(If participants are getting stuck on this point - since it represents such a shift from current practice - it may be useful to take the anchor standards for reading and either name each one for the group or ask people to work in small groups to do it for themselves. This should help reassure teachers that by creating questions that are aligned with the standards they will get frequent opportunities to have students practice using reading strategies and can build in their customary teaching and modeling of strategies into those same organic opportunities.)

47. Culminating Tasks Should relate to core understanding and key ideas.
A coherent sequence of text dependent questions will scaffold students toward successfully completing the culminating task.
Standards-aligned culminating tasks must be text-centered since they take more time than any other individual part of the work with the text.
If done well, the sequence of questions, and students' notes from discussion and written answers to them, should provide lots of raw material for developing a solid response to a culminating writing assignment or other appropriate ending activity. This is another way text-dependent questions provide scaffolding that will help students build their capacity to approach complex and challenging text independently.

48. Culminating Tasks
Examples:
“The title of this selection is ‘Because of Winn-Dixie.' Using your answers from the questions above and class discussion, explain why this is an appropriate title for the selection. Be sure to clearly cite evidence from the text for each part of your answer.”
“Officer Buckle’s final safety tip is 'ALWAYS STICK WITH YOUR BUDDY.' How did he and Gloria each learn this lesson for themselves throughout the story?”

49. Analyzing Questions for Text-Dependency
Check for these three things:
1. Text-based focus
2. Close reading skill
3. Text-based answer pp

50. Does the question have a text-based focus?
Step 1:
Is there a particular word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph that is the focus?
Is there a connection between two parts of the text that is the focus?
Standards 4 and 5

51. Is the question pushing a student to make an inference?
Use these strategies and/or this
language!
Step 2:
Determine
Summarize
Analyze
Assess
Integrate
Delineate
Evaluate
Interpret
Standards
2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9

52. Bloom’s Taxonomy

53. Does the question require a text-based answer?
Step 3:
Focus
Specificity
Explicitness

54. Let’s Try It: Analyzing TDQ’s
Informational Text Exemplar, Grades 2-3
pp. 7-9

55. Let’s Try It: Analyzing TDQ’s
1. Analyze what the author means when she says in section 4, “to the Maasai, the cow is life.”
Evidence:
Sing to them
Give names
Shelter the young
“Without the herd, the tribe might starve.” Need them for food. pp

56. Let’s Try It: Analyzing TDQ’s
2. Summarize the story that Kimeli tells in section 9.
Evidence:
Buildings so tall they can touch the sky?
Fires so hot they can melt iron?
Smoke and dust so thick they can block out the sky?
More than three thousand souls are lost.

57. Let’s Try It: Analyzing TDQ’s
3. Explain the author’s message when she concludes the book by saying:
Because there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded,
nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort.
Use details from the text to support your answer.

58. Let’s Try It: Analyzing TDQ’s
3. Rewrite: Who is the author talking about when she says, in the last sentence of the book that there is not “a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort?” OR Explain what the author is referring to by using the words, “mighty comfort” to conclude the final sentence of the book?

59. Let’s Try It: Analyzing TDQ’s

60. Review of Writing Text Dependent Questions
Specifically ask a question that can only be answered by referring explicitly back to the text being read
Do not rely on any background information extraneous to the text nor depend on students having other experiences or knowledge
Prioritize the text itself and what students can extract from it

61. Tips for Writing Text-Dependent Questions
Identify the core understandings and key ideas of the text
Start small to build confidence
Target vocabulary and text structure
Tackle tough sections head-on
Create coherent sequences of text dependent questions
Identify the standards that are being addressed

62. Try it: TDQ’s
Using Who has Seen the Wind, generate one example of a TDQ using the checklist
Share out your example.
Use a different text using a checklist
p. 12

63. Having Students Create Text-Dependent Questions

64. Having Students Create Text-Dependent Questions

65. Final Thoughts
There is no one right way to have students work with text- dependent questions.
Providing for the differing needs of students means providing and scaffolding supports differentially - not asking easier questions or substituting simpler text.
Listening and speaking should be built into any sequence of activities along with reading and writing.
A variety of approaches is best: small groups working together question by question, pair/shares, tackling some independently through a written response, whole class discussions... These are all powerful ways to work with students on this kind of evidence gathering and careful reading.
The Common Core Standards exist for all students. We must create new and powerful ways to allow this access to all students.

66. Final Thoughts “Re-read it, think it, talk it, write it”
The CCSS require ALL students to read and engage with grade appropriate complex text regularly. This requires new ways of working in our classrooms.
Here is a link to a great article on closed reading anchor charts.
This is a great example of Close Reading anchor charts! In can be tough to teach kids how to read closely--or even to understand what close reading is. That's why we recently gathered some of our favorite anchor charts on close reading in one handy blog post. Use them as models for your own charts or lessons, or just save a talking point or two for later. And be sure to share the love with your colleagues.