Close Reading Presented by: Lancaster School District CIA Department

WHAT is Close Reading? “The careful and purposeful interpretation of a text, wherein which readers pay close attention to the way ideas unfold as they are read.” – “An intensive analysis of a text in order to come to terms with what it says, how it says it, and what it means.” – Timothy Shanahan

WHY Close Reading?

YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE Which CCSS Anchor Standards Describe Reading? CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.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. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

Close reading truly gives students the tools necessary to master CCSS ELA Anchor Standard 10 YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5 Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.6 Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

DOK is written into the CCSS 7% of the ELA CCSS Standards max out at Level 1 12% of the ELA CCSS Standards max out at Level 2 55% of the ELA CCSS Standards max out at Level 3 25% of the ELA CCSS Standards max out at Level 4 Therefore, if you are teaching the standards as they are written, the DOK level will naturally be elevated.

- Hess’ Cognitive Rigor Matrix

Close Reading of text is not only, or even primarily, an English language arts strategy. It is an effective strategy for deepening content knowledge and learning to read like an expert in all academic disciplines. That being said…

READING IN MATHEMATICS Mathematical Practice Standards MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. MP 3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others MP6: Attend to precision: Communicate precisely using clear definitions (Students should be expected to use the proper mathematical language.)

Close Reading in Mathematics Students learn to use language to focus and work through problems, to communicate ideas coherently and clearly, to extend their thinking and knowledge and understand their own problem-solving and thinking processes. - Martinez and Martinez (2001) Research showed that even a brief program centered on helping students distinguish the mathematical usage of “small” words can significantly improve student mathematics computation scores. - Kathryn Sullivan (1982)

When planning a Close Read, carefully select your text… Literature Informational Text Short stories Short articles Fables Biographies Poetry Personal narratives Scenes from plays Speeches Myths Historical documents Math Math Word problems Word problems a text worth reading related to your unit of study complex enough to push students

Where can you find your text? A few suggestions… – (requires a free account) – – – –

Refer to Appendix B Stories Poetry Informational Text

Read, Re-Read, Re-Read Again!

First Reading: Key Ideas and Details Students “scrape the surface” in this reading, connecting their background knowledge with the text and focusing on key ideas and details. After a first reading, students can discuss the text in small groups or with a think-pair-share. This allows the teacher to determine if the students understand the main idea of what they have read.

Second Reading: Craft and Structure This time, students dig a little deeper, rereading a paragraph or meaty “chunk,” focusing on text features, organizational patterns, and content vocabulary the author included. Give students one or more text dependent questions to focus on before they begin their second reading or guide their reading by having them look for specific things. Listen to discussions, following the second read, to assess understanding and who needs to dig deeper and more carefully.

Third Reading: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas The third reading goes even deeper, requiring students to synthesize and analyze information and make connections to other texts or pieces of media, as well to their life or the world around them. Students can record their thinking in written form using graphic organizers, reading journals, sticky notes, etc. Seeing the students' thoughts in writing is one way to assess whether they have a thorough, usable understanding of the text, or if they are still stuck at the simplistic or literal level.

What close reading look like? 5th Grade Example: 2nd Grade Example:

Five close reading strategies to support the Common Core

HOW to Closely Read… Strategy 1: Number the paragraphs The Common Core asks students to be able to cite and refer to the text. One simple way to do this is by numbering each paragraph, section or stanza in the left hand margin. When students refer to the text, require them to state which paragraph they are referring to. The rest of the class will be able to quickly find the line being referred to.

HOW to Closely Read… Strategy 2: Chunk the text When faced with a full page of text, reading it can quickly become overwhelming for students. Breaking up the text into smaller sections (or chunks) makes the page much more manageable for students. Students do this by drawing a horizontal line between paragraphs to divide the page into smaller sections. Where to chunk can be determined by the teacher or the student depending on their grade or skill level

HOW to Closely Read… Strategy 3: Underline and circle… with a purpose Telling students to simply underline or circle “the important stuff” is too vague. “Stuff” is not a concrete thing that students can identify. Instead, direct students to underline and circle very specific things. Think about what information you want students to take from the text, and ask them to look for those elements. What you have students circle and underline may change depending on the text type.

Strategy 3- Purposefully Underline/Circle Guiding Suggestions: Providing students with a specific thing you want them to underline or circle will focus their attention on that area much better than “underline the important information”. When studying an argument, ask students to underline “claims”. We identify claims as belief statements that the author is making. Students will quickly discover that the author makes multiple claims throughout the argument. When studying poetry, students could underline the imagery they find throughout the poem. Have students circle “Key terms” in the text. Key terms could be defined as words that: 1. Are defined. 2. Are repeated throughout the text. 3. If you only circled five key terms in the entire text, you would have a pretty good idea about what the entire text is about. Ask students to circle the names of sources, power verbs, or figurative language.

HOW to Closely Read… Strategy 4: Left margin: What is the author SAYING? It isn’t enough to ask students to “write in the margins”. We must be very specific and give students a game plan for what they will write. This is where the chunking comes into play. In the left margin, ask students to identify the main idea or summarize each chunk. Demonstrate how to write summaries in 10- words or less. The chunking allows the students to look at the text in smaller segments, and summarize what the author is saying in just that small, specific chunk.

HOW to Closely Read… Strategy 5: Right margin: Dig deeper into the text In the right-hand margin, direct students to complete a specific task for each chunk. There are many things students can write in the margins. However, we must model and teach these strategies so that students will have an idea of what to write when they are on their own.

Strategy 5- Right Margin Suggestions Use a power verb to describe what the author is DOING. (For example: Describing, illustrating, arguing, etc..) Note: It isn’t enough for students to write “Comparing” and be done. What is the author comparing? A better answer might be: “Comparing the character of Montag to Captain Beatty”. Represent the information with a picture. This is a good way for students to be creative to visually represent the chunk with a drawing. Ask questions. This can be a struggle for many students, as they often say they don’t have any questions to ask. When modeled, students can begin to learn how to ask questions that dig deeper into the text. Use these questions as the conversation driver in a Socratic Seminar.

Next up… Text-dependent Questioning Be on the lookout for a quick survey that addresses questioning

Resources simple-close-reading-strategies.htmlhttp://iteachicoachiblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/five- simple-close-reading-strategies.html close-reading.htmlhttp:// close-reading.html template http:// template