Close Reading

Why? Improve test scores Challenge students Meeting literacy standards

Text complexity Qualitative measures – Range of factors- levels of meaning, structure… Quantitative – Sentence and word length/ unfamiliar words Readers and task – What the readers bring to the table and what they can handle

What does annotating look like? Writing all over the paper!

Question stems What are the strengths and weaknesses of… What would happen if… What is another way to look at… Idea: Put questions stems on the tables?

Protocols! Everyone has favorites Similarities – READING! – WRITING – ANNOTATING

Six Levels of Questioning Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

The Question Funnel Overview- create questions, clear up most student questions, leaving difficult questions for whole group Teacher preparation: – find a short text (paragraph, graph, picture, etc.) – Find a longer text for students to annotate or use post it notes

The Question Funnel Read independently – Annotate with questions- underline, highlight, write questions Share questions with a partner – Try to answer some questions Share questions with table Share questions with whole group Thick vs thin questions

The Question Funnel Read a second article Follow steps from before CLASS DISCUSSION and time to answer/research deep questions

Examples!!

From Telling to Teaching Overview- students read more independently, the teacher monitors and questions the students instead of giving them answers

From Telling to Teaching Materials- a short text or a chunked article

From Telling to Teaching Step 1- students read the selection alone, writing/annotating what they are discovering Once all students have finished the teachers asks them to rate his/her understanding on a scale of 0-10 Step 2-3 this process is repeated two more times – 3 independent readings, writings, and ratings

From Telling to Teaching After the third reading the students write about what happened to their understanding of the text each time they read it. – What did rereading the selection do for you as a reader? – Did your ratings go up or down? Why? – In what ways can a lower rating actually mean that your understanding has improved? – List any questions you still have about the selection.

From Telling to Teaching In groups of 3-4 students discuss what they wrote Students re-rate their understanding after the group discussion The teacher leads a discussion and any unanswered questions are researched.

Lifting a Line Materials needed- one short text or a long, chunked text

Lifting a Line Protocol – Students read a text 2-3 times independently, underlining lines they feel are important or they have questions about – Students pick a line they feel is most important – Students write a paragraph about that line and give reasons why it is the most important – In groups of 3-4 students discuss their lines and any questions. They make a t-chart with similarities and differences – Groups present tcharts and different ideas – Textual evidence to support ideas – To summarize, the teacher reflects and summarizes the ideas of the group rather than trying to provide a definitive interpretation

Claims A claim is a statement of opinion or belief Thesis- singular, overachieving claim which dictates the path of argument. In most cases, a thesis requires several claims put together, to demonstrate its power.

Evidence Material from the text or outside sources Supports the claim

Questions?

Your Turn!!