1. How to read FOR 8th grade AND BEYOND
Ms. Russell
8th Grade ELA

2. GOOD READERS Use COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES
Monitoring, activating schema, questioning, determining importance, inferring, visualizing, and synthesizing

3. Monitoring for Meaning
Good readers…
Keep track of their understanding as they read
Know what their purpose is as they read
Know how to solve problems and change their own thinking when meaning/comprehension breaks down
Carry on an inner conversation with themselves when they read

4. Using and Creating Schema
If new learning is like a crystal, the schema is the chandelier on which it can hang and make sense.
Successful readers need to access their schema (background knowledge).
Good readers make different kinds of connections:
Text-text
Text-self
Text-world

5. Asking Questions Before, during, and after reading, good readers…
Clarify meaning
Make educated guesses about the text
Determine the author’s purpose, style, content, or format
Locate a specific answer
Good readers understand that many of the most exciting questions are left to the reader’s interpretation of the text.

6. Determining Importance
Highlighting is easy. Determining what to highlight is hard!
When reading nonfiction, strong readers look at:
Changes in fonts
Signal words
Set your purpose for reading before you highlight or annotate the text!
Illustrations
Graphics
Text organizers
Text structures

7. Making Inferences Info from the text + your schema =
a personal and unique interpretation of the text
Good readers can…
Create meaning that is not stated out right in the text or shown in an illustration
Draw conclusions from the text
Make reasonable predictions, test, and revise those predictions throughout the reading
Remember, reapply, and revise what they have learned to analyze and reflect on the text

8. Using Sensory and Emotional Images
Good readers can…
Visualize by creating a movie in their mind
Use images to draw conclusions, to create unique interpretations of the text, to recall significant details, and to recall the story or information long after they have finished reading.
Adjust their images as they continue to read and incorporate new information from the text.

9. Synthesizing
Info from the text + info from related texts + reader’s schema and ideas = SYNTHESIS
Good readers…
Are aware of changes in their ideas and conclusions about a text
Keep thinking and revising their thoughts on the text as they read and gain more information, which then leads to a new understanding of the text

10. GOOD READERS KNOW HOW AND WHEN TO USE CLOSE READING
BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER READING

11. What is Close Reading?
Close Reading is a skill that requires students to determine purpose and notice features and language used by the author so that they can think thoughtfully and methodically about the details in the text and why they were used.

12. Key steps to close reading
Identify the purpose of this reading.
Answering Text-Dependent Questions (Discussion Questions)
Literary Analysis Essay
Research
Read the text thoroughly for key ideas and details.
What is this text about?
What is the main idea or theme?
How are events or ideas related in the text?
How does the authors
Reread with your purpose in mind looking at the craft and structure of the text.
What should I annotate, highlight, or take notes on based on my purpose?
Looking at the author’s vocabulary choices, text structure or text features, how has the author’s style impacted the meaning of the text?
What figurative language or literary devices did the author use, and how does it impact my understanding of the text?
During the final rereading (if needed), read with the purpose of combining your knowledge with information you gained from the text to extend your thinking.

13. MULTIPLE Lenses for reading
focus on most important elements of a text (Key Ideas and Details) focus on how the text works (Craft and Structure) focus on what the text means to the reader and how it connects to other experiences (Integration of Knowledge and Ideas)
READING
READING
READING

14. WHY IS CLOSE READING IMPORTANT?

15. FIRST Reading KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS
refer to the text and find specific examples that strongly support my thoughts and inferences about a text.
use details from the text to determine the theme or message of a story.
give an unbiased summary of a story.
find more than one central idea of a text and explain how the ideas develop throughout the text.
explain how dialogue and actions in a story work to develop the story.
explain how a character’s actions can develop the plot and reveal more about the character.
compare and contrast individuals, ideas and events in a text.

16. SECOND Reading CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
figure out the deeper meanings of words and phrases as they are used in a text.
identify several types of figurative language in a text.
identify how certain word choices influence the meaning and tone of a text.
identify how the author's analogies or allusions to other texts influence meaning and tone.
compare and contrast two or more texts.
explain how the structural differences of two or more texts contribute to their meaning and style.
break a paragraph into sentences to identify and analyze their functions within the paragraph.
explain how sentences support the main idea of a paragraph.
identify the point of view of each of the characters in a text.
identify the difference between the character's and the reader's points of view.
analyze how differences in the character's and the reader's points of view create suspense or humor.
determine an author's point of view in a piece of informational text and explain how the author acknowledges and responds to others’ opinions.

17. INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND IDEAS
THIRD Reading
INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND IDEAS
discuss how a film or live production of a story or drama is similar to or different from the text.
evaluate how the director's choice to make changes to the text in a film or live production impacts the story.
identify several ways to present on a topic (ex: print or digital text, video or multimedia).
evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of presenting information in various formats
outline and explain specific claims and supportive evidence in an argument.
locate and judge arguments or claims in a text and determine whether or not there is enough relevant evidence to support the argument.
analyze a fiction text and connect its themes, events or characters to a mythical, traditional or religious piece of writing.
analyze how a mythical, traditional or religious piece of writing is changed into a modern work.
I can analyze two or more texts on the same topic to identify examples of conflicting facts or interpretation.

18. Why should this matter to me?
“A significant body of research links the close reading of complex text—whether the student is a struggling reader or advanced—to significant gains in reading proficiency and finds close reading to be a key component of college and career readiness.” (PARCC, 2011)
“It’s not only about words or text on a page… It’s about “reading” cues and clues, signs and signals, in ways that can help students not only understand the world but also make their own choices and meaning. Much like math, close reading—in its broadest sense—is a skill all of us use pretty much daily, whether we are making sense of the news, watching a commercial, considering a contract, just doing our jobs, or making profound decisions about who and what to trust or believe.”
For more information about how close reading is used in the real world, please use the following site to see personal stories of adults with different jobs.