FROM SNORKELING to DEEP SEA
DIVING:
Breaking Beyond Surface Reading
Julie Joslin
Lisa L. McIntosh
NCDPI
The Common Core State Standards:
 Are aligned with college and work expectations
 Are focused and coherent
 Include rigorous content and application of knowledge
through high-order skills
 Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards
 Are internationally benchmarked so that all students are
prepared to succeed in our global economy and society
 Are based on evidence and research
 Are state led – coordinated by NGA Center and CCSSO
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NEW, BETTER, DIFFERENT
Fewer, Clearer, Higher
Rooted in the criteria of “fewer, clearer, higher,” the Common
Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) reflect a strong belief
that fewer core standards allow a deeper focus on essential
knowledge and skills, that clearer standards can be
implemented with rigor and instructional creativity, and that
higher standards help all students to learn deeper content
knowledge and acquire meaningful authentic skills needed to
achieve in a 21st century global society.
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College and Career Anchor
Standards for Reading K-12
Range of Reading and Text Complexity
R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational
texts independently and proficiently.
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Reading on the “Surface Level”
Activity
“How to Bartle Puzballs”
and
“Conversation Piece”
What is the difference between how you read the first piece vs. how you
read the second piece?
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ELA CC State Standards:
• bring a sharpened focus to the close
connection between comprehension of text
and acquisition of knowledge (Text-centered
activities and questions, and finding text-based
evidence are emphasized)
• teaching is not a substitute for the text
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Focus on Text Complexity
ELA CC State Standards:
• focus on short texts worthy of rereading which places a high priority on the
close, sustained reading of complex text.
• are emphatic about students reading text of an adequate range and
complexity.
• focus intently on students reading closely to draw evidence from the text
itself.
• require students to read increasingly complex texts with increasing
independence as they progress towards career and college readiness.
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“Read like a detective, write like an
investigative reporter.”
-David Coleman – co-author of ELA CCSS
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“Teachers can enhance students’ pleasure and
success in reading by showing them how to slow
down and savor what they read.”
-T. Newkirk
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CLOSE READING ACTIVITY
• Read the passage.
• What strategies do you use when you
read a challenging text?
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NOTHING can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can
be called good without qualification, except a Good Will. Intelligence wit,
judgment, and the other talents of the mind, however they may be named, or
courage, resolution, perseverance, as qualities of temperament, are
undoubtedly good and desirable in many respects; but these gifts of nature
may also become extremely bad and mischievous if the will which is to make
use of them, and which, therefore, constitutes what is called character, is not
good. It is the same with the gifts of fortune. Power, riches, honour, even
health, and the general well-being and contentment with one’s condition
which is called happiness, inspire pride, and often presumption, if there is not
a good will to correct the influence of these on the mind, and with this also to
rectify the whole principle of acting, and adapt it to its end. The sight of a
being who is not adorned with a single feature of a pure and good will,
enjoying unbroken prosperity, can never give pleasure to an impartial rational
spectator. Thus a good will appears to constitute the indispensable condition
even of being worthy of happiness.
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Close Reading
A short Prezi about how to read
closely….
Resource: Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging
Texts, 4-12 by: Kelly Gallagher
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Read the passage silently.
There are known knowns. There are things we know that we
know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are
things that we know we don’t know. But there are also
unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we
don’t know.
Donald Rumsfeld, Newsweek (2003, p. 113)
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Effective First Readings
Have you ever arrived at a destination and had no memory of how you
got there?
Sometimes a first reading can resemble this phenomena!
What did I just read?
Consider four key questions:
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Question 1: Have I provided my students with a reading
focus?
Question 2: Are my students willing and able to embrace
confusion?
Question 3: Can my students monitor their own
comprehension?
Question 4: Do my students know any “fix-it”
strategies to assist them when their comprehension
begins to falter?
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DIVING DEEPER
Students come to us with an “I read it and I’m done” mentality.
Show them the value of a second reading.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
Is this about an egg?
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Three key questions to ask students after
they have read something:
They encompass three different levels of thinking.
(Sheridan Blau)
1. What does it say? (Literal level – comprehension)
(Foundational to answering the second question)
2. What does it mean? (Interpretation level)
(More than just appreciating a good story – themes)
3. What does it matter? (Reflection)
(The heart of why they read the book)
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Student activities to help deepen understanding and
move them beyond surface reading
1. Say/Mean Chart
What it says
What it means
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2. Mystery Envelope
What is the single most important
word in this chapter?
Which character has changed the most so
far?
Why did we read this book?
Which character is most (least
believable) and why?
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3. Use metaphor to deepen comprehension.
Using metaphors requires interpretation – making students go to a
deeper level and helping students create new meanings.
a) Metaphor Poetry
Think of a something that has parts.
Metaphorically connect those parts to family members.
My family is the ocean.
My father is the ocean floor, deep and quiet, supporting us all.
My mother is……
My brother is……
My sister is….
I am……
b) Book: Shadow by Suzy Lee
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Mining the Levels of Reflection
“What does it matter?”
Humankind
Country
Community
Peers
Family
Self
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How?
• Model it
• Find strong passages for practice
• Annotate: “reading graffiti”- mark word choices, sentence patterns,
images and dialogue
• Use poetry
• Savor passages (Great beginnings and Lyrical pieces)
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Remember:
The ELA Common Core State Standards
• focus on short texts worthy of rereading which places a high
priority on the close, sustained reading of complex text.
• require students to read increasingly complex texts with
increasing independence as they progress towards career and
college readiness
• are emphatic about students reading text of an adequate
range and complexity
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Scaffolding…
helps students access
complex texts directly.
allows the reader a first
encounter with minimal
clarifications.
guides the reader with
follow-up support.
encourages re-reading.
Scaffolding doesn’t…
•reduce complexity.
•replace the text.
•tell students what they are going to learn.
Often, textbook writers have frontloaded all necessary
information to spoil any chance for intellectual discovery on
the part of the student. The CCSS wants students to have
opportunities to grapple with difficult text.
David Coleman
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“Deep reading," or slow reading, is a sophisticated process in which
people can critically think, reflect and understand the words they are
looking at. With most, that means slowing down — even stopping and
rereading a page or paragraph if it doesn't sink in — to really capture
what the author is trying to say. Experts warn that without reading and
really understanding what's being said, it is impossible to be an
educated citizen of the world, a knowledgeable voter or even an
imaginative thinker.
-Laura Casey
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Contact Information
Julie Joslin, Ed.D. Section Lead
Grades 9-12 English Language Arts Consultant
919-807-3935
jjoslin@dpi.state.nc.us
Lisa Llewellyn McIntosh
K-5 English Language Arts Consultant
919-807-3895
lllewellyn@dpi.state.nc.us
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