and
Close Reading
AGENDA
• What do the Common Core State Standards
for English Language Arts and Literacy in
History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical
Subjects say about literacy in the content
areas?
• How can content teachers adjust to the
complex text requirements of common core?
• Close reading tools for comprehending
complex text
• What is disciplinary reading and how will it
look in your classroom?
• Resources
3
Close Reading of
Complex Text
“A significant body of
research links the close
reading of complex text—
regardless if 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 Model Content Frameworks for ELA/Literacy p. 6
Students Who are College and Career
Ready:
• demonstrate independence,
• build content knowledge,
• respond to demands of audience, task,
purpose, and discipline,
• comprehend and critique,
• value evidence,
• use technology and digital media, and
• come to understand other perspectives and
cultures. CCSS, page 7
PARCC Model Content Frameworks
“Close, analytic reading stresses engaging with a
text of sufficient complexity directly and
examining its meaning thoroughly and
methodically, encouraging students to read and
reread deliberately.”
PARCC MCF, page 6
http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-content-frameworks
What CC Literacy Standards
are NOT
• … just having students
read and write more
• … assigning more
vocabulary words to
look up and write
definitions for
• … conducting basic
literacy techniques to
struggling readers
during social studies
• … giving students Venn
diagrams and sentence
diagramming
assignments in social
studies
• …assigning more “What
did you do during …”
essays
What They Are
• Modeling and
scaffolding what
reading in social
studies looks and
sounds like
• Teaching students
what is
important/vital
information for a
historian, geographer,
economist, politician
• Using the text book as
a starting place not
the definitive source
• Reading a wide variety
of texts
– Maps, charts, tables,
graphs, photographs,
pictures, cartoons,
journals, letters,
documents, artifacts
K-5
“…students must read widely and deeply
from among a broad range of high-quality
increasingly challenging literary and
informational texts.”
Note on Range and Content, CCSS, page 10
6-12
“…students must grapple with works of
exceptional craft and thought whose range
extends across genres, cultures, and
centuries.”
Note on Range and Content, CCSS, page 35
Key Features of the Standards
Reading: Text complexity and the growth
of comprehension
“…equal emphasis on the sophistication of
what students read and the skill with which
they read.”
CCSS Introduction, page 8
“Staircase” of Increasing Text
Complexity
• CCSS Reading Standard 10
• CCSS, Appendix A, page 10
CCSS, K-5, pages 11-12
CCSS, 6-12, pages 37-38
Text Complexity
Qualitative
an attentive
human
reader
Quantitative
Reader and
Task
computer
software
Educators’
professional
judgment
is often best measured by
Qualitative Measures
Considerations:
1. Levels of meaning or
purpose
2. Structure
3. Language conventionality
and clarity
4. Knowledge demands
CCSS, Appendix A, pages 5-6
Quantitative Measures
Considerations:
• Word length
• Word frequency
• Word difficulty
• Sentence length
• Text length
• Text cohesion
CCSS, Appendix A, page 7
Reader and Task
Considerations:
• Motivation
• Knowledge and experience
• Purpose for reading
• Complexity of task
assigned regarding text
• Complexity of questions
asked regarding text
CCSS, Appendix A, pages 7-8
The Big Shifts
• Appropriate Text
Complexity
• Increased Reading
of Informational
Texts
• Disciplinary Literacy
• Close Reading
• Text-dependent
Questions
• Academic
Vocabulary--Tier 2
& Tier 3 words
•Short & Sustained Research
Projects
•Argumentative Writing
17
CCSS Implications for
Classroom
• More nonfiction • Higher text
complexity
• More research
– begins in earlier
• More teacher
grades
collaboration
– both short and
extended
research
–across grades
–across content
areas
CCSS Implications for
Classroom
• Everyone a literacy • Teaching students to
read as
teacher
– reading and
writing emphasis
• Teachers
tell/summarize
less and use more
scaffolding
– Scientists
– Historians
– Mathematicians
– Economists
– Geographers, etc.
• More responsibility
placed on students
for their learning
Reading more complex
texts requires TIME -• for teachers to model how to
comprehend
• for students to learn how to
extract information
• for students to practice
• for students to share
Close Reading Requires:
•Understanding your purpose in reading
•Understanding the author’s purpose in
writing
•Seeing ideas in a text as being
interconnected
•Looking for and understanding systems of
meaning
•Engaging a text while reading
•Getting beyond impressionist reading
•Formulating questions and seeking answers
to those questions while reading
Establishing a Routine for
Close Reading
1. Pre-teach the vocabulary and concepts.
2. Set a purpose for reading.
3. Model close reading.
Establishing a Routine for
Close Reading
4. Provide guided practice and check for
understanding.
5. Provide independent practice.
6. Organize discussions and debates.
7. Have students write about the text.
Adapted from the Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc
Comprehension Strategies All Good
Readers Use
Pre-reading
• Review vocabulary
• Make predictions
• Review text features
(brainstorm, predict, skim, assess prior knowledge)
Comprehension Strategies All Good
Readers Use
While reading
• Monitor for understanding; reread if needed;
summarize
• Draw a visual representation of the unfolding
argument
• Ask questions about the main ideas as they unfold;
infer
• Make note of unfamiliar words, concepts, ideas to
research later
Comprehension Strategies All Good
Readers Use
After reading
–Summarize and restate the text’s
main points
–Compare notes with other students
–Discuss what you read
–Reread, confirm predictions, reflect,
question
Strategies for Close Reading
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Story Mapping
SOAPS
Text-Self-World Connections
Three Levels of Questions
Arguments and Evidence
Appeals – Logical, Ethical, Emotional
Assumptions
Reading for SOAPS
• Speaker –
– Who is the Speaker? The voice behind the text; what
do you know/learn about him/her from reading the
text? What authority does this person have to deliver
the message?
• Occasion –
– What is the Occasion? The time and place of the
piece; the situation that provoked or moved the
writer to write?
• Audience –
– Who is the Audience? The group of readers to whom
the piece is directed. How is the message tailored to
the specific needs of a group?
Reading for SOAPS
• Purpose –
• What is the Purpose? The reason behind the
text; why it was written? What is the goal of the
speaker? Why does this text exist? What does
the author want the reader to think or do as a
result of reading this?
• Subject –
• What is the Subject? The general topic, content,
ideas contained in the text. Is it specific or
general, abstract or concrete, current or
timeless?
Connections
Four fundamental ways we relate to text:
1. Text to Self - How does this text relate to me?
2. Text to Itself - What are the distinguishing
features of this text?
3. Text to Text - How is this text similar to other
texts?
4. Text to World - Why does it matter for people to
read this text?
Three Levels of Questions
• Level One Questions: Right There
The answers to these questions can be found
explicitly in the text. These are most often who,
what, when, and where kinds of questions. They
work on the factual level and establish evidence of
basic information.
• Level Two Questions: Think and Search
The answers to these questions are not found
explicitly in the text – the reader has to infer,
interpret, or analyze. They are what the text
suggests but does not say. These are often how and
why questions.
Three Levels of Questions
Level Three Questions: Author and Me
The answers to these questions go beyond the text
and are often found in parallel situations outside
the text. The reader has to analyze, synthesize,
and/or evaluate, using the text as a guide to
explore larger issues. They often require outside
knowledge or experience to answer.
SCAFFOLDING
Definition - a temporary structure put
up to allow you to work the text in a
way that wouldn't be possible w/o the
scaffold.
• It is NOT a reading assignment,
which treats kids as
independent readers.
Close reading
34
Types of reading
required
Literary fiction,
Math
Science - biology,
phys. sci.,
history, social
studies,
economics,
technical subjects,
health, fitness,
humanities – art,
music
DISCIPLINARY
LITERACY
INTERMEDIATE
LITERACY
streamlining and
multitasking phase
BASIC LITERACY
Doug Buehl (2011) taken from
Shanahan and Shanahan (2008)
Informational texts/literary nonfiction
•
•
•
•
•
Personal essays, opinion pieces, speeches
Essays about art or literature
Biographies and memoirs
Journalism (newspapers in the classroom)
Historical, scientific, technical, or economic
accounts written for a broad audience
(Nonfiction sources in library)
• Digital sources (like EBSCO magazine index)
Common Core State Standards, p. 57
Disciplinary Literacy
• Predominates middle school to high
school
• What does it mean to read, write, and
think through a disciplinary lens?
• Navigate texts from unrelated &
distinct disciplines
– math, science, history, geography,
music, art
Disciplinary literacy
• Specific ways of reading and writing in
the disciplines of history, social studies,
science and technical subjects
• What if I'm expected to behave as a
certain kind of thinker? Scientist,
historian, mathematician…
38
Student Lens to Historian Lens:
Student lens
Historian lens
• Fact collecting
• Notice why’s and how’s
• Textbook
• Notice who’s, what’s,
where’s, and chronology
of events
• Read a variety of texts
critically
• Notice cause/effect
relationships and
hypotheses
• Truth statements
• Critically examine
Disciplinary Reading Range and Content
• Critical to building knowledge in content areas
• Requires an appreciation of norms &
conventions of each discipline
• Necessitates an understanding of domainspecific words and phrases
• Calls for an attention to precise details
• Demands the capacity to evaluate intricate
arguments, synthesize complex information ,
and follow detailed descriptions of events and
concepts
New ADE Wiki on CCSS
http://ccssarkansas.pbworks.com

AETN Videos
http://ideas.aetn.org/commoncore/
Free resources abound
•
•
•
•
Library media wiki Hooray for Books
Social Studies Place wiki
Library of Congress (LOC.gov)
“What Every Educator Needs to
Know…” resources pages (Lucy)
document
• Achievethecore.org
Arkansas Traveler data base
More free stuff
for lesson plan makeovers
•
•
•
•
43
Thinkfinity, ReadWriteThink
SAS Curriculum Pathways
Primary Sources—loc.gov
www.lexile.com/analyzer
Maggie Herrick
Margaret.herrick@arkansas.gov
501-682-6584
&
Shirley Fetherolf
Shirley.fetherolf@arkansas.gov
501-682-