Closing In on Close Reading, Text
Dependent Questions, and
Rigorous Reading:
Accessing Complex Texts
Dr. Sheree Bryant
Griffin RESA
Standards
 Anchor Standard 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.
 Anchor Standard 10: Read and comprehend complex
literary and informational texts independently and
proficiently.
Essential Question
How can reading closely and
comprehending complex texts
support and improve
comprehension?
Closing In on Close Reading Rigorous Reading
I Choose C
Standards Review – Anchor College and Career Readiness
Standards (CCR)
The What and The How
Defining the Big Ideas
Background Knowledge
Lexile and Readability Resources
Vocabulary
Text Complexity: Three Part Model
Close Reading
Differentiating Learning
Scaffolding Instruction
TKES
Text Dependent Questions
informational and Literary
I Choose C Revisited
To Reach the Learning
Targets the Teacher Needs
to…
•
•
•
•
•
Establish learning goals
“Can Do Standards”
Check for understanding
Provide feedback
Align future instruction with student
performance
TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY
“I do it”
Focused InstructionPurpose
Guided
Instruction Modeling
“We do it”
Collaborative
Independent
“You do it
together”
“You do it
alone”
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
A Structure for Instruction that Works - Gradual Release
Anchor Standard 1.
Read closely to
determine what the text says explicitly and to
make logical inferences from it; cite specific
textural evidence when writing or speaking to
support conclusions draw from the text.
Anchor Standard 10. Read and
comprehend complex literary and
informational texts independently and
proficiently.
Assessing Texts
 Quantitative measures
 Qualitative values
 Task and reader considerations
• Density and
Complexity
• Figurative
Language
• Purpose
• Standard English
• Variations
• Register
Levels of
Meaning
Structure
Language
Convention
and Clarity
Knowledge
Demands
• Genre
• Organization
• Narration
• Text Features
• Graphics
• Background
• Prior
• Cultural
• Vocabulary
Levels of Meaning and Purpose
• Density and complexity
• Figurative language
• Purpose
Background Knowledge
 Background knowledge is a key
component of comprehension and
understanding.
 Background knowledge connects
reader task, purpose and text.
Levels of Meaning and Purpose
Is it about talking
animals, or the USSR?
Is it entertainment,
or political satire?
Is it
straightforward, or
ambiguous?
1370L
Grades 1112
Author’s Purpose
• Allegory for tolerance
• Mirrored events of early Civil
Rights movement (1961)
530L
Grades 2-3
“Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches
Had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches
Had none upon thars. Those stars weren’t so big.
They were really so small
You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all..”
But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, ‘We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the
beaches.’
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d
snort
‘We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!’
And whenever they met some, when they were out
walking,
They’d hike right on past them without even talking.”
Complex themes
• Relationship
between love and
pain
• Masculinity
• Loyalty and war
730L
Grades 2-3
Structure
• Genre
• Organization
• Narration
• Text features and graphics
Structure
Changes in narration,
point of view
Changes in font signal
narration changes
Complex themes
560L
Grades 2-3
Structure
• Stream of
consciousness
narration
• Unreliable narrators
• Nonlinear structure
• Time shifts written in
italics
870L (grades 4-5)
Language Conventions
• Standard English and
variations
• Register
Language Conventions
Non-standard English usage
“Out in the hottest, dustiest part of
town is an orphanage run by a
female person nasty enough to
scare night into day. She goes by the
name of Mrs. Sump, though I doubt
there ever was a Mr. Sump on
accounta she looks like somethin’
the cat drug in and the dog
wouldn’t eat.”
(Stanley, 1996, p. 2)
AD 660L (Adult-directed)
Knowledge Demands
• Background knowledge
• Prior knowledge
• Cultural knowledge
• Vocabulary
Background Knowledge
 Background knowledge is a key
component of comprehension and
understanding.
 Background knowledge connects
reader task, purpose and text.
Knowledge Demands
Domain-specific vocabulary
(radioactive, acidity,
procedure, vaccination)
Background knowledge
(diseases, safety risks,
scientific experimentation)
1100L
Grades 6-8
Importance of Vocabulary
 “If “Word Poverty” is not addressed it doesn’t
matter what bar the new standards set.”
Kelly Gallagher, 2013
Kids age 3 from Well off Families have a
vocabulary of 1116 words, from working
class a vocabulary of 749 works and from
poor families 525 words. Kindergartners
from poverty families know 10,000 fewer
words. Education Week, Feb. 2013
Vocabulary
 There is a positive correlation between vocabulary size in
12th grade and the level of attainment in college.
 Word poverty cannot be overcome without more reading,
more books – complex, simple, recreational books, more
magazines, more newspapers, more Reading in all contents.
Comparison of Former and CCR-Aligned Lexile Ranges
Former Lexile Range
Grade Band
K-1
2-3
4-5
6-8
9-10
11-CCR
CCR Aligned Lexile Range
N/A
450
725
420
820
645
845
740
1010
860
1010
925
1185
960
1115
1050
1335
1010
1220
1185
1385
Simply assigning hard books
will not ensure that students
learn at high levels!
Close
reading is
only a
PART
of high
quality
instruction
Use a short
passage
Re-reading
“Read with a pencil”
Text-dependent questions
Give students the chance to struggle a bit
Creating a Close Reading
A Close Reading
• The Wind One Brillant Day
Text-dependent Questions
 Answered through close reading
 Evidence comes from text, not
information from outside
sources
 Understanding beyond basic
facts
 Not recall!
The Lost Button
Text Codes
 √ When you read something that makes you say, “Yeah, I
knew that” or “I predicted that” or “I saw that coming.”
 X When you run across something that contradicts what
you know or expect.
 ? When you have a question or need clarification.
Text Codes
 ! When you discover something new, Surprising, exciting, or
fun that makes you say cool, whoa, yuck, no way, awesome.
 When you read something that seems important, vital, key,
memorable.

When the reading makes you understand something.
Text Codes
When you have a connection between the
text, and your life, the world or other
things you’ve read.
ZZZ This is boring. I’m falling asleep.
Progression of
Text-dependent Questions
Whole
Opinions,
Arguments,
Across
texts
Entire text
Intertextual
Connections
Inferences
Segments
Author’s Purpose
Paragraph
Vocab & Text Structure
Sentence
Key Details
Word
Part
General Understandings
General Understandings
 Overall view
 Sequence of
information
 Story arc
 Main claim and
evidence
 Gist of passage
 A Closer Look
General Understandings
Retell the story in order, using the words
beginning, middle and end.
Key Details
 Search for nuances in meaning
 Determine importance of ideas
 Find supporting details that support
main ideas
 Answers who, what, when, where,
why, how much, or how many.
Key Details in Kindergarten
 How long did it take to go from a hatched egg to a
butterfly?
 What is one food that gave him a stomachache? What
is one food that did not him a stomachache?
It took more than 3
weeks. He ate for one
week, and then “he
stayed inside [his cocoon]
for more than two
weeks.”
Foods that did not give
him a stomachache






Apples
Pears
Plums
Strawberries
Oranges
Green leaf
Foods that gave him a
stomachache










Chocolate cake
Ice cream
Pickle
Swiss cheese
Salami
Lollipop
Cherry pie
Sausage
Cupcake
watermelon
Vocabulary and Text Structure
 Bridges literal and inferential
meanings
 Denotation
 Connotation
 Shades of meaning
 Figurative language
 How organization
contributes to
meaning
Vocabulary in Kindergarten
How does the author help us to understand what
cocoon means?
There is an illustration of the cocoon,
and a sentence that reads, “He built a
small house, called a cocoon, around
himself.”
Author’s Purpose
Genre: Entertain? Explain? Inform?
Persuade?
Point of view: First-person, third-person
limited, omniscient, unreliable narrator
Critical Literacy: Whose story is not
represented?
Author’s Purpose in Kindergarten
Who tells the story—the narrator or the caterpillar?
A narrator tells the story, because
he uses the words he and his. If it
was the caterpillar, he would say I
and my.
Inferences
argument in persuasive
text, each idea in informational text,
each key detail in literary text, and
observe how these build to a whole.
Probe each
Inferences in Kindergarten
The title of the book is The Very
Hungry Caterpillar. How do we know
he is hungry?
The caterpillar ate food every day “but
he was still hungry.” On Saturday he ate
so much food he got a stomachache!
Then he was “a big, fat caterpillar” so
he could build a cocoon and turn into a
butterfly.
Opinions, Arguments, and
Intertextual Connections






Author’s opinion and reasoning (K-5)
Claims
Evidence
Counterclaims
Ethos, Pathos, Logos
Rhetoric
Links to other texts throughout the
grades
Opinions and Intertextual
Connections in Kindergarten
Narrative
Informational
Is this a happy story or a
sad one? How do you
know?
How are these two
books similar? How are
they different?
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Prepare for and participate in collaborations with
diverse partners, building
on each others’
ideas and expressing their own clearly
and persuasively.
Talk occurs on grade
level topics,
texts, and issues.
K-2 Features
•
•
•
•
Following the rules of discussion
Moving from participation to turn taking
Sustaining discussion through questioning
Adult support
3-5 Features
•
•
•
•
Preparation for discussion
Yielding and gaining the floor
Posing and responding to questions
From explaining own ideas to explaining the
ideas of others
A Close Reading of
“Salvador, Late or Early”
(Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, 1991)
Thank you!