Close Reading
Presented by: Lancaster School District CIA Department
WHAT is Close Reading?
“The careful and purposeful
interpretation of a text, wherein
which readers pay close attention to
the way ideas unfold as they are
read.” – www.teachingthecore.com
“An intensive analysis of a
text in order to come to
terms with what it says, how
it says it, and what it
means.” – Timothy Shanahan
To read closely means to gain the
meaning of the text and how it works
from an analysis of the text itself, with
little or no outside information. Such
reading includes reading and rereading,
weighing words and structures, to try to
crack an author’s code. This self
contained and self-reliant approach is
the one now being emphasized by
Common Core.
WHY Close Reading?
• to build the habits of readers as they
engage with complex texts
• to build their stamina and skills so they
can do so independently
• Common Core Standards and the
SBAC assessment demand it
Which CCSS Anchor Standards
Describe Reading?
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.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.
YOUR TOPIC GOES HERE
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret
words and phrases as they are used in a
text, including determining technical,
connotative, and figurative meanings, and
analyze how specific word choices shape
meaning or tone.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5 Analyze the
structure of texts, including how specific
sentences, paragraphs, and larger
portions of the text (e.g., a section,
chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each
other and the whole.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.6 Assess how
point of view or purpose shapes the
YOUR
content TOPIC
and style ofGOES
a text. HERE
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10 Read and
comprehend complex literary and
informational texts independently and
proficiently.
Close
reading
truly gives
students the
tools
necessary to
master
CCSS ELA
Anchor
Standard 10
DOK is written into the CCSS
• 7% of the ELA CCSS Standards max out at Level 1
• 12% of the ELA CCSS Standards max out at Level 2
• 55% of the ELA CCSS Standards max out at Level 3
• 25% of the ELA CCSS Standards max out at Level 4
Therefore, if you are teaching
the standards as they are
written, the DOK level will
naturally be elevated.
- Hess’ Cognitive Rigor Matrix
That being said…
Close Reading of text is not only,
or even primarily, an English
language arts strategy.
It is an effective strategy for
deepening content knowledge
and learning to read like an
expert in all academic disciplines.
READING IN MATHEMATICS
Mathematical Practice Standards
MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MP 3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning
of others
MP6: Attend to precision: Communicate precisely using clear
definitions (Students should be expected to use the
proper mathematical language.)
Close Reading
in Mathematics
Students learn to use language to focus and work
through problems, to communicate ideas coherently
and clearly, to extend their thinking and knowledge
and understand their own problem-solving and
thinking processes.
- Martinez and Martinez (2001)
Research showed that even a brief program centered
on helping students distinguish the mathematical
usage of “small” words can significantly improve
student mathematics computation scores.
- Kathryn Sullivan (1982)
When planning a Close Read,
carefully select your text…
• a text worth reading
• related to your unit of study
• complex enough to push students
Literature
Informational Text
Short stories
Short articles
Fables
Biographies
Poetry
Personal narratives
Scenes from plays
Speeches
Myths
Historical documents
Math
Word problems
Where can you find
your text?
A few suggestions…
–
–
–
–
–
http://www.readworks.org/books/passages
(requires a free account)
http://go-elem.grolier.com
http://www.highlightskids.com/articles
http://teacher.depaul.edu/mainnavigator.html
http://www.ncsu.edu/project/lancet/forms.html
Refer to Appendix B
Stories
Poetry
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf
Informational
Text
Read,
Re-Read,
Re-Read Again!
First Reading:
Key Ideas and Details
• Students “scrape the surface” in this
reading, connecting their
background knowledge with the text
and focusing on key ideas and
details.
• After a first reading, students can
discuss the text in small groups or
with a think-pair-share. This allows
the teacher to determine if the
students understand the main idea
of what they have read.
Second Reading:
Craft and Structure
• This time, students dig a little deeper,
rereading a paragraph or meaty
“chunk,” focusing on text features,
organizational patterns, and content
vocabulary the author included.
• Give students one or more text
dependent questions to focus on before
they begin their second reading or
guide their reading by having them look
for specific things.
• Listen to discussions, following the
second read, to assess understanding
and who needs to dig deeper and more
carefully.
Third Reading:
Integration of Knowledge
and Ideas
• The third reading goes even deeper,
requiring students to synthesize and
analyze information and make
connections to other texts or pieces of
media, as well to their life or the world
around them.
• Students can record their thinking in
written form using graphic organizers,
reading journals, sticky notes, etc.
• Seeing the students' thoughts in writing
is one way to assess whether they have
a thorough, usable understanding of the
text, or if they are still stuck at the
simplistic or literal level.
What close reading look like?
• 5th Grade Example:
• 2nd Grade Example:
Five close
reading
strategies to
support the
Common
Core
HOW to Closely Read…
Strategy 1: Number the paragraphs
The Common Core asks students
to be able to cite and refer to the
text. One simple way to do this is by
numbering each paragraph, section
or stanza in the left hand
margin. When students refer to the
text, require them to state which
paragraph they are referring to. The
rest of the class will be able to
quickly find the line being referred
to.
HOW to Closely Read…
Strategy 2: Chunk the text
When faced with a full page of text,
reading it can quickly become
overwhelming for students. Breaking up
the text into smaller sections (or
chunks) makes the page much more
manageable for students. Students do
this by drawing a horizontal line
between paragraphs to divide the page
into smaller sections.
Where to chunk can be determined by
the teacher or the student depending
on their grade or skill level
HOW to Closely Read…
Strategy 3:
Underline and circle… with a purpose
Telling students to simply underline or
circle “the important stuff” is too vague.
“Stuff” is not a concrete thing that
students can identify. Instead, direct
students to underline and circle very
specific things. Think about what
information you want students to take
from the text, and ask them to look for
those elements. What you have
students circle and underline may
change depending on the text type.
Strategy 3- Purposefully Underline/Circle
Guiding Suggestions:
Providing students with a specific thing you want them to
underline or circle will focus their attention on that area
much better than “underline the important information”.
•
When studying an argument, ask students to underline
“claims”. We identify claims as belief statements that the
author is making. Students will quickly discover that the
author makes multiple claims throughout the argument.
•
When studying poetry, students could underline the
imagery they find throughout the poem.
•
Have students circle “Key terms” in the text.
•
•
Key terms could be defined as words that: 1. Are defined.
2. Are repeated throughout the text. 3. If you only circled
five key terms in the entire text, you would have a pretty
good idea about what the entire text is about.
Ask students to circle the names of sources, power
verbs, or figurative language.
HOW to Closely Read…
Strategy 4:
Left margin: What is the author SAYING?
It isn’t enough to ask students to “write in
the margins”. We must be very specific and
give students a game plan for what they will
write. This is where the chunking comes into
play.
In the left margin, ask students to identify
the main idea or summarize each chunk.
Demonstrate how to write summaries in 10words or less. The chunking allows the
students to look at the text in smaller
segments, and summarize what the author
is saying in just that small, specific chunk.
HOW to Closely Read…
Strategy 5:
Right margin: Dig deeper into the text
In the right-hand margin, direct students to
complete a specific task for each chunk.
There are many things students can write in
the margins. However, we must model and
teach these strategies so that students will
have an idea of what to write when they are
on their own.
Strategy 5- Right Margin Suggestions
• Use a power verb to describe what the author is
DOING. (For example: Describing, illustrating,
arguing, etc..) Note: It isn’t enough for students to
write “Comparing” and be done. What is the author
comparing? A better answer might be: “Comparing
the character of Montag to Captain Beatty”.
• Represent the information with a picture. This is a
good way for students to be creative to visually
represent the chunk with a drawing.
• Ask questions. This can be a struggle for many
students, as they often say they don’t have any
questions to ask. When modeled, students can
begin to learn how to ask questions that dig
deeper into the text.
•
Use these questions as the conversation driver in
a Socratic Seminar.
Next up…
•Text-dependent
Questioning
•Be on the lookout
for a quick survey
that addresses
questioning
Resources
• http://iteachicoachiblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/fivesimple-close-reading-strategies.html
• http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/2012/06/what-isclose-reading.html
• https://www.engageny.org/
• http://www.slideshare.net/KMP444/close-readingtemplate-16734919
• http://cialancsd.org/dok-depth-of-knowledge/