7 th -8 th Grade
Secondary Pre-Service
Elk Grove Unified School District
English-Language
Arts
LaRae Blomquist
Jennifer Lawson

Historical Reference
Trainings Preparing for The CCSS:
• Pre Service 2012
• January 2013 Release day

GRR is not always linear!
Pre Service
2012

ELA CCSS Release Days
Winter 2013
• Speaking and Listening Standards as foundational for all instruction
• Reading literature and creating text dependent questions
• Reading informational text and defining close reading using Saying-Doing graphic organizer
• Connecting reading to writing…with a research layer
• Brief overview of the shifts in assessment (Smarter
Balanced)

Implications for Diverse
Learners
English Language
Learners
Students with
Disabilities
Underperforming
Groups
Pro-social Interactions and practice
Academic Language practice
Synthesizing Information
Communicating in a variety of contexts

 Implement close reading instruction with various text mediums
 Infuse structured student interaction into instruction of close reading
 Connect reading instruction, speaking and listening, and writing

New Evaluation Form

Your Role
Today
Structure of the Day
• Active participant (as a
“student” )
• Critical consumer of resources
• Consider diverse learners
• We will participate as students
• We will debrief as teachers o
CCSS lens o GRR lens
• We will continue examining materials in
“chunks”

CPL Accompanying
Resources
Your gift with purchase!
• Odell teacher instructional materials
• Student texts
• CPL created prompts and graphic organizers
• Editable resources for optional use

But Wait! There’s More!
Order by August 28 th and each student will receive his/her OWN copy of
Odell texts!

Odell Units
• Aligned to CCSS and teaches close reading
• Developed by New York
Regents as free curriculum
• More curriculum is in development

Text Overview
CONTENTS:
•Text titles
•Authors
•Citation info
•Lexile level
•Odell writing task
•Extended reading

Unit Overview
Each part of the unit is intended to explicitly and gradually teach how to approach, question, and analyze text.

we found…
• An excellent variety of grade-appropriate
informational text.
• A good model of a
close reading unit.
• An expanded definition of “text”.
• Opportunities for collaborative work we did not find…
• Detailed strategies for instruction (e.g.,
SSI, annotation).
• Opportunities for more substantial writing tasks.
• Graphic organizer support for all close reading tasks.

“Close Reading”
What is it?
• Reading for the gist/central idea
• Re-Reading
• Re-Reading
• Re-Reading
What does the text reveal to us?

Purpose for Close
Reading
Deep understanding – getting to the heart of the text
– Content meaning
– Organization/structure
– Author’s purpose
– Integration of ideas
– Informed personal decisions

Implications for Diverse
Learners
English Language
Learners
Students with
Disabilities
Underperforming
Groups
The lessons are targeted and specific:
– vocabulary, syntax, and language
– deepening understanding of the content
– critical thinking skills for comprehending texts

Where to Begin?
Classroom Lesson One: What is close reading?
Close reading is…
1. Approaching texts
2. Questioning texts
3. Analyzing Details
These are steps we take with each text.
And throughout the process…
Communicating what you learned
• Through written marginalia
• Through partner and classroom discussions
• Through graphic organizers
• In formal written responses (on demand and process)

Assessing Student
Progress: Writing
– Approaching texts
(meta-cognitive prompts)
– Questioning texts
(student generated questions)
– Analyzing Details
(using a graphic organizer and/or paragraph writing)
– Communicating what you learned
• Look at student marginalia
• Class discussions, Socratic Seminars
• Collect and assess graphic organizers
• CCSS writing rubric for standards 1, 2, and 3

Menu of Prompts
• The prompts provide direction for your lesson design (a compass!)
Read through these prompts to orient yourself.

Approaching Texts
Reading Purpose - Reading for the gist
Photo 1:
– What is the text mainly about?
– What stands out to me as I examine the text?

Read for the Gist

Approaching Texts
Reading Purpose: reading for the gist
Photo 1
Pair-Share
Partner A: What is the text mainly about?
Partner B: What stands out to me as
I examine the text?

Questioning Texts
What is this photo communicating about immigration?

Table Share Protocol
• Your group is your grade level team
• Each of you gets a number
(1,2,3,4…)
• We will call on your grade level team with our popsicle sticks.
• A different number will respond each time your school is called.

Questioning Texts

Third Read: Analyzing
Photo 1
Analyzing based on text evidence.
NOTE: Opposing conclusions may be supported!

Third Read:
Examining Photo 1
I Do/We Do

Repeat!
Photo 2
Analyzing a Text

Check for Understanding
Writing Task
What is the message conveyed in this photo?
Photo 1– You do it together
Photo 2 – You do it alone

Teacher Debrief
 How were these common core standards reflected in the activity this morning?
 Where was GRR evident?
Table Talk

1. First read: explicit understanding
2. Next reads: inferential understanding for deeper learning

Odell’s Guiding Questions for Good Readers
Approaching
Questioning
Analyzing
Communicating Throughout

What it is
• Putting pencil to paper/active reading
• Making meaning of text
• Purpose-driven
• Individual
What it isn’t
• Highlighting for highlighting’s sake
• An obstacle
• Random
• Conformist

Split Table Groups
Text
6
Texts
Text 6 :
H.G. Wells The Future in
America
Text
7
Text 7 :
Mary Antin The Promised
Land

Approaching Texts
Reading Purpose Reading for the gist with annotation (RI 1)
– What is the text mainly about?
– What stands out to me as I examine the text?
First Read:
Approaching Text 6 & 7

Some Quick Ways to Check for
Student Understanding
•
Whip Around (with a select group)
• Pair-Share
• Whiteboards
• Ticket in/out the door
• Numbered Heads Together
• Jigsaw Gist Summary(by paragraph)
• Pieces of a Pie
Communicating Throughout

Questioning Texts
Reading Purpose: Annotate considering the following questions (RI 4)
Texts 6 (Wells) & 7 (Antin)
Second Read:
Questioning Texts 6 & 7
• What words or phrases stand out to me as I read?
• What words or phrases are powerful to me or unique?
• What do the author’s words cause me to see or feel?

Analyzing Texts
Reading Purpose: Analyze text to examine how the author uses language to convey meaning (RI 1,4; L5).
Third Read:
Analyzing Texts 6 & 7

Model
Continue to analyze the text by completing
one row of this graphic organizer.
You may work alone or in partners

Synthesizing Texts
Reading Purpose: Synthesize texts to examine how the author’s differ in their points of view (R9).
Fourth Read:
Synthesizing Texts 6 & 7

Let’s share your analysis
Debrief

Teacher Debrief
 As a teacher, what challenges with vocabulary do you anticipate for your students?
 How were these common core standards reflected in the activity this morning?
Table Talk

break

Getting Your Student
Consumables:
Ordering date: Aug. 28 via 7-12 ELA Steering
Rep
 Take time to review student texts.
 Notify your site’s Steering rep. if you wish copies.
 Site rep. will complete order form (hard copy or electronically) and bring/send to LaRae
Blomquist on Aug. 28.
 Any alternative site without Steering rep should designate one person from site to complete order form and submit to LaRae by Aug. 28.

Text 3: Deconstructing
History: Ellis Island
Reading Purpose – Reading for the gist with annotation (RI
1)

Text 3: Deconstructing
History: Ellis Island
Viewing Options:
1. Just watch with guiding questions in mind
2. Take notes (words and phrases or ideas that stand out)
Remind students that they
WILL view it again.

Questioning Texts
Reading Purpose: Analyze film to examine how the author uses images with language to convey meaning (RI 1,7).
Guiding Question : How does the use of the graphics, colors, images, etc. along with the written word deepen your understanding of the overall meaning?

Analyzing Texts
Reading Purpose: Analyze film to examine how the author uses images with language to convey meaning (RI 1,7).
Think-Pair-Share : What purpose does selecting the pictures, statistics, music, etc. serve to impact the reader’s understanding of immigration?

Teacher Debrief
What strategies would you use for this type of medium in your classroom?
Table Talk

Approaching Texts
Students can use metacognitive
reflections to communicate to their teacher (and to themselves) how they approached a text.
• What strategies did they use?
• What questions did they ask?
• To what extent did they apply effective effort?

Teacher Debrief
In what way is this prompt different from or similar to prompts we have used in the past?

Student Lesson
Jacob Riis: Description of Immigrants …
First Read: RI 1 gist (consider providing chunks)
Second Read: RI 2 annotate and summarize the chunks
Third Read: RI 4 graphic organizer with analysis of text

Chunking the Text
We chunk texts to… Teacher prep required …
• make the information more accessible for students
• Selection of standard(s) to address based on text
•
• ease students anxiety about challenging texts allow for students to make meaning of partto-whole.
• Close reading of text to determine best place to chunk (remember your diverse learners)

Chunking Strategies
• Natural breaks in texts (like paragraphs and subtitles)
• Rhetorical choices
• Shifts in tone
• Saying-Doing Chart
• Say-Do-Mean

Chunking the Text
Text 2: Riis
Purpose: Read for the gist (RI 1)
First Read
In anticipating your students needs, where would you chunk the text? why?
Second Read
Consider your diverse learners

Third Read: Analyzing
Text
What details about the “newcomers” are revealed throughout the reading?
How does word choice impact the overall meaning?
RI 4

Teacher Debrief
Put on your diverse learner ‘hat.’
How would the chunks you selected support diverse learners?

The BIG Picture

Menu of Prompts
• The prompts provide direction for your lesson design (a compass!)
Read through these prompts to orient yourself

What strategies did we use to help students closely read?
• Annotation
• Graphic organizer
• Collaborative work
• Checks for Understanding
• Sentence frames
• Writing tasks/Assessments
• Chunked texts

• Student consumables
• Midyear training coming up
• Odell website
• EGUSD Blog

Closure – This hasn’t been our experience as past learner
Based on what you learned today, how will you incorporate these materials in your instruction?
Table Talk

C/PL Evaluation
Please take some time to respond to the evaluation and survey provided.

Getting Your Student
Consumables:
Ordering date: Aug. 28 via 7-12 ELA Steering
Rep
 Take time to review student texts.
 Notify your site’s Steering rep. if you wish copies.
 Site rep. will complete order form (hard copy or electronically) and bring/send to LaRae
Blomquist on Aug. 28.
 Any alternative site without Steering rep should designate one person from site to complete order form and submit to LaRae by Aug. 28.