Vocabulary and Close Reading
March Early Release 2013
Norms
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Pausing
Paraphrasing
Posing Questions
Putting Ideas on the Table
Providing Data
Paying Attention to Self and others
Presuming Positive Intentions
Agenda and Objectives
• Utilize “Paint Chip” vocabulary
• Understand Tier 2 and Tier 3
Vocabulary
• Understand how to use “signposts” for
close reading
• Practice using “Contrasts and
Contradictions” for close reading
Paint Chips Vocabulary
• https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/b
uild-student-vocabulary
CCSS:
• L.6/7/8.6. Acquire and use accurately
grade-appropriate general academic and
domain-specific words and phrases;
gather vocabulary knowledge when
considering a word or phrase important to
comprehension or expression.
Tiered Vocabulary
Tier 1: Words students encounter everyday
Tier 2: Sophisticated, in written texts,
nuanced
Tier 3: Domain-specific vocabulary
Metacognitive Markers
• Read Appendix A
• Use ! to mark Ahas and areas you
agree with
• Use ? to mark questions and areas
of confusion
Steps for Teaching
• Find a text that meets your needs (standards,
content and language objectives)
• Identify Tier 2 & 3 Words
– Determine which words need to be pretaught
– Determine how and teach them
• Read the text closely
• Discuss the text using text-dependent
questions
Discuss
Explain which tier of vocabulary is
most important to teach explicitly.
Common Core State Standards
• RL.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis
of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
• RL.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence
to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the
text.
• RL.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most
strongly supports an analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inference drawn from
the text.
Signposts by Beers and Probst
Signpost
Question
Why this question
Contrasts and Why would the
Contradictions character act
(feel) this way?
Contrasts and contradictions
show us other aspects of a
character or setting. This
question encourages
conversation about character,
motivation, or the situation he is
in.
Aha Moment
An Aha moment reveals change.
This question focuses on that
change—for the character of the
setting.
How might this
change things?
Signposts by Beers and Probst
Signpost
Question
Why this question
Tough
Questions
What does this
question make
me wonder
about?
Tough questions always reveal internal
conflict and understanding that conflict
generally offers insight into the theme. We
want readers thinking about the big issues—
the ones that share the tough questions. By
asking themselves this anchor question,
readers are making a connection between
the author’s thinking and their own thoughts.
Words of
the Wiser
What’s the life
lesson and how
might it affect
the character?
Words of the Wiser suggests the theme. We
use this question to help the reader think
about this theme in the context of the
character’s life. We hope that students might
then think of it in terms of their own life, but
didn’t want to start with that question that
might be too probing for some students.
Signposts by Beers and Probst
Signpost
Question
Why this question
Again and
Again
Why might the
author bring this
up again and
again?
Recurring images, events, or words
offer insight into character motivation
or theme; this question encourages
readers to speculate on that insight.
Memory
Moment
What might this
memory be
important?
Memories generally explain character
motivation. They might explain why a
character acts a certain way, or they
might serve as guidance for a
situation that a character eventually
finders herself in. If they offer insight
into the theme, they often become
Again and Again moments. This
question asks students to consider
the relationship between the memory
and the character or plot.
Signposts Example for Soldier’s Heart
Location
Signpost
Notes
Forward xiii
Words of the Wiser “War is always, in all ways, appalling.”
Sets the stage for the tone of the book.
Foreshadows.
Ch. 1
Again and Again
Emphasis and repetition that Charley is
not a man yet and lies about his age to
join the soldiers. Important because he
didn’t have to enter the war, but chose
to do so.
Ch.2
Again and Again
Drilling and sweating and miserable and
hot—important to the setting of the story
p15
Tough Questions
“Would they really be able to keep their
slaves?” Signals issues of the war and
mindset of those involved. Charley
wasn’t fighting for or against slavery.
Signposts Example for Soldier’s Heart
Location
Signpost
Notes
p18
Tough Question
“What would happen to them in the
winter?” Character development—
Charley is kind.
Ch 1-3
Again and Again
“This ain’t going to be much of a war.”
Foreshadowing
Ch 3 p20
Again and Again
“I’m a man” This war made Charley
grow up before he would have without
the war. He is no longer a boy
anymore.
Ch 4 p21
Contrasts and
Contradictions
“Make it stop now!” After insisting it
wouldn’t be much of a war, he is
screaming for it to stop.
Ch 4 p25
Tough Question
“How can You let this happen?”
Mortified by the sights and events,
Charley questions God. The war has
shaken his core beliefs.
Contrasts and Contradictions
Anchor
Chart
Contrasts and Contradictions
Unexpected
action or
feeling
Pg #
What was
Why do you think the
unexpected about character acted/felt
the
that way?
action/feeling?
The woman
drags the boy
home with her
2
He had just tried to
steal from her, but
she wants to take
him home with her.
He was a young boy,
dirty—she might have
felt bad for him. She
said, “Your face is
dirty…Ain’t you got
nobody home to tell you
to wash your face?”
Contrasts and Contradiction
• Read the rest of the story
• Mark any places where you felt there was
a contrast or contradiction
• Discuss with your group to complete the
GO
Contrasts and Contradictions
• How can using contrasts and
contradictions or any of the signposts
help you teach students to use text
evidence?