CLOSE READING
Baldwin County
February 7, 2014
OUTCOMES
Participants will gain a deeper understanding
of …
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What Close Reading is, how to do a close reading, and
why it is important.
What reading, writing, and speaking grounded in
evidence from text, both literary and informational,
look like in practice.
How to incorporate Talk Moves in all content areas.
How to plan a Close Reading lesson that incorporates
text dependent questions and writing.
CLOSE READING
“Close Reading – an intensive
analysis of a text in order to
come to terms with what it says,
how it says it, and what it
means.”
Tim Shanahan
“Deep reading,” or slow reading, is a
sophisticated process in which people can
critically think, reflect, and understand the words
they are looking at. With most, that means
slowing down – even stopping and rereading a
page or paragraph if it doesn’t sink in – to really
capture what the author is trying to say. Experts
warn that without reading and really
understanding what’s being said, it is impossible
to be an educated citizen of the world, a
knowledgeable voter or even an imaginative
thinker.
-Laura Casey
HOW TO DO A CLOSE READING
1ST READ TO GET THE GIST
2ND RE-READ W/ A PURPOSE IDENTIFIED BY
THE TEACHER
3RD RE-READ TO ASK/ANSWER QUESTIONS
ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE NOTICED
CLOSE READING OF
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
1. Read
Charlotte’s Web Chapter
to get the flow of the story.
Read  with a pencil in hand

annotate the text
1
CLOSE READING OF
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
What has taken place in the story so
far? Be sure to use specific textual
evidence in your answer.
Literal
This is a story about a little girl who lives
on a farm with her mother, father, and
brother. Her name is Fern. The story
begins with Fern’s father, Mr. Arable,
setting out with an ax, and Fern asking:
(Where’s papa going with that ax?) The
story goes on to show that Fern is
terribly upset that her father is going to
kill a piglet because it is a runt and, as
he says, “A weakling makes trouble.”
Fern calls this event a terrible injustice
and persuades her father to give her the
piglet instead.
CLOSE READING OF
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
2. Reread paragraphs 4-14.
 Look for key details that might help
you determine a central message or
theme beginning to emerge.
3. Ask and/or answer questions about
 the details you’ve noticed
 how and why are these important to
the overall text?
CLOSE READING OF
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
What’s the story beginning to be
about?
Be sure to include details from the
story.
The story is starting to be about a
struggle for justice. Fern says “It’s
unfair” a couple of times. She also
says it’s the most terrible case of
injustice she’s ever heard of. Fern
tries to wrestle the ax from her
father’s hand.
CLOSE READING OF
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
How did Fern react to her father
getting ready to kill the pig?
What in the story makes you say
that?
Fern becomes extremely
upset. She is yelling and
sobbing. Fern calls it, “A
matter of life and death.”
She even compares killing
the piglet to her parents
killing her if she had been
born very small.
CCR 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.“
CCR Anchor Standard 2
“Determine central ideas or themes of a text and
analyze their development; summarize the key supporting
details and ideas.
CCR Anchor Standard 3
"Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas
develop and interact over the course of a text.“
“As you embrace high-level
comprehension and analytical
reading skills, you may need to
acknowledge that many
teachers never received any
training or practice with these
skills in their education or own
reading lives.”
Lucy Calkins
POSSIBLE THEMES IN CHARLOTTE’S
WEB
Responsibility
The
Cycle of Life and Inevitably of
Death
Growing Up
Standing
up for what you believe in
Others that are less fortunate than you
CLOSE READING OF
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
Reread Charlotte’s Web
(First 3 paragraphs on the second page)
Re-Read  with a pencil in hand

annotate the text
 identify words or phrases
that suggest feelings or
appeal to the senses
DID YOU CIRCLE, HIGHLIGHT,
UNDERLINE, OR MARGINATE ANY OF
THESE?
 Breakfast
 Smell
of bacon, coffee, damp
plaster
 Wood smoke from the stove
 Roller towel
 Light shone through his ears
CRAFT AND STRUCTURE
 Read
through the Craft and Structure
anchor standards (4-6).
 Which of the standards were we able
to address at your grade level?
INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND IDEAS
 Read
through standards 7,8,9
 How might you address these
standards using Charlotte’s Web?
 What other texts and/or sources
might be appropriate for layering?
CLOSE READING WITH
INFORMATIONAL TEXT
“Close reading is purposefully reading a text
several times in order to analyze and gain a
deeper understanding of the text.”
1st
Read = Get the gist of the text
2nd Read = Read for a purpose
3rd Read = Read to firm-up knowledge
and/or another purpose
INFORMATIONAL CLOSE READING
1st Read
Purpose: Read the Los Angeles Times article
“Vampire bat debate: To kill or not to kill” to get the
flow of the story.
INFORMATIONAL CLOSE READING
2ND Read
Purpose: Mark the main points or arguments
the author is trying to make.
After your second read, jot down two or three
arguments the text leads you to make.
MODEL
1.
State my positions or argumentsMost bats are harmless
OR
Bats are needed for research.
nd
POSSIBLE ARGUMENTS OR CONCLUSIONS
Vampire bats are dangerous to cattle.
 Vampire bats are important to research.
 People don’t know much about vampire
bats.
 Farmers should have a right to catch and kill
all the vampire bats they can.
 Vampire bats contribute to the local ecology.
 The natural habitat of vampire bats is being
destroyed.

PARTNER WORK WITH
CLOSE READING PURPOSE
Share your positions with your partner.
 As a pair, choose one to defend.

MODEL
1. The position or argumentMost bats are harmless.
2. Evidence from the article –
… out of 1,100 known bat species only three
are blood-sucking
…… zoologist describes them as peaceful and
cuddly
DEFEND WITH EVIDENCE
3rd Read
Purpose: Defend your position with at least two
pieces of evidence directly from the article or
infer from the text. Underline the textual
evidence.
After your 3rd read, write down the evidence from
the text that defends your argument.
CROSS EXAMINATION
Join up with another pair.
 Decide who is pair A and pair B.
 Pair A = Share your position and evidence to
pair B.
 Pair B = Cross examine pair A. Try to poke
holes in the other pair’s evidence.
 Switch roles.

NEXT STEP OPTIONS
A.
B.
C.
Convene with another pair and share your
argument.
Share with the whole class.
Model writing the argument with
evidence and assign students to do the
same.
STUDENT WORK SAMPLES
Work with a partner and use the rubric to assess
student writing.
Prompt:
Write an argument to defend your position. Use two
details from the text to support your argument.
Rubric:
Did I write an argument that defends a position?
Did I use two details from the text?
Do the details support my position?
RECAP- A CLOSE READING LESSON
Daily (specific) Outcome:
Cite textual evidence with the purpose of
supporting your conclusion from a text
 ELA CCR Anchor Standard
Reading Informational # 1 & 8
Speaking & Listening # 1, 3, & 4
Writing #1
 Choose a worthy text

ATTRIBUTES OF A CLOSE READING LESSON
BREAK
BOG SWEET BOG
Close reading with a Sleuth Passage in a third
grade classroom.
TALK MOVES
Revoicing
Agree/Disagree
Restating
Add on
Wait time
CLOSE READ 3RD GRADE (SLEUTH)
Video Clips –
As you observe the students, look for productive
Talk Moves that promote student discussion
about text. Highlight the “Talk Moves” on your
handout.
REFLECTION ON THE VIDEO CLIPS
Quick Write, Pair, ShareJot down one or two things you noticed about the
student discussion.
Discuss your reflections with a partner.
STUDENT WORK SAMPLES
PROMPTS FOR TEXT DEPENDENT QUESTIONS
PLANNING A CLOSE READING LESSON
Find a partner.
 Choose a grade level for planning a Close
Reading lesson using a selection from Sleuth.

PLANNING FOR A CLOSE READING LESSON
1.
2.
3.
Daily (specific) Outcome:
Cite textual evidence with the purpose of
supporting your conclusion from a text
ELA CCR Anchor Standard
Reading Informational # 1 & 8
Speaking & Listening # 1, 3, & 4
Choose the text
PLANNING FOR A CLOSE READING LESSON
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What College and Career Ready Standards will
I address?
What is my desired outcome for this lesson?
What steps will I take to reach my outcome?
How will we know when each student has met
the desired outcome?
What will I do if learning does/does not occur?
SHARE YOUR PLAN
Find another set of partners.
 Share your plan.
 E-mail your completed lesson plan to
aguy@bcbe.org.

A FINAL THOUGHT….
“If young readers do the
work of the first three anchor
standards well— comprehending,
inferring, synthesizing —then they’ll
move rapidly up levels to the kinds of
stories where paying attention to craft,
structure, and language will become
an essential part of their
everyday reading work.”
-Calkins, Ehrenworth, & Lehman, 2012
TICKET OUT OF HERE!
Quick Write- How do you plan to share the
information from today with others at your
school?