Close Reading in
History and Social Studies
6-8
A Professional Development
Opportunity for Arkansas Educators
Common Core State Standards
Agenda:
• Understand why close reading instruction is
important
• Observe modeling of a close reading lesson
• Understand how to teach close reading
• Reflect on current teaching practice
NAEP Reading Framework
4
“Read”
• The detective quickly reads the situation and
decides upon an appropriate response.
• The park ranger is always careful to read the
skies when escorting hikers into the mountains.
• The coach reads the opponents’ defense and
immediately adjusts the next play.
• The child tries to read his mother’s reaction to
see if he will be permitted to play with his
friends.
Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning, Buehl, p.3
What is Reading?
If we understand that reading is not just
“receiving a message,” but actively building
meaning upon prior knowledge using staged,
strategic thinking, then we will teach
differently.
Subjects Matter, Daniels & Zemelman p.31
Reader Behaviors
Readers develop moves, which are actions to
help readers understand and remember.
Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines, Buehl, p.224
Close Reading is…
a careful, deliberate reading of a text. It
requires paying close attention to what
you are reading and focusing in on the
details.
Close Reading is…
close sustained reading of grade-level
appropriate complex texts to examine
their meaning thoroughly and
methodically, ultimately arriving at an
understanding of the text as a whole.
Close Reading is…
• reading to infer/interpret/draw
conclusions.
• supporting arguments with evidence.
• resolving conflicting views encountered
in source documents.
• solving complex problems with no
obvious answer.
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Close Reading is NOT…
• Skimming for answers
• Surface processing
• Reading and forgetting
Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning, Buehl, p.4
Students can actively read textbooks
without closely reading them. Close
reading is not necessarily active
reading and just finding main idea or
just annotating.
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Going Into, Through, and Beyond
• Getting students “into” a text includes a
range of activities that create interest,
motivation, and receptivity.
• Students going “through” the text are
annotating, highlighting, asking questions,
and discussing.
• After reading, students go “beyond” the text
to deepen their understanding, gain new
insights, and apply their new knowledge.
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Towers of Literacy
Literary Math History
Fiction
Physical
Science
Biology
Adapted from Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines, Buehl p. 15
What does this mean for my content?
CCSS for Literacy in
History/Social Studies
Close Reading in CCSS
read closely
work diligently to understand precisely
ability to discern
focusing
reading
attention to precise detail
wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement
close, attentive reading
careful attention to specific passages
close sustained reading
“read like a
detective”
read purposefully
Close Reading of a Complex text
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/15th_century/colum.asp
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/15th_century/colum.asp
Using Close Reading
• What did you do to “work” or make
sense of the text?
• What makes this piece of text
“complex?”
Unique Aspects of History/Social
Studies Texts
Text Features
Text Structures
• Parts/components of a
book that are created to
help a reader locate and
learn information
• Various patterns of how
the text is written
Examples
•
•
•
•
•
• headings, graphics, maps,
captions, main idea
boxes, table of contents,
illustrations, colors and
symbols, timelines,
bolded words
Examples
Cause-Effect
Compare-Contrast
Problem-Solution
Concept-Definition
Goal-Action-Outcome
Establishing a Routine for
Close Reading
1.
2.
3.
4.
Pre-teach the vocabulary and concepts.
Set a purpose for reading.
Model close reading.
Provide guided practice and check for
understanding.
5. Provide independent practice.
6. Organize discussions and debates.
7. Have students write about the text.
adapted from the Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Tools
 S.O.A.P.S: Identifying speaker,
occasion, audience, purpose, and
subject
 Self-Questioning Taxonomy
 Identifying arguments and evidences
 Identifying assumptions
Model of Close Reading
“The Indians of the Six Nations
to William & Mary College”
•Lexile: 1050 = 6-8th grade
•Framework: G.2.6.2 – Social Studies 6th grade
•R.CCR.1
•RH.6-8.1
Establishing a Routine for Close
Reading
•Pre-teach vocabulary
•Set purpose for reading
•Model close reading
•Provide guided practice
•Provide independent practice
•Organize discussions
•Have students write about text
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Establishing a Routine for Close
Reading
•Pre-teach vocabulary
•Set purpose for reading
•Model close reading
•Provide guided practice
•Provide independent practice
•Organize discussions
•Have students write about text
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Establishing a Routine for Close
Reading
•Pre-teach vocabulary
•Set purpose for reading
•Model close reading using tools
•SOAPS
•Provide guided practice
•Provide independent practice
•Organize discussions
•Have students write about text
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Establishing a Routine for Close
Reading
•Pre-teach vocabulary
•Set purpose for reading
•Model close reading using tools
•Self-Questioning Taxonomy
•Provide guided practice
•Provide independent practice
•Organize discussions
•Have students write about text
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Establishing a Routine for Close
Reading
•Pre-teach vocabulary
•Set purpose for reading
•Model close reading using tools
•Arguments and Evidence
•Provide guided practice
•Provide independent practice
•Organize discussions
•Have students write about text
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Establishing a Routine for Close
Reading
•Pre-teach vocabulary
•Set purpose for reading
•Model close reading using tools
•Assumptions
•Provide guided practice
•Provide independent practice
•Organize discussions
•Have students write about text
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Establishing a Routine for Close
Reading
•Pre-teach vocabulary
•Set purpose for reading
•Model close reading using tools
•Provide guided practice
•Elvis Presley to President Richard M. Nixon
•Lexile: 970 = 6-8th Grade
• C.5.8.5 – Social Studies Framework K-8
•R.CCR.1
•Provide independent practice
•Organize discussions
•Have students write about text
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Establishing a Routine for Close
Reading
•Pre-teach vocabulary
•Set purpose for reading
•Model close reading using tools
•Provide guided practice
•Provide independent practice
•Organize discussions
•Have students write about text
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
“I didn’t know what I knew until I
talked about it.”
-seventh-grade science student
32
Establishing a Routine for Close
Reading
•Preteach vocabulary
•Set purpose for reading
•Model close reading using tools
•Provide guided practice
•Provide independent practice
•Organize discussions
•Have students write about text
Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc.
Writing in Response to text
Example:
•What did I discover about this text or
what was reinforced after I did my own
close reading?
Reflection
•Which close reading skills do I most want
my students to learn and practice?
•Which close reading tools will I model for
my students and ask them to use?
•Which steps of the close reading routine
will I utilize?
Handout adapted from the Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education, Inc
.