Creating Text-Dependent Questions for Close Analytic Reading
Selection: _My Very Own Room___ by _Amanda Irma Perez__ Grade: _3_ Unit _1_
Initial Planning
Identify the Core Understandings and Key Ideas of the Text
As in any good backward mapping process, teachers should start by identifying the key insights they want students to understand
from the text. Keeping the major points to be made in mind is crucial for crafting an overarching set of successful questions. This
step is also critical for creating a means to check for student understanding.
Identify Lesson Focus: (Review Qualitative Measures)
Knowledge Demands
VERY COMPLEX – Life experiences portrayed may or may not be common to readers. Also, there are many references to cultural
elements such as family relationships and other family members coming from outside the country.
Meaning/Purpose
MODERATELY COMPLEX: More than one level of meaning with levels clearly distinguished from each other; theme is clear, but
may be conveyed with some subtlety (you need to read the entire story to really understand the character’s motivation for wanting
personal space
Major theme: family relationships
Supporting themes: immigration, sacrificing for the group, personal identity
CCSS Focus Standards:
3.RL3.1 – Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
3.RL3.2 - Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or
moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
3RL3.3. – Describe characters in a story (e.g. their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the
sequence of events.
Use shorter text or excerpts of longer texts
Supporting Student Needs
Considerations for Reader and Task
To really understand a complex text, the reader will have to read it more than once, to make sense of what the author is saying
and to glean the details at both the explicit and implicit levels. First and foremost, close reading demands a willingness to return
to the text to read part or even all of it more than once, ultimately instilling habits of mind in approaching text. Planning for
multiple reads as well as multiple purposes for reads is essential in order to support all student needs.
Potential Challenges this Text Poses:
Strategies/Lessons to access complex text: Pre teach
-preview text; picture walk
Meaning: (Conceptual Understanding Examples, pg. #)
-sequence story; plot structure
-figurative language
-plot structure
-analyzing details from the illustrations
-Illustrations role in understanding text
Language: (Syntax, Vocabulary Examples, pg. #)
-Vocabulary: although words aren’t academic they are pieced
together in a way that sets a tone and is descriptive (“That
yellow piece of yarn was magical” pg. 128) (“It was as dainty as
a beautiful ballerina…” pg. 133)
Pre teach
CCSS Focus Standards:
L3.4a Sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word
or phrase
L3.5a-c Figurative language, word relationships, and nuances of
word meanings
RL3.7 illustrations contributes
Activity/Lesson
Plot Structure
Figurative language
Role of illustration
First Read:
Sequence; Deconstruct plot structure
Similes
Illustration analysis
(One or Two Days) Read through text to get overall story. Pgs. 116-125 and pgs. 126-134. Students complete with
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partner/small group a plot structure graphic organizer. The main ideas and key details need to be identified for the 1st read for
general understanding. Students retell story with partner. (RL3.1)
Close Reads
Create Coherent Sequence of Text-Dependent Questions
Create Coherent Sequences of Text-Dependent Questions – Start Small to Build Confidence
The opening questions should help orient students to the text, and be specific enough to answer so students gain confidence.
The sequence of questions should not be random but should build toward more coherent understanding and analysis to ensure
that students learn to stay focused on the text to bring them to a gradual understanding of its meaning.
Think of ways to maximize student engagement.
Close Read I
Learning Focus: Cultural elements role in family dynamics
Focus CCSS: 3.RL3.1, 3.RL3.2
Text-Dependent Questions
Evidence-Based Answers/Pg. #
Who lives in the house?
Their large family and visitors, p. 119
The author writes “There was always a long line
to use the bathroom, but the toilet seat was
always warm.” (pg. 119) What was the author
trying to convey? Use the illustration and
phrases of the text to support your answer.
Pg. 118-119 Illustration of crowded bed
1st line: I woke up one morning…
pg. 119 Our tiny house shared by 8 of
us….relatives came from Mexico…
Why do they receive visitors?
Temporary housing until employment is found,
p. 119
What impact does housing visitors have on
family life? Cite evidence from text.
Why does the author compare the family to a
“mighty team of powerful ants”? Cite
evidence.
Pg. 123 storage of family items
Re-read paragraph on pg. 130. Compare and
contrast Blue Chip stamps and money.
How does this symbolize, or represent the idea
of family sacrifice?
Pg. 130 “They were like little prizes that could be
used as money at special stores.”
Pg. 133 shows that they pulled resource together
to get girl lamp
Pg. 126-127 examples of family helping each
other
Close Read II.
Learning Focus: Families collaborate to help each other
Focus CCSS: 3.RL3.2, 3.RL3.1, and 3RL3.3
Text-Dependent Questions
Evidence-Based Answers/Pg. #
Study the illustration on pg. 121. What do you
think is happening in this illustration? How
does the author show what the characters’ are
feeling.
How does Mama respond to her about having
She wants to be alone. Reflecting. Mom is
looking at her own wondering if she’s ok.
Worried about her daughter. Father is unaware.
(Note the halo on mother.)
Mama explains that she needs to save family
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her own room?
What makes her change her mind?
How would you describe the girl’s relationship
with her mom? Cite evidence from the text.
How would you describe the family
relationships?
What is the author’s message in telling the
story?
belongings that might be needed some day p.
123
“Then she saw the determination on my face and
the tears forming in my eyes” (p. 124, part 1)
Loving, caring, etc…She understands her
daughter…
Pg. 122 Mom comes to see her in the storage
Pg. 124 Sees determination and allows her to
move into storage room
Pg. 133 She reads her mind and calms her
worries
They take care of each other and work together
to help the girl
Pg. 134-5 reads to siblings
p. 128-9 measuring bed
pg. 126-7 paint room
Families help each other.
Checking for Understanding
How will you know that learning has occurred? Planning for a means to check student understanding is crucial. Refer back to the
Lesson Focus to plan intentionally to check for student understanding.
Describe how you will check for student understanding: Written recount with message
What is the author’s message and how is it developed in the story? Cite specific examples.
TEACHER PROVIDES
DEFINITION
not enough contextual
clues provided in the text
Vocabulary
KEY WORDS ESSENTIAL TO
UNDERSTANDING
Words addressed with a question or task
Flour sacks pg. 122
Sewing machine pg. 123
WORDS WORTH KNOWING
General teaching suggestions are provided in
the Introduction
Separate pg. 122
Determination pg. 124
Storage pg. 122
Exact pg. 134
Ruined pg. 124
Luckiest pg. 136
Dragged pg. 126
Bulging pg. 126
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STUDENTS FIGURE OUT
THE MEANING
sufficient context clues
are provided in the text
Jabbing pg. 118
Tiny pg. 119
Crooked pg. 121
Porch pg. 124
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