Tamara Honegan & Edward Allen (13)
Creating Text-Dependent Questions for Close Analytic Reading
Selection: My Brother Martin ______ by: Christine King Farris ___ Grade: 4 _Unit:2 __
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: (Briefly describe the knowledge demands the text requires of students) - Very Complex
Subject Matter Knowledge: Explores themes of varying levels of complexity or abstraction; experiences
portrayed are uncommon o most readers – life in the south when Jim Crow laws were in effect.
Intertextuality: References to cultural themes are present in the selection (segregation, bigotry, and injustice)
Text Structure: (Briefly describe the structure, organization, and other features of the text)- Moderately Complex
Organization – Moderately Complex
pp. 144 – My brother and I grew up a long time ago. Back in a time when certain places in our country had unfair
laws…
pp. 146 – Looking back, I realize that it was only a matter of time before the generations of cruelty and injustice…
pp. 148 – In the coming years there would be other reminders of the cruel system called segregation…
pp. 150 – Years would pass, and many new lessons would be learned.
Use of Graphics – Moderately Complex
pp. 140-141 – illustration show the main characters family
pp. 144-145 – illustration depicts the author’s recollection of life as a child
p. 150 – illustration in black-and-white (made to look real) depicts a historical event
p. 151 – illustration depicts the societal acceptance of blacks and whites unified
CCSS Focus Standards:
RL4.1, RL4.2, RL4.3, RI5, SL4.1, L4, L5, WS4.2, RI4.7
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.
Tamara Honegan & Edward Allen (13)
Tamara Honegan & Edward Allen (13)
Potential Challenges this Text Poses:
Meaning: (Conceptual Understanding Examples, pg. #)

Approaching literary text that may be regarded as
informational, and pulling the facts out

Following the sequence of the story that covers
decades without the use of dates
Strategies/Lessons to access complex text: Pre teach
CCSS Focus Standards: RL4.1, RI4.1, RL4.3
Explicit instruction for identifying the theme and text features
of a narrative non-fiction.
Language: (Syntax, Vocabulary Examples, pg. #)



Content-specific vocabulary
 p. 144 – indignity
 p. 147 – injustice
 p. 148 – bigotry
Pre teach
Access to various forms of biographies
Vocabulary words
Activity/Lesson



Identifies the features of biographies that are
written as non-fiction
Identify the features of biographies that are written
as narrative non-fiction
Compare and contrast the non-fiction and the
narrative non-fiction
First Read: Read through the entire text in one day.
The genre is identified as Narrative Non-fiction during the pre-teach
lesson. For the first read, have the students summarize at the end of selected paragraphs in order to determine the theme.
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: Read to determine the story elements in order to summarize the story
Focus CCSS: (RL4.3)
Text-Dependent Questions
In the beginning of the story, we learn about
Martin’s family. What family members did
Martin live with?
On page 144, how does the author describe
the setting (time and place) of the story? How
is the author’s description of the setting
different from the illustration on pages 144
and 145? How does the author explain the
disparity between the two?
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Evidence-Based Answers/Pg. #
Martin’s mother (Mother Dear), father
(Reverend King),his big sister Christine,
younger brother (Alfred Daniel),
grandmother, grandfather (Reverend A.D.
Williams), and his aunt (Aunt Ida).
The story takes place in Atlanta, Georgia a
long time ago when the laws said it was right
to keep blacks separate because of the color
of their skin. They lived in a neighborhood
that is now called Sweet Auburn. The
illustration shows all the children (blacks and
whites) playing together. The author wanted
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the reader to understand that the illustration
was her perception of what the world was
like, but the text represents the real world.
What event marks the climax of the story?
Martin’s white friends said that they could not
play with Martin and his siblings because they
were Negroes.
Reread pages 148- 149, what other reminders A shoe salesman told Martin’s father that he
of segregation does the author mention in the would only serve them in the back of the
story? How did the actions of Martin’s father
store because they were black. Another time,
affect Martin?
a police officer pulled Martin’s father over
and called him, “boy.” The stories Martin’s
father told him fueled his desire to make
change.
Look at the illustration on page 151, what does He dreamed that little black girls and little
it tell you about Martin’s dream? Explain your white girls can play together.
thinking.
Close Read II.
Learning Focus: Reading to draw inferences from the text to understand the theme
Focus CCSS:(RL4.1)
Text-Dependent Questions
Evidence-Based Answers/Pg. #
What evidence does the author provide to
Their days were filled with telling adventure
show that Martin and his siblings had a normal stories and playing with Tinkertoys,
childhood?
Monopoly, dolls, and Chinese checkers. (p.
142)
“Our best prank involved a fur piece that
belonged to our grandmother.” (p. 142)
All the children in the neighborhood played
together. (p. 144)
How does the author describe how the
On page 147, the author said, “It was a
children felt after they were told they could no crushing blow that seemed to come out of
longer play with the white children they had
nowhere.” On page 148, the author explained
played with for years?
that their mother’s explanation gave them
hope which implies that they were feeling
hopeless about the situation.
Reread the last paragraph on p. 147. What
Martin’s mother explained the laws that
explanation does Martin’s mother give to his
existed then that pertained to blacks. She
question, “Why do white people treat colored also explained that white people didn’t
people so mean?”
understand that everyone is the same, but
that they would understand one day.
What evidence does the author provide to let Each day at the dinner table, Martin’s father
the readers know that the bigotry that
shared his encounters with white people. He
Martin’s father and other colored people
told them how he stood up for what was
Tamara Honegan & Edward Allen (13)
Tamara Honegan & Edward Allen (13)
faced was a daily occurrence?
right.
What impact did Martin Sr.’s actions and
words have on Martin Jr.’s future? Cite
evidence from the story.
Martin’s father always practiced what he
preached. He always stood up for himself
when confronted with hatred and bigotry.
Martin Sr.’s words held new meaning for
Martin. Martin Jr. took on the same motto.
He made numerous of speeches and marches.
He always stood up for himself and he
practice what he preached, but on a grander
scale.
The author wanted the reader to know that
that Martin who was a regular kid, grew up to
dream a dream that turned the world upside
down, and that the reader can also. This is
one of many themes of the story.
Reread page 151. Why does the author
choose to end the story the way she did?
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:
The students will discuss with their partner the questions below. Then record their response under the My Response section of
their CC graphic organizer. The students will look for evidence in the story that answer the questions, discuss the evidence and
record it under the Evidence From the Text section of their graphic organizer. The students will then discuss the questions with
refinements to their original thought. They will then record their answer to the questions under the My Thoughts Now section of
their graphic organizer.
What lessons did Martin’s dad teach him? What details and evidence does the author use to
show how he taught him?
TEACHER PROVIDES
DEFINITION
not enough contextual
clues provided in the text
Vocabulary
KEY WORDS ESSENTIAL TO
UNDERSTANDING
Words addressed with a question or task
WORDS WORTH KNOWING
General teaching suggestions are provided in
the Introduction
p. 144
p. 146
p. 140
indignity
Negroes
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chifforobe drawer
STUDENTS FIGURE OUT
THE MEANING
sufficient context clues
are provided in the text
Tamara Honegan & Edward Allen (13)
p. 147
p. 148
p. 148
injustice
segregation
bigotry
Tamara Honegan & Edward Allen (13)
p. 144
p. 148
ancestors
pulpit