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)
Meaning/Purpose: Moderately Complex
Even though My Brother Martin is a biography, this informational piece has the features of a literary text. In a typical biography, one would expect
that the author’s purpose would be to give specific information about a person’s life. In this selection, the author explains the events that took
place before MLK Jr. became famous. Therefore, the author’s purpose may not be as apparent to the reader. Additionally, this story has multiple
levels of meaning that may be difficult to identify or separate. One theme is MLK’s childhood. Another theme is perseverance and determination.
Another theme is the historical events occurring during that time period (the Civil Rights movement).
Text Structure: Moderately Complex
Even though the storyline is sequential, the text does not specify when in time the story takes place. Therefore, readers have to make connections
between events that are mentioned in the selection and draw on their background knowledge to understand the time period. Additionally, the text
structure makes it difficult to understand the selection because the author interjects facts about historical events (decades of events) within the
storyline. Moreover, the author uses illustrations to support selected parts of the text, rather than real photos, which would be expected from a
biography.
Language Features: Moderately complex
Conventionality is moderately complex; contains some abstract, ironic, and/or figurative language:
“Three peas in one pod”—page 142,
“Known far and wide”—page 142,
“These stories were as nourishing as the food before us”—page 149,
“Turn this world upside down”—page 148
Vocabulary is mostly contemporary, familiar, and conversational—rarely unfamiliar or overly academic. However, there are some words in the
selection that are specific to the time period (chifforobe drawer—page 140, Mother Dear—page 140, streetcars—page 144, Negroes—page 146).
The sentence structure is very complex due to a variety of complex sentences, clauses, and transitional words (for example, “Because of those
laws, and the indignity that went with them, Daddy preferred keeping M.L., A.D., and me close to home, where we’d be protected.”—page 144)
Knowledge Demands: Very Complex
Life experiences: Explores themes of varying levels of complexity or abstraction; experiences portrayed are uncommon to most readers—life in
the south when Jim Crow laws were in effect.
Cultural Knowledge: References to cultural themes are present in the selection (segregation, bigotry, injustice).
CCSS Focus Standards:
RL.4.1 / RI.4.1 (refer to details and examples in a text)
RL.4.2 (theme)
RI.5 (structure of events, ideas, concepts, or information)
SL.4.1 (engage in collaborative conversations)
L.4 (determine meaning of unknown words and phrases)
L.5 (demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances)
Use shorter text or excerpts of longer texts
Rachelle Ratner and Silvia Roman—Group 13
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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
Meaning: (Conceptual Understanding Examples, pg. #)

Approaching literary text that is deemed informational
(biography)

Text structure is narrative with jolts of historical facts
woven in between

Numerous themes can be inferred from the selection
CCSS Focus Standards:
L.4 (Determine meaning of unknown words and phrases)
L.5 (Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances)
Language: (Syntax, Vocabulary Examples, pg. #)

Figurative language (similes, metaphors)

Specific vocabulary relevant to the time period (1950s)
Pre teach
Figurative Language
Similes
Metaphors
Vocabulary strategies (context clues, word structure,
apposition, cognates, etc.)
Activity/Lesson
Small group
Define “figurative language” provide examples and nonexamples. Ask students to explain how the figurative
language helps them understand what someone is
saying.
First Read:
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: Vocabulary and Figurative Language
Focus CCSS: L.4 determine meaning of unknown words and phrases; L.5 demonstrate understanding of figurative language,
word relationships, and nuances
Text-Dependent Questions
Look through the text and find words and
phrases that show how the author included
words specific to the time period.
Reread the first sentence on page 142. Reread the
third paragraph.
What figurative language does the author use
Rachelle Ratner and Silvia Roman—Group 13
Evidence-Based Answers/Pg. #
Chifforobe Drawer—page 140
Streetcars—page 140
Mother Dear—page 144
Negroes—page 146
“They call me Christine and like three peas in
one pod we grew together.” Page 142
“We three stuck together like the pages in a
brand new book.” Page 142
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to describe the relationship between Christine
and her two brothers?
On page 148, according to the author, MLK Jr.
said “One day I’m going to turn this world
upside down.”
What is the implied meaning behind his
statement? Use evidence from the text.
On page 149 the author writes “Stories were
as nourishing as the food that was set before
us.”
How does this simile help you understand the
story?
It means someday he is going to do something
about the problem. The statement is made
after MLK’s mother says “because they don’t
understand that everyone is the same but one
day it will be different.” Page 148
This notion is also supported with the author
stating, “In the coming years, there would be
other reminders of the cruel system called
segregation.” Page 148
Just as food keeps the body going, these
stories inspired MLK Jr. (kept him going )
“But my brother never forgot the example of
our father, or the promise he had made to our
mother on the day his friends turned him
away.” Page 150
Close Read II
Learning Focus: Reading to determine theme(s).
Focus CCSS: Determine the theme in a selection from details in a text.
Text-Dependent Questions
Evidence-Based Answers/Pg. #
Reread the last paragraph on page 144 “ When
we were young all the kids on Auburn street
played together.”
Reread the first sentence on page 145 “Those
boys played with us in our backyard…”
The author wants us to know that Martin
Luther King Jr. was like other kids. He played
with kids in his neighborhood. Other kids in
the neighborhood went to his house to play as
well. Playing with other kids was part of his
daily life. Page 144-146
The illustration portrays Martin Luther King,
Jr. as a regular, normal boy who enjoyed
playing with other kids. The illustration
depicts the children smiling and happy. Pages
145-146
The author wants us to understand that this is
a key event for MLK. “I realize it was only a
matter of time before the generations of
cruelty and injustice Daddy had been shielding
us from broke through.” Page 147
Look at the illustration on pages 144-145.
What does the author want you to know
about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s childhood?
Reread the paragraphs on page 146 and 147.
Why does the author include this memory?
What does the author want us to understand
about the time period and the historical
implications of the time?
Rachelle Ratner and Silvia Roman—Group 13
Segregation existed during that time period,
however, MLK and his siblings had mostly
been sheltered from it. This was one of the
first times he experienced what was occurring
at that time. “Why do white people treat
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colored people so mean?” page 147.
Think about what you read on pages 144-145
and what you read on pages 146-147.
How does the change in the children’s
relationship cause the mood of the story to
change?
Think about how the mood changes in the
story.
How does the author use details in the text to
help us determine the themes in the story?
“We lived in a neighborhood…” page 144
“When we were young all the children along
Auburn Avenue played together…” page 144
“Our house was a favorite gathering place…”
page 145
These examples reflect childhood happiness.
“The boys had told my brothers that they
couldn’t play together anymore because A.D.
and M.L. were negroes.” Page 146
“…generations of cruelty and injustice” Page
147
“Why do white people treat colored people so
mean?” Page 147
These examples reflect despair over
segregation.
Possible details/themes-“One day I’m going to turn this world upside
down.” Page 148 (theme=determination)
“When we were young all the children along
Auburn Avenue played together…” Page 144
(theme=childhood)
“The boys had told my brothers that they
couldn’t play together anymore because A.D.
and M.L. were negroes.” Page 146
(theme=equality)
“And Daddy practiced what he preached. He
always stood up for himself when confronted
with hatred and bigotry…” Page 148
(theme=Like Father, Like Son)
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:
How does the author convey the themes in the story? What details in the text support the
multiple themes?
Discuss the possible themes with your group. Build a consensus around 2 themes and support
your thinking with evidence from the text.
Rachelle Ratner and Silvia Roman—Group 13
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STUDENTS FIGURE OUT
THE MEANING
sufficient context clues
are provided in the text
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
Indignity—page 144
Colored People—page 147
Streetcar—page 144
Unfair—page 144
Negroes—page 146
Injustice—page 147
Generations—page 147
Avoided—page 148
Segregation—page 148
Bigotry—page 148
Nourishing—page 149
Ancestors—page 144
Crouched—page 144
Encounters—page 148
Rachelle Ratner and Silvia Roman—Group 13
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