Signed, Sealed, Delivered….
Close Reading Strategy
for Pre-AP /AP
Language and Literature Courses
Letitia Hughes
Barren County High School
Glasgow, KY
Close Reading Activity using Thematic
Envelopes to Track Passages
Let’s TROUBLESHOOT….
On the Post-It Poster, record some
areas of concerns/ troubles, you or
your students have when it comes to
close reading of a longer work.
TROUBLE…..
Do your students become overwhelmed
when looking for passages for close
reading?
Do you find that you as the teacher select
the passages for class analysis rather than
the students taking the lead?
Are some of your students’ novels
brimming with post-its while others have
nearly non-existent annotations?
Help has arrived….
This session will offer you a teaching
strategy to guide students in tracking
passages ….
for class analysis
selecting essay data to use with the
claim, data, warrant format
Socratic seminar
and much more.
Purpose:
This activity provides:
1. an analytical focus for students while
reading any long work of either fiction or
nonfiction or drama
2. opportunities for formative assessment
of a student’s close reading of the text
3. categorized quotations suitable for use
with a variety of summative assessments
The Envelope Strategy:
1. Identify central themes and
elements of significance in a core
novel or play or nonfiction wok
2. Type up each theme with a brief
explanation and discussion of its
scope in the text.
Where appropriate, ask leading
questions that cue students to attend
to subtlety and nuance.
3. Label envelopes with the themes,
topics, and elements you would like them
to track.
4. Distribute an envelope to each student.
5. Instruct the students to record on index
cards or slips of paper cited quotations
(page number, chapter number, speaker
name - to help them relocate the passage if
necessary at a later date) that are relevant
to the focus identified on the front of the
envelope.
Tips…
Envelope Thread Tip: Use literary sites and
teacher resources to develop the envelope
threads.
Cost and Time Saving Tip: Require
students to bring in their own envelopes.
Pass out the strips of paper with the topics
on them. Pass out a glue stick per row and
have them glue down the strip.
Bonus: It’s near impossible to Spark note
the contents on an entire envelope.
Some Opportunities for
Formative Assessment:
Simply count the number of quotations in the
envelope at various intervals to gauge if reading is
happening.
The kinds of quotations will also be quite telling
about the depth of thought the student is bringing
to his or her reading.
Formative feedback can be offered about the need
to find passages that probe the idea of the prompt,
rather than just containing general references to
the envelope topic.
Group Work:
Put students in groups, (either all
students with the same envelope
focus or in a mixed group,) and have
them share the quotations they have
chosen.
Have the students justify their
choices. Provide feedback about
depth and relevance.
Allow the quotations to suggest group
and class discussion about the novel.
Quiz Time….
Use quotations from the envelope to
generate formative quotation analysis-style
quizzes.
As a quiz grade, “Open your envelope,
select X number of passages and write an
analysis of the passages.
As a quiz grade…. I take up envelopes
and pass them back out to kids ensuring
they have a new topic and …. “Open your
classmate’s envelope, select X number of
passages and write an analysis of each of
the passages” Then return it to original
owner.
Presentations…
Have the students, (either individually or in
groups,) present the quotations to the class.
This provides opportunities for formative feedback
about presentation skills.
You could have the students practice incorporating
media into a presentation by having the students
integrate a thematically related film or audio clip
into their presentation, or you could ask them to
prepare two to three Power Point slides to assist
them as they explain their chosen passages.
Ex: The Crucible Fallacy Projects
Ad Hominem



Latin for “to the man”
A fallacy of logic in which a person’s
motive or character is attacked rather
than the person’s actions or argument
Problem: People are falsely attacked
based on people’s false or proper
judgment of character
Ad Hominem
Examples



Politicians are often attacked because of
their personalities or views
People use bias opinions of people as
excuses to attack their motives and
arguments
People often base their opinions on
politicians’ character flaws rather than
stances on political issues
Crucible Example
John Proctor
Act 2
Pg. 198-201
Hale: Twenty-six time in 7 month, sir. I must call that rare.
Will you tell me why you are so absent?
Proctor: Mr. Hale, I never knew I must account to that man
for I come to church or stay at home. My wife were sick
this winter.
 Proctor was attacked on his Christian character rather
than his argument and actions. He was attacked based
on not attending church, not baptizing his youngest son,
and knowledge of the commandments.

Butcher Paper Essays:
After we completed reading the novel, I put them
into groups and each group took all their
envelopes for that one topic and quickly
reviewed all the slips of paper inside.
Then, they had to create a meaningful thesis
statement about that topic and write it across the
top of a piece of butcher paper.
Then they categorized the quotes from the
envelopes in order to support that thesis in
multiple ways.
Once they had some "categories" and set aside
duplicates, they created topic sentences and wrote
those on the butcher paper. CLAIM
Butcher Paper Essays Cont..
Then the group taped/glued the slips of
paper that supported each of those topic
sentences onto the butcher paper below
the topic sentence. DATA
So we ended up with giant "outlines" of
meaningful "novel as a whole" analysis.
It was interesting to see the various ways
that they could come about making a point
of it all.
SAMPLES:
Ironically, as kids wrote on
different colors, some neatly
typed, some scratched on
post-its, some on colors,
some on paper torn apart
unevenly... it looked like a
"stitched-together quilt” on
the butcher paper!
Think Pair Share….
Put kids with the same topic together
and have them synthesize what they
have tracked and develop seminartype questions in order to lead a
discussion on their topic.
Analysis of Syntax and Diction
Analysis of syntax and diction in a passage on
smart board. We alternate between envelopes
and analyze a passage as a class on the smart
board.
Ex: While reading To Kill a Mockingbird, I
selected a student’s envelope and then the
passage about the cemetery beside Cal’s
church. The description of the tombstones,
graves, etc. is long and involved but the last
sentence says “It was a happy cemetery.” We
analyzed the paradox and syntax.
This set the precedence for students to pick a
passage on certain days and type it up to show
on the smart board and lead the class in the
analysis of the passage.
Other uses on your handout…
Summer Reading Assignments
In Class Timed Essays
Whole group Socratic sessions,
where students can use their
envelopes.
What students have to say about
envelopes…
“Envelopes helped me look at the text
on a deeper level and helped me
organize my thoughts for my essay. It
was great to see the connections
between the novel and the universal
ideas.”
Tiana Sheehan
Former Lang/ current Lit student
Raven, a former Lang and current
Lit student says…
“ The envelope strategy helped me for
many reasons. The first reason is by
having one topic on the envelope, it
helped me to focus on one thing at a
time with out being overwhelmed.
Secondly, the envelope is a great way
to stay organized. Lastly, the things I
put in the envelopes really made me
think about what I read.”
“The envelope activity made me
take a closer look into what I was
reading. With the envelopes, I was
reading for a purpose that helped
me to understand the deeper
meaning of the novel or work as a
whole.”
Jessica Van Buren
Former Lang / current Lit student
“Envelopes gave me better insight
into the story. Some things came up
for discussion through envelopes that
I never thought about.”
Colton Wilson
Former Lang / current Lit student
“The envelopes gave me something
to look for. As we filtered through
different envelopes, we could truly
see what was transpiring with the
envelope themes.”
Patrick White
Former Lang / current Lit student
What other AP teachers say about
envelopes…
I just used them for the first time with The
Awakening last week. As a quiz I had them take
out one of their quotes and respond to it in any
way they wanted--it's significance to the story,
what happened after, its relationship to the theme
(envelope topic), rhetorical analysis, etc. Not
exactly rocket science, but it got them
thinking. Then they had to trade and do the same
thing with an unfamiliar quote. My kids really
enjoyed the whole concept of tracing the envelope
topics throughout the book. They said they even
found themselves tracing other student's topics as
well.
Toni M. Hobgood
The Possibilities are Endless…
Think Pair Share…
Reflection:
Jot down any ideas you have now
about how the envelopes can be
used.
Share with the group!!!!
Let’s look at some samples…
In your packet, you will find samples I
have written on The Crucible, The
Scarlet Letter, To Kill a Mockingbird,
and The Great Gatsby.
You will also see a link to my
webpage where there are envelope
topics for 14 other works as well as
this power point and handouts.
Give credit where credit is due.
EDG
Theory in Practice
Using the 2003 Form B AP Lang Rhetorical
Analysis Question, read for the device /
strategy listed on your card.
Just pretend it is a longer work and your
card is an envelope.
Theoretically, choose an activity for your
common group to do which incorporates
the contents of your “Envelope.”
Reflect…
Bonus…
Facebook template
Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens
who Don’t Float
Profiles and Newsfeeds for Classic
Literature’s Characters, Works, and
Authors