Close Reading
Why?
• Improve test scores
• Challenge students
• Meeting literacy
standards
Text complexity
• Qualitative measures
– Range of factors- levels
of meaning, structure…
• Quantitative
– Sentence and word
length/ unfamiliar words
• Readers and task
– What the readers bring
to the table and what
they can handle
What does annotating look like?
• Writing all over the
paper!
Question stems
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of…
• What would happen if…
• What is another way to look at…
• Idea: Put questions stems on the tables?
Protocols!
• Everyone has favorites
• Similarities
– READING!
– WRITING
– ANNOTATING
Six Levels of Questioning
•
•
•
•
•
•
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
The Question Funnel
• Overview- create
questions, clear up
most student questions,
leaving difficult
questions for whole
group
• Teacher preparation:
– find a short text
(paragraph, graph,
picture, etc.)
– Find a longer text for
students to annotate or
use post it notes
The Question Funnel
• Read independently
– Annotate with questionsunderline, highlight, write
questions
• Share questions with a
partner
– Try to answer some
questions
• Share questions with
table
• Share questions with
whole group
• Thick vs thin questions
The Question Funnel
• Read a second article
• Follow steps from
before
• CLASS DISCUSSION and
time to
answer/research deep
questions
Examples!!
From Telling to Teaching
• Overview- students
read more
independently, the
teacher monitors and
questions the students
instead of giving them
answers
From Telling to Teaching
• Materials- a short text
or a chunked article
From Telling to Teaching
• Step 1- students read the selection alone,
writing/annotating what they are discovering
• Once all students have finished the teachers
asks them to rate his/her understanding on a
scale of 0-10
• Step 2-3 this process is repeated two more
times
– 3 independent readings, writings, and ratings
From Telling to Teaching
• After the third reading the students write
about what happened to their understanding
of the text each time they read it.
– What did rereading the selection do for you as a
reader?
– Did your ratings go up or down? Why?
– In what ways can a lower rating actually mean that
your understanding has improved?
– List any questions you still have about the
selection.
From Telling to Teaching
• In groups of 3-4 students discuss what they
wrote
• Students re-rate their understanding after the
group discussion
• The teacher leads a discussion and any
unanswered questions are researched.
Lifting a Line
• Materials needed- one
short text or a long,
chunked text
Lifting a Line
• Protocol
– Students read a text 2-3 times independently, underlining lines
they feel are important or they have questions about
– Students pick a line they feel is most important
– Students write a paragraph about that line and give reasons why
it is the most important
– In groups of 3-4 students discuss their lines and any questions.
They make a t-chart with similarities and differences
– Groups present tcharts and different ideas
– Textual evidence to support ideas
– To summarize, the teacher reflects and summarizes the ideas of
the group rather than trying to provide a definitive
interpretation
Claims
• A claim is a statement
of opinion or belief
• Thesis- singular,
overachieving claim
which dictates the path
of argument.
• In most cases, a thesis
requires several claims
put together, to
demonstrate its power.
Evidence
• Material from the text
or outside sources
• Supports the claim
Questions?
Your Turn!!