As you come into class…
 Evaluate your essay on your rubric.
 Staple your essay packet in the following
order:
1. Self-Evaluated Rubric
2. Final Draft
3. Rough Drafts
Bring me your essay when called.
September 18, 2014
Objectives
 Students will be able to practice close
reading by scrutinizing annotations.
HOW?
 Annotation Groups & Presentations
 Levels of Reading Circles
“Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan
 We are going to read this personal narrative from Amy Tan
in your table groups. While you read, annotate your copy
with the following guidelines:
 Pink: imagery (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch
descriptions)
 Purple: characterization (direct and indirect)
 Yellow: connotative (emotional aspects) of diction
(words that have positive/negative meanings)
 Orange: comparisons (metaphors, similes)
 Blue: details that imply theme
 Assign roles in your groups. You need a reader and every
other person should be assigned a color or two.
Close Reading – Three Levels
 Close reading requires you to analyze a text by reading
slowly to assess the importance of each word, detail, or
image. Close readers look beyond the plot for deeper
layers of meaning:
 LITERAL - “Reading On the Line”

Find meaning directly in the text: Who? What? Where? When?
 ABSTRACT - “Reading Between the Lines”

Interpret/Classify/Compare the text: What does a passage
represent? What does this allusion/metaphor mean?
 THEMATIC - “Reading Beyond the Lines”

Connect to universal meaning: How does this connect to life for all
human beings? What morality or values does it reveal? This is the
“So What?” level.
Reading Circles – Level 1
1. For the “Literal” innermost circle, write the
following:
Read over your annotations and choose the most
significant word from the passage.
2. Write a direct quote from where this word
appears in the story.
3. Write the DENOTATION (dictionary definition)
of the word. Dictionaries are located on the book
shelf.
4. Write the answer to the following question:
1.

Why is this word important to the narrative?
Reading Circles – Level 2
2. For the “Abstract” middle circle, write the
following:
1. Choose four images that stuck with you from the
story.
2. Draw these four images in the middle circle.
3. Answer the following question:

How do these images relate to the significant
word or phrase that you selected? Explain how
they connect to the word you chose to put in the
center of the circle.
Reading Circles – Level 3
3. For the “Thematic” outer circle, write the following:
1.
2.
Think about the connections between your images and
the significant word from the story. What is the story
saying about that particular topic?
Write two thematic statements about the significant word
in the outermost circle.
Theme is a claim about how a main topic operates in
a story and applies to the greater world.
THEMATIC STATEMENT =
TOPIC + ASSERTION/CLAIM
You may not use the word “you.”
Homework
 Complete the Reading Circles assignment
for homework due on Monday.
 Honors: Write a paragraph defending your
thematic statement with evidence from the
text.