Close Reading Why Improve test scores Challenge students

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 • Teacher preparation: questions, clear up – find a short text (paragraph, most student questions, picture, etc. ) leaving difficult – Find a longer text for questions for whole students to annotate or group 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!!