Falling In Love with Close Reading - Week #2

Thanks for coming back and joining me on this Close Reading journey.  If you read my post last week you would know that this is all new to me and as I predicted my biggest challenge is going to be making this useful for my firsties.  Read on and I will talk more about what close reading looks like and how I hope to try it out in my classroom. 

As the chapter begins, the authors say that typically students have an idea and then find evidence.  Through close reading we will be teaching students to gather evidence and then develop an idea. 

The process goes through 3 main steps:
1.  Read through lenses.
2.  Use lenses to find patterns 
3.  Use the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text.

In fiction texts close reading may be focused like this:
1.  Read through lenses.
   -  what do characters/people:  say/think/do
   -  relationships
   -  setting descriptions
   -  time period
2.  Use lenses to find patterns 
   -  what details fit together?
   -  how do they fit together?
3.  Use the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text.
   -  characters feelings/traits/relationships
   -  whole text themes/lesson

Teach students to use sentence starters to help frame their ideas... (these make the idea of close reading for my higher students more do-able).
-  The reason why the character _______ is because ______.
-  It seems like this character tends to _______.
-  My thinking about this character has changed because ________.
-  These characters are really different because _________.

With informational text close reading may look like:
1.  Read through lenses.
   -  facts
   -  phrases
   -  descriptions
   -  photos/graphics
2.  Use lenses to find patterns 
   -  which details fit together?
   -  how do they fit together?
3.  Use the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text.
   -  definitions of unknown terms or concepts
   -  central idea of the entire text
   -  author's bias/point of view

The authors suggest creating sentence stems like the ones from fictional texts for informational text close reading.  

One additional piece that I found interesting was about moving students from basic understanding (She is brave.) to a more complex understanding.  The authors suggest having students use exact words (She has a bold, unafraid personality), use qualifying language (She has a bold, unafraid personality when she ...) or look for causes or effects (She has a bold, unafraid personality when she ... because ...)


I hope you learned a lot from this week's reading, I know it got me thinking. Make sure to enter our weekly giveaway!

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And then keep on reading for more ideas!

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Come back next week when we talk all about chapter 3:  Studying Word Choice!