Close Reading

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Close Reading
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Every book has a skeleton hidden between its
covers. Your job as an analytic reader is to find
it.
Adler and Van Doren, 1940/1972
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X-ray the book
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Use a short passage
Read with a pencil
Note whats confusing
Pay attention to patterns
Give your students the chance to struggle a bit
Creating a Close Reading
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Productive failure
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Argumentation and Discussion
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The Helping Curriculum
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Accountable Talk

• Describes high levels of engagement and critical
  thinking among learners
• Accountability that discussions are on the topic
• Accountability to use accurate information
• Accountability to think deeply about what is
  being said

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What Accountable Talk Sounds Like

• Press for clarification and explanation Could
  you describe what you mean?
• Require justification of proposals and
  challenges Where did you find that information?
• Recognize and challenge misconception I dont
  agree because ...
• Demand evidence for claims and arguments Can you
  give me an example?
• Interpret and use each others statements David
  suggested
• Institute for Learning, University of Pittsburgh

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Moves from literal to interpretive
Requires students to return to the text to
formulate responses
Text-dependent Questioning
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Question-Answer Relationships (Raphael, 1984)
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A Close Reading of Salvador, Late or Early
Cisneros, , S. (1991). Woman Hollering Creek.
Cisneros, 1991
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How do short story writers illuminate the
interior life of characters?
Investigative Question
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Establishing Purpose
To examine how the author sheds light on the
interior life of this character using poetic
language in order to deeply affect the reader.
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First Reading Students Read and Write
Independently

• Read with a pencil to annotate text
• What powerful words or phrases affect you?
  Circle
• What confuses you? Underline
• Quick-write
• What are your impressions of Salvador and the
  people in his life?

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Discussion Partner Talk to Check Meaning
Describe your impressions of Salvador and the
people in his life. Remember to use accountable
talk (asking questions, providing evidence from
the text, and comparing and contrasting your
impressions with one another.
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Second Reading Teacher Modeling
Read the entire passage aloud, without
interruption. Be sure to orient students to the
text and ask them to follow along.
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Third Reading Teacher Think Aloud
Read the entire passage again, highlighting
places in the text where you notice the authors
use of poetic language. Think aloud about how you
interpret it. Be sure to orient students to the
text and ask them to follow along.
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Text-dependent Questions
Post-it notes began as an idea that didnt work,
but then became a very useful product. What was
the sequence of events that led to this
invention?
Right There Question
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Text-dependent Questions
How does Cisneros use color? To what effect?
Think and Search Question
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Text-dependent Questions
How does Cisneros use school words? To what
effect?
Think and Search Question
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Text-dependent Questions
Examine the use of contrasts again. What does the
author want us to know about Salvador?
Author and You Question
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Text-dependent Questions
Would a title change to Heather, Late or Early
change your perspective? Why? How would this
story differ if was written by Salvadors mother?

On My Own Question
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Journal Writing
Students are gathering notes for the development
of an essay that explains their findings of the
investigative question, In what ways do short
story authors illuminate a characters interior
life? For this journal entry, students write a
short summary of Salvador, Late or Early and
discuss at least two literary techniques the
author used to describe Salvador.
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Guiding
Instruction

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As easy as learning to ride a bike
As easy as learning to ride a bike
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Scaffolds extend the range of the worker
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Lets make a Foldable
Guided Instruction
fold
Comprehension
Robust Questions
Direct Explanation
Prompts
Cues
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Robust questions
Prompts
Cues
Direct explanation and modeling
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Robust questions
Prompts
Cues
Direct explanation and modeling
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• Teacher What is a nocturnal animal?
• Student An animal that stays awake at night.
• Teacher Good. What is a diurnal animal?

I-R-E
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Robust Questions to Check for Understanding
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• Teacher What is a nocturnal animal?
• Student An animal that stays awake at night.
• Teacher Tell me more about that. Does a
  nocturnal animal have special characteristics?
• Student Well, it doesnt sleep a lot.

Elaboration
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To move to higher-order questions
Use Less Of
Use More Of

• What
• When
• Where
• Who
• Which

• Why
• How
• Suppose
• Justify
• Example

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• Teacher What is a nocturnal animal?
• Student An animal that stays awake at night.
• Teacher Tell me more about that. Does a
  nocturnal animal have special characteristics?
• Student Well, it doesnt sleep a lot.

Misconception
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Prompting for Cognitive and Metacognitive
Thinking
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Skill is the ability to apply concepts when not
prompted to do so.
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• Questioning is about
• assessment
• Prompting is about doing

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Background knowledge prompts
invite students to use what they know to
resolve problems
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Process or Procedure Prompts
To perform a specific task
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• Teacher What is a nocturnal animal?
• Student An animal that stays awake at night.
• Teacher Tell me more about that. Does a
  nocturnal animal have special characteristics?
• Student Well, it doesnt sleep a lot.
• Teacher Im thinking of those pictures we saw of
  the great horned owl and the slow loris in the
  daytime and at night. Does your answer still
  work?

PROMPT
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Cues to Shift Attention
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Cues
Shift attention to sources of information
More direct and specific than prompts
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• the expert commentator sees things you dont
• cues do the same for novices

Attention grows with competence
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Cues shift the learners attention
Visual Verbal Gestural Physical Positional Environ
mental
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When prompting and cueing fail,
its time for direct
explanation.
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Direct Explanation
Identify Explain Think aloud Monitor
Take care not to re-assume responsibility too
quickly
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Table Talk

• How does Rita use robust questions, prompts,
  cues, and direct explanation to guide her
  students vocabulary learning?

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Making Group Work Productive
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How Do You Know Its Productive?
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What does it look like? What does it sound like?
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• Students are consolidating their understanding
• Negotiating understanding with peers
• Engaging in inquiry
• Apply knowledge to novel situations

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Productive Group Work Structures
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Sample Instructional Routines

• Reading
• Literature Circles
• Collaborative Strategic Reading
• Reciprocal Teaching
• Partner reading
• Jigsaw

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Sample Instructional Routines

• Writing
• Progressive Writing
• Paired Writing
• Peer response
• GIST writing
• Collaborative poster

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Sample Instructional Routines

• Oral Language
• Think-Pair-Square
• Numbered Heads Together
• Socratic Seminar
• Walking Review
• Novel Ideas Only

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Conversational Roundtable
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Table Talk

• What are your favorite ways to encourage
  collaboration between students? What are the
  benefits and challenges?

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Quality Indicator 1

• Complexity of Task The task is a novel
  application of a grade-level appropriate concept
  and is designed so that the outcome is not
  guaranteed (a chance for productive failure
  exists).

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Productive failure
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Quality Indicator 2

• Joint attention to tasks or materials Students
  are interacting with one another to build each
  others knowledge. Outward indicators include
  body language and movement associated with
  meaningful conversations, and shared visual gaze
  on materials.

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Look down, not up.
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Quality Indicator 3

• Argumentation not arguing Student use
  accountable talk to persuade, provide evidence,
  ask questions of one another, and disagree
  without being disagreeable.

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The Helping Curriculum
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Quality Indicator 4

• Language support Written, verbal, teacher, and
  peer supports are available to boost academic
  language usage.

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Can you buy your way to happiness?
HSHMC Essential Question 2 2009-10
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The evidence shows that ____.

• The evidence shows that poor people are not
  unhappy.
• The evidence shows that just because you win the
  lottery you are not guaranteed happiness.

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My own view, however, is that ___.

• My own view, however, is that happiness is not
  based solely on money.
• My own view, however, is that happiness is a
  combination of things that happen and dont
  happen to a person over his or her lifetime.

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Quality Indicator 5

• Grouping Small groups of 2-5 students are
  purposefully constructed to maximize individual
  strengths without magnifying areas of needs
  (heterogeneous grouping).

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Quality Indicator 6

• Teacher role What is the teacher doing while
  productive group work is occurring?

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Independent Learning Not Just Do It Yourself
School
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• 26
• Number of high school teachers whooften or
  very often run out of time in class and assign
  the content
• for homework
• (MetLife, 2008)

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Traditional homework occurs too soon in the
instructional cycle.
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The students we think we have
Pleasers
Outsourcers
Quitters
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Student Bill of Rights

• Children shall not be required to work more than
  40 hours a week.
• Children shall have the right to homework they
  can complete without help.
• A childs academic grade shall not be put in
  jeopardy because of incomplete homework.
• A childs right to playtime, downtime, and
  adequate sleep shall not be infringed upon by
  homework.
• Parents shall be entitled to excuse their child
  from homework that the child does not understand
  or is too tired to finish.
• Families shall be entitled to weekends and
  holidays free from homework.

Vatterott, C. (2009). Rethinking homework Best
practices that support diverse needs. Alexandria,
VA ASCD.
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Lets make a Foldable
Goals of Homework
fold
Spiral Review
Comprehension
Fluency building
Application
Extension
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Goals of Homework

• Fluency building
• Application
• Spiral review
• Extension

Fisher, D., Frey, N. (2008). Homework and the
gradual release of responsibility Making
responsibility possible. English Journal,
98(2), 40-45.
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Fluency-building homework
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Application homework
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Spiral Review Homework Opinionnaire
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Disciplinary Literacy Requires Daily Writing
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Standards 6-12 Disciplines Dominate
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Writing to Explain Ones Thinking
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Writing Through Vocabulary Development
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Alphabet Vocabulary Chart
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Writing to Summarize
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Generative Sentences
What are Comon Grammar Errors English Learners
Make?

• Given a word and conditions about the placement
  of the word, write a sentence
• Forces attention to grammar and word meaning
• Use student examples for editing

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Try these . . .
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Basic Writing Frame

• Although I already knew that ________, I have
  learned some new facts about _____. For example,
  I learned that _______. I also learned that
  ______. Another fact I learned _______. However
  the most interesting thing I learned was______ .

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• Making a claim
• I think that_________, because ________________.
• Although I agree that ______________, I still
  think that _________.
• She says ______, and I agree, because _________.
• Supporting/critiquing a claim
• Her idea that __________ is supported by
  _______________, ___________, and _______.
• For example, ________________ shows that
  ________________.
• They say that ___________ , but _______, _____,
  and ____ say differently.
• Introducing and addressing a counterargument
• Of course, you might disagree and say that
  _________________.
• Some might say _________, but I would say that
  _____________.
• While it is true that __________, that does not
  always mean that _________.
• Stating a conclusion or summing up an argument
• In conclusion, I believe ____________________.
• In sum _____________ is shown by _____________
  and ______________.
• For these reasons, _______________ should be
  ________________.
• Source Glencoe Literature, 2009. Used with
  permission of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.

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Moving Forward
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Multi-faceted support 801 professional
development events 251 learning walks and
collegial coaching 41 coaching corners 11
peer coaching
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Learn by Looking
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Observing, Not Evaluating
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Evaluation
Be descriptive!
Description

• The teacher stated the content and language
  purpose when he said
• When I asked a student about how she knew if she
  was done, she said

• Wasnt that terrific?
• That was a boring lesson.
• That was pretty good for a beginning teacher.

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On Your Own
Read through your notes. Star relevant
observations about the problem of
practice. Write 5 pieces of data on individual
sticky notes.
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In Your Group
Sort relevant data into categories. Label
categories. Identify patterns.
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Prioritize and Identify Resources
Level of Understanding
Resources
Professional development on gradual release has
resulted in staff understanding the components of
the model.
The physical environment of classrooms supports
flexible grouping.
Teachers know the focus for the school
improvement plan is productive group work.
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Plan for Action

• Create Action Plan and timeline
• What will happen?
• By when?
• Who?

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The teachers role in developing academic
language

• Analyze what makes the language demanding for
  individuals or groups.
• Develop scaffolds and supports to help students
  understand and apply academic language.
• Use strategies to develop their proficiency in
  academic language.