Falling in Love with Close Reading
Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts have written a masterful text, Falling in Love with Close Reading Lessons for Analyzing Texts – and Life. My interest in their book was heightened by the seven week blog-a-thon that led up to the publication date. My hope was that the book would enable me to really dig in, with teachers and students, to make close reading simple, easy, and understandable. Remember that Chris defined close reading in his blog post as:
“Close reading is when a reader independently stops at moments in a text (or media or life) to reread and observe the choices an author has made. He or she reflects on those observations to reach for new understandings that can color the way the rest of the book is read (or song heard or life lived) and thought about.” Sept. 2, 2013
Now that I have finished reading the book, I stand at a crossroads. It is not going to be simple, easy and understandable YET!
Where do I begin? Do I need to go back and check the level of understanding with text evidence? What about word choice? Structure? Point of View? Across Texts?
My plan this morning: Begin at the beginning and go back to CCR Reading Anchor Standard 1 because it is complicated and tricky!
- Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
This will mean that I will be reviewing both teacher and student actions, talk and thinking in order to determine when, where, and why students are independently using evidence to increase understanding of texts and lives. Then based on student data the plan will develop. (But for me personally, I am going to be using the lessons in the book to study, think, and reflect on text evidence, word choice, structure, point of view, and across texts. I will be working on this all year! I need to increase my own skills and knowledge at a variety of grade levels and content areas beyond ELA!)
What have you read closely lately? Check out the link below if you were not following the blog-a-thon or if you have not yet decided to study close reading.
Ultimate Goal for Close Reading = Close Reading Your Life – Kate Roberts at #tcrwp Summer Institute
Close Reading Informational Text? Absolutely!
Back in March, I addressed the topic, “How do I choose text for Close Reading?” After my “close reading” as a part of this blog-a-thon, I am comforted by the knowledge that my thinking just six short months ago was not “totally wrong!” However, I continue to admit that my learning experiences at Teachers College Reading and Writing Project have changed many of my perceptions about literacy learning, specifically the grade level expectations for reading and writing under the Common Core/Iowa Core! This is all a work in progress and is often messy!
I believe that students and teachers must use informational text for close reading as described by Chris Lehman in post # 5 here. The substance of “instruction” for that close reading will depend on the grade level reading standards for informational text. In other words, the lens for “patterns” could include any of the reading anchor standards, but the ones I am currently considering for lesson development include: vocabulary (# 4), point of view (# 6), argument (# 7) and multiple texts (# 9). Are these more important? No, but they are ones that I feel a need to explore to build my own knowledge and skill via some “extra practice.”
The “evidence” that I am using to support my claim is from the Core documents and includes the percentages of informational text reading across the day for all grades as well as the percentages of informational/explanatory writing across the day. Those are detailed in the following two charts. Do they look familiar?
Range of Text for Reading:
Range of Text for Writing:
When will students and teachers work on close reading?
It depends. Much of the informational text instruction may begin in ELA, Science and Social Studies (but probably not all) in the upper grades. Students will benefit from learning from the “content experts” whose expertise will guide the focus to read and understand like scientists and historians. Some districts and staff may find it “easy” to have staff work collaboratively to address close reading in a variety of content areas including “Technical Content.” However, starting with a small core group studying and considering thoughtful applications of close reading as well as possible pitfalls will help provide coordination for the student learning environment (so students will not be “close reading” every period every day!)
What length of text will be used?
It depends. Many of the beginning texts will be short pieces. However, some full texts will be considered through the use of “Know – Wonder” charts like the one used for Because of Winn-Dixie as described by Vicki Vinton here. Longer pieces of informational text will also be considered if they meet the instructional purposes. Varying lengths of material were supported by Doug Fisher here because they do allow the reader to become the “fifth corner” as proposed by Kate Roberts because the goal is “understanding what the author is saying and then comparing that with our own experiences and beliefs” (p.108). We also remember that our goal is that our students will BE readers and writers (not just read and write)!
How is text defined?
Text types are evolving. Texts are no longer limited to passages with words, sentences, and paragraphs. What are the texts that will be part of “reading” for students for the rest of their lives? It is hard to predict the “form” for future texts. The following forms will be considered for close reading: artwork, video, commercials, pictures, signs, songs, magazines, digital sources AND books! (and examples of student and teacher writing)