Closing In on Close Reading, Text Dependent Questions, and

Rigorous Reading:Accessing Complex Texts

Dr. Sheree Bryant Griffin RESA

Anchor Standard 1: 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.

Anchor Standard 10: Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

Standards

How can reading closely and comprehending complex texts support and improve comprehension?

Essential Question

Closing In on Close Reading - Rigorous Reading

 I Choose CStandards Review – Anchor College and Career ReadinessStandards (CCR) The What and The How

Defining the Big Ideas

Background Knowledge Lexile and Readability Resources Vocabulary Text Complexity: Three Part Model Close Reading Differentiating LearningScaffolding InstructionTKESText Dependent Questions informational and Literary I Choose C Revisited

 

To Reach the Learning Targets the Teacher Needs

to…• Establish learning goals• “Can Do Standards”• Check for understanding• Provide feedback• Align future instruction with student

performance

TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

Focused Instruction- Purpose

Guided Instruction - Modeling

“I do it”

“We do it”

“You do it together”

Collaborative

Independent “You do it alone”

A Structure for Instruction that Works - Gradual Release

Anchor Standard 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific

textural evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions draw from the text.

Anchor Standard 10. Read and comprehend complex literary and

informational texts independently and proficiently.

Quantitative measures Qualitative values Task and reader considerations

Assessing Texts

• Background• Prior• Cultural• Vocabulary

• Standard English• Variations• Register

• Genre• Organization• Narration• Text

Features• Graphics

• Density and Complexity

• Figurative Language• Purpose

Levels of Meaning

Structure

Knowledge

Demands

Language Conventio

n and Clarity

Levels of Meaning and Purpose

• Density and complexity

• Figurative language

• Purpose

Background knowledge is a key component of comprehension and understanding.

Background knowledge connects reader task, purpose and text.

Background Knowledge

Levels of Meaning and Purpose

Is it about talking animals, or the USSR?

Is it entertainment, or political satire?

Is it straightforward, or ambiguous?

1370LGrades 11-

12

530LGrades 2-3

Author’s Purpose• Allegory for tolerance• Mirrored events of early Civil

Rights movement (1961)

“Now, the Star-Belly SneetchesHad bellies with stars.The Plain-Belly SneetchesHad none upon thars. Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so smallYou might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all..”But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly SneetchesWould brag, ‘We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.’With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort‘We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!’And whenever they met some, when they were out walking,They’d hike right on past them without even talking.”

730LGrades 2-3

Complex themes • Relationship

between love and pain

• Masculinity• Loyalty and war

Structure

• Genre

• Organization

• Narration

• Text features and graphics

Structure

Changes in narration, point of view

Changes in font signal narration changes

Complex themes

560LGrades 2-3

870L (grades 4-5)

• Stream of consciousness narration

• Unreliable narrators

• Nonlinear structure

• Time shifts written in italics

Structure

Language Conventions

• Standard English and variations

• Register

Language Conventions

Non-standard English usage

“Out in the hottest, dustiest part of town is an orphanage run by a female person nasty enough to scare night into day. She goes by the name of Mrs. Sump, though I doubt there ever was a Mr. Sump on accounta she looks like somethin’ the cat drug in and the dog wouldn’t eat.”

(Stanley, 1996, p. 2) AD 660L (Adult-directed)

Knowledge Demands

• Background knowledge

• Prior knowledge

• Cultural knowledge

• Vocabulary

Background knowledge is a key component of comprehension and understanding.

Background knowledge connects reader task, purpose and text.

Background Knowledge

Knowledge Demands

Domain-specific vocabulary (radioactive, acidity, procedure, vaccination)

Background knowledge (diseases, safety risks, scientific experimentation)

1100LGrades 6-8

“If “Word Poverty” is not addressed it doesn’t matter what bar the new standards set.”

Kelly Gallagher, 2013Kids age 3 from Well off Families have a vocabulary of 1116 words, from working class a vocabulary of 749 works and from poor families 525 words. Kindergartners from poverty families know 10,000 fewer words. Education Week, Feb. 2013

Importance of Vocabulary

Vocabulary

There is a positive correlation between vocabulary size in 12th grade and the level of attainment in college.

Word poverty cannot be overcome without more reading, more books – complex, simple, recreational books, more magazines, more newspapers, more Reading in all contents.

Simply assigning hard books will not ensure that studentslearn at high levels!

Close reading is

only a PART of high quality

instruction

Creating a Close Reading

Use a short passage

Re-reading

“Read with a pencil”

Text-dependent questions

Give students the chance to struggle a bit

A Close Reading

• The Wind One Brillant Day

Answered through close reading

Evidence comes from text, not information from outside sources

Understanding beyond basic facts

Not recall!

Text-dependent Questions

The Lost Button

Text Codes

√ When you read something that makes you say, “Yeah, I knew that” or “I predicted that” or “I saw that coming.”

X When you run across something that contradicts what you know or expect.

? When you have a question or need clarification.

Text Codes

! When you discover something new, Surprising, exciting, or fun that makes you say cool, whoa, yuck, no way, awesome.

When you read something that seems important, vital, key, memorable.

When the reading makes you understand something.

Text Codes

When you have a connection between the text, and your life, the world or other things you’ve read.

ZZZ This is boring. I’m falling asleep.

Opinions, Arguments, Intertextual ConnectionsInferences

Author’s PurposeVocab & Text Structure

Key DetailsGeneral Understandings

Progression of Text-dependent Questions

Part

Sentence

Paragraph

Entire text

Across texts

Word

Whole

Segments

Overall view Sequence of

informationStory arcMain claim and

evidenceGist of passageA Closer Look

General Understandings

General UnderstandingsRetell the story in order, using the words beginning, middle

and end.

Search for nuances in meaning Determine importance of ideas Find supporting details that

support main ideas Answers who, what, when,

where, why, how much, or how many.

Key Details

How long did it take to go from a hatched egg to a butterfly?

What is one food that gave him a stomachache? What is one food that did not him a stomachache?

Key Details in Kindergarten

It took more than 3 weeks. He ate for one week, and then “he stayed inside [his cocoon] for more than two weeks.”

Foods that did not give him a

stomachache Apples Pears Plums Strawberries Oranges Green leaf

Foods that gave him a stomachache

Chocolate cake Ice cream Pickle Swiss cheese Salami Lollipop Cherry pie Sausage Cupcake watermelon

Bridges literal and inferential meanings

Denotation Connotation Shades of meaning Figurative language How organization

contributes to

meaning

Vocabulary and Text Structure

How does the author help us to understand what cocoon means?

Vocabulary in Kindergarten

There is an illustration of the cocoon, and a sentence that reads, “He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself.”

Genre: Entertain? Explain? Inform? Persuade?

Point of view: First-person, third-person limited, omniscient, unreliable narrator

Critical Literacy: Whose story is not represented?

Author’s Purpose

Who tells the story—the narrator or the caterpillar?

Author’s Purpose in Kindergarten

A narrator tells the story, because he uses the words he and his. If it was the caterpillar, he would say I and my.

Probe each argument in

persuasive text, each idea in

informational text, each key detail in literary text, and observe

how these build to a whole.

Inferences

The title of the book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. How

do we know he is hungry?

Inferences in Kindergarten

The caterpillar ate food every day “but he was still hungry.” On Saturday he ate so much food he got a stomachache! Then he was “a big, fat caterpillar” so he could build a cocoon and turn into a butterfly.

Author’s opinion and reasoning (K-5) Claims Evidence Counterclaims Ethos, Pathos, Logos Rhetoric

Links to other texts throughout the grades

Opinions, Arguments, and Intertextual Connections

Opinions and Intertextual Connections in Kindergarten

NarrativeIs this a happy story or a sad one? How

do you know?

InformationalHow are these two books similar? How are they different?

Comprehension and Collaboration

1. Prepare for and participate in collaborations with diverse partners, building on each others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Talk occurs on grade level topics, texts, and issues.

K-2 Features• Following the rules of discussion• Moving from participation to turn taking• Sustaining discussion through questioning• Adult support

3-5 Features• Preparation for discussion• Yielding and gaining the floor• Posing and responding to questions• From explaining own ideas to explaining the

ideas of others

A Close Reading of “Salvador, Late or Early”

(Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, 1991)

Thank you!