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Balanced Approach to Close Reading

in the Primary Grades

Debra Gurvitz, Ed.D. National Louis University Independent Consultant Debra.gurvitz@nl.edu

LARC Reading Conference December 7, 2013

As We Begin IMPORTANT TO NOTE…

  Close reading is one instructional strategy to support comprehension

  Is one of a variety of delivery methods needed to become a proficient reader

  NOT EVERY PIECE OF TEXT requires CLOSE READING

  One to two times per week max

  Not all text needs to be annotated and read closely

Agenda Close Reading in The Primary Grades (K-2)

What Defining Close Reading

Why The Significance of Close Reading

How it Looks in Primary Classroom

  Overview of Balanced Approach to Close Reading in the Primary Grades (K-2)   Importance of Speaking and Listening

  Gradual Release of Responsibility   Whole Group Interactive Read Aloud I DO (teacher led—student participates)

  Determining Complex Text for read-a-loud

  Model text dependent questions for close reading

  Small Guided Group—WE DO (teacher guides and student practices)   Instructional Level text   Guiding text dependent questions for close reading   Locating evidence

  Collaborative/Independent/Pair (Student Led)   Reread and find evidence in the text

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CLOSE READING.. “What” “Why”

Think/Pair/Share  Take a few moments to jot down

words/thoughts that define close reading and why to implement

 Turn and talk to your neighbor to share thoughts/ideas/present practice

Defining Close Reading (Christopher Lehman http://bit.ly/14Spe6Z)

 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.

 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.

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Defining Close Reading (Fisher & Frye; Brummett)

Close reading is…..

 making careful observations of something in the text, media or life then developing interpretations from those observations.

  “the mindful disciplined reading of text, media or life with view to deeper understanding of the meaning”.

Significance Close Reading

 Essential for students’ ultimate academic success

 Essential for students’ long term ability to comprehend new information

 Essential for students’ use in effective decision making as adults

 Scaffolds academic conversations

ENGAGEMENT Christopher Lehman Blog http://bit.ly/14Spe6Z

When a reader engages in close reading…..

  The reader independently stops at moments in a text (or media or life) to reread and observe the choices an author has made.

  The reader 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.

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Engagement Techniques for Close Reading (Brummett)

When a reader engages in close reading…..

  The reader analyzes the text at the word or phrase level and the sentence/paragraph levels.

  By considering the weight of meaning of phrases/sentences/paragraphs, the student begins to see how important details fit together to support the author’s central idea(s) of the text

Close Reading Primary Grades

Close Reading in Primary Grades

OUR THOUGHTS

  Students need to use oral language to deeply comprehend text.

  Students need to be taught explicitly how to speak and listen.

  Using sentence stems helps all students develop oral language skills.

  Students need to be explicitly taught how to find evidence in the text by rereading closely.

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Academic Conversations CCSS Listening & Speaking

The person doing the most talking is doing the most learning. (Regie Routman, IRA 2013)

Research is really clear that even just five minutes of conversation about books ramps up comprehension (Pathways to CCSS, Lucy Calkins)

“Talk is an engine for intellectual development.” (Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan)

Talk in Primary Grades   Establish discussion rules

  Think/pair/share

  Share circle

Discussion Rules!

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Share Circle - Goals   Build Language

  Builds self confidence

  Builds confidence in speaking in front of a group

  Builds dialogue skills – they have to listen and respond

  Builds language acquisition for ELL students

Share Circle   Provides a structured time to share all those

stories they come in with each morning!

  Great for shy, quiet children AND the outgoing, loud children!

  My ELL students J

  They put cut out head up if they have a story they want to share.

  3 questions or comments

“Anna, Anna, what do you say?

It’s your turn to share today!”

Think Pair Share   During Morning Message

Great for Turn and Talk!

  These examples are from LEAD 21!

(Wright Group)

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Build Academic Language Through Questions

  Tell me what you are thinking about

  What do you thing author’s main/central idea..   what is the evidence to support that

  What is the tone of the excerpt/reading   —what in the text makes you think so –

  how does the language commit to the tone?

Gradual Release of Responsibility

Developing Text Dependent Questions Primary Grades

  IMPORTANT to determine purpose

  Indicate how students locate evidence/find details in the reading (pictures, graphs, words) to answer text questions.

  Recognize that not all CCSS (Common Core State Standards) aligned questions need to be included in close reading of texts

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Gurvitz - National Louis University

The Reading Workshop Gradual Release Responsibility Model

Anchor Lesson Shared Reading

Guided Lesson Small Group Reinforces

Anchor Lesson Close Reading at

Student’s Instructional Level

Independent Practice Anchor Lesson

Literacy Centers Response Journal—

interpretation with evidence Interactive Read Aloud Teacher Models Close Reading Using Complex Text with Text Dependent Questions

Whole Group Interactive Read-a-Loud

Teacher Led—I DO

  All students share in the same experience

  Use complex text

  Build Academic Language through text-dependent questions   “Is the Driver of Closer Reading” (Doug Fisher)

Text Dependent Questions  Answered through close reading

 Evidence comes from text, not information from outside sources

 Understanding beyond basic facts

 Not recall!

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Progression Text Dependent Questions

  General Understandings: beginning, middle, end

  Key Details: who, what , when, where, why, how

  Vocabulary and text structure- How does the author help us to understand?

  Author’s purpose-genre, point of view

  Inferences/Connections- how do you know

  Opinions, inter-textual connections: compare and contrast 2 books, arguments

Developing Text-Dependent Questions for Shared Reading

  Do the questions require the reader to return to the text?

  Do the questions require the reader to use evidence to support his/her ideas or claims?

  Do the questions move from text-explicit to text-implicit knowledge?

  Are there questions that require the reader to analyze evaluate and create?

   

Demonstration Close Reading Interactive Read-a-Loud

  What do you notice?   How does it differ than present read-a-loud/shared

readings?

  How is it similar

  Changes you would make

  Questions you have

TURN AND TALK

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Small Guided Group WE Do

Teacher Guides Student Participates

  Guided Lesson   Small group lesson reinforces anchor lesson

  Close Reading at student‘s instructional level with some rigor

  Incorporate text dependent questions for close reading

  Close read to find evidence to support questions

Guided Reading Lesson   First Grade Lesson Plan

  Focus: Main Idea and supporting details

  Step 1-Objectives: Reading Strategy-Description of the Lesson

  Students will be able to identify main idea in narrative text at students’ instructional reading level. and find evidence (words or pictures ) to support their thinking.

  Step 2-Connect

  BEFORE READING

  I DO Teacher states the learning focus of the lesson

  Focus Skill: Main Idea and Supporting Details

  Main ideas help us understand the story that we are reading. We just read The Grouchy Ladybug and identified the main ideas in the story. We looked for evidence in the pictures or words to support out thinking. By using evidence to help us find the main idea it helped us understand the story better

 

  Engage

  Today we are going to read a story called …………….. (with one sentence explanation)

  While you are reading today I want you to think about the main idea and find evidence in the story to help you find and understand the main idea. words or pictures.

  Who can tell me how we know about finding the main idea and why it is important to find evidence in the text and pictures.

  Step 3-Guided Practice

  MODEL:

  Teacher reads first page (or pages depending on length of text) as students follow along. I will think out loud that good readers think about the main idea to help them understand the story.

  Then I will complete the sentence stems on white board, paper or chart paper… The main idea of the story is…….

  The evidence I found in the text is (and place post it note on that page)

  Optional—do once more with students taking an active role –guide students

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  Step 4-Practice Guided Reading Lesson Independently

  Have students read their book individually. *Tell students to be ready to tell the main idea of the story. Pass out 3 post it notes-- Tell students to use a post-it note to identify the evidence –words or pictures in the story that show the main idea. As students read independently, I will ask students to whisper read and take notes on their oral reading.

  Step 5-Share the Learning—After Reading

  Have students share the main idea and the evidence in the text.

  I will have each student share his/her main idea ask the other students to give thumbs up if they agree with the student.

  Step 5 —INDEPENDENT PRACTICE---

  Have students go back to their seats and apply same procedure while reading independently.

   

INDEPENDENT PRACTIVE YOU Do

Student Lead/Collaborative Individual

 Using the Gradual Release of Responsibility young students can, using text that they can read independently, do close reading.

  Reread for specific reasons-find their favorite part, find character traits, find reasons for their opinions

  Find evidence in the text

INDEPENDENT PRACTIVE YOU Do

Student Lead/Collaborative or Individual

 Independent Practice   Partner Reading (Collaborative)

  Response Journal—

  Close reading interpretation of the text

  Locate evidence

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Collaborative Buddy Reading

•  Encourage discussion about books

•  Teach children to learn to ask and answer questions.

•  Practice using strategies such as making connections, making predictions, discussing favorite parts and characters, etc.

Reader’s Response Discuss first, then write

(Listen to Reading)

Self Reflection

My Name My Buddy’s Name

When I read my book to my buddy _____I spoke clearly _____told the main idea _____found evidence in the text to show the main idea ____ answered question

When I listened to my buddy I _______looked at my buddy _______thought about what he/she said _______asked questions

WRAP UP   Important to remember….

  Close reading is only one of many instructional strategies to support comprehension

  NOT EVERY PIECE OF TEXT requires CLOSE READING

  One to two times per week max

  Not all text needs to be annotated and read closely

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Great References   http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/reading_lit.html

  http://www.sunday-cummins.com/teaching-close-reading.html

  http://www.oneteacherstake.com/2013/03/before-close-readuse-thieves.html

Fisher, Frey, Lapp (2010). Text Complexity. Heinemann.

Cummins, S. (2013). Close Reading of Informational Texts: Assessment-Driven Instruction in Grades 3-8. Gilford Press.

Frey, N., Fisher, D. (2013) Rigorous Reading: 5 Access Points for Comprehending Complex Texts. Thousand Oaks, Ca,: Corwin Press.

Thank You Experts in the field for sharing their thoughts, classrooms, research and passion for teaching and learning in the primary grades.

  Sarah Weisberg, Winkleman School, Northfield, Illinois sjweisberg@gmail.com

  Deborah Shefren, drshefren@hotmail.com

Chicago Public School Sites

  Nobel Elementary School

  Linne Elementary School

  Hedges Elementary School