Literacy

Complex Text & Text Dependent Questions {Close Reading Mini-Series}

Close Reading - complex text & text dependent questions

Brief, high-quality, & complex text

Reading lessons should match this description if you are implementing close reading. In my research, it was recommended that passages should be anywhere from 3 paragraphs to 2 pages.

Why shorter passages?

-Teachers can teach specific skills.

-Teachers can focus on specific ideas in the text.

-Students can practice really digging into the text.

-Students of ALL reading levels can closely read demanding texts.

-Young students have time to gradually build up to independent reading because they are not overwhelmed.

Time Consuming!

Close reading can take a very long time. So…teachers should choose smaller passages in order to be able to get through everything. When students are reading on their own, they can enjoy longer passages. For close reading, keep it short!

Modifications

As we discussed, modifications must be made when using close reading in the elementary grades. Common Core calls for ALL students, regardless of reading level, to interact with complex texts. But how can kindergarteners and young firsties do this, you ask??? Answer: Modify!

Students in primary grades have a higher ability to comprehend while listening. So, it may be important for teachers to expose students by reading aloud to them and promoting independent reading. If you teach K or 1, you may even try a close read in which you read aloud to students. This modification will help kids to move from listening to reading independently in the upper grades.

Text-Dependent Questions

Common Core is focused on text evidence. So, teachers should form text-dependent questions for students. In other words, the questions MUST require students to use the text.

In close reading, students are asked to go back to the text to find something that confirms their opinion or answer. Focusing on these questions causes students to reflect on the text rather than just quickly getting the gist of the passage (Brown & Kappes, 2012).

Questions should be about and include:

-General understanding of the text

-Key details

-Vocabulary

-Text structure

-Author’s purpose

-Inferring

-Opinons

-Intertextual connections

Using many types of questions helps students to develop diverse discussions about the text. Think about it. If you keep asking the same key detail questions, kids will only talk about key details. But if you ask questions that have them recall, talk about text features, infer from the images, form opinions, and make connections to their lives, they will have A WHOLE LOT to talk about!

Think about this:

“Students who learn to ask themselves such questions are reading with the discerning eye of a careful reader. We can also teach students to read carefully with the eye of a writer, which means helping them analyze craft” (Boyles, 2012).

Goal:

Have students participate in active discussions to share their background knowledge and ultimately apply what they have learned. Eventually, students should begin to ask themselves the same questions while reading independently.

I hope you will be able to use these ideas in your classroom! Click here to read about using repeated readings during your close reads.

Close reading - What's it all about? Understanding the in's and out's of close reading in an elementary classroom

Background Knowledge {Close Reading Mini-Series}

Background Knowledge & Close Reading - too much or too little

This is perhaps the biggest debate in close reading. Period.

Here’s why in simple terms:

Teachers have sometimes given students SO much background knowledge, that they were able to answer questions about the text before even reading it! (I mean, really, that sounds just plain crazy!) What is the point in reading if they kids already know the answers? Boring to kids. Waste of time for teachers.

…in walks Common Core…

I have heard so many times that Common Core says a big fat “NO!” to background knowledge. This is not true by any means. But I do know where the idea stems from. Educators were afraid that TOO much background knowledge was given before reading. So they started encouraging teachers to pull back.

However, background knowledge has been proven to have an impact on student comprehension. Many researchers believe that you do not have to instruct kids on the topic before reading because it can be very easily done during reading. I agree with this. I would rather jump into reading and tackle questions as they come rather than spoon-feeding the kids before they have a chance to think!

It is important to:

-Set a purpose for reading

-Give definitions of unknown words that are essential to understanding the text

-Not tell the students what to expect from the reading

-Allow students to interact with the text.

-Address clarification as needed throughout.

Think about this:

“For the purposes of Close Reading, it is essential to distinguish between the background knowledge that is required to understand the text and the knowledge sought to be gained from reading the text” (Brown & Kappes, 2012).

Remember: Some students may only have to ADD information from the text to their schema (what they already know) so that they understand. On the other hand, some students will lack background knowledge and are less likely to accurately understand.

You know your students. You know what they have absolutely no clue about. You also know what they are familiar with. Use that to your advantage and help those who need it!

Keep reading to find out more about close reading – Complex Text & Text-dependent Questions

What is Close Reading? {Close Reading Mini-Series}

Close reading is the big hype these days with Common Core and the push to expose ALL students to complex texts. One of my final Master’s research papers was focused on close reading, so I decided to share some of the big ideas with you. Hopefully, this will answer some common questions that are floating through teacher minds!

These 5 topics are essential to close reading.

1. What is close reading?

2. Background Knowledge

3. Complex Texts & Text Dependent Questions

4. Repeated Readings

5. Annotation

Articles and research are included throughout these posts. A citation page is included here in case you are interested in learning more.

What’s close reading all about?

Close reading: “an instructional routine in which students critically examine a text, especially through repeated readings” (Fisher & Frey, 2012a).

Close reading was used in high school and college in the past, BUT the implementation of Common Core has pushed teachers to use close reading in elementary school.

So, there must be some modifications made in elementary schools. The teacher must build students toward independent reading. As teachers help students dig through reading passages, they are helping students to build habits of great readers.

I think this quote explains it perfectly: “The teacher’s goal in the use of Close Reading is to gradually release responsibility to students – moving from an environment where the teacher models for students the strategies to one where students employ the strategies on their own to when they read independently” (Brown & Kappes, 2012).

Close reading gives students the opportunity to take NEW information from the text and add it to their background knowledge and experiences. When they do this, they increase their schema (what they already know).

Close reading can be used with:

-Several genres

-Several formats

-Literature

-Informational text

BUT, {This is a biggie!} it is only appropriate with some texts.

Close reading does not work with everything. It should not be used with long chapter books or even some multiple page passages. It is not an appropriate strategy for everything and anything. You have to be thoughtful and purposeful when you choose a passage.

AND, it should go along with other instructional practices throughout the school day.

This is simple. Just don’t make it the only thing you do. Yes, there’s a huge push for it in schools. Yes, it is great for students in certain environments. I love how Brown and Kappes (2012) explain it, “Close Reading of text is one important strategy for fostering independence and analytic skills.”

Remember: It is only one strategy. It is not the only strategy to use in the classroom. There are many others that are successful in the classroom. Choose a strategy that fits your students, your topic, and your teaching style.

Until next time! Click here to learn more about another close reading topic – Background Knowledge.

Homework Checklists

This project has been a favorite of mine! Not only is it extremely helpful during the school year for teachers, but it is also a life saver for students. Keep reading to get a little walk through…

So, this is the sample homework checklist.

Spelling words and homework are listed in a clear format for students. I like this setup because it is thin enough for me to simply staple into student agendas on Monday morning. (Plus, two checklists per page means less copy paper!) Once stapled, they are set for the week!

My editable pack features three options.

1) Labels, titles, and cutesy fonts are NOT editable, but all other information is.

2) Labels are editable in case you split your spelling words differently or need to add sight words or vocabulary.

3) Literally everything here is editable. This is a great option for teachers who want to use their own cute fonts and borders.

Homework Policy:

Homework varies drastically depending on your school. I have certain things that I HAVE to give students. Homework is evaluated on our report cards. I am also mandated to give nightly homework instead of a weekly packet. So, how do you keep 6 & 7 year olds on track with nightly homework AND how do you as a teacher know who is completing what? My OCD kicked in this past school year.

Last Year: I had a homework sheet with spelling words and nightly homework stapled into student agendas. Then, I had this on a clip board and would check off each student’s homework each day. This way I have proof for report card time. This year I am definitely going to make this chart more eye appealing. 🙂

Now, I have taken the old form that was stapled into the student agendas and transformed it. This copy is MUCH more concise. I feel that it is easier for students to follow along. It has the weekly dates at the top (This helps for teacher planning and for parents). Spelling words are then listed by category. I like this system of breaking them up by skill, pattern, and no-excuse words (aka sight words). Under that are the nightly requirements.

When I check homework first thing in the morning, students open their agendas to this checklist page. I then check off on my teacher checklist (that blah one above) and also on the student checklist that it is complete. If homework is not done or is forgotten, that assignment is highlighted on both my checklist and the student’s. This serves as a reminder to parents after school and to me during report card time. And that’s that! An easy peasy way to give homework and keep track of it during the busy school year! Check them out here.

Informational Writing – Red Eyed Tree Frog

We’ve been working on informational writing for the past week or so, and today I taught a mini lesson. Here is the process in images…

First, we read a big book called Red-Eyed Tree Frog. Then, we decided to write about it! I created this chart with the kiddos. As I wrote, they tried to guess what words I was about to write and chanted them out loud. They thought it was hilarious…although I’m not quite sure why…

Gotta love 6 & 7 year olds!

I picked a few students to write example sentences on Post Its for each part of an informational writing piece: introduction, key details, and closure. They then came up and put their Post Its on the chart.

We read all of the Post Its and talked about why some were “super duper” and why others needed a tiny bit of fixing. Then we put them in order. Other volunteers came up to write those Post It sentences onto our chart paper. We used different colors to color code our paragraph into three parts. These parts matched our anchor chart.

Believe me. Give a scented marker to a kid, and BAM instant hard work!

And of course I needed some form of assessment at the end of the day, so my students completed an informational writing piece about the red eyed tree frog. Here is one piece of hard, hard, hard work. I’m so proud of them!

Grab this writing freebie here!And of course, we had to make some little frogs to match! This craft was made using this free printable tree frog from Learn Create Love.

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This writing assignment is part of our unit on the rainforest. We practiced close reading using these passages while we learned about the different forest layers.

At the end of the week, my students were asked to write about the emergent layer. I explained the importance of looking back to our anchor chart to make sure that all three parts (intro, details, conclusion) of their writing were included. Two samples of students at different levels are shown below. Click here to see a preview of this rainforest unit!

Literacy

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