Develop on a continuum/learning progression

• Are explicitly taught, modeled, reinforced, redirected, and celebrated

• Are built over time through the gradual release of responsibility model

• Assessed using the effective feedback cycle to ensure that every reader attains automaticity

 

Text Dependent Questions (TDQs) are designed to scaffold independent text annotation and set the purpose for second read annotation and the eventual independent thinking habits were readers can, based on the text/genre/context, determine their own focus for meaning making.

 

Teacher Role in Close Reading Lessons

Teachers must…

• Purposefully plan Close Reading lessons within a unit of study

• Select a text that is highly relevant to the unit

• Determine the purpose for reading using this text, using not only the text itself but the standards as well.

• Develop text dependent questions (TDQs) for students

• Plan the lesson chunks, keeping in mind that the text should be the center of student and teacher work.

 

Student Role in Close Reading Lessons

Students must…

• Research how teachers model strategies

• Use the text to support their claims/theories – TEXT IS BOSS.

• Record their thinking as they read and re-read through text.

• Use habits of discussion (speaking and listening) to further understanding

 

What Does it Mean to Annotate a Text

(verb): to supply with critical or explanatory notes; comment upon in notes

 

(noun) a critical or explanatory note or body of notes added to a text. 

 

Annotating puts you actively and immediately in a "dialogue” with an author and the issues and ideas you encounter in a written text.  It allows the reader to transact with the text.  It's also a way to have an ongoing conversation with yourself as you move through the text and to record what that encounter was like for you.

 

• Throw away your highlighter.

• Mark up the margins of your text with words and phrases.

• Develop your own symbol system.

• Get in the habit of hearing yourself ask questions.

 

What Makes Annotation So Important?

• Annotation is a complex skill that requires explicit instruction, practice and ongoing feedback for scholars to become independent. 

• In close reading, annotation serves as the basis for conversation, collaboration and writing about text.   

• Scholars will consult their annotations to formulate arguments, analyze information, and make connections within and outside the text.  Annotations makes “while reading thinking” visible to the teacher and to peers.  

• This transparency of thought allows the group to identify misunderstandings and build meaning collaboratively. 

• Teachers can use the data to inform what misconceptions and confusions are present in order to guide rereading or the decision to model a particular meaning making strategy.

 

Close Reading Ritual - A Simulation

First read

• Read through independently or teacher reads aloud without any marks or annotations.

• Share out

 

Second read

• Independently read the text to get the gist.

• In the margin, note what you have figured out about the gist of each paragraph.

• Also circle any vocabulary or underline any parts that were confusing.

• Share out

 

Third Read

• Re-read the text with the culminating TDQ in mind.

• Annotate for key details and textual evidence that will help to answer the TDQ.

• What is the impact on our students when we worry about rigor?

• Share out.

 

A foundational, simple model – not THE only way to do a close reading, but what we are starting with to build those mental models.  ONE framework to visualize CR, which is grounded in Anchor Standard 1.  This framework lends itself to Anchor Standard 1. (letting the text determine the purpose). 

***ON A PROGRESSION AS TEACHERS AS WELL***

Leaving out portions as adult learners that we don’t have to model (circling, gist, etc)