Close ReadingTo Meet the

Demands of the Common Core

Betsy Dobbins and Kevin Sheridan

John Glenn Middle School (ISD622) Maplewood, MN

What is it?

Close Reading

What is it?

It’s a careful and purposeful rereading of a text.

--Douglas Fisher in “Close Reading and the Common Core State Standards” (2012)

Close Reading

What is it?

“Close reading is an intensive analysis of a text in order to come to terms with what it says, how it says it, and what it means.”

--Tim Shanahan in “What is Close Reading” blogpost (2012)

Close Reading

What is it?

It involves rereading, often rereading a short portion of a text that helps a reader to carry new ideas to the whole text.

--Kylene Beers and Bob Probst in Notice and Note (2012)

Close Reading

Is this something new?

Why is there so much talk about it now?

Close Reading

Introduction to the CCSS document:

Students who meet the Standards readily undertake the close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature.

Close Reading & the CCSS

“close, attentive reading” (3)“critical reading” (3)“reasoning and use of evidence” (3)“comprehend, evaluate, synthesize” (4)“cite specific evidence” (7)“evaluate other points of view critically” (7)“reading independently and closely” (10)

Close Reading & the CCSS

“In fact, the second band of Common Core standards (4, 5 and 6) is arguably best practiced through close reading and re-reading, with the goal of reading for more than the gist or the main points, but for an insider’s writerly understanding of how the piece hangs together…” --Lucy Calkins, Units of Study for Reading

Close Reading & the CCSS

Key Ideas and Details (1-3) Craft and Structure (4-6) Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

(7-9) Range of Reading and Level of Text

Complexity (10)

CCSS for Reading

Key Ideas and Details

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.

2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over a course of a text.

CCSS for Reading

ONE Partner focus on character

 • What are we learning about the characters so far? (Character

Traits)• What kind of girl is Addie?• What kind of girl is Becca?• What are we noticing about their struggles? Motivations?

Responses? 

OTHER Partner focus on setting 

• What kind of place is this?• What’s the emotional setting? (not just physical setting)• What’s the feel, tone, mood of this place?

Partner Talk

Let’s continue our close reading . . .

by taking it a step further . . .  Thinking about your ideas . . .

let’s read the text again and ask ourselves . . . 

• What might this poem really be about ?• What lessons might the characters be learning?• What lessons are being taught?• What themes are emerging?

Close Reading Continued

Craft and Structure

4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in the text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning and tone.

5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text relate to each other and the whole.

6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes style of text.

CCSS for Reading

Let’s go back to the text . . .

thinking about your ideas . . . • What craft moves did the author make to forward

ideas?• What words or phrases seem to have extra

meaning or importance?• What in the text seems symbolic?• What stands out to you?

Close Reading Continued

(Standard 4)

We can teach students to trace symbolism . . .• Weather• Titles• Repetition• Objects

Close Reading

(Standard 5)

Structure of text~ we can teach passing of time• Flash back• Flash forward• Where does time slow down, move rapidly, or

jump ahead

Close Reading

(Standard 6)

Perspective• Distinguishing different perspectives in the same

moment• Analyzing how authors give us access to perspective• Narration

~ 1st person narration~ gives you access to inner thinking

~ 3rd person narration~ gives you access to multiple character’s inner thinking

Close Reading

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence. (Informational Texts)

9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or compare the approaches the authors take.

CCSS for Reading

(Standards 7-9) Compare and Contrast

Reading texts the may “go together in some way”~ thinking across those texts making connections and comparisons

  Relating ideas across texts

• Comparing and contrasting characters• Authors• Perspectives• Themes• Treatment of themes and HOW they develop differently across different

texts

Close Reading

Use prompts to help model questioning

Teach clubs/partnerships a new routine of re-reading a section together

Teach students silent pass it games for their clubs

Allow students to use the doc cam during their club talk time

Teacher Moves to Support

clubs/partnerships

The beginning and ends of books and

individual chapters In the Middle of the novel (a pause to look

back) When something big/surprising happens or is

revealed When there is a shift in a relationship When objects become significant (repetition)

Times when Close Reading “Pays Off”

--should raise engagement and joy, not diminish it

--should lead to student independence, not dependence on teacher’s prompting

--should be one piece of your reading instruction, not the only part

--should be designed in response to the strengths and needs of your students, not planned solely to match a book or fit a scope and sequence

--Lehman and Roberts in Falling in Love with Close Reading (2013)

Powerful Close Reading Instruction

Falling in Love with Close Reading (2013)

--Lehman and Roberts Notice and Note (2012)

--Beers and Probst Pathways to the Common Core (2012)

--Calkins, Ehrenworth and Lehman Reading Units of Study (2013-14)

--Teachers College Reading and Writing Project

Resources

Thanks for Your Participation

Betsy Dobbins bdobbins@isd622.orgKevin Sheridan ksheridan@isd622.org

John Glenn Middle, Maplewood, MN