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Do you have three minutes to learn more about close reading?
Watch part 2 of a brief interview with Dr. Douglas Fisher about close reading and the Common Core State Standards. Watch the video above and read the transcript below.
Transcript
What does close reading look like in the classroom?
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Dr. Douglas Fisher:
There are a variety of ways to teach students through close reading in a classroom. Most of the time that involves selecting a short passage of text; having students encounter the text first, without any kind of pre-teaching or any kind of frontloading… maybe pointing out a couple of really complex words… but really letting students encounter that text the first time, inviting them to read that text, asking them some text-dependent questions - which might be about the key details, the general understanding, the structure, the vocabulary, the author’s purpose - but inviting them back into that text several times.
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One of the things we know with a close reading is that students read with a pencil. Well, not literally with a pencil, but with argumentation. The students are regularly taking notes as they read. They are extracting ideas and concepts that they want to remember from the text. And that reading with a pencil helps students go back into the text over and over again to really get a strong sense of what they author is trying to say.
In a close reading, students also talk about what they’re thinking about. They share their evidence with their peers, they use argumentation, they agree, they disagree, they ask for evidence, they provide evidence, they offer counter claims. It’s that give-and-take of discussion in which the text serves as a primary tool for forwarding that conversation. That’s what we’re looking for in a classroom that has close reading.
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In addition, teachers can model during a close reading. Students notice things that are confusing for them. They notice things that they understand and they notice things that are difficult. When the teacher notices that a lot of the students have the same misunderstanding, the teacher can build that into some of the modeling and talk about how the teacher thinks the text is working, how the teacher is noticing vocabulary or structures, or general ideas. And then ask another text dependent question to drive the students back to the text to look for additional evidence. It’s an ongoing and recursive process where students go back to the text based on the questions they are asked – including up to inferencing questions - where students go back to the text to look for evidence and really grasp a deep level of understanding of that text.
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Link to this post: http://www.mhecommoncoretoolboxtn.com/close-reading-and-the-ccss-part-1.html
Do you have two minutes to learn about close reading?
Watch a brief interview with Dr. Douglas Fisher about close reading and the Common Core State Standards. Watch the video above and read the transcript below.
Transcript
How would you describe close reading? How would you define it?
Dr. Douglas Fisher:
A close reading is a careful and purposeful reading. Well actually, it’s rereading. It’s a careful and purposeful rereading of a text. It’s an encounter with the text where students really focus on what the author had to say, what the author’s purpose was, what the words mean, and what the structure of the text tells us.
It really is getting to what Louise Rosenblatt talked about as a transaction between the reader and the text. Louise Rosenblatt, the originator of Reader-Response Theory, really talked about understanding what the author had to say and not impugning those authors words, but really getting what the author had to say and bringing some of your own ideas to bear on that text.
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In a close reading, we have to have students reread the text. We give them questions; text dependent questions that require that they go back into the text and search for answers. These aren’t simply recall questions, just the facts of the text, but rather questions that allow students to think about the text, and the author’s purpose, the structure, and the flow of the text.
Close reading requires that students actually think and understand what they are reading.
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Is close reading part of addressing the Common Core State Standards?
Dr. Douglas Fisher:
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Close reading isn’t in the Common Core State Standards. However, an analysis of the Common Core State Standards really says you’ve got to learn the text well. The Common Core State Standards require that students provide evidence and justification for their answers. The only way we know how students can do this - that they really learn to provide evidence and justification - is if they closely read.
When we have students really read carefully, they pay attention to the words, the ideas, the structure, the flow, and the purpose of that text, they’re ready to answer more complex questions that require that they really think about what the author said, and compare that with what they know, what they believe, and what they think.
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In Part 2 of the interview, Doug will talk about what close reading looks like in the classroom.
Enter your email address in the subscribe box at the top of this page to sign up for updates. That way, you'll be the first to know when Part 2 is posted!
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Link to this post:
http://www.mhecommoncoretoolboxtn.com/wondering-what-really-makes-text-complex-and-challenging.html
The Common Core State Standards call for a “staircase” of increasing text complexity. As we see in both Appendix A of the CCSS and the first post on the this website, the Lexile demands have risen over 100 points in most of the CCSS grade bands.
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What kind of supports can we provide students to ensure that they climb this staircase of text complexity successfully?
Perhaps the first step is being able to identify what actually makes a piece of text complex.
Timothy Shanahan, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey have co-authored a must-read article for the March 2012 issue of Educational Leadership, published by ASCD called, “The Challenge of Challenging Text.” This team of authors has done an outstanding job looking at how things like vocabulary, sentence structure, coherence, organization, and background knowledge can have tremendous impact on the complexity of a text.
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Thanks to the power of the Internet, you can read the article right now, right here.
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CCSS and Complex Text... How? |
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How?
I'm sure you've seen the new Common Core State Standards Lexile Chart from the first article.
I'm sure you've already asked several questions about the new Lexile Ranges.
One that comes to mind is... How?
How are my students expected to comprehend text at this new challenging level?
How can I help my struggling readers to have access to the complex text required by the CCSS?
Accelerating Struggling Readers
Dr. Timothy Shanahan begins the video above by saying that there’s not a lot of evidence to suggest that keeping a struggling reader in an easier text will provide opportunities for great growth. Matching a text to the student’s reading level ALONE may not be enough to move him or her to the next level.
| In a blog post from August 2011, Dr. Timothy Shanahan writes,
Instructional level theory posits that the text difficulty level relative to the student reading level is the important factor in learning. But that ignores the guidance, support, and scaffolding provided by the teacher.
If the teacher is doing little to support the students’ transactions with text then I suspect more learning will accrue with somewhat easier texts. However, if reasonable levels of instructional support are available then students are likely to thrive when working with harder texts.
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A Real Pivot
In the video clip above, Dr. Shanahan discusses a “real pivot” in approach to teaching challenging text. The CCSS is requiring students to read increasingly complex text at higher Lexile levels. What kind of supports must a teacher have in order to ensure students’ success?
For one, you will need to become intimately familiar with the kinds of things that can make a particular text complex for your students. Only with that knowledge can the correct scaffolding be utilized. The focus shifts to addressing the ways that students can access the specific text. The skills and strategy instruction becomes the means—not the end—for students to use to extract meaning from the text.
So… Will you shift the focus of instruction as you help your students to access complex text?
If so, how will you shift your approach in teaching students to read and comprehend text at the new Lexile levels?
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Thank You and Congratulations |
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Thanks to all of you for being subscribed to our McGraw-Hill Common Core Toolbox website! An extra special thank you to Hardeman County School District on having the highest volume of verified subscribers! Kudos to you!
Please continue to encourage your colleagues to subscribe and verify their subscriptions right here on www.mhecommoncoretoolboxtn.com.
Our next article will be released this week. Stay tuned...
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