How to Use the Close Reading Shift Kit

1. How to Use the Close Reading Shift Kit Shift One: Engage with Complex Text

2. Table of Contents • Critical Directions • PowerPoints • Articles and Research • Webinars • Videos • Websites • Handouts—these are not listed in the table of contents

3. International Reading Association Guidelines (Critical Direction) • Use of challenging texts • Foundational Skills • Comprehension • Vocabulary • Writing • Disciplinary Literacy • Diverse Learners The attached link from RI places the information into a chart form.

4. A Primer on Close Reading(Critical Direction) • Close Reading defined • Key questions: • What is close reading of text and what are essential attributes? • How and for what purposes should teachers employ this strategy? • What is the role of background knowledge in reading comprehension and when should teachers activate or provide background knowledge? • What should teachers/district leaders consider as they prepare to implement Close Reading into practice?

5. The Art of Close Reading(Critical Direction) • Key Questions: • For what purpose are students reading the text? • For what purpose did the author write the text? • What systems of meaning are in the text? • What ideas can be interconnected within the text and beyond the text? • How does the structure of the text extend thinking?

6. PowerPoints • Illinois State Board of Education • K-5 • 6-12 • Timothy Shanahan • K-12

7. Research • Closing in on Close Reading by N. Boyles Key Question: What does it mean to bring this strategy into the classroom? • Engaging Children in Close Reading: Multimodal Commentaries and Illustration Remix by B. Dalton Key Question: How does inferring and technology connect with close reading?

8. Research • Close Reading in Elementary Schools by D. Fisher and N. Frey Key Question: How can close reading be applied to the elementary classroom? • Teaching students to closely read with texts: How and why by D. Lapp Key Question: How can infusing primary sources help students develop critical literacy skills?

9. Research • The Power and Potential of Primary Sources By D. Morgan and T. Rasinski Key Question: How can infusing primary sources help students develop critical literacy skills? • Engaging the Adolescent Learner: Text Complexity and Close Readings By Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey Key Question: What factors make a text complex and how can close reading better equip students to meet the CCSS?

10. Handouts • Planning Text Dependent Questions • What are text-dependent questions? • Start with a high quality text • Non text-dependent questions

11. Text Dependent Questions • Identify key ideas and core understandings of the text. • Start small and build confidence. • Target vocabulary and text structure. • Tackle tough sections head-on. • Create coherent sequences of text dependent questions. • Identify the standards that are being addressed. • Create the culminating assessment. www.achievethecore.org Text Dependent Resources

12. Resources • Dr. McClennen’s Close Reading Guide • Doing a close reading • Writing it • Close Reading Exemplar Tasks

13. Book Titles • Beers, K. and Probst, R. (2013). Notice and note: Strategies for close reading. New Hampshire: Heinemann. • Brummett, B. (2010). Techniques of close reading. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. • Cummins, S. (2013). Close reading of informational text: Assessment-driven instruction in grades 3-8. New York: Guilford Press.

15. Book Study Ideas • Begin a book study with a group. • Start an independent study and become a teacher leader on a topic. • Some books have study guides or podcasts from the authors available from the publishers—check out their websites! • Share your knowledge—start a wiki, a newsletter or blog in your district.

16. Check back often! • Please check back often for new articles, research, powerpoints or books that might assist you. • As your professional knowledge deepens around the topic of Close Reading, please contact us with your ideas: plscomments@gmail.com