Making Reading fun and interactive in the classroom

1. Making Reading fun and interactive in the classroom Using Close-Reading Strategy in the K-8 classroom

2. Objectives for today • What is close reading? Looking at definitions and rationale • Why should the reader be dependent on the text for information? • Sample standards: what are literacy standards evolving into? • How can questioning strategies help? • How can we implement these strategies into the classroom?

3. Close reading: What do we mean? According to 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.

4. Another Definition of Close Reading Dr. Nancy Boyles gives this definition taken from PARCC: Close, analytic reading stresses engaging with a text of sufficient complexity directly and examining meaning thoroughly and methodically, encouraging students to read and reread deliberately. Directing student attention on the text itself empowers students to understand the central ideas and key supporting details. It also enables students to reflect on the meanings of individual words and sentences; the order in which sentences unfold; and the development of ideas over the course of the text, which ultimately leads students to arrive at an understanding of the text as a whole. (PARCC, 2011, p. 7)

5. Let’s see what this looks like: The Eagle Has Landed Character Traits for an Inventor

6. Dependent on Text: Why? • Leads to stronger writing skills if they really examine text closely • Leads to stronger thinking skills • Leads to deeper thinking about text and about ideas • Enables students to read materials even when they do not have a strong background knowledge • Enables students to become more critical readers: to uncover the mysteries within a text

7. Sample StandardsFiction • Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting) • Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series)

8. Sample StandardsNon-Fiction • Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect. • Distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text. • Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur). • Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic.

9. Questioning Strategies: • Lead to deeper thinking • Play around with questioning both during reading and during other times of the day • Enables readers to engage more deeply with the text • Teach students how to make and use their own questions • Help the reader to clarify and comprehend what she is reading • Keep questions on the forefront of reading instruction • Are especially helpful for struggling readers who may not do this intuitively • Give all students “cheat-sheets” of questions they could ask themselves.

10. Implementing questioning strategies: • Questioning techniques handout (activity to do together) • Cheat-sheet for teachers • Using question stems with children • The Art of Questioning

11. Practice • Choose non-fiction book from those presented • Choose to either do a close-reading or develop questions using one of the question stems on handout (will be projected on overhead) • Discuss as a group how this worked • How is this the same as what you are already doing? • How is this different from what you are already doing?