Close Reading for the Social Studies Classroom, 6-12

1. Close Reading for the Social Studies Classroom, 6-12 Primary Source Susan Zeiger, PhD

2. Think-Pair-Share • Think of a challenging text you read with students this year. • Why did you choose it? • What did you want students to understand after they read it? • What instructional strategies did you use? • When you anticipated /encountered difficulties, how did you help students through them? • Share your story with your partner. Listen to his/hers.

3. WORKSHOP AGENDA • Close Reading & Text Dependent Questions (TDQs): definitions and concepts • Activity 1: Close Reading of an Exemplary Text • Activity 2: Use of Supporting Texts & Integration of Multiple Texts/ Text Types • BREAK • Activity 3: Reading for a Purpose: Designing Your Own TDQs • Activity 4: A Reading Strategy for Students: Talk-Alouds for Visual Texts • Evaluation & Closing

4. Close Reading • Critical examination of text with repeated readings • Intended for students “to assimilate new textual information with their existing background knowledge and prior experiences to expand their schema” (Fisher & Frey, 2012, p. 179) • Support students as independent readers Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2012). Close reading in elementary schools. The Reading Teacher, 66(3), 179-188.

5. Close Reading: Key Features(Fisher & Frey, 2012) • Complex Texts • Short Passages • Limited and Strategic Frontloading • Repeated Readings • Text-Dependent Questions • Annotation Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2012). Close reading in elementary schools. The Reading Teacher, 66(3), 179-188.

6. Selecting Sources • Not all texts require close reading • Excerpts that support overall understanding, key ideas, key terms (short but complex) • Knowledge of the text is key! • Text Complexity

7. Adapting Sources for Accessibility • Focusing • Ellipses • 200 – 300 words • Simplification • Conventional syntax, spelling, punctuation • Presentation • 16 pt font • White space • Other supports/scaffolding (visual clues; vocabulary) Wineburg, S., & Martin, D. (2009). “Tampering with history: Adapting Primary Sources for Struggling Readers.” Social Education, 73(5), 212 – 216.

8. Text-Dependent Questions • Questions that require answers from the text • Not just recall questions • Use text evidence to make inferences beyond what is written in text • Progression from explicit text to implicit meanings from the text(s) • Can also include prompts for discussion and writing • Questions that help students understand the key historical significance and understandings of the text

9. Example: Emancipation Proclamation (1863)– 150 years! • “I do order & declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States…are, and henceforward shall be free.” • “Upon this act,…I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind & the gracious favor of Almighty God.”

10. Non-example/Example of Text-Dependent Questions NOT Text-Dependent Text-Dependent • How did African Americans in 1863 feel about the issuing of the Proclamation? • How did Lincoln feel the American public would react to the issuing of the Proclamation?

11. Text-Dependent Questions

12. Activity #1 Close Reading of an Exemplary Text using Multiple Readings & Text Dependent Questions

13. A United Nations Report: “The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children” (1996) • What do you want students to consider and know from a reading of this document? • What Common Core skills do you want them to develop by working on this document?

14. Procedure for the Activity 1)Read the text independently & annotate with these in mind: • What ideas, details & features are most important? • What might be difficult for your students? • What vocabulary stands out, and why? • What important understandings could this text help students develop? 2)Discuss with your partner: • For your class, what student understanding would you regard as the most important “take-away” from this text?

15. Close Reading a UN Report:What are our learning goals? (ex.) Student understanding: How does the United Nations do its work? What tools & strategies are available to international NGOs? • CCSS Reading Standards 1(read closely; cite evidence) and 10 (read independently)

16. TDQ: Key Ideas and Details • Who was the author/creator of this source? • Where did the author get his/her information? • What phrase/sentence indicates the author’s main purpose in writing this document? • Who is the intended audience for this document? What tells you this answer? • What is recommended for teachers to teach the children who are survivors of war?

17. TDQ: Craft and Structure • Using clues in the text, what do you guess to be the meaning of the phrase “international community”? • What words give away the author’s feelings about children in war zones? Point to your evidence. • What are the text features that you notice most about this document? • How are the four sections of the report related, and how is each part different? • What is the specific purpose of part III? Of part IV? • Why do the sections appear in this order? • How does the author hope the reader will react to this report? Point to your evidence.

18. TDQ: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas • Is the style and language of the text a good match for its main purpose? State why or why not. Use evidence from the text to support your answer. (Writing prompt) • Based on your reading of the text, do you think the United Nations is a powerful organization or an organization with limited power? Use evidence to support your view. (Writing prompt/discussion question) • Summarize what you have learned, from direct information and inference, about how the United Nations protects vulnerable or endangered people. What are the tools or techniques that the United Nations can use to give protection? Give evidence from the text.

19. Activity #2 Using Supporting Texts; Integrating Information from Multiple Texts

20. Adding different text genres: Personal testimony and photographs • Beyond the Fire: Teen Experiences in War http://archive.itvs.org/beyondthefire/master.html • Children in War Zones: 14 Photos of Innocents Lost http://www.takepart.com/photos/children-war-zones/

21. Activity #3 Writing Your Own Text Dependent Questions with a Learning Goal in Mind

22. Your Turn Read the text. Identify the key understanding you want students to take away. Underline key passages that address the key understanding. Circle key vocabulary or text structures. Think about what CCSS reading standard(s) you want to address. Create a text dependent question for each category that will help students address what you’ve identified as significant. Key Ideas and Details Craft and Structure Integration of Knowledge and Ideas Reorder questions for best flow (if necessary). Shareout

23. Activity # 4 Talk-Aloud Sentence Starters: A Reading Strategy for Students

25. Resources

26. More on the Common Core • Common Core State Standards Initiative http://www.corestandards.org/ • Partnership for 21st Century Skills Common Core Toolkit http://www.p21.org/tools-and-resources/publications/p21-common-core-toolkit • Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers http://www.parcconline.org/ and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium http://www.k12.wa.us/smarter/ • Measuring Text Complexity (Kansas DOE) http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4605

27. Resources for Informational Texts • Nonfiction Resource Guide (Primary Source) http://resources.primarysource.org/nonfiction and other regional guides: http://www.primarysource.org/resourceguides • Primary Source World http://www.primarysource.org/primarysourceworld • World Digital Library http://www.wdl.org/en/ • Online Newspapers http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/