Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” www.gadoe.org Gerald Boyd Georgia Department of Education OCTOBER 2011 Close Reading of Text
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Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
Gerald Boyd Georgia Department of Education
OCTOBER 2011
Close Reading of Text
Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
What do we mean by the term “close reading”?
• Close reading involves the reading and rereading of a text in order to locate evidence in the text (facts and specific details and features of the text) that allow the reader to reach a warranted conclusion about the meaning of the text.
• Two ideas: comprehension and inference
Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
What is close reading?
• When close reading for meaning, readers look for details or features in a text, including such elements as word choice or diction, structure and syntax, rhetorical devices, figures of speech, point of view or perspective, historical and/or cultural references or allusions, and, of course, patterns or repetitions of details or features.
Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
What is close reading?
• Close reading is a process of inductive reasoning, of moving from the evidence that can be observed in a text to a warranted conclusion or an interpretation based on this evidence; details or features comprise the evidence readers use to reach their warranted conclusions or interpretations of a text.
Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
How do I do close reading?
• Close reading begins with students reading the selected text silently, followed by the teacher reading the text aloud. This is then followed by the teacher posing text dependent questions such as “What do you see/hear when you read this text?—What jumps out at you?” or “What does the word ____ mean in the context of the first sentence.”
Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
Steps in the Process
• Reread and annotate the text.
– Underline or highlight key words and phrases.
– Make notes in the margins or on sticky notes to indicate
• surprising or unexpected details;
• words or ideas that seem to repeat;
• questions that arise;
• inconsistencies or shifts in ideas, perspective, tone, etc.
Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
Steps in the Process
• Reread the text to look for patterns, such as
– Words that repeat or words with similar meanings that repeat;
– images or symbols that recur;
– structural repetitions or repetitions of syntax—paragraphs or sentences that begin with the same words or phrases for example.
Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
Steps in the Process
• Reread the text to make note of vocabulary or word choice/diction, such as
– words that may have multiple meanings;
– words that may be metaphorical rather than literal;
– words that work together to form patterns;
– words that may indicate perspective or bias;
– words or phrases that provide historical or cultural context;
– words that need defining.
Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
Steps in the Process
• Regardless of the specific process, the emphasis should always be on using the evidence located in the text to determine the explicit or implicit meaning of the text, a warranted theme, or a central idea.
Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
Below Grade-Level Reading
• The research behind the Common Core Standards affirms that many students are not reading texts representative of their grade level expectations. Additionally, the Standards acknowledge that many students have difficulties with reading.
• Consequently, teachers must attend to varying levels of reading in their classrooms as they have always done.
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Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
Expectation of Rigor
• The expectation of the Standards is that the teacher will employ sufficient rigor to move students toward the level of text complexity required by grade-level demands. This process will require the daily use of different levels of texts for different purposes within a classroom.
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Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
What Can Teachers Do?
• Students should get daily experience in school in reading something hard and something relatively easy. The hard material really should be a challenge—even a year or two beyond their reading level! The easy stuff needs to be something that is intellectually challenging, but with easy enough language that they are not struggling with the words much.
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Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent
“Making Education Work for All Georgians”
www.gadoe.org
What Can Teachers Do?
• Another scaffold should be oral reading fluency work. It is easier to untangle complex sentences when you are working on the prosody of such sentences. That means students should be spending some time reading these texts aloud with feedback. This work could also include listening to the teacher (or an audio recording) and then trying it themselves.
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