Hello friends~
Welcome to Week 2 of our group book study! We are so excited you stopped by to read about Chapter 2 today. If you didn’t get a chance to read about Chapter 1, click {HERE}.
Make sure that you visit each participants blog to see what they have to share about each chapter. Don’t forget to enter our raffle each week as well!
Question 1: How is “text evidence” similar & different from other types of details, like “word Choice”?
At the beginning of this chapter the authors state…
What we came to find is that helping students to develop clearer ideas often involves flipping the steps around:
1. Now, students tend to: have an idea, then go find evidence.
2. Instead, we can teach: gather evidence, then develop an idea.
(Lehman & Roberts, 2014, p. 12)
This hit home for me in this chapter & with our driving questions.
When you are reading closely for text evidence, word choice or any other specific details or purposes you follow the same type of routine & steps. Meaning your approach is not different, just your goal & outcome.
This chapter is all about the study of text evidence. The above quote will be posted next to my area at all times as a reminder to myself of my approach to students. Again the visual of the figures in each chapter really help me when I think of planning. The following figure is for literature.
The authors stated the following figure…
Fig. 2.2 Close Reading Ritual: Text Evidence in Narrative Texts
1) Read through lenses.
ย Choose specific details to gather as data:
- What characters/people: say/think/do
- Relationships
- Setting descriptions
- Time Period
2) Use lenses to find patterns.
- Which details fit together?
- How do they fit together?
3) Use the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text.
Look at the patterns to think about:
Character’s/people’s:
- Feelings
- Traits
- Relationships
Whole text:
- Themes
- Lessons
(Lehman & Roberts, 2014, p. 12)
Using this figure the authors take us through examples that include text from media & novels. Through these examples, as stated in chapter 1, there was no front loading of information. The teacher is facilitating learning & scaffolding with students. The teacher goes through this process with students & it is amazing to see the students change from their first understandings to their later understandings. A specific example in this chapter was finding text evidence about characters. The author does state again how important it is to keep our instructional goal clear to the students. We need to help show them how this type of reading can help to understand the text in deeper ways. The students were given a lens to read with. They collected notes while reading & paused to share & discuss. Then the students continued to collect notes while reading further. The process continued then following students were asked to look at their notes & find patterns. Students grouped their notes together by patterns in groups. Marking them with circles, squares or colors. Then the final discussion piece came in were students shared their new understanding. The figure below was used as a guide to help students in their discussions.
The authors stated the following figure…
Fig. 2.5 A Scaffold: Phrases for Reflecting on Text Evidence and Meaning
- The reasons why the character ______ is because ______.
- It seems like this character tends to ______.
- My thinking about this character has changed because ______.
- These characters are really different because ______.
- One issue I am noticing in this book is ______.
- I think the author is trying to reach me ______.
- I think this because the author wrote ______.
(Lehman & Roberts, 2014, p. 22)
Then the chapter moves into analyzing text evidence in informational texts. At this point in the chapter I personally started to feel a little more comfortable since my experimenting with Close Reading in small groups has come with informational texts.
What I loved so much & connected to so well was when the authors stated….
Whether or not we comprehend a text becomes more obvious when reading informational texts; let’s face it, it is much harder to hide your uncertainty. I am sure we all remember faking our way through a class discussion of a novel we hadn’t read, but nothing matches the fear of staring at a science quiz that makes no sense because you barely made it through the textbook.
(Lehman & Roberts, 2014, p. 25)
Umm, yes I clearly remember this in my teenage years! Who else?
So the process for Close Reading with Information Texts stayed the same as Narrative Texts, just the lenses & the deeper understanding of that lens changed. Which I think of as the purpose for reading connected to the standards.
The authors stated the following figure…
Fig. 2.7 Close Reading Ritual: Text Evidence in Informational Texts
1)ย Read through lenses.
ย Choose specific details to gather as data:
- Facts
- Phrases
- Descriptions
- Photos or graphics
2) Use lenses toย find patterns.
- Which details fit together?
- How do they fit together?
3) Use the patterns toย develop a new understanding of the text.
Look at the patterns to think about:
- Definitions of unknown terms or concepts
- Central idea of an entire text
- Author’s bias or point of view
(Lehman & Roberts, 2014, p. 26)
The book then walks the reader through some examples using an article from the magazine Science News for Kids. Love that magazine… which got me thinking that I always use Time for Kids & Scholastic News that would work just perfectly too. The article & lesson followed the same steps & were very interesting to read. The lens chosen to use for this article was, to look for confusing facts & phrases in the article. As students read through the article they made a list of noticings through their lens. Students revisited the text over & over to find definitions to develop a clearer understanding. I found this piece of the book to be very interesting because I could visualize this lesson happening as I was reading.
The chapter ended with some extension & extra support tips.
Question 2: After reading the lessons in this chapter, what are your thoughts about teaching close reading?
ย
First thought, was I’ve never tried any variation of this process with Narrative Texts in small groups. But, as I stated last week, without knowing it I have done some steps of this process with Narrative Texts during whole group mini lessons. I usually stick with 1-2 mentor texts a week for my read alouds in my mini lessons. I am an anchor chart freak and naturally after revisiting texts day after day & multiple discussions, by the end of the week students have a much deeper & clearer understanding of the text. I’ve never used the lingo so to speak or known exactly the steps to scaffold with my students. As far as the steps laid out above, I need to start working on #1 with letting my students know exactly our “lens” / purpose for reading. The eyes we are using while reading. Next I need to work on #2, I need to learn to take our noticings & new learnings of the text and to look for patterns that lead to a deeper understanding. Then from there #3 will change for me as well in instruction. My big plan is to really dig in with Narrative Texts. I want to transfer what I’ve been starting to do in Informational Texts over.
Question 3: What do you notice about the amount of student talk during the lessons? How does this feel similar or different from the ways we have been approaching close reading instruction?
ย
This answer is simple to me. There is more student discussion among their-selves & peers. Why? The teacher is the facilitator & scaffolder! We are so use to front loading & kinda telling students what is important or what to look for. We never really sit back & let the students go through the process without the crutch of the teacher. I feel like it’s a teacher thing to be honest in most cases, we just operate this way. We need to teach ourselves & remind ourselves what to do & not to do for this process to be effective. I did do a better job the second half of last year backing off when trying out this process. But it is very important for myself to let the students find the evidence & gain their own understanding.
What a great post! I have been doing a lot of reading on close reading and look forward to hearing you thoughts!
Kelly
MyFabulousClass