1. Close Reading
Literacy in all Content Areas

2. Objectives for Today
• Understand the importance of literacy in all
content areas.
• Identify strategies one could use to conduct a
close reading with students.
• Practice using these strategies with a text.
• Select text to write a unit aligned with the
Common Core.

3. Why?
• Students are not prepared for the rigors of college.
• According to the NAEP, 70 percent of middle and high
school students score below the “proficient” level of
reading.
• Since the 1960s, there has been a steady decline in the
difficulty and sophistication of the content of texts
students have been asked to read.
• Advanced literacy across content areas is the best
available predictor of students’ ability to succeed in
introductory college courses.

4. Why?
• Students are not prepared for the demands of the work
place.
• About 40 percent of employers indicate they are
dissatisfied with high school graduates’ ability to read
and understand complicated materials, think
analytically and solve real-world problems.
• Employers feel that more than half of recent high
school graduates are weak in skills such as oral and
written communications, problem solving, and critical
thinking.
• The twenty-five fastest growing professions have
literacy demands that are far greater than
average, while the fastest-declining professions have
lower-than-average literacy demands.

5. Literacy Demands in Our Classrooms
• Text Complexity
• http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_A.
pdf
• Grade Level Appropriate Text
• http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.
pdf
• Rigorous Writing Tasks Using Details from Text
• http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_C.
pdf

6. Close Reading and the Common Core
• The Anchor Reading Standards Focus on:
• Key Ideas and Details in a text
• Craft and Structure
• Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
• Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

7. When writing questions…
• Always follow up the question with statements such as:
• Point to this in the text.
• Use details from the text.
• How do you know?
• Support your answer with the text.
• What effect does/do these choices make?
• ***The next few slides will show a
question but not the follow up
statement that directs them to use
the text for support.***

8. Question 1: What does the text say?
• How would you summarize or determine a shortened
version of the text containing only the main points?
CCR1,2
• What is the central idea? CCR2
• What is the specific textual evidence used to support
the central idea? CCR1
• What are the most important ideas/events? CCR1,2
• What are the ideas in order of importance or
presentation? CC1
• What ideas might the author be suggesting rather than
directly stating? What can you infer from these hints or
suggestions? CCR1

9. Question 2: How does the text say it?
• 1. What genre does the selection represent? CCR5
• 2. How does the piece open-exposition, lead, etc.?
CCR5
• 3. Whose voice did the author choose as narrator?
CCR3
• 4. From what point of view was this written? CCR3
• 5. What are the sources of information and fact? Is
there more than one source of information? CCR3
• 6. What role does dialogue play in the text? CCR3
• 7. How is the information organized (for example, time,
topic, cause and effect, compare/contrast, persuasion)?
CCR5

10. More Question 2: How does the text
say it?
• 8. What language is used-dialect variant spellings,
archaic words etc.? CCR4
• 9. What are the style, mood and tone? CCR4
• 10. What word choice, imagery and figures of speech
(for example, simile, metaphor, alliteration, irony,
repetition, personification, etc.) does the author use?
CCR4
• 11. What diction and sentence structure does the
author use, and how do the sections of the text relate
to each other-from the sentence and paragraph levels
to the section and chapter levels? CCR4

11. Question 3: What does the text mean?
• 1. What is the central idea/thesis/theme of the text?
CCR2
• 2. How does the author support the central idea,
thesis, or theme with ideas and details? CCR2
• 3. What are the purposes, ends and objectives? CCR2
• 4. What is the author’s stance/perspective towards the
topic? CCR6
• 5. How does the author use language: dialect, variant
spellings, archaic words, formal or informal words, etc.
to shape tone and the meaning of a piece? CCR6

12. More Question 3: What does the text
mean?
• 6. How does the author use point of
view, style, mood, tone, text features, imagery, figures of
speech to achieve his/her purpose or intent? CCR6
• 7. Why does the author choose the method of presentation?
CCR8
• 8. What are the concepts that make the reasoning
possible, what assumptions underlie the concepts, and what
implications follow from the use of the concepts? CCR8
• 9. What does the author want the reader to believe? CCR8
• 10. What is the quality of the information collected, and are
the sources sufficient, relevant, credible and current? CCR8
• 11. Who or what is not represented? Why? CCR8

13. Question 4: What does the text
mean to me? Apply-So what?
• Text to Self CCR7
• What does the text remind me of in my life? Compare
a detail from the text to your life.
• What is this similar to/different from my life?
• Text to Text CCR9
• How is the text similar to/different from another text?
• Text to World CCR7
• How is this text similar to/different from things that
happen in real world?
• How did that part relate to the world around me?

14. Practice the BIG 4
• Read the passage provided and write a
question in each of the BIG 4 categories.
• Push to write questions that allow for critical
thinking and inference supported with the
text.

15. Close Reading Strategies
How to Ask the Big Questions and Get Results
• No Opt Out
• Right is Right
• Wait Time
• Everybody Writes
• *Strategies taken from Doug Lemov, author of
Teach Like a Champion
These are only a few techniques found in the
book, there are many more.

16. No Opt Out
• “One consistency among champion teachers is
their vigilance in maintaining the expectation
that it’s not okay not to try.”
• Key Idea- NO OPT OUT- a sequence that
begins with a student unable to answer a
question should end with the student
answering that question as often as possible.
• No more, “I don’t know” to avoid answering.

17. No Opt Out Formats
• 1. You provide the answer; the student
repeats it.
• 2. Another student (or whole class) provides
the answer; the initial student repeats the
answer.
• 3. You provide a cue; your student uses it to
find the answer.
• 4. Another student provides a cue; the initial
student uses it to find the answer.

18. Three types of cues for No Opt Outs
• 1. The place where the answer can be found:
• “Who can tell James where he could find the
answer?”
• 2. The step in the process that’s required at the
moment.
• “Who can tell James the first thing he should do
is?”
• 3. Another name for the term that’s a problem.
• “Who can tell James what denominator means?”

19. No Opt Out
• “The closer the question you asked to your
lesson objective, the worthier of a slower and
more cognitively rigorous no opt out it
probably is.”

20. Right is Right
• Many teachers respond to almost-correct
answers by “rounding up” the students’
answers.
• For example, student answers in a general
way, and teacher repeats back the answer
filled in with the details needed to make the
answer complete.
• Key Idea- Right is Right- We need to set high
expectations and defend a high standard of
correctness in the classroom.

21. Right is Right
4 techniques to get complete answers
• 1. Hold out for all the way- Express positively what the
student has done and set your expectation that the student
will now “march the last few yards”
• Phrases that help:
• “I like what you’ve done. Can you get us the rest of the way?
• “We’re almost there. Can you find the last piece?
• “I like most of that…”
• “Can you develop that further?”
• Or repeat students’ response back and place emphasis on
missing parts. Example, “You just said that a noun is a person,
place or thing, but freedom is a noun and it’s not exactly any
of those three.”

22. Right is Right
4 techniques to get complete answers
• 2. Answer the question-”If you’re a Right is Right
teacher, though, you know that the right answer
to any question other than the one you asked is
wrong.”
• Only accept answers to the question you are
asking. Students learn quickly in school that when
you don’t know the right answer to a question
you can usually get by if you answer a different
one. Set your standard higher than that.

23. Right is Right
4 techniques to get complete answers
• 3. Right answer, right time- Resist answers that
get ahead of your questions.
• For example, “When you are teaching students
the series of steps needed to solve a problem and
a student you call on to provide step 3 gives the
whole answer, you have a problem. Accepting the
answer deprives the rest of your students of a
full understanding. Consider responding with
something like, ‘My question wasn’t about the
solution to the problem. It was about what we do
next. What do we do next?’”

24. Right is Right
4 techniques to get complete answers
• 4. Use technical vocabulary-Always require
students to develop effective answers using
precise, technical vocabulary, not just
vocabulary they are already comfortable with.
• Getting students to use precise vocabulary
builds that comfort level with more difficult
terms they will need when they compete in

25. Wait Time
• Delay a few strategic seconds after you finish asking a
question and before you ask a student to begin
answering it.
• By doing this, the length and correctness of student
responses are likely to increase, poor answers decrease,
students volunteering increases as well as the use of
evidence.
• Ways to incorporate wait time:
• “I’m waiting for more hands.”
• “I’d like to see at least 15 hands before we hear an
answer.”
• “I’m looking for someone who’s pointing to the place in
the article where you can find the answer.”

26. Everybody Writes
• Set your students up for rigorous engagement by
giving them the opportunity to reflect first in
writing before discussing.
• It allows for more effective responses.
• Gives students time to prepare answers for
discussion.
• Allows every student the chance to be part of the
conversation even if not called upon.
• Processing thoughts in writing refines them, a
process that challenges students intellectually,
engages them, and improves the quality of their
ideas and their writing.

27. Close Reading Graphic Organizers
• KWL
• Venn
• SQ3R
• Clunks (Vocabulary Work)

28. Graphic Organizers: KWL

29. Graphic Organizers: KWL Charts
• KWL- Great strategy for all subject areas
approaching expository text.
• Helps students to be active thinkers while they
read.
• KWL’s help activate prior knowledge and provide
opportunities for students to set their own
learning objectives.
• Is a good formative assessment as it shows what
the students know and what they have learned
after reading.

30. Graphic Organizers: Venn Diagram
• The use of two or more overlapping circles that are
used to show the similarities and differences of a
concept.
• Can be applied to almost any subject.
• Helps to provide a visual of information in a text.
• Helps breakdown lengthy text into digestible
chunks.
• Prepares students to write a comparison contrast
piece.

31. Venn Diagram Example

32. Graphic Organizer: SQ3R
• S-Survey
• Q-Question
• R-Read
• R-Recite
• R-Review

33. SQ3R
• Step One-Survey
• Student takes a glance at headings in
chapter/article to see major points.
• This step should be brief and should highlight
the central ideas to the text.

34. SQ3R: Question
• Students will turn those headings into
questions.
• This will arouse student curiosity, increase
comprehension and give purpose for reading.
• These questions will make important points
stand out from the explanatory detail.

35. SQ3R: Read
• Students read to answer the question.
• Students read actively by conducting an active
search for the answer to their question.

36. SQ3R: Recite
• After reading the first section, the student
looks away from the text and tries to recite
the answer to their question.
• The student uses own words, but must also
cite an example from the text.
• IF the student cannot answer the question
after looking away, the section must be read
again.

37. SQ3R: Review
• Students look at steps 2,3,4 in each heading
section.
• When student has completed all sections,
review notes to get a birds-eye view of the
points and their relationships.
• Students recite major sub points under each
heading.

38. Clunks
• Use this strategy for difficult terms or concepts
within the passage.
• Students have to use a fix-up strategy to help them
understand the difficult term or concept in the
passage.

39. Guided Highlighted Reading
• Instead of having students answer questions,
have them highlight the answers to questions
with a highlighter.
• Ask the BIG FOUR questions and have them
answer with four different color highlighters.
• See example.

40. Select a Text
• Look at text complexity
• Look at state recommended text
• Choose a text that will support learning of
content area
• Appendix B of ELA Common Core Standards
• http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Append
ix_B.pdf