Falling in Love (with Reading Closely) and a freebie

Welcome back! It's another week of joining in with Dianna at Sassy, Savvy, Simple Teaching. Last week we looked at the basics of Close Reading and what it might look like. This week in Chapter 2 we get to dig in a little more about the process and how to proceed. 

I know a lot of people in this book study were questioning how this might look in a primary classroom. I personally thought this chapter was full of awesome ideas. As with just about anything it is all about differentiation. In many cases, that can be just toning down for our younger ones. I think we still use the same terms (don't change it because they will see them as the years go on), but we can add examples or modifications. 

For example, the first step is called: Reading through lenses. For my students, I wear glasses and contact lenses and I could use this as an example of how if I don't wear one of these items I cannot see anything at all, but when I use my lenses I can see a lot better, and a lot more!

(*sidenote: in the party section at Target are these awesome glasses. I have 5 and am going to use them on my reading bulletin board. I thought of them the whole time I was reading this chapter and thought it would be so fun for our kids to wear them if we had them in a small group doing this.)

The basics of reading through lenses is gathering text evidence. We're looking for the details. In a fiction text this may be something like looking for what a character says/does/thinks/feels. It may also be how a setting or place is described. In an informational text we can gather these details from facts, descriptions, even photos and their captions. 

In terms of how this may be similar or different to word choice I would think (word choice is addressed in chapter 3) that with word choice we are going to look at the type of language used. Whereas with text evidence we are looking for details and information, we're not analyzing the words. 

The next step (or step 2) is called: Using lenses to find patterns. In basic terms I think of this as analyzing the details we just uncovered during step 1 (notice I didn't say analyzing the word choice, but the details). I also thought of this like sorting - sorting the details that go together. Maybe you want to to sort it by color coding, maybe you want to circle one set of details that go together and box another set. It's up to what works for you and your students. What I did like about the coding/sorting is that they mentioned making a key, like a map key -- what a great way to tie in some social skills! 

The third step is: Use the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text. What I love about this step is it is the actual process of basically, how have our thoughts or ideas changed about this character/or whatever non-fiction piece you are studying during this process?

In fact there are even sentence frames and prompts that were provided. I love that there are sentence frames because it is so valuable to my ESOL students. I've put a few reminder/prompt cards together for you. Click on the picture to be taken to the free cards (please leave feedback if you like these)!

Now I have to tell you my favorite part of this chapter was the suggestion of teaching a lesson with song lyrics first in order to introduce this whole concept. So you will use the lyrics of the song as what will be read closely, or analyzed. They used the example of a Justin Bieber song, and while my 2nd graders know who he is, I was thinking more along the lines of Let It Go from Frozen. 

So the idea behind this is that some people will already like the song and some won't which is the perfect combination for this (my 2nd grade boys were so over this song last year...but I still played it cause I liked it, hehe). 

So you would play the song once and then post the lyrics (I would also print out the lyrics and have a handout for each student). You can look at the lyrics to try to determine what message the song is trying to convey. 

So here is how I envision this: 

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen
A kingdom of isolation,
And it looks like I'm the queen.

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried!

Don't let them in, don't let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know
Well, now they know!

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door!

I don't care
What they're going to say
Let the storm rage on,
The cold never bothered me anyway!

It's funny how some distance
Makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me
Can't get to me at all!

It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me I'm free!
Let it go, let it go
I am one with the wind and sky
Let it go, let it go
You'll never see me cry!

Here I stand
And here I'll stay
Let the storm rage on!

My power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast
I'm never going back,
The past is in the past!

Let it go, let it go
And I'll rise like the break of dawn
Let it go, let it go
That perfect girl is gone!

Here I stand
In the light of day
Let the storm rage on,
The cold never bothered me anyway!

The blue highlighting is about her power and what she can do. 

The orange is about how everyone knows and she is dealing with it.

The yellow is about how she had to stifle herself and couldn't be who she was. 

Obviously getting the students to see all of these things will take training. So maybe in the beginning they receive direction about a certain theme to look for. **Please please take into consideration that this is not official, I am not an expert, these are just my ideas for how I would teach this to group of 2nd graders who are mainly ESOL students. There is not a right or wrong with this set of lyrics or any of it.** How do you want the lesson to go? What standard are you teaching? Just make sure that as your students are practicing this independently (when ready) you are assessing their work in order to help you decide your next steps.

Happy Reading!

Make sure to enter our giveaway and check out the other bloggers in this books study (I know there's a freebie along the way). 

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Let's Fall in Love (with Close Reading)!

Welcome to our book study with Dianna at Sassy, Savvy, Simple Teaching. Close Reading is certainly a "buzz phrase" going around the teaching world. There are a couple of book studies taking place about close reading, but when Dianna put a call out, I knew I wanted to participate in this one. 

We've chosen to study this book, Falling in Love with Close Reading, by Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts. Christopher Lehman also authored the book Pathways to the Common Core. My old principal had us read that book two years ago. She didn't require us to do a study of the book but she always said during her observations that she could tell the teachers who had read it. 

I also was fortunate enough this past school year to attend a professional development in my county called Vision. It met one Saturday a month from September to December. A book we delved into closely during that time was Notice and Note. So alas, close reading is not new to me. I attempted it midway through the school year this past year with some higher level reading groups. Time did not permit us to get very far. What I know from that experience is that I have more to learn. I also know that if I begin this process from the beginning of the school year both my students and myself can only get better with it. That's a good thing because I head back to school is just 23 days (yikes)! So without further ado:

Chapter 1 is really just an overview of what exactly close reading is and what it should be in a classroom. Before I go into the questions, I have to tell you that the very first paragraph was a brilliant analogy. Without having read anything in this book I was already aware that part of good close reading is reading a text or passage over and over again. Think about the things and people we love. We know them so well because we study them, and spend time with them, over and over again. It's as though we study the things and people we love. Think about it - how do you come to know a friend so well? You listen and listen over and over again when you have conversations. Close reading resembles a similar type of studying. 

1. Close reading is 1. involves rereading; 2. an interaction between the reader and the text; 3. making careful observations about a text and then interpreting them (or digging deeper); 4. It is something we should teach students to do, rather than just show them, do for them, or do to them. 

*It's important to note that the views of what close reading is has changed over time and adapted as common core became part of the everyday. 

2.  Powerful close reading instruction has several 'musts'. It must: 

- raise engagement

- lead to student independence

- be just one piece of your reading instruction, not all of it

- allow students to read for extended periods

- be repeated, allowing time for practice and refinement

- be designed to meet the needs of your students, not just 'work' with a book you are reading

3. Currently in my close reading, I always introduce new vocabulary. We read, and we read again. Maybe the third time we underline/highlight what we think is important. We have discussions. I know I am not perfect in this and what I am most excited to uncover in this book is methods and differentiation (especially for getting students to actually want to read something over and over again. 

Be sure to come back next Sunday for chapter 2, as I begin to uncover some of the aforementioned methods. 

In the meantime, make sure you enter our giveaway. 

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And, make sure you go visit these other blogs participating in this book study, there are some great blogs and teachers to learn from.

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