Close reading is a strategy used to help focus attention on specific aspects of a passage by asking students pay close attention during each of the multiple readings. The teacher in the video helped students work with a complex passage and had active involvement from her students throughout the lesson. The teacher helped students discover the meaning of the reading passage, the deeper intent of the author, their own feelings around the passage. The teacher of this 10th grade class had an extraordinary use of a variety of instructional strategies throughout the presentation.
The teacher began the lesson by presenting the learning objective. She gave a quick reminder about what close reading is, and then told students what they would be doing for this lesson. The learning objective notified students that they would be reading this text numerous times and that each read-through would bring new insight and would require different observation and action. By setting the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ she was helping students understanding what was expected of them for that lesson (Pitler & Stone, 2012).
What really caught my attention was the use of cues and questions throughout the lesson. It was a highly effective strategy to use with this group of students because it activated their prior knowledge, kept them engaged on the lesson, working together, searching for answers in the text and on their toes (not knowing what the teacher would be asking next or who would be called upon). The teacher put to use all four recommendations for the learning milieu from the Classroom Instruction that Works text including; focusing on what is important, using explicit cues and asking both inferential and analytic questions (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler & Stone, 2012).
She also summarizes and links together student’s responses to help students work on their own positions to see if they agree or disagree and can come up with an understanding or agreement. Summarizing helps students capture and organize the important information as well as make connections (Pitler & Stone, 2012).
Her formatting of questions also is a way to provide feedback and recognition to students, she asks them to verify what they know, and then asked if they can justify their comments. She gives the student praise or further questions before moving on. She shows recognition by letting students know what the lesson challenges will be. This master-goal orientation helps students become aware of how they can show effort to succeed (Pitler & Stone, 2012).
The video excellent example of breaking down the steps and expectations of the lesson, in this case close reading. She used an open discussion format (not waiting for quiet raised hands. This open format of calling out answers provided a much better flow for conversation about the topic. As a teacher of students in Special Education I appreciated the way she provided numerous steps to help readers break down the text and figure out the passage.
She also showed enthusiasm for the style of reading “this is why close reading is so cool because this one reading of that first section completely changes it”.
The teacher brought awareness about hearing other’s perspectives, the characters and the action and/ or results of the text. The one area I could see that might improve the lesson would be to incorporate notes by adding student comments or highlighting information on the document camera for all students to see.
Reference:
Pitler, H. & Stone, B., (2012). A handbook for classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Dean, C. B., Hubble, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. (2012). Classroom Instruction That Works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Close reading, grade 10, Video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFRClI2q18Y
Lewis is learning 