In April I will begin booking services for the 2014-15 school year. If your school or organization is interested in on-site or on-line professional development or speaking engagements please be sure to join the growing wait list before April 1st for your best chance at being added.
For more information or to apply, use the contact form on the bottom of my Services Page.
This school year has been exciting and such a joy teaching and learning inside of classrooms with teams of teachers, speaking at conferences and workshop days around the world, and connecting with educators online in webinars and interactive sessions. I’m looking forward to 2014-15.
Also, there are some surprises in store (announced soon!), be sure to follow me on twitter or subscribe to this blog to so you don’t miss the big announcement.
Looking forward to continued collaboration, inspiration, and together becoming our best so students can become their best.
My talk from November at UW-Madison is now available on their YouTube page. Close to 400 of you attended in person and online and the School of Education wanted to make the talk available to you to share.
In it I discuss two diverging decisions we can make in our schools about how to approach the ELA Common Core Standards, we can take the route of initiatives simply for initiative’s sake or we can take the route of our students, seeing their needs and responding to them.
I also take on the topic of CCSS “aligned” products, including exemplar modules and rubrics found online. I discuss where the creation of those modules began and how they miss the mark of both good classroom practice and the standards themselves.
I then describe promises we must make to our students and ways of aligning your instruction to their strengths and needs. Throughout I include the comments of our fellow educators and how they are navigating these challenging waters.
My sincerest hope is that you feel empowered to make the decisions that are best for you and your students. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to your insights and ideas.
I don’t know about you, but the weeks around Thanksgiving were so busy I lost complete control of my inbox. Now, finally starting to chip through it I came across–and realize I forgot to share with you–my article in the Booksource Banter November newsletter!
I was honored to be invited to write because I’ve appreciated articles by Pam Allyn, Donalyn Miller, and many other educators, in the past. Also because I am a Booksource advocate since my years in the classroom and now working with educators around the country, I see how they “get it.” Books in kids hands matters and helping educators find the right ones matter as well.
I’ll be speaking about Common Core State Standards myths, meanings, and providing guidance on ways to support our schools in moving forward.
Attend (Virtually): Webcast, Tweet
Registration for the in-person event has met capacity, but you are able to watch the live-stream online. Registration for the webcast is free: here.
You can use the hashtag #AEW2013 (American Education Week) while viewing, in order to connect, chat, and respond. I’ll plan to read and respond to tweets at the end of the evening.
Giving Back: Funding Books for Educators
One aspect of this conversation will include research around the absolute necessity of providing access to books. With this in mind, I wrote to friends at Booksource and asked if they would consider funding some educators’ needs. They graciously agreed and have committed to giving a total of $1,000 in book money to a few educators in attendance.
Here are the details from UW-Madison’s website and how Wisconsin educators attending in person or online can apply. Deadline is Monday afternoon:
Virtual Book Study
UW-Madison will also be kicking off a virtual book study of Pathways to the Common Core, more information is forth-coming.
I hope you will attend, tweet, and continue these essential conversations.
SEE UPDATED ARCHIVE FROM CHAT AT END OF THIS POST.
A few twitter friends organized a chat about our new book, Falling in Love With Close Reading, taking place tonight from 6-7pmET. The chat is about the book, but if you have not read it (or have just started) you are still welcome to join in.
The summit is on the Math and ELA CCSS and assessments, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards. I’m excited to give the keynote on the first day and attend several sessions.
Topic: What’s Next for #CCSS and Our Schools?”
Draft questions are posted here and open to revisions, comments, and additions.
Use your twitter account and apps or websites like twitter app, tweetchat.com, or twubs.com to follow the hashtag #LeadAndLearn from 11:15 to 12:15 CST to participate. Be sure to include that hashtag in every tweet you send so the entire group can see it.
by Tkgd2007 used under Creative Commons lic
On the Road
My blog has been a bit quieter than I like these past few weeks because I’ve been on the road. I enjoyed working with a school district in Michigan, keynoting the Annual Reading Conference at Cleveland State University in Ohio. I just got back from a weekend keynoting and presenting in Dubai at the MENA Common Core conference, and in a few hours I head to the airport again for The Leadership and Learning Center summit.
Join me in person or online at UW-Madison
I’d especially love to extend an invitation to you to join me in person or virtually for my evening talk on the Common Core State Standards at the University of Wisconsin Madison’s School of Education (go badgers!) on Wednesday, November 20 from 6-7:30PM CST. The event is free in person or online, but both do require advanced registration which you can find here.
I’m talking Common Core sanity. Hoping to balance out the extreme views on both sides and offer research based, practical advice to educators, parents, and leaders for moving forward. There are also a few surprises in store that I’m very excited about.
Welcome to the last week of our 7-week blog-a-thon on #closereading! Each week educators joined in with comments and links to their own posts, you can visit the Contributors page for a record of the highlights of this inspiring experience. We are still collecting links throughout this final week. Let’s closely read the practice of close reading together!
Also, we look forward to working with many of you in person! My Brookfield, WI workshop “Fall in Love with Close Reading” on December 6 has sold out, however there are still seats available in Amherst, NY on December 9 when Kate and I will be presenting together! Registration can be found here.
Close Reading is Not the Answer…
This Thursday our new book, Falling in Love with Close Reading: Lessons for Analyzing Texts–And Life, is officially released. So Kate and I thought it important to start off this final week of our blog-a-thon letting you know that we think close reading is actually not that important… …at least not in the way some are describing it to be.
We disagree that close reading is a magic equalizer. We find little evidence that students at a “wide range of reading levels” can read and analyze “demanding text” simply because they are doing so while close reading. Yes, close reading is one way to dig further into texts, but one cannot analyze texts independently that they cannot actually read on their own. Sure, we can do some close teaching, but the goal should be students learn to independently apply close reading skills. (link to Publisher’s Criteria, page 4)
We do not believe that text dependent questions are teaching. These types of questions may make for good assessment, and we certainly use text-dependent questions at times in our demonstration lessons–after all, we all want students who talk and think through the text. However, lessons built almost entirely around text-dependent questions, without explicit demonstration, do little to pass skills to our students. Especially the students who need it most. Teaching through osmosis is built on chance, not purpose. (link to EngageNY module by Student Achievement Partners)
We do not believe that curriculum should be built solely around close reading of complex texts. The diversity of our learners’ interests, needs, and strengths is too great to be put all into one practice. Without time for independent practice, for example, there is little opportunity for the practice, data collection and responsive instruction needed to support the growth of readers. (link to EngageNY module by Expeditionary Learning)
Back in Post #1 of this blog-a-thon, “What Close Reading Isn’t (Or At Least Shouldn’t Be)“, we shared more thinking on what to hold onto and what to avoid (including labeling just anything “close reading”).
…You are the Answer
We think close reading IS important. We think it is as important as any other piece of student-centered, responsive, soul-filling, reading instruction.
Mary Ann Colbert, a master of primary reading instruction and former colleague, once said something that has stuck with me for years: “it’s important that we not only choose our teaching points to match our students, but that we also choose our methods carefully. It’s not just what we teach that makes a difference to kids, its how we choose to teach it.”
I think this idea is at the core of what Kate and I believe about close reading:
It is a method, a set of skills, for digging deeper into texts, into media, and into our daily lives.
It is a method, a set of skills, that readers can learn to choose (or not choose) to match their purpose–just as a baker will choose a gentle hand whisk over a powerful electronic mixer at times.
It is a method, a set of skills, that a teacher can choose (or not choose) to employ to match the needs and strengths of their students.
If our teaching is to be an art, we must draw from all we know, feel, and believe in order to create something beautiful. To teacher well, we do not need more techniques and strategies as much as we need a vision of what is essential. It is not the number of good ideas that turns our work into art, but the selection, balance, and design of those ideas.
We believe close reading is not the sole answer to every need of your students. Instead, we believe your knowledge of all the multi-facets of expert reading instruction, used in response to your students, is what matters.
You–educator, leader, literacy coach, administrator, library/media specialist, parent–are the answer. You are the answer when you continue to grow your kit of tools, when you continue to connect and dream with other educators, when you make decisions because your students’ new horizons.
Beyond Close Reading
As I’m finishing this post I am leafing through the pages of the “References” section in our book. The references are compiled at the end of writing, during production, just as the book is getting ready for it’s final proofread and off to the presses. They appear at the physical end of the book as a list of citations.
Rereading them, now, I am reminded that these texts, these voices, were very much the beginning. Our thinking grew from these educators and authors, their ideas about teaching, learning, and life influenced our own.
…Richard Allington, Katherine Applegate, Nancie Atwell, Dorthothy Barnhouse, Kylene Beers, Katherine and Randy Bomer, Lucy Calkins and the Reading and Writing Project, Eric Carle, Sharon Draper, Doug Fisher, Kelly Gallagher, Stephanie Harvey, John Hattie, Karin Hess, James Howe, Patricia Kain, Ellin Keene, Penny Kittle, Lois Lowry, Donalyn Miller, Tom Newkirk, R.J. Palacio, P. David Pearson, Katie Wood Ray, Louise Rosenblatt, Donna Santman, Jen Serravallo, Jon Steinbeck, Alfred Tatum, Cris Tovani, Lev Vygotsky… I’ve condensed the list here, there are so many others in between and beyond these names. So, many others who are also not directly cited in those final pages.
We hope that when and if you get to those final pages, when you hit that “References” section, that you not turn close the cover too quickly. Instead, let the end become your next beginning.
Continue to study and grow as you always have. Your students need you. We need you.
by geodesic used under Creative Commons lic
Your Turn
Which educators, authors, artists, people, have influenced your thinking about teaching, learning and life? When do you find close reading to be necessary and supportive in your instruction and when do you know to bring in another method or skill? This blog-a-thon is about the sharing ideas, we invite you to read the Contributor Page for more posts and information out how to add your own link.
Look for the final official post of this series on Thursday!
Your ears may have been ringing as I am find myself quoting posts from the blog-a-thon continuously, “…that Fran McVeigh post, wow it got me thinking….”.
All of this got me thinking, so I’m trying a little experiment here…
Whenever I present at speaking engagements I bring research, my firsthand experience in classrooms, and the ideas of fellow educators I talk and work alongside. Over the next few weeks I have several large keynotes coming up (dates are at the end of this post) talking Common Core State Standards myths and opportunities.
In each of these I plan to bring what I always bring, but I am thinking I would love to bring bits of your experiences, too.
Educators in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa), for example, will largely attend from American curriculum schools. They are brand new to looking at the CCSS and also not held by the testing machine we have here. What would you tell them about the pitfalls to avoid or the joyful teaching you are doing?
At UW-Madison, anyoneanywhere will tune in because it will be live and live-streamed. What do you want to tell the public about the changes in your school, both the overwhelming and the fascinating?
by One Way Stock used under Creative Commons lic
This is completely an experiment, usually everything I gather is from face-to-face with kids and educators, but twitter and our blog-a-thon has changed my sense of what is possible when educators are connected. I’d like to bring your knowledge and experiences to others.
So here’s my pitch:
With your permission, I’d love to include some of your voices in these upcoming speaking engagements. Send your anecdotes, links, images, that you would like me to consider sharing in a few ways: as comments on this post, via my twitter handle, or to this email: iChrisLehman(at)gmail with the subject line “Talking Common Core”. For student work or photos you would like to send, I will send you a parent/guardian permission slip to be completed before use.
I’m especially collecting experiences around three themes:
“We are tired…” take this as either physically/emotionally tired because of X, Y, Z or action-oriented as “I am tired of being told…. when actually my students…. see look!” These could be bashing or supportive or somewhere in the middle. Such as “I am tired of everyone saying students can’t write, when my team and I studied the CCSS together and really made an effort to teach skills not just assign work we found…” or “I am tired of being told some texts are worthy and others are not, I find in my classroom that…”
“There is no one way…” I think it’s important to both critique those promising the “ANSWER TO EVERYTHING” comes from the CCSS and to critique those comparing it to “THE END OF DAYS.” One essential point I continue to raise is that everyone’s experience with “implementation” is not the same. Yes, there are classrooms that are forced into a one-size-fits-all approach (please share those stories) but there are equally classrooms and schools that are using the standards as a study while still holding onto the practices they love and work well for students (share those, too).
“Our students are our curriculum…” What are ways you are helping your students drive your instruction? This could be “data” in an overwhelming way, or inventions you and your colleagues are making to gather usable assessments, or ways you continue to reach beyond the standards, or anything else.
Your inspiration, challenges, solutions, and so on!
So again, if any ideas speak to you I’d love anecdotes, links, anything that you would share with other educators about your experiences. I’ll weave many into these upcoming speaking engagements.
It would be great to see you in person at any of these events as well. Also, the UW-Madison event is free and streamed-live, registration is at the link below.
October 25, Cleveland, OH. Invited Keynote. Cleveland State University’s Annual Reading Conference: “Growing Literacy from the Core.” Register: here.
November 1-2, Dubai, UAE. “MENA Common Core Conference.” Invited Keynote and Session Speaker. Register:here.
November 5-6, New Orleans, LA. The Leadership and Learning Center’s “Common Core State Standards Summit 2.0: Getting Ready for the Next Generation Assessments,” Invited Keynote and Panelist. Register:here.
November 20, Madison, WI. Evening Invited Keynote during the University Wisconsin-Madison’s American Educators Week. FREE registration to attend live or online: here.
Only two weeks left in our 7-week blog-a-thon on #closereading! It has been an exciting, inspiring conversation. Be sure to read the Contributors page and consider linking to your own post.
Also, heads up that my “Fall in Love with Close Reading” workshop in Brookfield, WI on December 6 is nearly sold out. Seats are also going quickly for the date Kate and I will be together in Amherst, NY on December 9. We look forward to learning with you in person!
When You Stop Making Sense
Katie Wood Ray and Lester Laminack have one of the greatest titles for a professional education book: “The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And They’re All Hard Parts)” (2001 NCTE). It feels as if you could swap out “the writing workshop” for nearly anything in education and the title still holds: Social Studies: … And They’re All Hard Parts. Parent Involvement: … And They’re All Hard Parts. Grading…. And They’re All Hard Parts. And for our purposes here: Close Reading… And They’re All Hard Parts!
The good news is, as their title suggests, there are challenges in everything and yet you can work through them.
Case in point: teaching students to read closely to consider structure.
Now, perhaps you have long since mastered this instructional skill set. If you have, we would love you to link to a post about it. But let me tell you, Kate and I found this probably one of the biggest challenges in our study of close reading. It snuck up on us. Because on the outset it seems so simple, just stand in front of a class of students and begin your lesson with a crystal clear analogy:
by compujeramey used under Creative Commons lic
“Structure in books is a lot like the frame of a house or like the beams in a building. With that structure in place an architect can then attach everything else to it. It is what makes that building solid and whole. It is what gives that building it’s shape. Without structure, the building would fall apart.
…so.
….um.
….read to notice. that. stuff.
…now.”
It was not as simple as we thought.
Now, while many of our early attempts did not sound this pathetic, they often times felt pretty close. In one triumphant instance I was working with a class of sixth graders while the entire sixth grade team of teachers sat in. I modeled with a simple picture book (you know, so it would be quick and clear) and ended up taking nearly 30 minutes of talking and scribbling all over the board to demonstrate considering the structural choices the author made in the text.
At the very end I felt somewhat okay with myself, despite the absurdly long time. I mean, the board was full of lines and arrows and bullets. Clearly it was thought-provoking. Then, one teacher said, “Wait, so we’re just trying to make a timeline of all of the scenes?” I stepped back and realized that was exactly what I did. Only in a dramatic, overly complicated, way.
I felt ridiculous.
Instruction Is Not About “Perfect,” It’s About “Responsive”
If not for seeing what didn’t work, we never would have gotten to what worked (or, at least, what worked a lot better). What matters in close reading instruction, all instruction for that matter, is that we are willing to make an attempt and even more willing to look for parts of our instruction to revise.
Several actions helped us during this process of revising our teaching:
Always returning to student work to look for evidence of (or lack of) independence. If we didn’t see it, we knew our teaching wasn’t clear enough or transferable.
Looking for approximation and then building on that strength, both in student attempts and our own. A “are we there yet?” way of looking at our teaching choices helped us keep moving forward.
Lots of professional, reflective conversation. In their book, Professional Capital, Michael Fullan and Andy Hargreaves argue that a large piece of improving education revolves around making more time for collaboration. They point out that great schools do not have stellar teaching in random classrooms, but instead teams that grow, think, and plan together. We found each conversation, with whomever was willing to talk and reflect with us, to be hugely instructive.
Each attempt got better. Each time we were surprised by what we learned.
For instance, we began to see that structure didn’t just fall into one category but several. That sometimes structural choices are the major parts of a text–like scenes in a novel or video game, or sections in an article. That sometimes authors structured where and how techniques were used–like repeating a particular line in a poem, the appearance and reappearance of a certain color in a movie.
We found that for some students rereading to consider structural choices was naturally more of a two-step process: first they would locate the parts, then they would return to consider the purposes for that organization.
Then, of course, were times students blew our minds. In the chapter on structure in our book we include a few images from a high school class in which students not just thought about the purposes of structure in the text, but then experimented with ways of diagraming them.
Each new avenue started with a not-so-hot attempt.
It Will Be Challenging And You’ll Love It
by I See Modern Britain, used under Creative Commons lic
There will be times when your work with close reading goes amazingly well. Then, there will be times went it flops. When things fall apart we first send a heartfelt hug from across the miles–we’ve been there, friend–and we also want to say how exciting moments like those become.
Think of each interaction with your students as a chance to learn, a chance to follow the lead of your students, to study alongside your colleagues. With that mindset, there are no failures, only new understandings.
Your Turn
What have been your biggest challenges in close reading instruction? What have been your biggest moments of learning? Comment on this post, or better yet add a link to your own blog post. See the Contributor Page for more ideas and inspiration from fellow educators.
Share your insights, we are closely reading close reading together!
Welcome to the fifth week of our 7-week blog-a-thon on #closereading. Each week posts are added to the Contributors page and we are looking forward to your addition. Let’s closely read the practice of close reading together!
Also a reminder that we have two workshops coming up this December called “Fall in Love with Close Reading.” I will be in Brookfield, WI on December 6. Kate and I will be together in Amherst, NY on December 9. Registration as well as the number to call for lodging information or other questions can be found here. We look forward to working with you in person!
Complex What Now?
If you are a Common Core State Standards state, the standards your state adopted have only one thing to say about the complexity of texts students should be able to read by themselves: In Reading Standard 10, across grade levels, the standard reads: “By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature/informational texts in the grades X-Y text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed…”
One phrase that I find important: “by the end of the year.” What is clear here is that a standard is a standard, an expectation. One educators have always wanted, I argue. As page 6 of the standards further clarifies, you can decide how to get there, which research to follow or avoid, which path to take.
by basibanget used under Creative Commons lic
The message of students must read complex texts all the time, then, does not come from the standards themselves.
Instead, that message comes from documents your state did not directly adopt (though in the case of states like New York, it’s as if they had). Documents like the “publisher’s criteria” and the “tri-state rubric” offer interpretation of the standards–often based on theory more than research or knowledge of practice. These documents make broader reaches into suggesting that lessons should include texts that are “similar to CCSS grade-level text exemplars” or one of my least favorite phrases, include complex texts that are “worth reading” (insert a condescending, “pshaw”). The documents were intended to impact textbook companies, and it is evident that in many cases they have.
The good news is that if you agree with these or any other documents, you are free to follow their lead. If you disagree, the standards say that should be up to you to decide.
I Choose Complex Kids, First
What has felt so joyful about this blog-a-thon is that many of our fellow contributors struggle, dream, plan, and reflect on the love we hope for our children and young adults to have with reading and thinking. We aim to not just “do” close reading as an initiative, but instead to invite our students (and ourselves) to see this skill as a way of looking at the world in an eyes-open way.
In the opening to our book (sample here), we write:
“…teaching readers to look at texts closely—by showing them how one word, one scene, or one idea matters—is an opportunity to extend a love affair with reading. It is also a chance to carry close reading habits beyond the page, to remind students that their lives are rich with significance, ready to be examined, reflected upon, and appreciated.”
Close reading is not the only way, but instead one of many ways to invite our students to admire text and more importantly bask in their own deep, imaginative thinking.
Love is In the Eyes of the Book-Holder
Love is a fickle and uniquely personal thing. Along our lives we fall for the wrong people at times, we don’t make our friends happy with our choices, our love goes unrequited. When our hearts start beating fast and our palms sweat it’s often hard to know how or why. It just is. Who you fall for is unique to you. (It’s why those blind dates your friends set you up on don’t always pan out.)
by CarbonNYC used under Creative Commons lic.
Herein lies the perennial challenge of all reading instruction, close reading related or not: Just because you love and adore Text X with all of your heart and soul, does not mean your students will. Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Soto, Myers, Woodson, Dahl, DiCamillo–it doesn’t matter if you are “CANON” (boom!) minded or a young adult “fangirl/boy,” what you love will assuredly not be what all of your students do.
Sure, they may love YOU. May even love the experiences you have shared with them around a book. I argue, that still does not mean they would or could read Text X on their own and think within its pages. Heck, I will always remember James and The Giant Peach for the young, female teacher that read it aloud to us… I think there was a boy in it and maybe some bugs…
Learning to Love
Does this mean you should never choose texts? No. Exactly to opposite.
We learn about love and relationships through example. We watched our parents, television, movies, and our friends. Then, with those examples of what to do (and not to do) in mind, we let our hearts lead us.
Across this blog-a-thon, in our book, and in all of our work, we aim to support students in learning the habits of close reading so they can carry them beyond that one lesson and into their lives. A portion of this is how we are teaching these skills, another portion is the texts we use to demonstrate and inspire.
When choosing texts for close reading instruction we suggest you consider several actions:
Model your own joy of reading, often. Not just the texts you are using for instruction, but also talk about texts from outside of the classroom. The question, “So what are you reading right now…?” or the statement, “I just started an amazing book…,” are important across the school day and beyond.
Choose demonstration texts you love. Choose texts that you are authentically excited about, that is rule numero uno. If some curriculum guide you were handed says “This Text Was Deemed To Be Close Reading Worthy” but you find your soul wilting as you read it, then it is not worth reading. Your enthusiasm and wonder matters.
by Jack Mallon used under Creative Commons lic
Choose demonstration texts that will speak to students. The second step is to ask yourself if the texts you will model with will be compelling to (at least some of) your class. Does it strike an emotional nerve, engage them intellectually, speak to them? Learning happens with wide awake minds (versus sleeping with your eyes open in class).
Vary Your Texts Often: In Tone, Complexity, Topic. The more variety in your text choices, the more students’ minds you will ignite. If you spend time with a particularly dense text that felt like an uphill climb–both exhilarating at the top and exhausting–, then next read a text you can sprint through. If you just read a tear-jerker, don’t forget the kids with the infectious sense of humor. Recall, as well, that texts need not be only literature. Nonfiction, movies, songs, video games, primary source documents, overheard conversations–close reading is not only academic, it is a way to think through the stuff of life.
Readers Choose (And Choosey Readers Read Tons). Ultimately, allow your readers plenty of opportunity to choose the texts they will read independently. With choice come volume, engagement, and opportunity for developed thinking. (See Penny Kittle‘s brief video interview of her high school students talking about their lack-of-turned-growth-in reading, link here.) As we mentioned in a previous post, we have to be careful that we are not simply close teaching, but offering our students many opportunities to practice becoming close readers.
All of this is to say, we believe you do not choose your text, first, and then decide out how to bring it to your students. Instead you choose your students, first, and decide how to bring them to texts.
Your Turn
What do you think about when choosing texts? Do you agree with our points? Do you challenge some? Share your ah-has, hmms, and huhs with the community. This blog-a-thon is about all of us sharing ideas! See the Contributor Page for more posts and information out how to add yours.
Share your insights, we are closely reading close reading together!
Welcome to the seventh post in our 7-week blog-a-thon on #closereading. Each week posts are added to the Contributors page and we are looking forward to your addition. Let’s closely read the practice of close reading together!
Also a reminder that we have two workshops coming up this December called “Fall in Love with Close Reading.” I will be in Brookfield, WI on December 6. Kate and I will be together in Amherst, NY on December 9. Registration as well as the number to call for lodging information or other questions can be found here. We look forward to working with you IN PERSON!
No, Really, They Are Not Happy.
I stumbled upon writing this post completely by accident. Last week, while updating the contributor page, I got on twitter and searched for the term “close reading.” I know many of you are using the hashtag and I was curious to see what other ideas were circulating. What I found–with some delight and horror–was not only are educators tweeting about close reading, but so are students. And so a post was born!
Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a small sampling of 48 hours of “close reading” student tweets. *Note: While tweets are in the public domain, I have chosen to black out specific twitter handles.
The dread
The rage
The challenges
And the certifiably bizarre
You are correct.
That does sound so dumb.
Now, you could be thinking, “well students like to complain, they get on twitter and just share their angst.” To that claim, I submit this counter-evidence:
THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF ALL CAPS TWEETS PROFESSING LOVE TO ONE DIRECTION. EVERY. MINUTE.
Engagement Isn’t a Thing, It’s the Only Thing
Across the blog-a-thon many posts have been keenly aware that it’s critical that close reading instruction is student-centered, empowering, and engaging.
Mindi Rench‘s post during week one, “Close Reading: Please don’t let it be a return to ‘Read to answer the three questions at the end of the chapter,’” Scott McLeod‘s post during week three, “Will an emphasis on ‘close reading’ kill the joy of reading?” (both linked to on the contributor page), and our podcast with Franki Sibberson for Choice Literacy are all examples.
Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey noted in an IRA brief that if close reading instruction is not carefully crafted it could detract, instead of enhance, engagement and learning (see page 8).
I am reminded of a statement Donna Santman made in a workshop a few years ago: “As teachers, we first get good at reading to our students, but then we need to get good at reading our students.”
Every decision we make can raise or lower interest, belief, and learning.
Keep Close Reading Close to Them
In our work for Falling In Love with Close Readingone element that became critical to effective close reading instruction was conversation. Authors talk with authors, doctors talk with doctors, educators talk with educators–so too should readers talk with readers. We found that if you plan to have students voices within your instruction not only do you have more engaged learners, but you benefit from students developing more sophisticated ideas together and you are able to do much more assessment of their developing skills. The more students have opportunities to think out loud together, the more you truly can “read” your students.
Down to its most simple parts, lessons could progress like this:
Teach a habit of close reading. Perhaps, zooming in on particular kinds of details like Kate emphasized in her last post.
Demonstrate this habit with a small bit of text.
Then, read a bit more of that text and invite students to now practice together.
While students talk, listen!
After the lesson, invite students to return to their own independent reading or book clubs. Offering more opportunities for engagement, conversation, and assessment.
The listening we do as educators, we argue, is not in a “are they getting the right answer?” kind of a way. Instead, you are listening for how their thinking is developing, if your instruction was clear, and–yes, my twitter friends–if they are engaged.
When you feel heard, you tend to say more. When you say more, you tend to feel more.
Your Turn
What are ways you already see engagement (or a lack there of)? In what ways do you engage your learners intellectually and emotionally? What are your reactions to the twitter comments? Add your comments and/or links to your own posts. This blog-a-thon is about all of us sharing ideas, see the Contributor Page for more posts and for information out how to share yours.
Share your insights, we are closely reading close reading together!
In it, Franki and I discuss saving the teaching of research and informational reading/writing from the boredom inducing 8-week long card-catalog projects of our own youth to teaching in ways that support student learning, energy, and interest. The podcast draws on thinking from my book Energize Research Reading and Writing(sample chapters here). And is also the subject of my upcoming October 3-part webinar series with Heinemann PD (more on that and registration in yesterday’s post).
Listen to the podcast by clicking the image below (or this link):
Click to be taken to “Chris Lehman on Student Research (PODCAST)”
Welcome to the fifth post in our 7-week blog-a-thon on #closereading. Each week posts are added to the Contributors page and we are looking forward to your addition. Let’s closely read the practice of close reading together!
Join!
Before we jump into the first post for this week, we have two quick announcements (think of these like infomercials, only without the poor acting):
Be sure to click over to the Contributor Page to read posts of other educators. They have pushed our thinking and we know yours, too. If you are considering posting (or even a tad nervous to post or share a link), please do! We firmly believe the most important professional development is conversation and even a post of only ten words will get others thinking. More on how to share your post here. Remember, an essential step is to post your link in the comments section on this blog or Kate’s.
We’re happy to (re)announce that we have two workshops coming up this December called “Fall in Love with Close Reading.” I will be in Brookfield, WI on December 6. Kate and I will be together in Amherst, NY on December 9. More information, registration, and the number to call for lodging information or other questions can be found at Heinemann. We look forward to working with you IN PERSON!
Close Reading Nonfiction (Why? and Oh!)
It seems that a lot of conversation around close reading practices centers around literature, so we wanted to share some of our thinking about close reading nonfiction.
It has been our experience in schools that when the topic of TEACHING NONFICTION READING comes up, a good percentage of us ask the very poised and reflective question: “Whhhhhhhyyyyyyy? Do I have toooooo?”
by memekode Used under Creative Commons lic
So, naturally, when you add “close reading” into the mix the question then becomes a dignified: “I don’t wanna. Come on. Whhhhyyyy? Please no. Whhhhyyyyyyyy?”
To be fair, a good deal of you love teaching nonfiction. But, in a number of schools there is an equally large number of you that would be delighted to leave the skills of informational reading up to your science cluster teacher (Poor Ms. Smith, she already has enough on her hands).
Therefore, we want to offer some inspiration for taking up close reading practices with nonfiction texts.
Great nonfiction writers become stars. Within the circle of their readers their names are praised. You probably know people who talk about their favorite columnists as if they were close friends: “That Maureen Dowd, she never holds back.” The world has bought millions of copies of books by Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking. Co-workers trade quotes from Freakonomics, Outliers, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Some teachers say “Seymour Simon” and “Bobbie Kalman” with quiet reverence as if they’re shorthand for, “Of course we all know their books are terrifically written.”
What do all of these writers have in common? It is certainly not just that they know a whole lot about their topics; it’s doubtful that a book full of dense facts alone would be a number-one best-seller (when’s the last time you read a textbook for pleasure?). What great nonfiction writers—best-selling, most-quoted, most highly praised nonfiction writers—have in common is that they do their very best, work their hardest, to be excellent teachers. They work to be engaging, clear, and always with sight of learners in mind. Terrific nonfiction does what all of us educators strive to do every day when we step into a classroom.
The truth is that informational writing, at its best, is as artfully crafted and nuanced as a poem or beloved novel.
In our new book, Kate and I run with the assumption that all types of texts can be loved more carefully as you read more thoughtfully, including nonfiction texts, arguments, and media. Some of the many purposes for reading nonfiction closely can include to:
by Markoz46 Used under Creative Commons lWe can read nonfiction closely to:
Understand what the author values (cares about, thinks is important, wants us to focus on)
Have a clearer understanding of a topic (clarify our mental image, see connections between ideas we may have missed)
Define terminology that is unclear at first
Find a topic more interesting
Develop ideas with peers
Spark imagination
and so on
Let’s take the opening pages to Seymour Simon‘s Coral Reefs (sample here from the publisher).
Read page 5, then get ready to reread.
In a previous posts we suggested that looking for patterns is one important habit in close reading, and that as readers we actively bring in our prior knowledge including being actively aware of what we don’t know and what piques our interest. We invite you to reread this short section and allow patterns to pop-out to you.
For instance, I am struck by (as always) Seymour Simon’s carefully selected words. I’m noticing a pattern in the kinds of descriptions he includes: strange, brilliant colors, shimmer, vibrant, strange-looking, colorful, ‘like nothing you have ever seen.’ I find myself doing many things with these words. I have a clearer picture of this place he is describing. I notice his relationship to the subject–he seems to be in awe, and his careful language is leaving me more in awe as well. Let’s pretend the word “vibrant” is unfamiliar to me, with the collection of other terms I would be in striking distance of understanding what that one meant.
The collection of words is not only bringing me closer to the page, it is also working in the opposite direction, bringing me out of this page and into life (Kate’s brilliant 3-D “fifth corner”) and leading me to wonder: why are the reefs and fish so colorful? Haven’t I heard many reefs are in danger? I realize I have never been to a coral reef…. hold on, I just need to do a little vacation research…
There is no magic trick here. It’s not just this particular page or the topic or the book. Rereading in this careful way, looking for patterns, can lead you to new ideas about nonfiction in almost any book you read. Or documentary you watch. Or radio commercial you hear. Or editorial you click to.
Whether you are a self-professed nonfiction-avoider or -lover, looking closely at nonfiction can lead you to love the subject, the writing, heck perhaps even the entire text-type more.
Your Turn
How do you feel about the teaching of nonfiction reading? In what ways have you, or could you, included close reading in that study? What nonfiction texts are your go-tos? What experiences beyond text come to mind for you? Add your comments and/or links to your own posts. Several links will be added to the Contributor Page.
Share your insights, we are closely reading close reading together!
A big thanks to Choice Literacy and educator, author, and friend Franki Sibberson for inviting us to record an interview for their “Choice Literacy Podcasts” series.
We didn’t know when the podcast would go live, so Kate and I just finished a flurry of “HEY LOOK!” texts back and forth to each other. We’re happy to share this with our blog-a-thon community and welcome your insights, reflections, and revisions to our current ideas.
Listen to the podcast by clicking the image below (or here):
Click to be taken to “Chris Lehman and Kate Roberts on Close Reading (PODCAST)”
It has been a blast writing and reading posts and comments during this first week of the blog-a-thon. We look forward to the continued conversation about close reading over the next several weeks. Click the button below to see the current page of Contributor posts.
Thanks, everyone, for being so awesome. Your awesome becomes your students’ awesome.
In my second SmartBrief SmartBlog on Education guest post this week, I share the experience of one educator in New York State as s/he reflects on a day with the state’s new CCSS “aligned” testing program. The reflection is not a lone experience and is instead one of a large and disturbing pattern across schools in this state.
The response from the NYS Department of Education has largely been one of believing this new test is very much aligned to the new standards and is largely appropriate (see Peter Dewitt‘s EdWeek article on NYS Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch’s recent comments).
I hope you read the post and then add your voice to this critical conversation.
You can also find my related SmartBrief guest post from Wednesday, “Fairytales of Data,” on the tale we are told about US performance versus other countries (and how the data just doesn’t add up).
Christopher Lehman 