Bat Loves the Night-- First Grade

This Close Read lesson was completed with my first grade ESL students. I once again relied on the ReadWorks.org website for parts of this lesson. To begin, the students listened as I read aloud the story. I didn't generate much background knowledge because the Close Read strategy specifies not to do that so we really just dug into the book.

During this first read, I asked the students to think about the main idea. I use prompts like, "What is the author trying to tell us?" and "Do you think this author is going to give us information or entertain us?" It usually becomes clear early on that this story was written to give us information about bats. Once I finish reading aloud, we then discuss my prompts from the beginning. I always ask students to tell me what information from the story helped them to come up with an answer. This way they have to justify their answer and not just shout out anything that comes to mind.

The second read of this story focused more on vocabulary words. As I read it aloud again, the students were armed with highlighter tape so they could highlight words that were confusing to them. Using the tape poses a problem because students just want to mark every word. It's always interesting to me how many times students will solve this problem by correcting each other and saying things like, "You really don't know what _____ means?" The student who wants to use tape for the sake of using tape, generally backs off with blurting out ideas and really listens for words that are confusing to him/her. Once we are done listening for vocabulary words and highlighting them, the students then worked together to see if they could come up with ways to figure out the words (think context clues here... a bonus as students scaffold back to previously taught lessons!!) Those really tricky words that couldn't be figured out, were then discussed as a whole class to make sure they understood each one.

The third read was tricky because I wanted them to read it themselves but I only had one book. I decided to let them read with a partner as they filled out a graphic organizer about bats. The other students worked on different skills around the room and then we switched places. During this read the graphic organizer worked well to keep them focused but I really wanted to make sure they grasped some of the main concepts in this book. So I also included a list of questions they had to answer as they read. Here are the questions: 1. What is the story mainly about? Use details from the story to help you explain your thinking. 2. When does bat hunt for food? How do you know this? 3. How does bat fly during the dark night without bumping into things? Use one of the vocabulary words in your explanation. 

I feel like this lesson was very successful! The students seemed to be highly engaged in the story all the way through the final read and the graphic organizer looked amazing from the students. It was a very simple graphic organizer from ReadWorks but it really helped them to understand the story.

I am really starting to see how the Close Read strategy is beneficial to students of all ages. A difficult book is worth reading many times if you really want to understand it!!!

Second Grade Close Reading with Text Markings

For my high level first graders and second graders, I have decided to use the folder system. This just allows us to keep the current stories we're working on in one place for easy access.

The second graders have been working on a short story called "I'm Trying to Eat, Please!" by Vanessa Richie. This story came from MobyMax. A paid site I use for language instruction that also has stories that align with various skills.

Here are the steps we took for this Close Read:

First read: short discussion about the title and pictures. They read silently around the room.

Second read: I read as they mark the text with the symbols we've discussed. We are using the star, question mark, exclamation point and circling words system at this grade level too.

Third read: We took turns reading aloud and cleared up anything that confused them as we read. Their writing piece was to write about something they need to control so that they are a better person.

Here's an example of two students' writing:

As you can see, my students have issues to work on but don't we all have something to work on to become a better person??? I really loved the message of this story as we all try to become a better person.

Parts of a Tree, Kindergarten Lesson

Readworks.org is a website that I've come to rely on for useful passages and lessons aligned with the common core. If you've never been there, please check it out. It's really worth it to sign up and it's FREE!! You'll find comprehension units, novel units, skills/strategies lessons and lots of reading passages all organized by grade level, lexile and skills. You can even create your own binder to store any lessons you want to keep for future use. Have I mentioned that I absolutely LOVE this site!!

Here's one lesson I used from ReadWorks that follows the Close Reading strategy. My Kindergarten students and I were reading the "Parts of a Tree" passage. This is a one page passage about four different parts of a tree: leaves, bark, branch and roots. It's a very simple story but I was amazed at how my students had no idea about the names of these parts. Most of my students are high level ESL so this really surprised me. The only part they had background knowledge about was leaves.

During the first reading, I read aloud the whole passage and emphasized the vocabulary words with my voice. We then had a short discussion about trees and what they see happening to them during this time of year. During the second reading, I stopped reading to talk about the four parts. After reading the passage, I drew a picture of a tree with the four parts and we talked some more about their function. To make sure the students were clear about the parts (I'm not the best artist!), I also found pictures online with the parts labeled. Now the students had two pictures to help them understand the vocabulary terms.

After the third reading the students answered questions from a worksheet that was generated by ReadWorks. Since these are kindergartners in the first semester of school, most questions have pictures as answers but some of the questions asked students to read words, write answers and draw pictures. Here's an example of one page of the assessment students completed:

I read aloud the questions to the students and then they circled their answer choice. I was surprised at the details students included in their drawings. Reading closely really helped the students understand this lesson and I think they will retain the knowledge learned for a long time!

Apples by Gail Gibbons and Kindergarten

Recently my kindergarten students used the Close Reading strategy to read Apples by Gail Gibbons. I chose this book because I knew it would be difficult for my ESL students to understand all the vocabulary in the story. I figured the Close Reading strategy would be a good fit for this book and the students.

I started off by reading aloud the story from the beginning to the end. Before I read aloud, I gave a quick introduction about the book and discussed how the author is trying to teach us things about the history of apples. After the first reading, we had a short discussion. Next, I reread only the parts of the book I really wanted my students to focus on. Johnny Chapman and learning the words dormant, seedlings, and blossom were what we focused on. During this second read, we had more in depth discussions about the parts I chose. I used the third read as an echo read because the students really enjoy echoing me and it's great speaking practice for my ESL students.

Here are some of the questions I asked during the second read:

1. Who is the person that helped to bring apples all across the United States?
2. Can you give me an example of how the author shows you what dormant means?
3. Would you like to read another story like this? Give reasons from the story to tell why you would or wouldn't want to read another story like this one.
4. What is the author's purpose for writing this story?

Finally, to make sure my students really understood the vocabulary words I chose, I had them use a graphic organizer to draw a picture and add a sentence using the word. It's the same graphic organizer I used earlier. I love it because the students get to be creative but also think critically about the word as they use it in a sentence. Since printing can still be a little difficult for the students, I write their sentence on another paper and then they copy it to their graphic organizer. Here's an example of student work:

This graphic organizer was created by Ladybug's Teacher Files and it's definitely a favorite of mine! 

A Middle School Lesson

Since close reading is a strategy that uses a pencil to mark up the text as students read, I finally got wise and created folders for my students to use so they can write directly on the paper plus keep track of stories we've read. On the front of each folder I put a copy of the close reading procedure we are using. Inside is a simple system of a "To Do" side and a "Finished" side (it wasn't difficult :-). I don't think I've made this many copies of material for years but it's important that students are able to mark up the text as they read in order to really understand what they're reading. Here's a picture of the system we use.

As you can see, it's not complicated but it works well for the students. I'm hoping to incorporate a more advanced technique after we get really good at using this one. This method was something I found on TPT but I'm sorry, I can't remember the name of the teacher that created it.

So here's what we did:
Using the website Newsela.com, my students read an article titled "Schools a haven for kids who crossed border alone" following the three steps in the chart. During their first independent reading, they underlined phrases they thought contribute to the main idea of the story. For the second reading, I read aloud to the students. As I read, they put symbols on their paper that helped to keep track of what they were thinking as I read. The star symbol means it's important. The question mark lets them know they didn't understand something as I read. The exclamation point lets them know that something surprised them in the reading and a circle is used when they come across a word they don't know.

Once we read three times (which took two class periods to complete), I asked questions to see if the students understood the text following this close reading strategy. Here are the questions I asked:

1. Where did the majority of students come from?
2. Can you restate what is happening to students in their scary journey? Where in the article did you find this information.
3. Can you give an example of why children are making the journey alone?
4. How does this article compare to you or your families' journey?
5. What is the future like for students who make the journey successfully? How do you know?
6. Do you agree that life is better for these students in the U.S.? Explain using text examples and what you know.

It was interesting to see what concepts students underlined as we read the first time. Many of them underlined the key information we would need later to answer questions. I have some good thinkers in this class!

I know it's been a long time in between posts. I'll try to get better at posting some of our activities in the K-12 ESL classroom.

Elementary Attempt

Yesterday I completed a close reading activity with my kindergartners and first graders using the book Copy Cat by Olivia George.

Here is the sequence of steps I used as I tried to incorporate close reading with such young students.

1. I read the book aloud from cover to cover without stopping.
2. I reread the book but this time we discussed what was happening in the story.
3. A third read took us through looking at the illustrations carefully for clues about the story and more discussions.
4. Students drew a picture of when people copy them and then completed a prompt about their picture.

Before I used this book, I came up with a list of questions to ask students during our second and third reading of the story. The questions followed Bloom's Taxonomy. For better or worse, here are the questions I used:

• Knowledge: Who is the main character? Who are the other characters? How do you know?
• Comprehension: What was the bid idea in the story? How does the story change? What clues does the illustrator give about the changes?
• Application: What would've happened if Copy Cat kept following the big cats? Have you ever followed someone? How did that person react?
• Analysis: Why did Copy Cat decide to stop following the big cats?
• Synthesis: Can you think of something else copy cat could do that the big cats want to do?
• Evaluation: Did you like it that the author used cats in this story? 

Creating questions is by far the most time consuming part of the close reading strategy but I think following Bloom's really helps stretch students' thinking. 

Here are two examples of student work:

First Grader

Kindergartner

What I learned by doing this activity was that the questions I asked were easier for first graders to answer. They had a much better grasp on the concepts and were willing to have fun with the story. Kindergartners had a much tougher time understanding what I was asking without me giving more prompts. I can't wait to see their transformation as we continue using close reading!

Close Reading is all the Rage

Hello,

Yes, you've heard about it, read about it, and even Pinned it! But how do you incorporate such a worthwhile strategy like close reading into your curriculum in a meaningful way? I've dabbled with it but don't feel like I really use it correctly. I teach the most wonderful ESL students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. They come from all over the world and bring a lot of unique experiences with them. I need to reach them, excite them, and stretch them every day. I'm hoping that by incorporating close reading strategies into my lessons, I will be a better teacher and my students will become better readers.

My goal is to post at least one resource, idea, accomplishment, failure, or lesson on this blog each week. I hope you learn from me (my mistakes) and are able to incorporate some of my lessons into your own curriculum. Please comment about things you've tried with your students and resources that you feel work best for you. Let's start this journey!