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.