Navigating Nonfiction Reading and Writing
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This document discusses close reading of non-fiction texts. It defines close reading as carefully examining how authors use language and details to convey ideas. Close reading helps students analyze an author's central idea, perspective, and use of evidence. The document outlines strategies for close reading such as rereading, noting key details, and discussing how the author structures information. It emphasizes teaching close reading across grades and subjects to develop strong reading comprehension skills.
Navigating Nonfiction Reading and Writing
- 1. Navigating Non-fiction Reading and Writing Based on Close Reading of Informational Texts Assessment-Driven Instruction in Grades 3-8 by Sunday Cummings Workshop leader: Deborah Hoover
- 2. Why and who • The process of reading, observing and interpreting text deeply. • Sunday Cummins blog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zdlbey9- Jc • She is a regular contributor to GoodReads and Booklist online. • She also has a blog on Facebook.
- 3. Why it’s important • Close reading is a central focus of the Common Core State Standards. • The purpose is to teach students to notice the features and language used by the author. • Students are required to think thoroughly and methodically about details in a text. • Ability to evaluate or critique what is written – print and digital versions.
- 4. More and more and more… • The amount of information text students are reading is increasing exponentially. • In addition to reading more informational text, students are being asked to read more complex texts in both print and digital formats. • Students are creating more complex texts with global audiences.
- 7. Non-fiction text – print and digital
- 8. Magazines
- 9. Webpages
- 10. Databases
- 11. Newspaper
- 12. Instructional Shift • Move from instructing understanding how to read to reading to understand. • Being able to read informational text closely across ALL content areas. • Students must show how the author uses evidence to support their position, conclusion, or interpretation.
- 13. Issues for Students • Requires effort by students to close read – must re- read selection multiple times. • Close reading means students need to develop an automaticity of reading strategies becoming reading skills. Practice, practice, practice. • Developing the ability to sustain close reading at the word, sentence, and paragraph level throughout the text in order to adequately summarize the author’s central idea(s).
- 14. Types of Nonfiction • Survey – provides an overview on a topic, often have nouns as their title such as “Reptiles” or “Impressionism.” • Concept books – focus on abstract ideas or classifications, like life cycles; this type dives deeply into a precise topic and may draw on both primary and secondary material as support evidence. • Biographies – may focus on the life of one or several people.
- 15. Evaluating Non-fiction text • Text Organization – outside, around and inside • Author’s Word Choice – content specific vocabulary – strong or weak? • Author’s Point of View – what did include and what they didn’t include?
- 16. Digging a hole First shovel full – Pick Out the Key Idea and Details • Skim and scan the text for the layout – strategic preview THIEVES strategy • Determine the text organization • Determine the main idea* and supporting details • Connect the text to background knowledge
- 17. Digging a hole Second shovel full – Craft and Structure • Chunk text into manageable pieces • Text features • Text organization • Content vocabulary – author’s word choice • Can answer higher order questions
- 18. Digging a hole Third shovel full – Integration of Knowledge and Ideas/Author’s Point of View • Synthesize and analyze information from another text source.* • Record thinking in written form to demonstrate understanding. • Can cite evidence. • Can answer more complex questions.
- 19. Suitcase analogy Developmental levels of meta-cognitive knowledge • Tacit learners – lack awareness of what is inside “their suitcase.” • Aware learner reflect upon their decisions for a “successful trip.” – know their destination but make NO adjustments for “their trip.” • Strategic learners – are able to repack or reorganize and reflect upon their decisions for a “successful trip.” • Reflective learners – can repack, reorganize and reflect upon their decisions for a successful trip.” END GOAL!!!
- 20. Engagement • Reader MUST meet the author at the point of comprehension. • How to promote this????? • Curricular texts – mentor text/partner reads. • Free voluntary reading.
- 21. Text Talker Activities Begin with verbal practice then move on to written practice. • According to the text… • The author stated… • The illustration/chart/graph/map shows… • I know because… • In the text it said… • In paragraph ____ it said… • I can infer from … • An example in paragraph ____ is ….
- 22. Close Reading Strategies • Paraphrase – read each sentence, infer what it means & write it in your own words. • Summarize – use the main points from a section of a text & write a brief statement. • Ask critical questions – questions that you go back & answer questions that help you analyze. • Analyze – to infer the author’s perspective & purpose make implications, identify key concepts & ask critical questions. • Evaluate – critique & judge clarity & precision synthesis, logic, relevance & significance.
- 23. Key to success • Embed lessons within multiple content areas that build upon one another so students get multiple opportunities to practice with a variety of applications – authentic learning.
- 24. Transferring to writing • “By the end of fourth grade students should be able to develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details quotations and other information/examples related to the topic.”
- 25. Common Core Standards Grade 3 students Grade 5 students Grade 8 students Ask and answer questions understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for answers. Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text say explicitly and when drawing inferences form the text. Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea. Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text. Determine the central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.
- 26. PA Core Sample • CC1.2 Reading Informational Text: students read, understand and respond to informational texts with emphasis on comprehension, making connections among ideas and between texts with focus on textual evidence. Grade 3 • CC1.2.3B Ask and answer questions about the text and make inferences from the text, refer to text to support responses. • CC1.23D Explain the point of view of the author. • CC1.2.3E Use text features and search tools to locate and interpret information. • CC1.2.3G Use information gained from text features to demonstrate understanding of the text. • CC1.2.3H Describe how an author connects sentences and paragraphs in a text to support a particular point. • CC1.2.3I Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic. • CC1.2.3L Read and comprehend literary nonfiction and informational text on grade level reading independently and proficiently.
- 27. Essential Skills of Close Reading • Prior knowledge of the topic, text structure, content area or academic vocabulary. • Setting the purpose for reading by previewing text strategically. • Self-monitoring for meaning. • Determining importance. • Synthesizing.
- 28. Characteristics • Multiple readings of same topic through different texts • Focus on a short passage – (complex text). • Build understandings of key take-aways in the text • Practice with both fiction and non-fiction as well as genres of both categories.
- 29. Teaching for automaticity • Tapping into one’s prior knowledge related to informational text structure. • Topical and vocabulary knowledge.* • Setting a purpose for reading – scaffold. • Self-monitoring for meaning – meta-cognition. • Determining what is important – practice note taking. • Synthesizing – evaluating and merging information. • Teach for varying reading purposes.
- 30. Non-fiction Text Structures • Different from the structures typically used in literature such as description/definition/example, sequence/time order, comparison, problem- solution… • Instead focus is on teaching students to recognize these structures as techniques author use to build texts.
- 31. Complex Text • The issue of identifying definitive text structures is more difficult the more complex the text. • To introduce more complex text begin with what students are already familiar with – such as a textbook and incorporate the investigation skills & strategies of identifying the text structures used while reading it.
- 32. Micro and Macro • Micro level of text structure – word, sentence and paragraph construction. • Macro level – how the micro structures build to form a pattern, the big picture. • Complex text will require readers to think about domain specific vocabulary and topical background knowledge as well as how the author is structuring the language to convey the content.
- 33. Building research skills • If students can determine what is and isn’t important in text they can more easily compare and contrast different texts on the same subject. • Must be able to do that in order to think critically and independently.
- 34. Setting Purpose for Reading • Purposes are central to any reading. • Identifying purpose from writer’s and reader’s perspectives. • Different purposes require different levels of reading focus needed. • Initial purpose for reading can shift and deepen as you read further.
- 35. Flexibility • Reader’s begin with identification of purpose for reading. • Next step is to recognize how authors indicate to the reader to make a shift in purpose. • Final step is to develop the flexibility to adjust their purposes for reading from one text to another or even from one paragraph to the next.
- 36. Determining what is important • Trash and Treasure • Pasta analogy • Synthesis activity – graphic organizer Content (Facts) Process (Thinking)
- 37. Unpacking the standard Grades 3-8 should be able to: • Determine which key words or phases in a text reveal the author’s central ideas. • Identify other key words or phrases that lead to important supporting details. • Explain why certain details support the author’s central idea(s). • Combine key words or phrases in a coherent or logically consistent way to create and objectively correct oral or written summary.
- 38. Cite the Evidence • Start by having students verbally justify their answers – turn the prompt around. • Move on to written responses with prompts that must be justified with evidence. • Building up to citing evidence when taking notes. • Notes with cited evidence provide a skeletal framework for stronger writing.
- 39. Cite the Evidence Activity Identify Author’s Purpose Post –it Note Evidence Fact 1 Post –it Note Evidence Fact 2 Post –it Note Evidence Fact 3 Post –it Note Evidence Fact 4 Post –it Note Evidence Fact 5 Post –it Note Evidence Fact 6
- 40. Roadblocks • Need for vertically consistent scaffolding of skills. • Takes students longer to close read text. • Many content area texts are poorly written and not student friendly.
- 41. Synthesis • Framed photograph analogy. • Application of analogy to reading. • Students move from just summarizing to summarizing AND synthesizing. • Synthesizing knowledge is the ultimate purpose of close reading. • Being able to synthesize across multiple texts is called researching.
Editor's Notes
- #2: Audience for her book is classroom teachers grades 3- 8. Explain reason for choosing this book for workshop.
- #3: Requires active engagement Requires a different type of instruction – reading for ……..
- #4: It requires students to get truly involved with the text they are reading. Must be able to determine what details are important. How they fit together to convey a central idea. How to synthesize information from multiple sources. Understand the unique demand of different text features and structures. Basic objective is that students think about and understand what they are reading.
- #5: The link to being able to read informational text well and to write quality informational text is strong. Examples of informational texts.
- #6: Start the year by doing a book walk through the textbook so students know your expectation of using all the features to build independent readers.
- #7: Understand the specific purpose for each source and how to use each.
- #8: Help students see how to critically examine print text for author’s purpose, to establish their own purpose for reading, text structures, and text features.
- #9: Great introduction tool for reluctant readers as they are more likely to feel less threatened using magazines – start with identifying print features and ask how they support their understanding of what they chose to read.
- #10: Readers must be secure in deciphering text formats to best use the information web pages provide – combines reading and technology skills.
- #11: Moving students toward transliteracy – reading skills and strategies learned with print format moved into digital format (must be strong to stay focused and not be distracted by digital bells and whistles.
- #12: Features a dense amount of text features.
- #13: It creates a path for being able to understand the world more deeply, being able to engage in the creation, innovation, critical thinking and problem-solving as well as communication. The term reading skill refers to what a reader does automatically without thinking, whereas reading strategies are about the reader being purposefully aware of his or her efforts to read and understand a text.
- #14: Students reveal 3 reasons for being unable to engage deeply with informational texts Struggle with determining what is and isn’t important Struggle with summarizing Struggle with synthesizing
- #15: Helps readers determine their purpose for reading, how to approach strategies and to use to comprehend the text.
- #16: Close reading is a careful and purposeful rereading of a text to determine these 3 factors. Outside nonfiction – table of contents, bibliography, index, glossary – helps readers locate what they want, understand the overall structure of the book, learn the sources used to write it, find additional books to extend their understanding, and enrich or support vocabulary. Around non-fiction – Introduction, Author’s Note, Illustrator’s Note, Preface, Afterward, Appendix – not only introduces readers to a topic and provide additional information about the subject and the author’s experience researching it. Inside nonfiction – headings & subheadings, sidebars & insets, photographs & captions, diagrams, graphs, charts, & tables, timelines, maps – consider how these features complement and extend the writing. Students need the opportunity to engage with teachers in discussing what good readers do to make meaning and what authors do to convey meaning as a way to make comprehension visible. Using a teacher think aloud is a key instructional approach to promote higher order thinking. Both text structure and text features provides ways for writers to organize and introduce information, while keeping the narrative engaging.
- #17: * Complex texts will have more than one central idea.
- #18: Critical thinking questions: How did author organize text? Why is it organized that way? How do text features best convey information? How does the author’s word choice impact your understanding?
- #19: This is doing RESEARCH. Key – integrating information of multiple sources. Are aware of verbal text clues, images, patterns (example) Are able to understand what the author’s real purpose is and compare it to their own. Third reading questions: What reason would the author have for writing this passage? Do you agree with what the author is saying? If so, why? So you disagree? If so, why? Is there a pattern that takes place in the reading? If so, what is the pattern? What did the author leave out that you would have included in the text?*
- #20: Packing for a journey analogy – suitcase Preparing for a trip is like reading for understanding. You need to know your destination, what kinds of equipment you may need for a successful trip, and if you have to make any adjustments for missing items. Active readers develop a plan for reading and set a specific purpose, decide which strategies they may need to comprehend and if their comprehension breaks down, what adjustments they will need to make. Preparing for a trip is like reading for understanding. You need to know your destination, what kinds of equipment you may need for a successful trip, and if you have to make any adjustments for missing items. Active readers develop a plan for reading and set a specific purpose, decide which strategies they may need to comprehend and if their comprehension breaks down, what adjustments they will need to make. We have to teach students how to pay attention to their thinking while reading informational texts – meta-cognition, in order for them to derive more than just a surface-level understanding of the text.
- #21: Meaning student MUST put age appropriate effort into their reading. Discussion as to how to motivate students – age levels.
- #24: Brainstorm examples that can be used in various content areas/
- #25: Reading and writing must be partnered not separated as the reading high quality nonfiction text provides the modeling needed for students to create quality expository text.
- #26: To meet these standards and others, a student must know how to engage in close reading of a text.
- #27: Can apply close reading skills or strategies for varying purposes – reading for enjoyment, reading to answer a specific question, or to learn about a topic of interest.
- #28: The seamless integration of all these skills in order is the culmination that results in close reading. Teachers may need to pre-assess level of prior knowledge first and then adjust teaching to be prepared to build it BEFORE the intended lesson for it to be successful.
- #30: The goal of automaticity is to move reading strategies to the level of reading skill. (Reluctant readers, Learning Support & ELL students) *Sometimes teachers need to assess content/academic vocabulary first and be prepared to build that before the intended lesson for it to be successful.
- #31: Author will often use multiple structures even within a single section of text to develop a central idea – students must be exposed to this type of complex text in order to learn to shift their application of reading skills and strategies.
- #32: Examples: Fiction – Avi’s Nothing But the Truth Non-Fiction – print and digital examples
- #33: Key point is that teaching students the traditionally identified text structures has only limited value unless they are also able to understand how these structures are used flexibly by authors to convey particular information – micro and macro levels.
- #34: Good readers have learned the automaticity of recognizing how informational text is structured and how to use that knowledge to understand new informational texts – understanding schema. This represents a conceptual approach to teaching for understanding informational text structure as a whole. Build this into research lesson – ie how to use a database.
- #35: Goal is to get students to the point of independently identifying their purpose for reading, the level of focus needed and the writer’s perspective. Critical thinking – how does the writer’s purpose for writing the text impacts the reader’s perspective of the information. The feeds into developing and honing student inquiry skills.
- #36: Gradual release of responsibility from teachers setting the purpose for reading to students doing it and adjusting independently. This is the key – Essential Questions, Objective, Thesis Question Self-monitoring – get good readers to slow their thinking down and make it visual – meta-cognition. Reading of complex text requires seamless shift of reading purposes and levels of focus – use of text features, skim and scan, ect. THIEVES – (bookmarks) Title, Headings, Introduction, Every first sentence in a paragraph, Visuals and Vocabulary, End of chapter questions, Summary.
- #37: Pasta analogy : page 136 The author want us, the readers to eat and digest the pasta words and phrases; he or she wants those words and phrases to weigh in on our thinking about central ideas; the author wants us to remember the taste and the sensation of those words when we are summarizing and synthesizing the key or central ideas. THIEVES - bookmarks
- #39: This first step can be started at any age BUT it takes a concerted and consistent effort by staff.
- #40: Teach student multiple ways to take notes – students can make this graphic organizer themselves and it is a way making their thinking as they read visible.
- #41: Vertical scaffolding makes it easier for both students and teachers and creates more efficient and effective readers who can move quicker to reading for deeper meaning – higher order critical thinking. Teachers must build in time for teaching of close reading and then time for students to use the skills. Teachers must seek out better resources that meet their student’s needs.
- #42: Photograph analogy – page 26 of printout When the reader thinks about why an author would choose to group certain facts together in a text (the details in the photo) and then identify the author’s central idea (the photo frame) – then we are synthesizing. Students should be introduced to the concept of synthesis from the very beginning of any kind of reading strategy instructions, they then can better appreciate the purpose of every reading strategy instruction. Synthesis reveals a deeper understanding of the text than does a simple summary. Little picture and Big picture. This creates deeper understanding – our thinking may evolve or shift as we read OR our initial impressions may be affirmed AND we can cite the textual evidence to support and explain their reasoning as well as how it fits together to convey that idea. Synthesis is more than simply identifying the central idea – it’s being able to indentify the textual evidence and being able to explain how the evidence fits together to convey the idea. Active reading. All begins with purpose – plan/directions.