Adventures in Close Reading

This week in 11^th grade World History my class did some Close Reading and pre-writing strategies to help them prepare for their midterm exam. I created another video to model how to mark up the text and thought aloud as I progressed to show students not only how to engage a text and read for comprehension but also how to meditate and cognitively digest what they are reading.

One of my students remarked “This is great, you should do more of this” regarding the video which was very affirming. After examining the initial results it seems that some of my students who have had difficulty discerning which evidence best supports the thesis they had posited for their responses showed some modest gains. A few of my students completed the highlighting portion but were reluctant to try to outline their response.   I believe as PGCPS continues its system wide literacy focus more students will gain the confidence they need to strive to their fullest potential.

From an instructional standpoint one thing I really appreciate about this new approach is that it addresses the processes of reading and writing comprehension in its entirety. Starting from the basics of understanding the meanings of words, to mapping the concept of the historical inquiry that students are invited to consider, to structuring an argument based on their analysis of a set of evidence: The process meets students where they are and scaffolds them into higher order thinking. After the midterm I’ve planned a unit in African American History incorporating class discussion, social media, vocabulary acquisition, unlocking the prompt, and close reading in each lesson.  Let’s see where literacy takes us!