Setting a Purpose for Close Reading
Hi everyone! I wanted to share with you some of the ways I have been using Close Reading in my ESL classroom. In the gallery of photos above, you can see pictures of my classroom and student work related to Close Reading, along with descriptions of each lesson. You can also read about my Close Reading lessons below. I have been able to teach so many skills to my students through the close reading of a text. Each time we read, I make sure to set a purpose for students. The 1st read is usually to get the gist of the text. Then I give students a specific goal for the second, third, or even fourth read of a text!
I hope that you will leave me a comment, ask a question, or share a way you have used Close Reading with your students by commenting in the box below my post! Just login with your Facebook account to get started!
Photo 1- My Close Reading Bulletin Board
Photo 2- We look for punctuation which helps our reading fluency...
In this picture, you see a close reading lesson I did with 2nd grade intermediate ELLs. After an initial reading of a LLI book, I noticed my students were not reading smoothly or with expression. I typed the LLI text into a one-page handout, and we reread it for a second time focusing on highlighting punctuation. Making students aware of the punctuation changed the way they read and improved their fluency.
Photo 3- We look for nouns which increases our vocabulary...
This picture is from a lesson I taught to my 1st grade intermediate ESL students using the books “Frog Food” and “The Surprise”. The purpose of the lesson was to identify nouns in order to increase students’ vocabulary. I typed the 2 texts into 1-page handouts and made copies for each student. Our first read was to get the gist, and our second read was to find and highlight nouns. After reading the text twice, students had to match and glue clip-art pictures to the nouns they highlighted.
Photo 4- We look for unfamiliar words...
This lesson was for 3rd grade intermediate ESL students. Our 1st read was to get the gist, and our 2nd read was to find unfamiliar words. To do this, I gave each student sticky notes to record unfamiliar words on. They put the stickies on the pages of their books where they found the words. Finally, they worked together to compare the words they found and help each other with the meanings and examples. They ended with a 3rd read, removing the stickies of the words they now understand.
Photo 5- We use the text to sequence...
This lesson was for 1st grade intermediate students. We were working on sequencing and summarizing. For this lesson, I cut sticky notes into strips and gave each student 5. Students wrote one sequence word on each strip. During our 2nd read, we looked closely at the text to determine key parts in the story. We labelled the text “first”, “next”, “last”, and so on, using the stickies. In our 3rd read, we chunked the text using our sequence stickies as a guide, and stopped to summarize each chunk.
Photo 6- We use graphic organizers to record information. We closely read and reference the text to check our work...
This lesson was for 1st grade intermediate ESL students (and very low readers). We read a book about animals that lay eggs. Our 1st read was to get the gist. Our 2nd read was to take note of the specific animals in the text. Students used graphic organizers to draw a picture of each animal. The next day, students used their knowledge of letter sounds to write the name of each animal, without referencing the text. Then, students read the text again, looking for the animal names and checking their spelling. If they found a misspelled word, they wrote it on a sticky and put it on their graphic organizer. For the final read, I gave students the goal of thinking of other animals that lay eggs that were not in the text. They added their example to the graphic organizer.
Photo 7- We reread the text to find examples of onomatopoeia. We dig deeper to think of and write other examples...
This lesson was for 3rd grade intermediate students using the Reading A-Z book, Turkeys in the Trees. This book has some "sound" words (purring, gobble). Before reading, we watched a video with a song about onomatopoeia. After reading the story, I selected part of the text to close read that had several "sound" words. I typed this portion of the text onto a separate piece of paper and made a copy for each student. Students used highlighters to find onomatopoeia in the text. After reading, we brainstormed other examples of onomatopoeia. This was a good word study, vocabulary-building lesson.
Photos 8 & 9- Close Reading Anchor Charts
Thanks for checking out my post! Please remember to leave a comment below!
~Jean
