Close Reading with Explain Everything!
Explain Everything is an amazing app to help you mesh the use of technology and close reading together into a masterpiece!
Explain Everything is easy to use and has tons of features that make close reading possible on the iPads. My 3rd graders used it the other day to close read an article written by a 2nd grade student addressing the topic of whether MLK Jr.’s dream has come true or not in America. Check out the video below to see some of my students' work!
In order to prepare for my close reading lesson, the first thing I did was take screen shots of the text that I found on Reading A-Z. You can also import a text directly from Reading A-Z into the Explain Everything app, but I’m learning as I go!
Watch this quick tutorial on how to import directly from Reading A-Z into Explain Everything!
Once I had the text in my iPad's camera roll as 2 images, I air dropped it onto my students’ iPads. Once the text was in their camera rolls, the students were able to open up the Explain Everything app and import the images.
When I use the app, I hook my iPad up to the SmartBoard with a dongle (or Lightning to VGA adapter) so that the students can watch me go through the process as well. Once the text is in the app, you are ready to close read!
For this particular article, our 1st read focused on vocabulary and getting the gist. The students divided the text into sections, so that it was chunked into more manageable parts. I directed my students to use the pencil icon to draw a line under certain paragraphs to create 3 parts.
The students read the 1st part silently. As they read, they circled OR highlighted words that were unfamiliar to them. My rule is, if you cannot explain a word to me, mark it. If you do not mark a word, be prepared to be a “Word Expert” and help others who do not understand the meanings of words they marked.
Once the students finished reading the first section, we went back and started to dissect the text. Generally, I will ask what the text was about. What was the general gist of the text they read? Through that discussion, we go into the vocabulary that they were unsure of. When we get to those words, we use our schoolwide vocabulary strategies to help us figure out the unknown words. As we figured those words out, the students marked their text with the meanings. For this process, they created text boxes to type the meanings in and then they used the pencil icon to draw a line from the text box to the highlighted or circled word.
When all of the unknown words were discussed, the students wrote summary sentences to help them remember what that section of text was about. They always focus on WHO did WHAT and WHY. They created a text box in the margin and typed out their summary sentences that we discussed as a whole group or in small groups (depending on the day). We continued on through the article in the same way until all of the sections had been read. The 1st read usually takes us at least one ELL class period or co-teaching time.
On the 2nd read, the students were asked to reread the text and focus on whether they believe MLK’s dream has come true in the U.S. or if we still have work to do. Once they read through the text a 2nd time, they shared their opinions orally, including evidence to support those opinions. After the discussion, they broke apart and used the recording function in the Explain Everything app to orally capture their opinion.
For this particular text, we only did two reads. When they were finished, they exported the file to me as a video, so that I could hear their recordings. The app has so many other features that we did not use for this lesson! The app is very user-friendly and the kids were able to learn it quickly. Steele Creek does close reading schoolwide, so our kids are very familiar with the process and expectations that go along with it. They have been doing close reading with paper and pencil for a couple of months now, so I believe that having this foundation made applying it to the app so much easier!
Leave me a comment below to let me know how close reading is going for you, or share an experience you’ve had with the Explain Everything app! Thanks for checking out my post!
~Amy
