Page 58 - SpringBoard_CloseReading_Workshop_Grade6_Flipbook

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Close Reading WoRkshop
Close Reading of informational Texts in social studies/history
Learning Targets
• Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources
• Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide
an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.
• Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally).
• Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g.,
loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).
• Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps)
with other information in print and digital texts.
Close Reading for Meaning
What does learning to read closely mean? As readers, we cannot just ask an author questions about the text. We must read the author’s words, looking at what some words say explicitly and what others may imply about the author’s meaning.
Explicit information includes words the writer uses to describe events or people in the text. For example, an author might describe a person as having black hair or a city as being in the Midwest. In contrast, many ideas in a text may be implicit; that is, the reader must analyze the connotations of the words the author uses, as well as the kinds of details included, to determine the author’s meaning. You may need to read a text multiple times to make inferences about meaning. For example, you might read a text first to identify the words you do not know. After learning what those words mean, you would read the text again using your new knowledge to help you more fully understand what the writer is saying.
In this workshop, you will read four different texts and will practice close reading using strategies that will help you make meaning of the text. Your teacher will guide you through the first activity. In Activity 2, you will work in a collaborative group to read and respond to the text. For the third activity, you will work independently to apply close-reading strategies to determine meaning in a new text.
leaRning sTRaTegies:
Diffusing, Close Reading, Marking the Text, Rereading, Summarizing, Paraphrasing
Introducing the Strategy: Diffusing
Diffusing is a strategy for close reading of text. Using this strategy, the reader uses context clues, dictionaries, and/or thesauri to discover the meaning of unfamiliar words. Writing notes about meaning or substituting synonyms for unfamiliar words helps the reader increase comprehension of the text.
Close Reading Workshop 5 • Close Reading of Informational Texts in Social Studies/History 1
aCademiC VoCabulaRy
Explicit text states ideas or information clearly, leaving no doubt about meaning. Implicit ideas are not clearly stated, leaving the reader to make inferences about the author’s meaning.
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