I’ve blogged about Sensitivity Analysis a couple of times before (here here and here). It’s a Close Reading activity that involves asking students to read a very short passage from a text carefully and then compare it to a similar version in which the teacher has made small changes. To understand those small changes and…
Lately I’ve been posting some excerpts from Reading Reconsidered here on Field Notes. Today I’m posting a section from Chapter 2, which is about Close Reading. The segment I’ve chosen deals with the idea of Establishing Meaning–making sure that students understand the full text and its nuances before you jump fully in to analysis. Colleen, Erica…
Last week, as part of our development process for our new curriculum, I taught one of our Esperanza Rising lessons to a group of fourth graders. One of the toughest moments for me came when I tried to teach one of my favorite activities: a ‘Sensitivity Analysis’ question. Sensitivity Analysis is a close reading tool…
One of the activities at our Reading Reconsidered workshop today asked participants to draft Text Dependent Questions about the first two paragraphs of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, on which Colleen had taught an amazing close reading lesson. We gave people this chart describing types of Text Dependent Questions (TDQs) at different level Out Zoom In…
Tim Shanahan is one of the country’s foremost experts on literacy. He’s a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he founded and directed its Center for Literacy. Though he understands the research on reading as well as anyone in the field, he’s also done plenty of real-world work, having been principal…