Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

07.29.18 An Excerpt from Chapter Two of Reading Reconsidered

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…


05.18.18 Examples of Text Dependent Questions from Today’s Workshop

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…


09.23.16 A Few Minutes with Literacy Expert Tim Shanahan

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…