Reading Closely Lesson 1

By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

• Initially approaching and surveying a text
• Using questions to examine the text’s topic, information, and structure
• Questioning further to investigate the text
• Analyzing key details and language to deepen understanding
• Explaining what one has come to understand as a reader

Similarly, effective readers also use guiding questions to help them look for evidence in texts.

Guiding Questions

Texts

• Text #1: American and Canadian soldiers from World War One (Photos)
• Text #2: King, Queens and Pawns: An American Woman at the Front (Personal Narrative)
• Text #3: 1916 Battle of the Somme (Video)
• Text #4: World War One (Website)
• Text #5: What We are Not Fighting For (Speech)
• Text #6: Peace Without Victory (Speech)
• Text #7: The Enormous Room (Personal Narrative)
• Text #8: Carry On: Letters in War Time (Letters)
• Text #9: Shot. Tell His Mother (Poem)
• Extended Reading: Willy-Nicky Telegrams (Letters)
• Extended Reading: The Sentry (Poem)
• Extended Reading: High Adventure: A Narrative of Air Fighting in France (Personal Narrative)

In your new group, discuss:

• What you noticed about the image
• The questions you had
• The answers you came up with.

Choose one of the other images and list three details you think are “key” for you in understanding something that is going on in it.

Return to your home groups and discuss the details you listed.

Standards:

• RI.9-10.1
• RI.9-10.2

Learning Target:

• I will be able to...
• Attend to details through examining images.

What does it mean to read a text closely by attending to and analyzing textual details?

Introduction to Unit

Examining Images

Examine images in small groups:

• Examine the image given to your group and answer the question “What stands out to me as I examine this image?”
• Find several details that stand out to you, with one member serving as a recorder of all your details.
• Consult the Guiding Questions Handout for further questions to help you focus on details.
• Discuss what the details suggest to you and identify any new questions you have after examining and discussing the details.

Socratic Seminar

Lesson Agenda

Jigsaw Discussion

One person from each group stay while the others join the other three groups, one per picture.

• Socratic Seminar example
• Introduction to Unit
• Examine Images
• Jigsaw Discussion
• Quick Write
• Closing

Model Text Questioning:

Guiding Questions:

• What is this image mainly about?
• What stands out to me as I first examine this image?

Text-specific questions:

• Which details show the conditions the men are in?
• What is the central soldier doing in image 2?

Closing

Quick Write

Continue to read your Accountable Independent Reading text through the lens of a focus standard of your choice and prepare for a 3–5 minute discussion of your text based on that standard.

Respond briefly in writing to the following prompt:

• Write a caption that summarizes what you think the image is about.

Note the details that have led to what you have written.