Close Reading

Yesterday, I attended a session with Timothy Shanahan, author of the first draft of the CCSS Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. He was awesome, and I learned a great deal. I'll limit my sharing to small chunks to avoid overwhelming you! 

I thought I knew the standards (We've torn them apart enough times!), but he pointed out something crucial I had missed and perhaps you have too.

The CATEGORIES are important. 

There are ten standards in reading and ten in writing. They are broken into four categories:

1. Key Ideas and Details 
2. Craft and Structure
3. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
4. Range and Complexity of Texts

Why is this important? 

Shanahan noted most people "don't know how to read the standards" because they are arranged differently than our previous standards. 

• We can't read each standard as a single skill/concept students are to know. Rather, we must read the standard in the context of the category (and in the progression across grade levels) to really understand what learning goal it is asking of students.
• Also, the categories show how to approach close reading, in what order and manner we should lead students to read and reread:
• Category 1--What did the text say? 
• Category 2--How did text say it? 
• Category 3--What does text mean? What is its value? How does this text connect to other texts? 
• Category 4--Do this over and over with students on lots of different kinds of challenging texts.

 Read Shanahan's blog post, "Planning for Close Reading" to hear his own explanation and view his slides below (republished with his permission):

Shanahan ccs sreading_categories from Lisa Huff