This book provides the reader with a clear, simple, straightforward explanation of close reading and why it is important for our students in today's world.
"Put directly, close reading is something we should teach students to do, rather than something we just do to them."
When students read closely, they are analyzing and interpreting text to gain deeper understanding of what it is that the text is saying. Lehman and Roberts suggest that we must shift from teaching our students to form an idea that originates from the text, then gathering evidence from that text to support that idea, to gathering evidence from the text, then developing an idea based off of that evidence.
"Put directly, close reading is something we should teach students to do, rather than something we just do to them."
When students read closely, they are analyzing and interpreting text to gain deeper understanding of what it is that the text is saying. Lehman and Roberts suggest that we must shift from teaching our students to form an idea that originates from the text, then gathering evidence from that text to support that idea, to gathering evidence from the text, then developing an idea based off of that evidence.
What you will find in this book:
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How students learn to become close readers:
Falling in Love with Close Reading supplies a frame for helping students learn to read closely. Lehman and Roberts consider this frame part of the "tools of the trade". The frames for informational text and the frames for narrative text differ somewhat. You will find a picture of the narrative and informational frames for reading closely for text evidence below, and a more detailed explanation of each step will be provided as we continue with this BookLook. "Many teachers post this chart, or a variation of it, as a reference for students..."
Chapters 1 & 2
The first two chapters of this book further explain and elaborate on the information that is presented above, including additional information on close reading, rationale for the implementation of close reading, and its connection to the Common Common State Standards.
Chapter 2 delves into the specifics of Lehman and Roberts' formula to approach close reading when readers are reading closely for the first of the foundational skills, which is text evidence (as seen in the charts above), including excerpts from example lessons that accompany each step. The remaining two foundational skills are word choice and text structure, which will be discussed in the next section of this BookLook. Each of the steps for the foundational skills when using a narrative or informational text is summarized below:
~Step 1: Read through the lenses. When students read through a lens, they are choosing what kind of evidence they will gather as they read. For example, if students were investigating certain characters, they would read the text through the character lens, and note specific details or ideas that they come across that pertain to that character.
~Step 2: Use lenses to find patterns: Once students have gathered their details, they then examine those details to identify patterns that may exist.
~Step 3: Use the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text. "It doesn't really matter if you pull out details about a character and figure out how those details fit together if you don't use all that to have new ideas." The idea behind step three is to use the acquired information from the first two steps to develop a new understanding about the topic.
Chapter 2 delves into the specifics of Lehman and Roberts' formula to approach close reading when readers are reading closely for the first of the foundational skills, which is text evidence (as seen in the charts above), including excerpts from example lessons that accompany each step. The remaining two foundational skills are word choice and text structure, which will be discussed in the next section of this BookLook. Each of the steps for the foundational skills when using a narrative or informational text is summarized below:
~Step 1: Read through the lenses. When students read through a lens, they are choosing what kind of evidence they will gather as they read. For example, if students were investigating certain characters, they would read the text through the character lens, and note specific details or ideas that they come across that pertain to that character.
~Step 2: Use lenses to find patterns: Once students have gathered their details, they then examine those details to identify patterns that may exist.
~Step 3: Use the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text. "It doesn't really matter if you pull out details about a character and figure out how those details fit together if you don't use all that to have new ideas." The idea behind step three is to use the acquired information from the first two steps to develop a new understanding about the topic.
Chapters 3-5
Chapters 3-5 provide the reader with specific examples of how to instruct readers when reading closely for more skills, along with new copies of each chart (like those pictured above) that have been adjusted for each of the following topics. Each of the chapters and corresponding skills are as follows:
~Chapter 3: Reading closely for word choice
~Chapter 4: Reading closely for text structure
~Chapter 5: Reading closely for point of view and argument
Ample examples and ideas to accomplish reading closely for each of the topics are provided. Examples of suggested types of texts to use include television adds, video games, and political commentaries. Additional lessons for providing extra support for students, as well as additional lessons for providing advanced work, are also provided in these chapters. Each chapter also includes a section dedicated to connecting the given topic to students lives. The following is an example from that section in the fourth chapter:
"From preteen years up through young adulthood, students' lives are full of structures of time, some that have been placed upon them (school schedules, after-school activities, days of the week). Some they inherit from their friends (time spent shopping at the mall or playing video games). Some they develop themselves (when they go to bed, how long they read). While some students are studying what the structures of a text says about that text, they also study what the structure of their time says about themselves."
~Chapter 3: Reading closely for word choice
~Chapter 4: Reading closely for text structure
~Chapter 5: Reading closely for point of view and argument
Ample examples and ideas to accomplish reading closely for each of the topics are provided. Examples of suggested types of texts to use include television adds, video games, and political commentaries. Additional lessons for providing extra support for students, as well as additional lessons for providing advanced work, are also provided in these chapters. Each chapter also includes a section dedicated to connecting the given topic to students lives. The following is an example from that section in the fourth chapter:
"From preteen years up through young adulthood, students' lives are full of structures of time, some that have been placed upon them (school schedules, after-school activities, days of the week). Some they inherit from their friends (time spent shopping at the mall or playing video games). Some they develop themselves (when they go to bed, how long they read). While some students are studying what the structures of a text says about that text, they also study what the structure of their time says about themselves."
Chapter 6
Chapter six discusses reading closely across texts. A chart, such as the ones above, is also provided for performing this skill with narrative texts, along with a guide to modify lessons to closely read across informational texts.
"We all, at times, strive to better understand ourselves. Who am I? Why do I act this way? What purpose can I serve in this lifetime? These are all questions each of us takes up at times. Interestingly, when we aim to look more inward, we often find ourselves looking outward. We look back through our upbringing, across our family history, around our childhood friends, and into our current homes and lives. We examine ourselves by seeing who we are in the context of others... The same holds true for the texts we read. No one book, article, poem, or play is an island. Each is a product of its own family tree and current neighborhood. Those big life questions can be found by looking at it in comparison to other texts."
"We all, at times, strive to better understand ourselves. Who am I? Why do I act this way? What purpose can I serve in this lifetime? These are all questions each of us takes up at times. Interestingly, when we aim to look more inward, we often find ourselves looking outward. We look back through our upbringing, across our family history, around our childhood friends, and into our current homes and lives. We examine ourselves by seeing who we are in the context of others... The same holds true for the texts we read. No one book, article, poem, or play is an island. Each is a product of its own family tree and current neighborhood. Those big life questions can be found by looking at it in comparison to other texts."
Chapter 7
Chapter seven, the final chapter in this book, is entitled "I Believe in You: A Vision of Independence". This chapter focuses on students' ability to allow the text to guide them in choosing what to analyze, or read through the lens, rather than deciding ahead of time what to analyze. This chapter provides the reader with a poem, and then organizes the ideas gathered from the poem in a form that brings attention to each of the foundational skills. See picture below:
This chapter closes with a section entitled, "Keeping the Love Alive: Preparing for Your Close Readers". This section provides the reader with a list of to-dos for teachers as they finish reading the book and prepare to return to their classrooms. The to-dos are as follows:
~"Enjoy the bad ideas as much as the great ones... Take the first-draft ideas and the not-so-clear patterns that your students develop as their own current best attempts... Thinking through how an idea went awry is more important [than] just knowing a correct response".
~"Talk less, read more... No matter what we teach, we need to make sure our instruction allows for students to do a lot more of independent reading and practice."
~"Balance students' reading diet... Across your lessons, vary the genres, levels of challenge, and length of texts. Equally, move freely between analyzing texts, media, and life."
~"Be a vision of reading... If you demonstrate a deep love of language, a fascination with how texts are constructed, and an engagement with building interesting ideas, your students will respond to the texts following your lead."
~"Enjoy the bad ideas as much as the great ones... Take the first-draft ideas and the not-so-clear patterns that your students develop as their own current best attempts... Thinking through how an idea went awry is more important [than] just knowing a correct response".
~"Talk less, read more... No matter what we teach, we need to make sure our instruction allows for students to do a lot more of independent reading and practice."
~"Balance students' reading diet... Across your lessons, vary the genres, levels of challenge, and length of texts. Equally, move freely between analyzing texts, media, and life."
~"Be a vision of reading... If you demonstrate a deep love of language, a fascination with how texts are constructed, and an engagement with building interesting ideas, your students will respond to the texts following your lead."
An Endnote
The following recording contains a reading that comes from a portion of the final thoughts contained within this book, entitled "Unconditional Love: An Endnote."
I hope you have enjoyed this BookLook! For additional resources on close reading, please click here. For additional information on this book, including purchasing information, please click here. Hopefully this book review has been beneficial to you.
Thank you for stopping by!
Lehman, C., & Roberts, K. (2014). Falling in love with close reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Thank you for stopping by!
Lehman, C., & Roberts, K. (2014). Falling in love with close reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.