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Achieving the Core…Fostering Close Reading

through Text-Based Questions

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Quickwrite:What comes to mind when you

hear the words:

“text dependent questions?”

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Opinions, Arguments, Intertextual Connections

Inferences

Author’s Purpose

Vocab & Text Structure

Key Details

General Understandings

Part

Sentence

Paragraph

Entire text

Across texts

Word

Whole

Segments

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Text Dependent Questions• Originate from the text itself and have

explicit answers rooted in the text

• Embrace key principles of close reading

• Do not rely on background knowledge

• Focus on a word, phrase, sentence, paragraph or larger section of the text

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Text Dependent Questions• Are framed as open-ended and are not

leading questions

• Target academic vocabulary and crucial passages as focal points for gaining comprehension through examining details, explanations and arguments

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Employing Close Reading Asks text dependent questions that

require carefully analyzing the text for evidence

Offers questions that build upon each other to ensure students follow the line of argument

Requires students to demonstrate understanding via writing

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Close Reading Template

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Close Reading Exemplar

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Close Reading Exemplar

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Text-Dependent Guided Questions

1. Explain how the words Freedman uses in the first two paragraphs set the scene.

2. Why had so many people come to the concert?

3. Who is Marian Anderson? What were her accomplishments?

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Text-Dependent Guided Questions

4. Find the point at which the argument pivots in the selection (paragraph 4). How does what follows that turning point undercut the claims made in the first portion of the paragraph?

5. What words did Freedman use to characterize Anderson’s performance?

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Text-Dependent Guided Questions

6. What does the change in weather symbolize?

7. What language does Freedman use in the closing paragraph to heighten the drama of the scene?

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Generating Evidence for Theses

“I have approached the teaching of argument from the examination of data as a first step… the process of working through an argument is the process of inquiry. At its beginning is the examination of data, not the invention of a thesis statement in a vacuum.”

- George Hillocks Jr. (pg. xxii)

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Generating Theses Using Burke’s Pentad

What was done? When and where was it done?Who did it? How was it done? Why was it done?

Juxtapose the why question against the others to create a thesis question:

Why was Marian Anderson’s concert on the Mall in Washington an important event in the struggle for civil rights?

http://www.history.com/speeches/harold-l-ickes-marian-anderson-performs-at-the-lincoln-memorial#harold-l-ickes-marian-anderson-performs-at-the-lincoln-memorial

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Turn and Talk

With a partner, discuss 5 “do’s” and 5 “don’ts” of developing text-based questions. Write your list down using a T-chart.

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Closing Thoughts• We need “from the text” questions

rather than “how I feel” questions.

• Student achievement is positively correlated to classes with discussion.

• Text dependent questions level the field because they do NOT depend on prior knowledge.

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Closing Thoughts• The text may not be an argument

itself but it may allow us to advance an argument.

• A thesis/claim must start with evidence and data sources.

• “Texts” include videos, paintings, maps, charts, diagrams, songs, etc.

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SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS