CLOSE READING WEBINARS
Common Core Close Reading Exemplars for English Language Arts and Social Studies
Close reading is an instructional strategy that can be used to help students go deeply into text to seek out information, acquire key concepts, and employ strategies, automatically and invisibly as independent readers. The Common Core State Standards initiative encourages students to take several passes of text to read and reread passages closely and interact with text through a series of questions, discussions, and writing activities. It also calls for close reading of primary sources. These exemplars, adapted from close reading protocols found at achievethecore.org and by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Diane Lapp provides directions for teachers to accomplish this goal in the context of the social studies curriculum to help students acquire the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become informed, engaged citizens.
Webcast Interview with Classroom Teachers and Elementary Principal
This webcast features a conversation with Rebecca Valbuena, fifth grade teacher, Stanton Elementary School, Glendora USD and first grade teacher Tammy Keiser and Principal Michael Long at Lake Marie Elementary School in South Whittier SD. Hear their thoughts about the instructional shifts, challenges, and benefits to using close reading in social studies to meet the Common Core State Standards for ELA while also providing students' conceptual understanding of the rights and responsibilities of informed, engaged citizens in the 21st century.
Grade One: Why We Need Rules and Laws
This first grade exemplar demonstrates techniques for helping students closely read and reread passages of their social studies textbook about the importance of rules and laws to answer text dependent questions through dialogue, writing, and formal presentations. After engaging in the close reading exercise, students are asked to apply their knowledge in relevant, real-world scenarios by conducting research in their school community about the importance of rules and laws. Students are asked to create a set of rules for their classroom or school and make a formal presentation to community members. Video clips of each step of the exemplar feature Tammy Keiser, first grade teacher at Lake Marie Elementary School at South Whittier School District and her students. The exemplar, powerpoint presentation, and video clips are available for your professional development needs to demonstrate how social studies aligned to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts can prepare students for college, career, and citizenship in the 21st century.
Grade Five: The Role and Responsibility of Citizens and Government in a Representative Democracy
In this fifth grade exemplar, students focus their reading on the Preamble, the Articles and Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution to understand the explicit and implicit ideas regarding the purpose of government and rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democracy. After engaging in the close reading exercise, students are asked to apply their knowledge in relevant, real-world scenarios to create a "school constitution" and "student bill of rights" to strengthen understanding of these primary sources and build civic competencies as members of a constitutional democracy.
Video clips of each step of the exemplar feature Rebecca Valbuena, fifth grade teacher at Stanton Elementary School at Glendora Unified School District and her students. The exemplar, powerpoint presentation, and video clips are available for your professional development needs to demonstrate how social studies aligned to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts can prepare students for college, career, and citizenship in the 21st century.
