Three ways to engage your students in writing

For years, most schools have operated under the following assumptions:

• Social studies teachers know how to teach students about World War II and the Constitution.
• Art teachers know how to teach students about painting and art analysis.
• English teachers know how to teach reading and writing.

This is the logic in many schools; however, in the era of the Common Core State Standards, this paradigm must shift. One of the great things about the CCSS is that it asks ALL teachers to help teach reading, writing, speaking and listening. Previously, I wrote about five easy ways any teacher can get her students to start close reading.

For some reason, even though all teachers wrote countless papers in high school, college and maybe even graduate school, teaching writing simply freaks teachers out. Even English teachers aren't immune to this feeling when it comes to writing instruction.

Writing instruction should not fall only on the Language Arts department. Kelly Gallagher's book Write Like This is an excellent example for how English teachers can teach writing in their class.

However, his basic principles can be applied to ANY subject area.

Here are three simple things that you, yes even you Mr. Math teacher, can do to engage your students in writing:

1. Training wheels: Provide templates

Learning how to write is a bit like learning how to ride a bike. At first, students need to have "training wheels" before they can learn how to write on their own. Templates make excellent training wheels.

I first learned about templates from the book They Say I Say. 

Before the CCSS, my assignments would require a minimum number of quotations, and students would just "throw" those quotations in without any introducing or explanation. They would just appear randomly throughout the paper. Now, we use templates especially with our freshmen and sophomores when we teach them how to incorporate evidence in their writing. Simple quotation templates from the book include:

Introducing a quotation:

According to ___(Author)____, "________(Quotation)___________."

__(Author)________ states "______(Quotation)____."

Explaining a quote:

In other words, _____(Explanation)_______________________.

Basically, _________(Explanation)___________________________.

Sure, it is a bit like doing a Mad Lib, but it works. Once students have a basic understanding of how to incorporate templates in their writing, we expand to longer templates that we create in our professional learning communities. Here are some examples of longer, more complex templates:

Rhetorical Precis (From: http://www.lhsseniorproject.com)
Satire analysis of Animal Farm
Imagery in Fahrenheit 451

Could you design a template for writing a lab report in science class? What about justifications in Calculus? Heart rate analysis in physical education? Think about templates that would be applicable to your subject area, and then create them from scratch. Once students have this basic writing idea down, then we can begin removing the "training wheels."

2. Take the plunge: Teacher modeling

We learn new skills best by observing others who are experts at the skill we are trying to learn.  Kelly Gallagher's analogy is that you would learn how to golf by watching PGA golfers swing a club. I show my quarterbacks game film from college and professional teams to teach them technique and plays. This is basic teaching, but something we forget when it comes to writing. Students need to see the teacher write (and sometimes fail!) in front of them.

It. Is. Terrifying.

Take the plunge! Write in front of your students.

It is scary to sit at a computer in front of 25 teenagers and have every keystroke appear on the projector. Sometimes the words flow right through my fingers. Sometimes, I can't think of anything to type. Sometimes, I make a number of mistakes that my students are quick to correct. It is very scary, but it is essential for students to see us struggling with the same work we are asking them to do.

This can apply to ANY subject area:

• Social studies teachers can write thesis statements.
• Math teachers can write justifications.
• Art teachers can write art reviews.
• Science teachers can write lab reports.

The next time you incorporate writing in your class, take the leap and try writing in front of them. You will learn something about the assignment you are giving them, and your students will learn through watching you write in front of them.

3. Learn from experts: Mentor texts

The problem with most high school students isn't that they don't know how to write. The problem is that they have yet to find their own style and voice. That takes time and work; unfortunately, it doesn't happen over night. One way to help this is to provide mentor texts that students can close read to analyze what the author is DOING, and then emulate that style in their own writing.

We first have students perform a close read of the text, making note of the moves that the author is making. I will often have questions about "how long" a piece has to be, or "what all needs to be included" in the writing. When we look at these mentor texts, we notice the length of paragraphs - usually 2-3 sentences (Not 8-10 you say? Blasphemy!) There are also usually 20+ paragraphs, which is wildly different from the five paragraph essays that we all know and love (hate?) to teach. This is how real writers write, and our students need to closely examine what these writers do.

There is a great blog written by two English teachers called Teach Mentor Texts where they highlight examples of texts that can be used for emulation. I love using Roger Ebert, Rick Reilly and Leonard Pitts Jr. articles as mentor texts because they have have distinct styles that students can emulate.

Admittedly, I am lacking knowledge when it comes to this area in other subjects. I do not know who the writing gurus are for math, science or social studies. I would encourage you to look through articles or examples from real experts in your field, allow students to closely look at the moves author makes, and emulate the style until they are able to find their own voice.

Final thoughts

Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hour rule in his book Outliers. The basic idea is that it takes 10,000 hours for anyone to become an expert in her area of expertise. If students are only writing in their English classes, they will never get to the 10,000 hour mark in 12 years of school. However, if the writing is happening in every subject area, this is a much more realistic goal.

No matter what subject you teach, all teachers can implement writing in their courses. The responsibility should not fall solely on the shoulders of the English department. These are three strategies that any subject area teachers can quickly implement in their classes: templates, writing in front of students, and mentor texts. My belief is that if we can just get students writing in their other classes, the English teachers can worry about the grammar, organization and everything else that comes with it.

Tackling Readicide: Five rules to establish

I will admit it: I am a control freak.

In my last post, I wrote about the importance of reading in my classroom and how I get my students reading books. Now that I have established the purpose for outside reading, I am going to share some of the rules I have established. For me, the scary part of this project is that I can't be a control freak. There is a need for established rules and procedures, but you also have to let your students go... which is scary for a control freak like me.

Here are five rules that I have established in my classroom that help me be LESS of a control freak:

1. Students must READ for the first 10 minutes of class.

For years, I attempted every type of bellwork they teach you in college: journals, grammar exercises, and responses. It probably works for some people, but it never really did for me. When I tried journaling, students would write for a couple of minutes and then put their pens down and sit. When I tried grammar exercises, there were always a million questions that I would have to answer. Nothing seemed to work.

Reading a book is something that all of my students can do every day. 

I have an egg timer that I use, but you can also use the timer on your cell phone. I wait until everyone is settled down (usually 30 seconds or so), and then I start the timer. 

I protect this time: I don't allow passes to the bathroom or their locker, I don't answer questions, I don't pass back papers. This is their time to read. 

If a student does not have a book, I have a set of short story books on my counter. That usually motivates them to come with a book of their choice to the next class period.

We have three 50-minute class periods a week and one 90-minute block. I dedicate 40 minutes a week for my students to read; this is almost an entire class period. Even a math teacher can see how important reading is in my class. 

2. Set a lofty goal at the start of the year. 

Donalynn Miller writes in The Book Whisperer that she has her students read 40 books a year! 

I commend her for this, but I did not feel like this was a goal that my students were ready for. For my sophomore students, I set a goal of 20 books in a year. Last year, I would say 1/3 of my students read 20+ books, 1/3 read 8-15, and 1/3 read 8 or fewer books. 

I am not naive. I know that probably half of my students lied and did not read the number of books they claimed to. However, at the end of the year I asked how many students read more books than ever before, all students raised their hands. I believed them.

This year, I have three sections of Pre-AP Sophomore English classes. I would guesstimate that many of them had read 20 books before the end of the first semester. They are avid readers. Next year, I will probably up the requirement for Pre-AP to 30-40 books, which I believe is a more appropriate goal for them. 

When I ask students how many books they read a year ago, I usually get the same answer: "None" or "Just the books we were assigned." When I ask how many books they have read this year, and they answer with "five" with huge smile on their face, I know that is a win. Going from zero to five books in one year is huge. Setting that goal of 20 is important because it gives students something to shoot for, even if they all don't reach it. 

3. Define what constitutes a "book."

When you set a goal for how many books students need to read, you must think about what defines a "book" when it comes to number of pages.

My loose definition is that 175 pages constitutes a "book." However, if a student reads a short book of 120 pages, I still count that as a book. For counting purposes, I say that every 175 pages is a book. So:

175 pages = 1 book

350 pages = 2 books

525 pages = 3 books

700 pages = 4 books

This system encourages students to read longer books, because they know they will count for more than one book. I have had students read the entire Harry Potter series, which puts them over the 20 book goal. 

It is up to you how rigid you want to be with this counting system. I often have students say, "This book is 330 pages. How many books is that?" I make a judgement call on how many books I want to count that as. If it is a rigorous book, I will count it as two. 

There has to be a cut-off somewhere, and this page numbering system for defining a "book" has encouraged students to read longer, more rigorous books. 

4. Allow students to read what they want, but push them to more rigorous books.

Genres is something that I am really struggling with.

My students become locked into a specific genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopia, Sports, Vampire, Chick Lit. I love that once they find a genre they enjoy, they want to read more books from that genre.

I have so many students who have read The Hunger Games series, and then the want to read the Maze Runner and Divergent series. That is great. However, I want to push them to more rigorous books.

One thing I have tried this year is once students have established they enjoy a specific genre, I recommend a more challenging book in that genre. For example, for my dystopia-loving students, I have recommended The Road. For my Vampire-loving students, I have recommended Salem's Lot. 

I am also working on how to push students out of their comfort zone. So many of my students get locked into a specific genre, usually fantasy or sci-fi. I want them to experience other genres, while still reading the books they enjoy.

Here is an idea I am working on for next year. During the course of a semester, each student will play tic-tac-toe. They must read from three other genres in some fashion on a tic-tac-toe board. (I put this board together in about 10 minutes, so I haven't given much thought to where the genres should go on the board.)

The idea is that students will still have choice in what genres to do, but they will be pushed from what they normally read. 

Has anyone tried something similar to this?

5. Abandon books if they are bad.

Simply put: If a book sucks, stop reading it. 

Some books are bad. Some books are not the right "fit" for students. Some students are not ready for the book they chose. 

I remember trying to read The Trial by Kafka on my own in high school. It was terrible, but I plowed through it because we were supposed to be reading a book, and I couldn't quit once I chose one. 

Fast forward 20 years. Last week I recommended The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien to a student who likes war books. I loaned him a copy, and he started reading it. A few days later, he brought it back to me and said he read 100 pages, and it just wasn't for him. I didn't make him feel bad; I helped him find another book. 

If a student reads 175 pages of a book, I have her write it in her book log and count it as a book. 

If we are going to encourage students to read many books, we have to acknowledge that some books suck, and teach them that it is OK for them to abandon books. 

I know this outside reading project scares many teachers away because it feels like it is taking the control from the teacher and giving it to the students. These five simple rules have really helped me give structure to something that seems like it could easily get out of control.

What rules have you implemented to outside reading to help guide your students, while still making them feel in control of the process?

Tackling Readicide: Five tips to get started

Guilty confession: For the first eight years of my teaching career, I was clueless about teaching literature. By the way... I'm an English teacher.

In college I took several literature courses ABOUT literature, but we never had instruction on how to TEACH literature. My experience in college went something like this: we would read a book each week, then sit around in a circle discussing it... usually from a Freudian perspective. Then write an essay. That's it.

When I started teaching, I tried the same technique. The problem was, my students didn't care about the symbolism of the ducks in The Catcher in the Rye or the green light in The Great Gatsby. I quickly realized that I was merely a human Cliff's Notes, delivering the plot and basically having a discussion with the handful of students who actually read the book. 

I tried quizzes. I gave tests. I assigned projects. I showed movies.

My students simply weren't reading the books I was assigning.

Then, my teaching world was rocked. Two years ago, I read two books about teaching reading: Readicide by Kelly Gallagher and The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.

After reading these books, I slowly began to implement the strategies from the books. This blog post will be the first in a series about how I set-up and run our outside reading assignment. It is a work in progress, but I am confident it is much more effective than the "Human Cliff's Notes" way of teaching reading.

Five rules to get started:

1. Allow students to choose what they read

This is a huge paradigm shift for many teachers. I will admit that I am a control freak in many ways. I believed that I was the paid professional, so I should control what students read and write. However, I have discovered that it is much more powerful when students get to choose and have ownership over the books they are reading.

When I look across the room at the books my students are reading, I see a wide variety of books. Some students are reading The Hunger Games series. Some are reading graphic novels. I even have students reading classics such as A Tale of Two Cities and Pride and Prejudice. Whoda thunk?!

The kicker? They are actually reading! Does it really matter that all students read the same book at the same time? I would argue no. As long as they are reading, that is what matters the most. Allowing students to have choice in their reading selections is far more powerful than force feeding "classics" like Jane Eyre down the throat of a 16-year-old sophomore.

2. Give up control

Repeat after me: "This is not about you."

We have already established that I am a control freak. Giving up control is scary, and this kind of shift forces the teacher to give up a great deal of control in the classroom. It is scary... and that is kind of cool.

I am not proposing that you let this turn into total chaos. There needs to be guidelines in place (which I will discuss in another blog post), but the teacher must be willing to turn control over to the students: selection of books, pacing, "abandoning books" when the student isn't digging it, etc...

This should be very individualized for each student. I set a goal for my students to read 20 books in one year. However, through individual conferences if a student tells me she read one book last year, and has read eight books this year, how can that be anything but a win for everyone? 

Giving up that control that EVERY student has to read the same books at the same time is scary, but also exhilarating.

3. Give students time to read

If you are going to make a commitment to reading, students need time to actually READ in class. I used to think of "reading" time as filler or a time-waster, but I have found huge value in providing SSR (Silent Sustained Reading) time to my students. The ONLY way students can become better readers is to actually READ.

We start each hour with 10 minutes of SSR. Once everyone has settled down (usually within the first 30 seconds after the bell), I start a timer and the students know they have 10 minutes to read. This does not change. It is the procedure for how we start the class each day.

I also ask my students to read 20 minutes five days a week outside of class. That time could be in another class during the school day, on the bus on the way home, or in bed before they fall asleep. I don't care, as long as they get in another 20 minutes during the day. This builds stamina. Just like a runner needs to invest time in running, readers need to invest time in reading. 

My classes meet four times a week. If you do the math, students should read 40 minutes a week in class, plus 100 minutes outside of class. That is 140 minutes of reading a week. If they can read one page a minute, they should be able to read a 300-page book in approximately two weeks. 

4. Model reading for students

Kelly Gallagher asserts in Write Like This that the teacher is the best writer in the room; therefore students need to see the teacher writing in front of them. The same logic applies to reading. 

Students need to visually see their teacher reading books along with them. 

During those 10 minutes of SSR time, I sit at my desk and read a book. I have been trying to read books that my students are reading (I am currently reading The Maze Runner, for example), but I also have been working through my own personal reading list. 

I would venture to guess that many students do not regularly see an adult reading books. You may be the only adult in their life that they can see actually reading books. That is a powerful responsibility. If they can see you as the teacher taking part in the same reading experience as them, it makes it a shared experience that you can discuss and talk about with your students, not an "assignment" where the teacher doesn't take an active role. 

5. Do not be a fun-sucker

Let me be clear: If you are not careful, you are going to suck all of the fun out of this:

• Do not get bogged down in how you are going to grade it.
• Do not worry about how you are going to keep track of everything.
• Do not stress about students who are not keeping up with the pace.
• Do not get upset with the students who are "gaming" you on the number of books they have read.
• Do not force students to read things they don't want to read.

This should be an enjoyable experience for everyone. If you implement too many rules and guidelines, you are going to make it a dreadful experience. Some students will "game" you. There is no good way to grade this. Things will fall through the cracks.

Keep some guidelines in place, but the focus should be on reading enjoyable books. 

These are some simple guidelines I started out with when we started outside reading in my sophomore English class. What are some tips you have for getting started with outside reading?

Packaging Plays: Draw + Y-Stick

Offensive football continues to evolve every year. Since I started coaching over a decade ago, the way plays are called has changed dramatically.

First, coaches called the play to a huddle that was locked in, no exceptions. Then, a "check with me" system was implemented where the QB would turn to the sideline to get a new play call. Next, plays were called so quickly that it didn't really matter what the play call was, speed was the main factor.

Today, the play call often doesn't occur until AFTER the ball is snapped. This is done through combining two-three plays into one, giving the QB an option on what play to run based on what happens with the defense POST-SNAP. Often the coach doesn't even know where the ball is going to go, putting the decision-making process into the hand and mind of the Quarterback to make a snap-second decision.

Teams have been doing this for years in the run game, particularly with option football. The new wrinkle is that option football has now moved to the passing game.

I've written about our double-screen concept that has been very good for us the last couple of years.

Chris Brown from Smartfootball.com has also written about this concept in greater depth.

This year, we combined one of our best passing concepts, Y-Stick, with a running back draw play. We averaged almost 9 yards a play on this concept, mostly because the defense really can't be right.

This is how we block the scheme vs. a 3-2 Front. Basically, we are reading the playside inside linebacker. If he sits, we throw the Stick. If he widens, we handoff on the draw. The  QB just stares down the linebacker and reads his drop. It is very simple.

We have had so much success throwing the Stick, we almost should have handed off every single time. 

Here are some cut-ups powered by Hudl:

Check out some other great cut-ups utilizing the QB draw, something we may toy with next year.

What other plays are you combining together to take advantage of what the defense does post-snap?

Intro to Rhetorical Analysis: Common Core-Style

In today's era of the Common Core State Standards, teachers all across the country are having to rethink how we deliver instruction to our students. The CCSS asks students to dig deeper into texts through close reading, written analysis and discussion. 

Our sophomore Pre-AP English team has worked to meet the expectations of the Common Core, while preparing our students for AP Language & Composition their junior year. Previously, I outlined how we introduce students to close reading and aligned our Julius Caesar unit with the CCSS.

We have developed a three day introduction to rhetoric that asks students to closely analyze a TV commercial:

Day #1:

When it came time to introduce rhetorical analysis in our Pre-AP Sophomore English class, we began by introducing the basics of rhetoric: the rhetorical triangle, appeals and fallacies. Check it out:



Day #2: 

We handed out the following graphic organizer that we adapted from Kelly Gallagher's fantastic new book Write Like This.  (If you have not purchased his book yet, go immediately to that link and buy it. It is a must-read for all Language Arts teachers serious about writing instruction.)

We performed a multimedia rhetorical analysis of this Chevrolet "My Truck" advertisement:



The first time students watched it to get a general sense of the commercial. After the initial viewing, each time we asked students to focus on specific aspects of the commercial:

1. Imagery
2. Printed Words
3. Spoken Words
4. Music

In other words, on the second viewing students only focused on the images on the screen. On the third viewing, they only focused on the printed words, and so on. By the end, they had closely read this "text" FIVE times. This forced the students to dig below the surface and develop a clear understanding of what the author was doing in the advertisement.

Note: As a modification, you can also turn off the sound for the first two viewings, so students are not distracted by the music or spoken words. For the last two viewings, turn off the video so students only focus on what they are hearing.

After each viewing, we asked the students to fill out each row, starting with the middle "Notes" column. We applied the close reading strategies that we employ when reading a written text, outlined in this blog post. 

In the left-hand margin, students summarized what the author was SAYING through the images, printed words, spoken words and music. In their own words, they summarized what each element was trying to accomplish.

In the right-hand margin, students analyzed what the author was DOING for each element. This is where we applied the appeals and fallacies from the notes over rhetoric. Students had to really dig in to get a full understanding of what the author was doing - how they were appealing to and manipulating their audience.

Day #3: 

Students analyzed the Chevy Truck ad using a rhetorical precis writing template.

I know what you may be thinking: template writing is rudimentary; nothing more than "Mad Libs" for English class.

While it may appear to be simplistic, these template are actually quite challenging to complete. We use these template often, especially when introducing new types of analysis to our sophomores. As the year progresses, we begin to take the templates away, but it is an essential part of our writing instruction at the beginning of a unit.

Student Example:
Click here to see a completed sample of the graphic organizer and rhetorical precis from a student.

Follow-Up Lesson:

As a follow up to this lesson, we asked students to analyze a political advertisement. However, this political ad had a twist: it was a biting satire of President Obama. At first glance, it appears to be a pro-Obama ad. Only close observers will begin to pick up on the fact that it is very critical of his presidency. The images and words say very different things. This sparked a great conversation about how the authors of this ad used images, printed words, music and spoken words to create a very specific message for their intended audience.


Final thoughts:

This three-day introduction to rhetoric served as a fantastic gateway to the rigorous analysis that students will be asked to do in AP Language & Composition, while integrating many of the Common Core State Standards for reading, writing and speaking. Students were asked to closely read the "text" multiple times, think about how the author used rhetorical appeals and fallacies, and analyze the text using specific evidence.

Please leave suggestions for how you introduce your students to rhetorical analysis now that we are in the era of Common Core.

Need to move the chains? Call Y-Stick.

"3rd & Short? How about Y-Stick?"

What is your go-to play call in 3rd and short situations?

What play do you dial-up when your offense has gone stagnant and you need to build confidence in your players?

In both of these instances, we turn to one of the most basic plays in our arsenal: Y-Stick.

While this is not a huge TD-generating play for us, it is a play we can rely on when we need to move the chains. It is our old-reliable play; one that our players can execute even in their sleep. Over the past two seasons, we have completed Y-Stick 70% of the time, while averaging 10-yards per completion.

QB Reads: Our QB must count numbers to both sides and make a decision pre-snap which way he is going to work: either the hitch to the single receiver, or the Stick/Flat/Vertical concept to the trips side.

The QB will first look to the single receiver side. If he sees 1-on-1 coverage, then we tell him to take the easy money on the hitch with the single receiver. He must throw the receiver open away from the defense, usually to the sideline. This is simply our "Settle & Noose" drill in action.

If the QB sees 3-on-2 to to trips side, he knows that we have the defense outnumbered to the trips side. It then becomes a simple read of the overhang player. If he jumps the stick, throw the flat. If he runs with the flat, throw to the stick. Very simple.

The QB must also be alert for Cover 2. If the corner squats on the flat route, then the QB should be ready to throw over to top into the "hole" of Cover 2.

Throw me open!

Stick Route: We constantly preach to our players that our offense is simply playing basketball on grass. The stick route is a perfect example of that concept. Our Y-receiver will push vertical for five yards, and turn inside looking for the ball. He will the "post-up" like a center in basketball. The QB should look to throw him open, also just like our "Settle & Noose" drill. 

Here is a cut-up demonstrating each of the throws in our Y-Stick concept:

Five close reading strategies to support the Common Core

I walked in to my first college class, Political Science 101, eager to learn. For my inaugural college assignment, my professor asked the class to read the first three chapters of the textbook for the next class period. 

That night, I returned to my dorm room, determined to learn everything I could in those three chapters. I pulled out my textbook and highlighter. Growing up, that is what I always saw the “older kids” using when they read a textbook. In my naïve 18-year-old mind, I believed that highlighters must have some magical power that transports the words on the page directly to your brain. I assumed that if I just figured out the right words to highlight, then it would be easy for me to remember what I read.

However, when I opened my textbook it was unlike anything I had read in high school.  Where were the pictures? Where were the definitions for words in the margins? Where was the chapter summary at the end of each chapter? All of the things I relied on in high school to get me through a text were missing.

I shrugged, pulled out my highlighter and started highlighting. That is what college kids did to study… right? But, what was I supposed to highlight? The bold words? The headings? “Important” information? I wasn’t sure. I started highlighting everything that looked important on the page. Before long, the page looked something like this:

I quickly realized that I had no real game plan for reading this complicated textbook. I didn’t know what to highlight or how to find the important information to study. The text simply overwhelmed me.

Flash forward to my first few years of teaching. I taught senior English, and I was determined to provide my students help when it came to annotating texts. We practiced annotations throughout the year, and my instructions went something like: “Mark it up! Underline important information! Write in the margins!”

While this method may have been slightly more effective than what I used that first day of college, it was still too vague and ambiguous for my students. They had no direction for reading, especially when it was a complicated text they did not understand.

Last fall, I attended an AVID workshop about critical reading strategies. To be honest, it completely changed the way I teach reading. I learned many simple strategies to help my students attack a text. After the conference, our department began adapting the strategies to all of the types of texts that we teach. Here are five simple strategies to help teach students how to critically read complex texts. The best part? Highlighters are not required.

1. Number the paragraphs

The Common Core asks students to be able to cite and refer to the text. One simple way to do this is by numbering each paragraph, section or stanza in the left hand margin. When students refer to the text, I require them to state which paragraph they are referring to. The rest of the class will be able to quickly find the line being referred to. 

2. Chunk the text.

When faced with a full page of text, reading it can quickly become overwhelming for students. Breaking up the text into smaller sections (or chunks) makes the page much more manageable for students. Students do this by drawing a horizontal line between paragraphs to divide the page into smaller sections.

At the beginning of the year, I group the paragraphs into chunks before I hand out the assignment. In the directions I will say, “Chunk paragraphs 1-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-12.” I look at the paragraphs to see where natural chunks occur. Paragraphs 1-3 may be the hook and thesis statement, while 6-8 may be the paragraphs where the author addresses the opposition. It is important to understand that there is no right or wrong way to chunk the text, as long as you can justify why you grouped certain paragraphs together.

By the end of the year, I begin to let go of that responsibility and ask my students to chunk the text on their own. They number the paragraphs then must make decisions about what paragraphs will be grouped together. Usually, most of the class is very similar in the way they chunked the text.

3. Underline and circle… with a purpose.

Telling students to simply underline “the important stuff” is too vague. “Stuff” is not a concrete thing that students can identify. Instead, direct students to underline and circle very specific things. Think about what information you want students to take from the text, and ask them to look for those elements. What you have students circle and underline may change depending on the text type.

For example, when studying an argument, ask students to underline “claims”. We identify claims as belief statements that the author is making. Students will quickly discover that the author makes multiple claims throughout the argument.

When studying poetry, students could underline the imagery they find throughout the poem.

Circling specific items is also an effective close reading strategy. I often have my students circle “Key terms” in the text. I define key terms as words that: 1. Are defined. 2. Are repeated throughout the text. 3. If you only circled five key terms in the entire text, you would have a pretty good idea about what the entire text is about.

I have also asked students to circle the names of sources, power verbs, or figurative language.

Providing students with a specific thing you want them to underline or circle will focus their attention on that area much better than “underlining important information”.

4. Left margin: What is the author SAYING?

It isn’t enough to ask students to “write in the margins”. We must be very specific and give students a game plan for what they will write. This is where the chunking comes into play.

In the left margin, I ask my students to summarize each chunk. I demonstrate how to write summaries in 10-words or less. The chunking allows the students to look at the text in smaller segments, and summarize what the author is saying in just that small, specific chunk.

5. Right margin: Dig deeper into the text  

In the right-hand margin, I again direct my students to complete a specific task for each chunk. This may include:

·     Use a power verb to describe what the author is DOING. (For example: Describing, illustrating, arguing, etc..) Note: It isn’t enough for students to write “Comparing” and be done. What is the author comparing? A better answer might be: “Comparing the character of Montag to Captain Beatty”.

·     Represent the information with a picture. This is a good way for students to be creative to visually represent the chunk with a drawing.

·     Ask questions. I have found this to be a struggle for many students, as they often say they don’t have any questions to ask. When modeled, students can begin to learn how to ask questions that dig deeper into the text. I often use these questions as the conversation driver in Socratic Seminar.

There are many other things students can write in the margins. However, we must model and teach these strategies so that students will have an idea of what to write when they are on their own.

Here is what a completed Article of the Week might look like after a student has performed a close read of it:

To ensure our students are college and career ready, we must teach them critical reading strategies in order for them to independently attack a text. They must learn how to own a text, rather than letting the text own them. After following these steps, students have read the text at least five times and they are actively interacting with the text. This is a much different experience than skimming through a text one time with a highlighter in hand.

What strategies do you teach students in order for them to critically read complex texts? Please leave your ideas in the comments below!