Check out this 4th grade teacher’s professional inquiry into text complexity and close reading on her blog.

Okay…just a heads up – she does review my book! (Favorably 🙂 ) But I’m recommending her blog because the other resources she’s found deepen our understanding of this type of classroom practice. Thank you, Andrea McEvoy!

• Video of close reading lesson that she found on the web. REALLY like this video – incorporates protocol for close reading (written clearly on chart paper), students independently reading and annotating for gist, regrouping and shared writing of main idea, lots of conversation with innovative activity focused on relevant supporting details. He also highlights the need for careful selection by the teacher of texts for close reading. CAUTION: This teacher has clearly done a lot of work with students prior to this lesson. He’s modeling writing the main idea sentence in this lesson which means he probably did some modeling of identifying key words and phrases and annotating prior to this lesson – probably for many, many lessons.
• Pinterest board with resources on text complexity and close reading – including charts, video links, graphics for use with students;
• THIEVES graphics she’s found helpful to use in conjunction with Chapter 5 of my book on teaching students how to preview a text systematically to make informed predictions.

What drew me to recommending this site more than anything else is Andrea’s passion for teaching herself how to teach others. So inspiring!!!