FIGURE ONE
FIGURE ONE
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by
Kelly Byrd
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encourage students to closely and carefully read this chapter, the teacher may lead the analytic discussion and writing using the following questions: What does Parvana’s decision tell us about Parvana? What evidence from the chapter helped to support your description of Parvana? Be sure to use quotes and actions directly from the chapter to support your thinking. The richness of the discussion which ensues from these questions along with the many possible emerging themes and big ideas can be further enhanced through the use of a Socratic Seminar, prior to writing the analysis piece.
When text analysis is implemented in the elementary school, regardless of grade level, the teacher’s instructional routines remain the same. However, scaffolded instruction is nuanced based on the cognitive skills and development of the learners, and the observant kidwatching of teachers. Scaffolded instruction will require more rigorous literacy behaviors and responses as students move through the grades. The literacy abilities of first graders and fifth graders differ because of their reading experiences, world experiences, and other developmental milestones. Instructional routines that are scaffolded and aimed at promoting students’ analysis of text are listed in the appendix. Importantly, teachers must listen attentively as their students make their analysis of text public among their peers. We caution teachers to avoid overuse of only teacher-student interaction, but rather, to foster engagement of the entire community of learners. Encourage them to listen to each other and consider others’ perspectives. Posing questions such as “Who would like to add on to what Addie said?”; “Who agrees with Ben’s comment? Why?”; or, “Who has an idea to share that is different from Sophie’s about the evidence from this story?”, enables better listening among the students and creates a more student-centric environment in the class.
Students’ capacity for text analysis increases as they move along in their elementary school experience. What first graders’ exhibit in their literacy performances after scaffolded instruction should be evident throughout the other elementary grades. Each subsequent grade should enable students to build upon the foundational literacy responses to close reading and eventually cogent text analysis. As stated earlier, the important beginning steps learned in first grade promote success in moving along the “staircase” of complexity of text analysis. As stated previously, the appendix of this article is a representation of the increased actions taken by elementary students as they progress from grades 1 to grade 5.
Effective teaching involves insightful knowledge of one’s specific students and where they are on their learning journey. With regard to close reading and text analysis, primary grade teachers may expect their students to reread text for purposes other than the initial purpose, annotate vocabulary or a key idea within the text, explain their thinking, consider other’s ideas about text events and concepts, and thoughtfully write an analytical response to what they’ve read. Upper elementary teachers scaffold text analysis and close reading so their students capably perform the response tasks noted above for primary students and additionally question the author, participate in Socratic seminar, and produce thoughtful written responses which clearly exhibit textual evidence to support their writing.
Reading professionals who serve in elementary schools can offer tremendous assistance to classroom teachers to foster scaffolded instruction of text analysis and close reading in some of the following ways: modeling grade-specific lessons in either live or pre-recorded formats; providing professional development sessions on both close reading and text analysis appropriate for primary or upper elementary implementation which allow interaction with teachers, and which include principals to keep them informed about scaffolded, purposeful literacy instruction; assisting teachers in selecting reading materials appropriate for the tasks of text analysis or close reading at their grade level; communicating with principals and other administrators about the importance of teachers being well-prepared to implement scaffolded instruction; helping teachers analyze the written text analysis their students produce for evidence of clear analysis or need for instructional intervention to achieve clear analysis.
Strategic, scaffolded teaching does not just happen. It is learned through on-going staff development in schools. Lack of scaffolded instruction may consist of a series of questions that may not be the right student tools for an analytical task. At worst, lack of scaffolded instruction may consist of only assigning reading and writing without the benefit of I do, we do, you do. Carefully taught strategies for close reading and text analysis become worthy routines as teachers determine which verbal cues facilitate students’ thinking and which visual cues might be essential to post in their classrooms for students’ reference.
As the architect of teaching-learning interactions, the teacher has a variety of worthy instructional strategies at his disposal. Therefore, neither close reading nor text analysis should be exclusive in elementary literacy instruction, as neither procedure is sufficient on its own; rather, these related procedures should be part of the repertoire that facilitates students’ self-regulating reading and writing behaviors.
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